The Battle "Hymn" of the Republic

Scott Ritsema
CIVICS NEWS.com
October 26, 2008

CIVICS NEWS Update 12/1/08: This past week I attended a convention for Christian School teachers. The leaders of this convention saw it as appropriate to begin this gathering of Christian teachers with a pledge of allegiance not to God, but to America, as well as...you guessed it...the Battle Hymn of the Republic. It turned my stomach to see a gathering of the bride of Christ collectively pour out their admiration for a flag, a nation, and that nation's wars.

In the previous post, Lew Rockwell's Thomas DiLorenzo mentioned how, "Murdering 350,000 fellow citizens in the 1860s was hailed in song as 'the glory of the coming of the Lord'." If you didn't know, DiLorenzo was referring to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

For some reason, many of my brothers and sisters in Christ like this song, even though it is a complete reversal of the teachings of Jesus. Quite often this disgusting form of Christian militarism is advanced through email forwards. Have you ever gotten those "support the troops" (i.e. support the American empire) emails or those "the American government should be 'Christian'" emails?

Recently I received an email linking to a "moving" rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Kids raised in the state child-rearing institutions (public schools) inspire Christians who received this email because this is supposedly a signal of hope in the public schools. The email read as follows:

This is Awesome. Listen carefully to the words! We just had to stand up while listening!! This Is Great. At the beginning you'll hear a children's choir then the high school kids take over. At the conclusion listen to the high notes on the trumpet . . . played by a high school kid? One of the fathers recorded it, added some graphic enhancements to the recording, and posted it on the web. The song, of course, is the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic.' Click below!http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/Battle%20Hymn/index.htm

Well, if you do listen carefully to the words, you will get the message that the American military is the coming of the Lord on earth. You will get the message that killing southern civilians because their states wanted to secede (the Civil War was not fought to free the slaves!!) is equivalent to the saving mission of Jesus Christ. And this line is the ultimate idolatrous credo of Christian militarists: "He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, our God is marching on."

Contrast this with the teachings of Jesus. Fellow Christians, where do you see in the New Testament any permission to think this way about killing people?

Just because the majority of Christians fail to speak out against it does not make it right. It's time to re-think our place in the civic realm. Read The Way, the Truth and the Sword as a conversation-starter. I don't have all the answers, but we all have to begin by questioning our assumptions. Questioning your Christian leaders. The evangelical Christian church is becoming (or has already become) a militarist sect that hardly resembles the religion of Jesus Christ. "Come out of her, my people."