Our parish has many retired folks, and a sprinkling of WWII veterans. For them, understandably, Memorial Day is an important holiday. It's a long standing tradition for one of our veterans to bring the American flag to the front of the church and wave it while the congregation sings "America the Beautiful" at the end of the service. The man who did this today is an 83 year old (still going strong--I want to be old like he is!) who flew in B17s during WWII and was shot down over Germany and spent time in a German POW camp. He is a wonderful guy--great story teller, warm, friendly, interested in all the kids. His presence makes this ritual all the more meaningful for the congregation.
But I have to admit, I have a hard time with it. I don't think national flags belong in church, and I don't think nationalism has a place in church, either. I realize that I have many advantages, many rights and privileges that come from being an American, but I am not particularly proud of the way this country has acted--in Iraq, in the so-called war on terrorism, in the way civil liberties seem to be evaporating, in the way the environment continues to be desecrated for the sake of cheap oil and unlimited use of it--I could go on and on. And I'm not proud of the arrogance that often accompanies shows of patriotism. The United States has much to answer for.
I hold today's flag waver in high regard, and I respect his feelings about his war service. I'm not sure war is ever justified,and I don't want to glorify war but does that mean we shouldn't honor those who fought in the past?
Today because I was afraid my face would give away my very mixed and mostly negative feelings about the flag-waving, I concentrated on the words of "America the Beautiful" and one part caught my attention:
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
Oh that we would pay more attention to mending our flaws, and showing self-control. And would that we use our laws to uphold liberty and not undermine it, as the current administration seems to be doing.
8 comments:
That's a great verse, isn't it? Especially the third line.
Yes, I think a lot of us cling to those particular lines when we sing them in worship.
Not to mention singing "God shed his grace on thee" in a beseeching rather than an imperative sense. :-)
Thank you for raising the mixed feelings that go with this holiday. I will sing that song in a different way from now on. You and I must serve similar congregations. Let that be part of our prayer today.
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
And God do shed your grace on us that we would be healed by it, and come to spread that grace around the world, but not with war.
...confirm thy soul in self control...I never noticed those words before.
Thanks for such an interesting post. I too have problems with patriotism in church and have enjoyed being part of a congregation that does things like sing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" as our patriotic song on the 4th of July. But I do love "America the Beautiful" (which I think should be our national anthem) for exactly the reasons you point out.
Have you ever read Mark Twain's "The War Prayer"? I think you'd find it moving.
I have the very same equivocal feelings about flag-waving in church. And to add to that...this past Sunday I had with me a visitor who has had some very negative experiences while serving in the military, so I was pretty tense all during the service: Please don't hate us![rueful smile]
Our organist had taken written votes for patriotic songs/hymns to play during the service. And while one of them I just do not like at all (Battle Hymn of the Republic -- so shoot me, but I hate singing this in a church context, and usually drop out during the most objectionable verses)...I was pleased at the good taste of the respondents. We also sang Lift Every Voice and Sing, a song I love.
We have a lot of veterans in our congregation, including people who have been injured in mind as well as body by war, so I think our pastor and worship committee walk a fine line between honoring those persons and all those who never made it back home and falling into Kaiser kurios jingoism.
(P.S. My friend is coming back!:-) So evidently it wasn't too rah-rah.)
Hallelujah. Amen!
Hallelujah. Amen!
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