analysis
The U.S. Supreme Court is embroiled in a new controversy over a flag that has been linked to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
That day, protesters carried a wide variety of placards, banners and flags, many of which had historical significance spanning hundreds of years.
Among them was the so-called “Appeal to Heaven” flag, or “Pine Tree Flag,” which, according to research by the Christian historical group Wall Builders, dates back to the American Revolutionary War and symbolized the fight against oppression and “acknowledged America’s trust in God’s protection and providence.”
But now some only associate the flag with Jan. 6 because it was seen among the Capitol rioters. They are outraged that the historic prayer flag was seen flying briefly outside the New Jersey home of Justice Samuel Alito last summer, according to a photo obtained by The New York Times.
“It’s true that this flag was very visible among charismatic Christian forces supporting Trump throughout his presidency and between the election and Jan. 6th. This flag became a very visible flag associated with that movement,” Religion News Service reporter Jack Jenkins told CBN’s Faith Nation on Wednesday.
Because of the flag, critics are now calling on Justice Alito to recuse himself from all January 6th-related cases before the Supreme Court.
But until recently, the flag didn’t seem all that controversial, since the far-left city of San Francisco has had the “Appeal to Heaven” flag flying over City Hall since 1964. City officials hadn’t felt the need to take it down for three years, starting on January 6, but after activists incited violent protests against Governor Alito, the city took it down over the weekend.
In a letter to lawmakers on Wednesday, Alito alleged that his wife was responsible for flying an upside-down U.S. flag — a symbol of hardship — in their home in 2021 and then, a few years later, for hanging an “Appeal to Heaven” flag at their New Jersey beach house.
“As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to remove it, but she refused for several days,” he wrote, adding that neither incident merited his resignation. “It is therefore my duty to reject your request to resign.”
***please register CBN Newsletter Download CBN News App To ensure we always bring you the latest news from a clearly Christian perspective.***
Jenkins noted that House Speaker Mike Johnson also began flying the flag outside his office shortly after taking office, adding, “This flag has always been historic and has been a part of the American Revolutionary War.”
As CBN News reported, Christians have been using the “Appeal to Heaven” flag as a prayer symbol in prophetic prayer events long before anyone else used it on Jan. 6.
Internationally known evangelist Dutch Sheets told CBN News in 2015 that he believes the flag is a symbol of God trying to return America to its spiritual roots.
“A lot of people don’t know that we were born out of a prayer movement with a banner that said ‘Appeal to Heaven,’ and we were,” he said.
In a recent YouTube video titled “The Appeal to Heaven Flag,” Sheets explained that George Washington used the flag to inspire soldiers during the Revolutionary War.
“The flag was actually used before the Stars and Stripes existed. In many ways, it’s the flag that America was born on,” he explained.
“George Washington and his contemporaries seized on the phrase in their American call for freedom from British tyranny after they had exhausted every peaceful possibility of experiencing the freedom they longed for,” he continued.
“The colonists understood that their only hope of freedom was through war, but while Britain’s military power and wealth were great, the colonists were sorely lacking in these resources that any military attempt to escape British rule was absurd, even laughable, unless the almighty God intervened,” Sheets added.
The pastor said the settlers chose to “cooperate with God and honor him” and ultimately experienced freedom and blessings on the land.
“(The flag) became a symbol of the colonists’ unwavering spirit of freedom and a clear indication of where their beliefs lay,” Sheets said.
And in 2018, long before the contentious 2020 election, Sheets told CBN News that the flag was more of a reminder of dependence on God than a political symbol, calling for a prophetic appeal to the heavens for a harvest of souls around the world.
At the time, Reverend Sheets again pointed to the flag and inspired fellow Christians to launch a “global prayer campaign” to seek the restoration of America and the conversion of one billion souls around the world to Christ.
“This is all something God is trying to do all over the world. I believe more people will be saved in the next 20 years than in the last 2,000 years,” Sheets predicted. “I think it will be billions. I say ‘b’, not ‘m’. Billions. Asia will be hit with a wave of revival. And I think it will spread all the way to the Middle East.”
In 2018, he predicted: “I believe this incredible harvest that has been prophesied for so long is on the brink of arriving. The church’s prime is not past, it is yet to come.”
So while some in Washington DC or San Francisco may see the flag solely as a political symbol of rebellion, others wholeheartedly see it as a prayerful call for God to cross the earth and bring about a spiritual awakening.
