Goshen College will no longer play The Star-Spangled Banner at sporting events, school leaders announced, reversing last year’s decision to allow the use of the national anthem for the first time in the Mennonite college’s history.
Some Mennonites had criticized the anthem’s lyrics as glorifying war and offensive to the school’s pacifist traditions. Goshen’s Board of Directors said many felt the school’s “allegiance should be to Christ rather than to country.”
I would prefer “America the Beautiful” to “The Star-Spangled Banner” anytime anyway.
Not me, I’m afraid. For those of us who have spent their career in the Armed Forces or served in combat, “The Star Spangled Banner” has deep meaning, and we know that more than most civilians who have never served do. For so many of us who’ve been through so much, it’s “down deep and personal.” Ask a veteran about it the next time you see one serving as an Honor Guard at a Memorial Day event.
I’m with you, Cennydd13. As an Army veteran, I felt so privileged to be able to render the hand salute as the Star Spangled Banner was played at my son’s graduation from USAF basic training this month. The national anthem and the flag have a meaning for some of us who have served in our nation’s armed forces that they didn’t have before we took the oath of enlistment or oath of commissioning.
These comments seem to support their decision — that the Star Spangled Banner is notably associated with war and service in the military and hence inappropriate for a Mennonite school which opposes war and service in the military.
Do they take federal student loan money?
Why is that relevant, drjoan?
Because they take advantage of, and benefit from, what they purport to despise.
Nos. 2 and 3: I appreciate what you say, and, even more, I am grateful for your service. The following comment does not touch your points, growing out of your experiences; it’s just an opinion based on taste.
But, having said that, my vote would be for My Country ‘Tis of Thee. That one stirs me like no other patriotic hymn. Yes, I know there’s a problem with it–someone else got there first with regard to the music–but I can’t help it: I love both the words and the tune.
And I’m glad whenever it’s sung in church. In school we often sang the fourth stanza as part of chapel. That’s the stanza they can’t sing (I think) in our state schools.
And–here’s a note of controversy–am I imagining things when I suspect that this hymn (or other patriotic ones, but esp. this one) represents a dividing line in TEC churches today? I.e., the liberal ones don’t use it; the traditional ones do. It just seems that I hear it more often in conservative churches.
David,
I agree with you that My Country ‘Tis of Thee is the superior song and wouldn’t mind if it were the National Anthem. That its tune is virtually identical to God Save the Queen only endears it to me further. My point was simply that our National Anthem, whatever it may be, holds special significance for those who have served in the armed forces. Of course, the martial words of The Star Spangled Banner, and the occasion of their writing, are particularly stirring to the military man
Yes, I agree with all you say. What I meant at the beginning of my comment was that what I was about to say in no way took away from, contradicted, or otherwise superseded anything you or the other commentator said.
I wrote a brief article for The Baptist Quarterly, pub’d in 1987, on Samuel Francis Smith and how he came to write My Country ‘Tis of Thee and its later interesting (including legal) history. I haven’t checked, but that article may be cited on Wikipedia. I thought everyone had forgotten that article (or, more likely, didn’t notice it in the first place), but lately it’s turned up in some histories of Baptist hymnody!
David,
I quite appreciate the point you made at the beginning of your first post and apologize if that was unclear by my subsequent posts.
My Country ‘Tis of Thee is a lovelt hymn and I too love it when we sing it in church.
But The Star Spangled Banner IS the National Anthem. And it can be sung quite well, especially by a chorus. And it can be played instrumentally alone and is quite stirring.
Moreover, the history of the song, especially its words, is especially stirring. We Americans would do well to consider what they say and mean and meditate on thier implications. The fourth verse is ESPECIALLY meaningful:
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry 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;â€
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave![12]
Would that all Americans contemplate the meaning of words that speak to what is happening even today just as much as they spoke to brave men and women contemplating a war that sought to split this great nation and a Nation that emerged even stronger for it.
I had a kind of conversion experience to My Country ‘Tis of Thee on January 20, 1985. That’s when I was watching Reagan’s (second) inauguration and it was played then. Something just really moved me that day, and I have been devoted to it ever since. (My minor scholarly point, brought out in the article, was that the hymn’s focus on both religion and freedom parallels Tocqueville’s contemporaneous thoughts on the relation between religion in America and freedom: that they need and bolster one another. Yes, there’s much to that hymn!
