Chapel Flag Ritual in Dispute

From a Sunday newspaper article - there is some "noise" about the
40 year tradition of dipping Old Glory and the Academy Flag in Chapel:

Part of Neela Bannerjee's article follows:
Old Glory dipped at chapel service
By Neela Banerjee
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

March 9, 2008

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – On Sundays at the Naval Academy Chapel, at a few minutes past 11 a.m., the choir stops singing and a color guard carrying the academy flag and the American flag strides up the aisle.



AdvertisementBelow a cobalt-blue, stained-glass window of Jesus, one midshipman dips the academy flag before the altar cross, and the other dips the American flag.
The dipping of the flag has begun this nondenominational Protestant service at the Naval Academy for 40 years. But in civilian life, the U.S. flag is never to be dipped, and the Navy says it isn't dipped at any other worship service at the academy or any other installation.

In October, after the academy's superintendent, Vice Adm. Jeffrey L. Fowler, raised questions about the ritual with the academy chaplains, they suspended the flag-dipping because “there was a concern over teaching midshipmen something not practiced anywhere in the fleet,” the academy's spokesman, Cmdr. Ed Austin, said in an e-mail message.

The pause lasted only a few months. Now the flags are being dipped again, and the superintendent, who has held his post since June, has stopped attending the 11 a.m. service. Evangelical Christians and their critics say the academy had to reconsider after an outcry by congregants and alumni.

“I think the ceremony is fully representative of the highest traditions of our country,” said Bob Morrison, who has attended the 11 a.m. service for 12 years and heads an internship program at the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. “It basically says that our country is one nation under God and the nation-state is not the highest authority in the world.”