I’ll bite on this, Helen…

Reading now about the Civil War era in class, the reasons people fought. Which I’ve always considered the most interesting aspect of the Civil War; how is it that the ordinary farmer was motivated to drop his scythe, go pick up a gun and fight for slavery. But of course they weren’t fighting for that; they were fighting for their nation, and that did involve faith. I would think that those who fought for the Stars and Bars, some of them anyway, would indeed have described it as a “Christian” flag, because I think many of them fought for a “Christian cause” - their country. We look at the flag now and see the other things it has stood for, the things history has marked it as standing for. And it did stand for those things - for racism, for slavery. Still does, for some.

And faith, in the abolitionist movement, was absolutely a motivating factor, the motivating factor in the ultimate destruction of that system. But both north and south claimed to have God on their side, and I’ve little doubt some Confederates saw it in the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia.