After an “Appeal to Heaven” flag — a Revolutionary War–era symbol that’s been adopted by Christian nationalists — was hoisted over the Small Business Administration’s headquarters during its flag day ceremony on June 11, Democratic Sen. Ed Markey is demanding answers.

In a letter to SBA chief Kelly Loeffler, Markey, the ranking member on the Senate’s Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, asked for written responses as to how the decision was made to fly the flag and whether Loeffler signed off on its use. (Loeffler posted photos to X of the event at which the “Appeal to Heaven” flag was featured.)

Markey wrote:

In recent years, extremist movements that reject the legitimacy of our democratic institutions have co-opted the Appeal to Heaven flag. These include supporters of Donald Trump’s ‘Stop the Steal’ campaign, which falsely claimed President Biden’s 2020 electoral victory was fraudulent. On January 6, 2021, insurrectionists carried the Appeal to Heaven flag, and it has become a favored emblem of Christian nationalist and anti-government factions. Flying such a symbol at a federal agency on a day meant to honor the shared ideals represented by the American flag risks endorsing the messages of groups such as the Proud Boys and other white Christian nationalists, which seek to undermine the rule of law.

Jon Lewis, a research fellow at Georgetown University’s Program on Extremism, told Wired magazine that the SBA waving the Christian nationalist symbol should be “shocking to anyone who doesn’t want to live in a theocracy.”

Recommended

News

Democratic senator pushes Trump admin to answer questions about TikTok

Ja’han Jones

MS NOW Opinion

Beyoncé can wave the American flag and criticize it at the same time

Darryl Robertson

Lewis said the incident amounted to a clear success for extremists:

Those who carried the Appeal to Heaven flag to the Capitol on January 6 did so because they truly believed they had the opportunity to inject Christian fundamentalism into the very foundation of our democracy, and the image of the same flag on the SBA will give them ample evidence they succeeded.”

While the Appeal to Heaven flag originated during the American Revolution, it has since been repurposed — largely through the efforts of Christian nationalist figure Dutch Sheets — as a modern-day symbol for extremist Christians, as well as neo-Nazis and other extremist groups.

Notably, the flag has also flown at a home of Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito and outside lawmakers’ offices (Alito has said his wife raised the flag, and some, like Speaker Mike Johnson, have claimed to be unaware of its contemporary associations). Yet the flag flying above the SBA headquarters suggests that the upper echelons of the Republican Party are unafraid of being associated with Christian nationalists or election deniers who stormed the Capitol.