I'm Proud to Be and American, Where at Least I Know I'm Free...

How ridiculous is that song? SO RIDICULOUS!

So Geoff asked me what I think about the Star Spangled Banner. I don’t really know. I honestly couldn’t sing all the words. That probably tells you how important romanticized patriotism is to me. So I look up the lyrics and give them a once over

Oh say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?


On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.


And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.


O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Is it disrespectful to print the National Anthem in smaller text than the rest of this blog?

I don’t have too much of an issue with song until the 4th stanza. Up until then it is really a patriotic retelling of American success on a battlefield. There are really only three verses, which I have bolded, which I disagree with.

There’s a large idea within the Tea Party movement that the United States is a Christian Nation. I don’t agree with this, as there are legal separations between church and state, there are large portions of our population that are not Christian, and the founders of our nation, while some may have been Christians themselves, established this country as one in which any belief system should be able to practice freely. The only difficulty is that when many are making votes on various issues, they are doing so with religious conviction. With a Christian majority, that often swings things in their favor. We can say that the majority of Americans are Christians, but we cannot say that we are Christian nation.

The three verses I take trouble with basically say that if we trust in God and conquer in his name, then our conquering is just. That’s kind of a scary thing to be proposing, as many a many war have been fought killing millions for similar claims.

So what should we do about this? I personally would love to see a new National Anthem that reflects all of American values, but in a country as diverse as the United States that is probably impossible. We could strike those verses in the song, but I think that is disrespectful to the songwriter as the song is his intellectual property. I would be comfortable leaving the National Anthem as it is, as long as our citizens realize that it is a representation of the historical United States, not necessarily the modern nation. They must keep in mind at all times that the nation in revolutionary war times was NOT a Christian Nation, but had a much more established Christian majority than today.

Here’s the issue. I think a large portion of the United States, will not look at it as such. There is a large portion that will want to set forth that this is what the founders of our nation supported and that therefore we are a Christian nation and should continue to be one. This frustrates me because it does not recognize that change happens and is something that needs to be adapted to. If I form a company in 1930 that sets its company motto as “I will produce the best vinyl records that I possible can” Do you think that will still be my motto in 2010? It may be, but the term records will be opened up to include CD’s, cassettes, or whatever new forms of media emerge. I would hope that there wouldn’t be workers in my company that would protest that I am making new forms of media, simply because of a motto made in 1930.

We should look at our National Anthem as a remembrance of the hardship our nation has been through in its formation, and the things for which the founders did stand. I’m going to make a bold claim here and say the most important thing they stood for was freedom. The U.S. was formed on the basis that certain belief systems were being persecuted in their respective countries, so people came here to practice their beliefs freely. By establishing ourselves as a Christian nation that is simply sending a message to the rest of the world that we are not as free as a secular nation.