No. 12: Yes, so true. I love that fourth stanza; we used to sing that all the time in school too. I’m devoted to the Star-Spangled Banner, as well. And, as a Baltimore native now living in Frederick, the burial place of Francis Scott Key, and resident of a place not far from Terra Rubra, well….
The only reason “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” isn’t the national anthem is southern senators threatened a filabuster. I am a son of the South, but that song makes more sense than The Star Spangled Banner, although it is at least as belicose. The Star Spangled Banner didn’t even become the “national anthem” until 1931. That said–its the one we’ve got, so if you don’t like the words, stand at attention and hum. BTW most non-Americans think The Stars and Stripes Forever is our national anthem. I personally think it should be Sousa’s Semper Fidelis.
#12 and 13–I’m pretty sure the 4th verse was written in 1959, and certainly not by Francis Scott Key.
Goshen College. Enjoying your freedom? Thank a veteran! Statmann
I’m not a veteran of the Corps, but I have to tell you all that I get choked up a bit when the United States Marine Band is on parade and plays the Marine Corps’ march [b]”Semper Fidelis”[/b] by the Band’s greatest conductor, John Philip Sousa.
I also love “America the Beautiful,” and if ever we were to replace “The Star Spangled Banner,” that’s the anthem that I’d pick.
I would not pick “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” if for no other reason than it is not our tune.
Thank you, DK (no. 16). A lot of stuff that is assumed to be traditional was plonked into historic documents/verses a century or so later.
My mother remembers when school children were asked to help select the national anthem in the early 1930″s (I invite correction – memories are suspect at this age). The choice was between “The Star Spangled Banner” and “America the Beautiful”. I’m glad they chose the former. The latter has always struck me as a bit maudlin. I think we should give up singing the anthem (it is a challenge, vocally) and just have big brass bands rip it off at a good clip.
And we especially should not have popular entertainers butcher the national anthem at large-scale events. That’s the worst of all.
It’s easy enough to sing, but it does take practice. Ever hear the West Point Glee Club sing it in four-part harmony? It’s impressive……and stirring.
I just don’t like the way it’s mangled at professional football games.
Brother Michael at 7:
“Because they take advantage of, and benefit from, what they purport to despise. ”
No, it’s the students taking advantage of *loans* in many if not most cases, which they’ll have to pay back.
It’s a Mennonite college. They have a right to believe as they do, federal money or no federal money.
Br. Michael–no where in the article does the College state they despise the USA; rather they are against war.
Statmann and Br. Michael–never forget, among the freedoms that veteran’s fought/fight for is the freedom to disagree with and even philosophy oppose our government. If armed service members do not believe that citizens should have to right to refuse to sing the national anthem, recite the pledge, etc., then they shouldn’t fight for the USA where these freedom’s are guaranteed. They should serve a country that exercises greater control over its citizens forms of expression. Fighting for freedom means fighting for all freedom, even someone’s freedom to oppose war, the armed services, even the national anthem.
re “the Battle Hymn of the Republic”: It’s a powerful work, quite amazing when one considers how quickly Mrs. Howe cranked it out. I live not very far from the site of the “circling camps” whose watchfires she refers to. Although it is not the national anthem, it was the music very much in my mind as I watched the Pentagon burn in 2001. It probably should qualify as our National Hymn, if not our National Anthem.
No. 16 — the 4th verse is original to Francis Scott Key’s 1814 poem. The adoption of “In God We Trust” as the motto of the United States was a long process, beginning with its appearance on coins in the 1850’s but not finally adopted as the official motto until the 1950’s. Check out this [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_God_We_Trust]link.[/url]
No. 20, I don’t think “maudlin” is quite fair to describe “America the Beautiful.” Certainly I have heard maudlin renditions of that hymn, but take another look at all four verses, especially the middle ones: [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_the_Beautiful]America the Beautiful[/url]. It’s optimistic but not overly sentimental, and the imagery is vivid if you look at it with eyes unjaded by familiarity.
25, I didn’t say that they weren’t free to despise that which protects them. Both the Mennonites and Amish came to the new world to escape violent persecution that was killing them. Both rely on others to use force to protect them.
The current National Anthem arose out of the War of 1812 in which a European Power invaded the US and burned the White House. The United States used force to protect them from being returned to the persecution from which they fled. The were beneficiaries of that force.
