Crowd backs flag - Thousands march in King, urge council to return Christian flag to Veteran's Memorial

Many of the marchers’ T-shirts simply read, “Put our flag back.” Waving U.S. and Christian flags, and singing “Amazing Grace,” more than 5,000 people marched and rallied in the city of King yesterday morning to tell its city council to return the Christian flag to the Veteran’s Memorial in Central Park.

“The council didn’t get the opinions of the town of King and Stokes County,” said Pamela Swain Deszern, of Rural Hall, formerly of King. “This community stands together to support the Christian flag. It stands for God, peace, love, purity and the blood of Jesus.”

The dispute began this summer when a veteran, who lives in King, complained about the Christian flag being flown at the memorial. In mid-August, the council and the city attorney received letters from the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina and the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Both groups urged the council to remove the flag, saying the flag was a violation of the First Amendment.

On Sept. 15, the council voted 3-1 to take down the flag, on the advice of their city attorney.

The flag, which has a cross inside a blue rectangle on a white field, had flown next to the U.S. flag, the North Carolina state flag, the city’s flag and several military flags.

The council may discuss the issue again at its Nov. 1 meeting.

Tim Hamm of Lansing drove a couple of hours yesterday morning to attend the rally, sponsored by Calvary Baptist Church in King.

“I support the symbols of Christianity to be displayed. Out of sight, out of mind,” he said.

Regarding people from other religions, Deszern said, “God bless them.”

“There is no hate in King. Anyone is welcome here. We march in this rally to show our love of Jesus, who said to love one another. But we Christians have to say, ‘enough is enough.’ They took God out of schools, and now they want to take away our flag.”

Americans are slowly losing their religious freedoms and liberties, said Larry Reeves of King and a member of Calvary Baptist. “One day we’re going to wake up and find out liberties are completely gone. We’ve got to do something about it.”

Laura Carey of King agreed.

“All the little towns in America, like King, need to stand up for our rights to our faith and beliefs,” Carey said.

Rick Sakowski of King, a member of Calvary Baptist, said that representatives of other religions have the right to approach the city council and ask for their flag to be flown at the memorial.

“If it’s approved, let them fly their flag too,” he said. “That’s better than saying we should take our flag down.”

At least one protester showed up, namely Colin Covington of King, who stood on the sidelines of the march with a sign that said, “Jesus would be ashamed of all of you.”

“Stirring up this mess goes against Jesus, who preached peace and tolerance for all people,” Covington said.

“This seems to be intolerant of other people. There was once a dude named Adolf who had a flag and got all amped up about it. Think about it. Jesus just wants us all to get along.”

Some passing by Covington and his sign yelled out, “God bless you.”

Others had signs that said, “We the people say, ‘FIGHT.’” Others said, “Let it fly!”

Hundreds of motorcyclists from the Christian Motorcycle Association and the Rolling Thunder POW/MIA advocacy motorcycle group rode their bikes to the event.

The rally took place at the Central Park amphitheater. After the 30-minute march from the church to the park, Kevin Broyhill, the pastor of Calvary Baptist, said, “It’s time to tell our legislators and lawmakers that enough is enough. We need to limit the ability of groups to strong-arm cities like King to give up their Judeo-Christian heritage. We acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as the God of America.”

Ron Baity, the president of Return America, a conservative Christian group based in the Winston-Salem area, gave a speech that included many references to the founding of America and its roots in Christianity.

“The Mayflower Compact, the first piece of legislation in this country, speaks specifically about advancing the Christian faith,” Baity said. “Our forefathers believed that a Bible-believing and Bible-reading nation can never be conquered.”

Before the Founding Fathers created laws, they sought guidance from God, Baity said.

“The first recorded piece of business in this country was led by a prayer given in the name of Jesus Christ,” Baity said. “When the flag is attacked, my savior is attacked…. I have come to the conclusion that King, North Carolina, has been attacked.”

David Gibbs III of the Christian Law Association, based in Seminole, Fla., spoke next.

He had a message to those who want the flag to stay off the pole: “I can think of Muslim countries they can move to…. I will start raising the money to move the North Carolina ACLU out of here. I hope they do well trying to take the Quran and prayer mats away around the world.”

Gibbs said that Muslim nations don’t pretend that they aren’t Muslim.

“How many of you believe that the United States should stop pretending like we aren’t Christian?” he asked, to thunderous applause and cheers.

The United States was founded as a Christian country, and we’re here to protect that heritage, Gibbs said.

Our Pledge of Allegiance is made to one country, “under God,” Gibbs said.

afuller@wsjournal.com

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