Calvin Synod Herald, 2011 (112. évfolyam, 3-12. szám)

2011-03-01 / 3-4. szám

6

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

America’s National Anthem 80th Anniversary March 3

It took the spark of Ripley’s “Believe It or Not,” which noted America had no national anthem, to inspire Congress to designate the “Star-Spangled Banner,” on March 3, 1931. However, it wasn’t until 1956 that they settled on “In God We Trust” as the national motto, the words echoing those of Francis Scott Key’s ode:

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto — “In God is our Trust; ”

But conquer? The anthem echoes the bloody cost of the new nation’s return to war in 1812, when the King tried to regain his lost colonies. F.S. Key hails the blood shed by the mercenary hirelings and the slaves (freed by the English to fight their former owners), whose footsteps polluted American soil, and muses that they would be driven into graves by brave Americans.

A half century later, the noted American poet Oliver Wendell Holmes denounced secessionists as traitors, and cheered the liberation of the slaves from their chains, with a call to the brave to keep America’s people free.

Calvin on War

But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not

bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to

execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. -Romans 13:4

In his “Institutes,” Calvin reflects on a Christian’s position on the necessity to protect the innocent even if it means killing, saying it is difficult and perplexing. “If all Christians are forbidden to kill (he refers to the Sixth Commandment), ... how can magistrates be at once pious and yet shedders of blood? But if we understand that the magistrate, in inflicting punishment, acts not of himself, but executes the very judgment of God, we shall be disencumbered of every doubt. The law of the Lord forbids to kill; but, that murder may not go unpunished, the Lawgiver himself puts the sword into the hands of his ministers, that they may employ it against all murderers. It belongs not to the pious to afflict and hurt; but to avenge the afflictions of the pious, at the command of God, is neither to afflict or hurt.”

“As it is sometimes necessary for kings and states to take up arms in order to execute public vengeance, the reason assigned furnishes us with the means of estimating how far the wars which are thus undertaken are lawful.... Natural equity and duty, therefore, demand that princes be armed ... to defend the subjects committed to their guardianship whenever they are hostilely assailed.” (Book IV, xx. 10-12)

Rev. Albert W. Kovács

0380

Star-Spangled Banner

Francis Scott Key

DEFENSE OF FORT McHENRY

O ! 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 trough the perilous fight, O ’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the Rockets’redglare, 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 foes haughty boast 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 on the stream,

‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O ! long may it wave O ’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vaunt ingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle ’s confusion,

A home and a country shall leave us no more?

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave,

From the terror offlight 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 free men shall stand,

Between their lov ’d home, and the war s desolation.

Blest with vict ’ry and peace, may the Heav ’n rescued land, Praise the Power that hath made andpreserv ’d 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

Civil War stanza added 1861 - Oliver Wendell Holmes

When our land is illumined with liberty s smile,

If a foe from within strikes a blow at her glory,

Down, down with the traitor that tried to defile The flag of the stars, and the page of her story!

By the millions unchained, Who their birthright have gained, We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained;

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave, While the land of the free is the home of the brave.

“If we ever forget that we are One Nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under. ” - Pres. Ronald Reagan