| Why Don't We Sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic? | ||
As the Fourth of July approaches, it is customary to do a
variety of things that show our patriotism--literally, our love
for the fatherland. This custom squares quite well with the
Christian faith. For every Christian from every nation is
taught to give both obedience and honor to our governing
authorities. We recognize that every government has been
established by God and through it God showers many temporal
blessings upon us. Particularly as Americans, we recognize how
in many ways we have temporal blessings of peace, prosperity and
freedom that exceed all other governments. Without a doubt, we
have many reasons to love our fatherland. Even so, there are some expressions of patriotism in which we do not indulge. One of these, is the singing of a hymn which has become almost a second national anthem: The Battle Hymn of the Republic. If you have ever wondered why this is the case, I ran across an article that explains it pretty thoroughly. It is not written by a Lutheran and so you might not agree with everything he says. Also, he is pretty worked up about the topic so some of his rhetoric may be a little over the top. Nevertheless, I was fascinated to learn the history that he supplies and to actually study the words of each stanza. I thought you might be too. The link below will take you to, "The Battle Hymn Refuted" by David O. Jones. |
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