Some feel that patriotism and religion should not mix.  Institutionally they are right.  Our founding fathers, including some very active religious leaders, were fully aware of the humiliation of the stocks and other persecution that their followers suffered at the hands of “official” churches in the various colonies.

Freedom in Christ also means respect for one another’s spiritual paths.  For many of us that means the duty to defend one another’s freedom.  Some of our best moments as Americans have been rooted in a Judeo-Christian response to evil and oppression.   

The Battle Hymn of the Republic was first and  foremost a strong spiritual response and fiery gospel song of abolitionists who saw the horror of the civil war as God acting in history to purge our long history of slavery, as God  “trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.”  It is also a song of self sacrifice as a Christian as given in the words: “as he died to make men holy let us die to make men free”

America is an ode to the beauty of our country and of God’s creation.  Implied is our gratitude and stewardship in what God has given us.  To me it is a painful reminder  of all that we are losing what with the recent oil catastrophe in the Gulf and the general degradation of our environment.  It is perhaps the most difficult form of independence to practice:   to be free of corrupt financial interests and to honor the value of the spiritual over the material.

Lastly, to give balance to Independence day and any gratuitous fantasies of mighty American armies conquering all, we sang a song of hope for world peace.