A Rooster, symbol of protestantism

And then I saw a metal rooster against a gray sky on a cold day. It was stylized, with pointy wings and a raised back head, and it was fabricated from metal. I was with my classmates on a trip to Hungary, and we were now in a church yard for a theological institute in Slovakia waiting to go inside the Institute's library for a discussion on the Church and church life after the removal of Soviet troops. The Rooster is the standard symbol of the protestant church in Europe. Perhaps because of its association with Peter's moment of recognition when he hears the cock crow: "I'm a betrayer," he suddenly realizes. The Reformation was an aha moment like that: "we've been going the wrong way, but that can be corrected." In a nutshell, that's what the protesting was about - the values of the Church had been betrayed: the Church had sold out to the state, to being like the Empire that persecuted it. Of course the Church that protested proceeded to be like the state and exonerate the protestant state's oppressions, land grabs, wars. When I think about it, the Church's distressing abandonment of its principles (having all things in common, bearing each other's burden, loving neighbor and enemy, being a voice for justice, visiting prisoners and advocating for them, etc - all that stuff in the gospels that make us uncomfortable and just has to be spiritually interpreted because they're so impractical) for the security and approval of whatever state or culture comes along is scandalous. Whenever the Church has had the opportunity in history, whenever the big state has said, "hey cutie: How'd you like to hang out, help me do some things," the Church has said Sure and left all it stands for behind. What would it be like for the Church to respond to the overtures of the state, "No. No I don't think so. I'm perfectly happy where I am, hanging out with the people I'm hanging out with. I don't like your resort to violence, your dependence on fear and threats. I'm not going to lose myself in you." What would it be like for Christians all over the land to realize that the flag, any country's flag, but for us, the US flag, erases the Cross. Put a flag and a cross in front of the sanctuary - these are two different symbols, with contradictory meanings: the (so called) triumph of good intentions by violence vs the triumph of love over death by non-violence. The marriage of Church and State is like the most "in denial" of all abusive marriages: every day the state comes home, drunk, demanding to know where its dinner is and why the living room is a mess and why the children are the way they are and threatens, emotionally if not with physical force, to mess her up. And does the Church leave this relationship? One day - we can all pray.