Singing patriotic hymns together in church stirred the emotions and memories of the congregation last Sunday. What a great time of unity, of oneness, of being a part of something bigger than our own little worlds! Older folks sang harmoniously from memory alongside younger generations and little children.
Returning home after church I began flipping through the channels to see who was playing. I stopped on a channel to listen to Scottish soccer fans performing our blest national anthem word for word in a Boston, Massachusetts pub before USA’s match with Paraguay. I had missed this novelty when we played the game. Oh, Cheers!!! We cruised to victory 4-1 making one more step toward the knockout rounds in July. In retrospect, I was awed with Francis Scott Key’s refrain, “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave,” that captured the essence of the birth of our nation.
Teams and fans from around the globe have offered enthusiastic tributes to our nation and our people. They love us! They are universally impressed with who we are, especially considering how their national media depict America. We really are bigger and better than they had thought.
One of Americans’ favorite hymns is “America the Beautiful.” In 1893, Katharine Lee Bates began each stanza with the words, “O beautiful…” giving successive tributes to “spacious skies,” and “for heroes proved in liberating strife who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life,” and “for patriot dream that sees beyond the years….” Moreover, Bates attributed America’s beauty to God Himself in six out of eight stanzas writing, “God shed His grace on thee.”
No list of patriotic hymns would be complete without Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” Berlin calls his verses “a solemn prayer.” Writing the hymn in 1918 and revising it in 1938, Berlin continued the tradition of Americans’ humbly attributing our blessings to God. What other nation has done that from its founding? We are a unique nation of people who have answered the call to prayer.
Berlin began his beloved hymn, “While the storm clouds gather far across the sea, let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free, let us all be grateful for a land so fair, as we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.
Why wouldn’t our national hymns and anthem include appeals to God? George Washington himself expressed his opinion many times about God and the rule of nations. “It is impossible to govern the world without God. It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.”
John Adams wrote, “The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.” He also wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Are Americans divided today? Perhaps those who divide us and denigrate our nation don’t know the roots of our foundation. For 250 years we have been flexible enough to settle divisions. Now is the time to return to what has worked, rather than failed politics and corrupt government.
Daniel L. Gardner is a columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at PJandMe2@gmail.com.
14 comments:
The last paragraph is dead on. Im glad that DL has finally called out the failed MAGA politics.
The Establishment Clause is part of the very first amendment to the constitution.
Politics have no legitimate place in church.
AMEN AND AMEN!!!!!!!
You have no idea what you're talking about....truly, just dumb as a brick.
Colonel Peter Muhlenberg (also known as John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg). In January 1776, at the Woodstock Lutheran Church in Virginia, the pastor-turned-soldier gave a famous, fiery farewell sermon.
In the Speech: Quoting Ecclesiastes, he proclaimed, "There is a time to pray and a time to fight, and that time has now come!"
The Action: He then stripped off his clerical robes (tunic) right there in the pulpit.
The Uniform: Underneath, he was wearing his full Continental Army Colonel's uniform. He walked outside, ordered the drums to beat for recruits, and nearly 300 men from the church enlisted on the spot. Muhlenberg later rose to the rank of Major General during the Revolutionary War battles such as Brandywine and Yorktown.
It's why they killed Charlie Kirk, because it was one of his most fierce positions that religion is politics, and meant to be. In the 1A - Freedom of Religion doesn't mean freedom from religion.
DJT living rent free in a whole lot of people’s heads.
Now the liberals have used weather control devices to cause the America's Fair to be evacuated! Space lasers, weather forecasts, what's next?
3:03 pm My Lutheran ancestors who fought even earlier at the Battle of Alamance ,would strongly disagree. They did NOT want government to imposed one religion and were well aware of the religions that were imposed in the colonies: The Anglican Church in the South, The Puritans (Congregationalists) in New England particularly by the Massachusetts Bay Colony that exiled dissenters and executed Quakers, and Catholicism was outlawed in 1692. Jews were excluded by the requirement of all elected officials to swear allegiance to Jesus Christ in most all of the colonial assemblies. That is why both Jefferson and Madison believed strongly that freedom FROM sectarian rivalries ( different religious beliefs competing for power and control of the people) was needed to prevent conflict. They said so plainly in the transcripts when both the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution were written. And you are proof that IS causing conflict and divisiveness today as does Charlie Kirk's awful murder. Try not to be " puffed up" (that's in the Bible, find it!). Jesus was a peacemaker and you do know where Bethlehem is don't you? Jesus believed all of us were " God's children" and as the first hymn most of us learned as children said " Jesus Love ME " and children are " precious in His sight"! Don't you read The New Testament that is ABOUT JESUS?
3:03 pm " THEY" didn't kill Charlie Kirk. One mentally deranged young man did. And only the deliberately ignorant or mentally disturbed would suggest otherwise. We pledge ALLIGENCE to the FLAG of OUR NATION and it's CONSTITUTION not to a PRESIDENT or POLITICAL PARTY! And frankly, we've not have any perfect Presidents and quite a few were adulterers in both parties! If you don't like to READ non-fiction, at least watch History on the History Channel. Our Founders knew history and actually knew about wars of religions that had repeatedly happened throughout history.
Sigh....Christ will return - and with a sword, as it is written. A sword to sever those who are anti-Christ. If you don't know who that is by now, you're an idiot "new age" pacifist Christian. The younger generations (40 and under) despise what the Boomers made Christianity in to - a convenient, guiltless, always-feel-good, hobby. This isn't about Trump....he will be gone soon enough...and those who are willing to fight and die for their Christian beliefs and its nation will reign. It's happened over and over throughout history, so buckle up. America was never meant to be the world's soup kitchen.
Why would a church service focus on patriotism? Patriotism is not Christian at all. Im not calling it bad, but it has nothing to do with Jesus' message.
Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war!
Sigh, again....your ignorance is astounding. Jesus commanded His followers to "make disciples of all nations," ensuring that the message of salvation reaches every culture, and people. Several cultures (Judeans and Muslims) have fought this prophecy for thousands of years, and lost. WHO actually built all of western civilization as we know it? Christians. That is why they are hated, as Christ foretold. Our enemies know the power of Christianity....and rightly fear it.
“ Now is the time to return to what has worked, rather than failed politics and corrupt government.”
Looks like DL has finally opened his eyes to the most corrupt administration in the 250 years of our country’s existence. Now he just needs to learn not to vote for such corrupt politicians. I doubt he ever actually learns his lesson in spite of all the damage he’s knowingly caused, but maybe this is a turning point for the MAGA crowd.
DL is merely a pot-stirrer licking the spoon. He has no idea what he believes....as long as it creates contreversy and clicks. But you're right that it's a turning point - to turn BACK to what built the culture of western civilization.
Post a Comment