{"id":4317,"date":"2024-06-22T11:33:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-22T15:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionqanda\/?p=4317"},"modified":"2024-06-22T14:05:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-22T18:05:23","slug":"whats-the-role-of-americas-patriotic-songs-and-symbols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionqanda\/2024\/06\/whats-the-role-of-americas-patriotic-songs-and-symbols\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the role of America’s patriotic songs and symbols?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a>
Stars and stripes at Fort McHenry National Monument \/ Joshua Woods unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
THE RELIGION GUY\u2019S ANSWER:<\/p>\n
To thrive, the United States needs, yes, to be \u201cunited,\u201d which is a challenge this polarized July 4th. The population\u2019s hugely varied array of backgrounds has always meant unity grows from shared democratic governance and ideals rather than ethnic bonds or a single religious heritage.<\/p>\n
In troubled times, this uniquely complex nation has sought to uplift shared symbols of freedom and fellowship, often with a religious flavor. That instinct presumably underlies this week\u2019s new law in Louisiana that mandates Ten Commandments displays in classrooms, though the effect will likely be disunifying.<\/p>\n
Back in 1931, during a terrifying economic Depression, President Hoover signed Congress\u2019s bill to make \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d the National Anthem. That made permanent a similar executive order from President Wilson in 1916 as the nation struggled to avoid a savage world war.<\/p>\n
Solace from \u201ccivil religion\u201d<\/h3>\n
In the 1950s, threatened by expanding international Communism with its brutally enforced atheism, the nation sought solace and identity in \u201ccivil religion.\u201d In 1951, the New York State Regents authorized a bland, non-sectarian prayer to God for daily schoolroom recitations (outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1962).<\/p>\n
In 1953, encouraged by evangelist Billy Graham, President Eisenhower endorsed the first annual Presidential Prayer Breakfast. The following year, a campaign by the Knights of Columbus culminated in Eisenhower signing Congress\u2019s bill to insert \u201cunder God\u201d into the Pledge of Allegiance. In 1956, Eisenhower signed the law designating the national motto to be \u201cIn God we Trust,\u201d taken from the rarely-sung fourth stanza of the National Anthem, and required it to appear on all currency.<\/p>\n
When Major League Baseball resumed operations after September 11, 2001, the leagues ordered teams to play \u201cGod Bless America\u201d at each game. Irving Berlin had revised and published his popular hymn in 1938 when, as the verse says, \u201cthe storm clouds\u201d of world war gathered \u201cfar across the sea.\u201d Baseball\u2019s observance faded, but is still honored by the New York Yankees, whose town had come under attack.<\/p>\n
Why did the government choose \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner,\u201d with Francis Scott Key\u2019s words inspired during Britain\u2019s bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812? There were other longstanding patriotic favorites, the frivolous \u201cYankee Doodle\u201d and triumphant \u201cHail Columbia.\u201d Also \u201cAmerica\u201d (\u201cMy country, \u2018tis of thee\u201d), though the tune of Britain\u2019s national anthem was not appropriate for America\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Musical unification<\/h3>\n
The rousing 1862 \u201cBattle Hymn of the Republic\u201d was fiercely disunifying, \u00a0the North summoning God\u2019s \u201cfateful lightning\u201d against the the slave state in the South. After the Civil War, \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d emerged as a much-needed symbol of national unity at ceremonies, and was well-established before the rise of the competing \u00a0\u201cAmerica the Beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
This newcomer combined an 1888 hymn tune by Episcopal church organist Samuel Ward with a poem by Wellesley College professor Katharine Lee Bates, first published in a Congregational church weekly in 1895 and revised in 1904. The pious Bates invoked God in each stanza, so proponents of strict separation of church and state might spurn it as an anthem, while Key\u2019s first verse avoids mention of God.<\/p>\n
Ward\u2019s flowing tune would have solved the major problem raised in Congress\u2019s 1931 National Anthem debate, that it\u2019s nearly unsingable by ordinary folk. Over the years, some have questioned the appropriateness of John Smith\u2019s \u00a0accompanying tune, a British barroom favorite to laud a wine-loving Greek poet, or have lamented that Key\u2019s words are so narrowly militaristic. Not to mention that Key, who so proudly hailed \u201cthe land of the free,\u201d was a slave-owner.<\/p>\n
In 2016, National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick first famously kneeled in protest during the customary pregame Anthem. He explained, \u201cI am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color.\u201d The Anthem and professional sports, both of which had helped unify Americans, became racially divisive.<\/p>\n