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I was startled to see the rifles wielded by the local ROTC students as they marched down the aisle of my home church in 1970. Turned out the guns weren’t loaded, but my familiarity with firearms was too limited to have known the difference. Garnering the prized position as the American flag bearer for the annual Vacation Bible School processional was one thing, but unleashing an unexpected unit of soldiers-in-training as part of the morning worship service seemed a bit much at the time.
In the cultural context of America’s Vietnam era, our church set in a university town had some who viewed the inclusion of patriotic music as a defense of military intervention during an unpopular war. Still, the majority of the crowd tearfully sang “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” grandly accompanied by a pipe organ.
Penned by abolitionist Julia Ward Howe, a Unitarian who wrote the lyrics for federal troops in 1861 at her pastor’s suggestion, the words “mine eyes have seen the glory” was a Union battle cry. But that didn’t prevent Robert Coleman of First Baptist Dallas from including it in his Popular Hymnal in 1918, extending the tune’s circulation among Southern Baptists.
Just as I look forward to the incorporation of Christmas carols in worship services each December, the Fourth of July often prompts the singing of patriotic songs I enjoy like “America the Beautiful,” “God of Our Fathers,” “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” or even “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Many who plan music for our services would wince at including anything so secular, concerned that the focus must remain on the worship of God, not the concerns of man. Certainly, we’d find the Marines Hymn theologically flawed with its belief that “if the Army and the Navy ever look on Heaven’s scenes, they will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines.” I bet there’s a church in Texas that rationalizes singing Lee Greenwood’s more recently composed song “God Bless the U.S.A.” in light of the terror of little more than a decade ago.
The “love it or leave it” sentiment expressed the ‘70s and the renewed patriotism post 9/11 should be tempered among believers with a Great Commission heart that yearns to see our religious liberty extended to all people—wherever they live. We need to be careful when our patriotic zeal causes us to question why anyone would leave the freedom we enjoy to carry the gospel to people who hate or mistrust Americans.
If the selection of worship music really is all about the words we sing, then a holiday theme can be productive. “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” doesn’t just proclaim a love of God’s creation in our geographic borders, it reminds us of the Author of liberty to whom we sing and honor as our King. “America the Beautiful” reminds us of the mission of those who traveled to America in search of freedom and begs for God’s grace in dealing with the flawed nature of man that requires “liberty in law.”
While most churches will have to forgo the trumpet fanfare I enjoyed as a child when singing “God of our Fathers,” the hymn credits God with providing an “ever sure defense.” It was composed for America’s centennial at a time when most who sang it had endured the Civil War and needed the reassurance that “in this free land by thee our lot is cast.”
Sports fans only sing the first stanza of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but the fourth verse of our national anthem praises “the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation” and reminds us to be sure that our cause is just, declaring “in God is our trust!”
So when the thoughts of our citizens are turned toward our nation’s freedom, how about giving them something to sing about by honoring God through a patriotic hymn?
