Tipsheet

USA Today Journalist Doubles Down on 'Appeal to Heaven' Ignorance

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  December 16, 2025 9:15 AM

Last year, the Left was all up in arms about the "Appeal to Heaven" flag, which was flown by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's house. The flag, featuring a green pine tree on a white field with the "Appeal to Heaven" slogan, has its roots in the Revolutionary War, as a symbol for colonial forces, representing their reliance on God for justice against tyranny. It was famously used by George Washington's cruisers and the Massachusetts Navy.

The media called the flag "provocative" and and said the symbol was tainted by its use on January 6, 2021. The New York Times reported: 

Also known as the Pine Tree flag, it dates back to the Revolutionary War, but largely fell into obscurity until recent years and is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms.

The reality of the flag still hasn't stopped the Left from attacking it once again, this time because it was flown outside the D.C. office of an official with the Department of Education.

USA Today Congressional reporter Zach Schermele posted about it, calling the flag a "Christian nationalist" flag and its ties to Justice Alito and January 6. He omitted, of course, the history of the flag.

For that, Schermele got dragged in the replies so bad he deleted the original post and locked down replies on his equally ignorant follow up.

Here's the "relevant context," for those of you who are interested:

A top official at the U.S. Department of Education has been keeping a controversial flag linked to Christian nationalism and the Jan. 6 insurrection hung outside his office, according to the agency's union and a department employee who has observed it.

It's the latest in a series of instances in which the flag – which depicts a pine tree and the words "An Appeal to Heaven" – has been associated with agencies and figures at the highest levels of the federal government.

Though long tied to the American Revolution, the banner in more recent years "has been adopted primarily by evangelical Christian nationalist groups," as well as the Proud Boys and certain neo-Nazi groups, according to the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, an independent nonprofit organization. It was flown in 2021 by rioters at the U.S. Capitol as they tried to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results.

Well, now we know why Schermele locked replies.

That's very serious Journalisming there.

They hate our history.

That's the only accurate description.

They're not journalists; they're stenographers and propagandists.