Vandalizing U.S. Flag

G.B. Trudeau poses a “Konundrum” (comics, Nov. 5) in how to dispose of his comic strip without desecrating an American flag. The conundrum is deeper than he suggests.

Desecration is the opposite of consecration: the ritual act of declaring or making a thing sacred. A temple is merely a building until it has been consecrated, at which point it becomes sacred. Something cannot be desecrated until it has been made sacred by a ritual of consecration. You can desecrate a temple that has been consecrated, but you cannot desecrate city hall.

A law that declares the burning of a flag to be desecration is implicitly declaring the flag sacred, an inherently religious act. At whatever point the flag is declared sacred it becomes a national idol. Any Christian, Jew or Muslim, any thinking person, for that matter, who eschews idolatry or the imposition of a national religion has a moral responsibility to disassociate from it.

DAVID CHANDLER, Upland