There are Christians today who feel similarly regarding national flags. They are Jehovah’s witnesses. Their position is the same the world over. Being keenly aware of the Scriptural command to “flee from idolatry,” they decline to participate in flag ceremonies.​—1 Cor. 10:14.

Three years later, in 1943, the Supreme Court reversed itself in the second flag case involving Jehovah’s witnesses. Justice Jackson, when delivering the majority opinion of the Court, said:

“The Witnesses are an unincorporated body teaching that the obligation imposed by law of God is superior to that of laws enacted by temporal government. Their religious beliefs include a literal version of Exodus, Chapter 20, verses 4 and 5 which says: ‘Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.’ They consider that the flag is an ‘image’ within this command. For this reason they refuse to salute it. . . .