I just think that they skip over the moral questions raised when they allow others to place themselves in harms way and do what they themselves will not do. Is it moral for a pacifist to call the police to offer force on their behalf?
Re No. 28: I thought the religious objection was against war, as opposed to community police activity. And I had not interpreted the aversion to war as evidence of disrespect or “despising” the military. I always thought it was simply a statement that, as a matter of religious principle, they would not participate.
Dear Br. Michael, if I may, I would correct you a little on your statement, regarding the Mennonites and Amish: They rely on no one for protection, according to their specific doctrine. God only is their ‘protector,’ and the Amish, at least, would happily say, “God may choose to protect me, or He may not. That is totally immaterial to me and to the way I must live my life.”
If God chooses to let them die at the hands of an invading dictatorship, for example, they would accept that as total pacifists. Now, some Mennonites do not go that far, it is true. But the Amish are serious about it. I live in the middle of the Amish community, and about 15 miles from Goshen College. Goshen College is a very liberal college, and I frankly don’t always trust their judgment or motivation. But the Amish are a different story. They are not interested in “worldly protection.” They would happily see this country, and every country for that matter, disband entirely their armed forces immediately, and let the chips fall where they may.
On a side note: I’m originally from Utica, New York, which is only a few miles from Rome. That city is the location of Francis Scott Key’s grave, which is visited every Fourth of July. Not a generally known fact, it seems.
30, Ah, but they did flee European persecution for a place of safety and the famous martyr who saved the soldier who fell into ice was in fact fleeing. So they don’t exactly “let the chips fall where they may”.
I don’t object to their pacifism, but I do expect them to acknowledge that others die so that they may practice it. Playing the National Anthem is such acknowledgement. And the Amish did acknowledge the assistance they received from the English in the aftermath of the Nickle Mines tragedy.
This is still a fallen and sinful world and not yet a violence free Utopia. There are plenty of violent people who kill others without a second thought. And people, who will not defend themselves, are defended by others who sacrifice their own lives for them.
Br. Michael, I would respectfully submit, however, that the ‘average Amishman’ would say: “Please, please do nothing to ‘protect me.’ Do not don the uniform, do not take up a weapon, do not attempt to defend me. If you choose to defend yourself, that is your call, but do not do it for me!!” Of course, they cannot force that distinction in the world, itself. But they mean it, as a point of doctrine. If they could, they would call every man and woman to the Amish community, and the world would be like them. They would do it quietly, by their mode of living (which is attractive, except for the 14 or 15 hours of manual work every day!! haha), but they would clearly ask the world not to defend them!! They realize they are unable to influence those around them, completely, but they hold pretty true to their understanding here. Yes, they accept help from those around them (non-Amish) in such difficulties as the Nickle Mine disaster, and they also come together near Goshen, here, to build nine barns in 14 days, four of them for non-Amish, when the tornadoes hit in the late 60’s (I think it was).
In the end, of course, they are humans like all of us, with foibles and imperfections. But they do absolutely abhor violence, whether individual, societal, or national.
No. 31: Re your claim that Key’s grave is in New York. “Not a generally known fact, it seems.” Just as well, I’d say, for Key’s body is in fact buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Frederick, Maryland. The Key family plot is next to that of Thomas Johnson, the first governor of Maryland.
For Heath at 25. Certainly, the folks at Goshen have the freedom to choose not to play the National Anthem. But I have the freedom not to compliment them for that choice. I served in Vietnam and I choose not to apologize to any group of pacifists for doing so. For all of the free choices above I choose to thanks the Veterans. Statmann
Thanks for the correction.
For what it’s worth, I had Key confused with Francis Bellamy, who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States.
I understand.
FWIW, we keep FSK pretty close here in beautiful, historic Frederick, Maryland!
It’s interesting that in this thread, we’ve had to re-inter the author of the lyrics of the National Anthem in his family plot in Maryland and also restore to him authorship of the fourth verse of the Anthem. It turns out the grave state of confusion was between the author of the Pledge of Allegiance, Francis Bellamy, and Francis Key. The fourth verse confusion probably also conflates in some way Key’s last verse with the “under God” addition to the Pledge, which was a 1950’s add-on to Bellamy’s text. These two elements of our national heritage are more intertwined than I had previously thought.