America the Beautiful

America the Beautiful is one of our finer patriotic songs. With a majestic melody it describes every corner of the country, from mountains to prairies, and from sea to shining sea under the vast, spacious sky above. It describes the pilgrims and heroes who settled and built the land, and appeals to God for His grace and hand on our country at the close of every verse.

I first learned the song in the fourth grade. Today they don’t teach it in public schools anymore because the references to God might offend some atheist or Moslem, or be considered by someone to be establishing a religion. More’s the pity.

The Robert Shaw Chorale put out a patriotic album in the 60’s that included America the Beautiful, and I was listening to it on a CD and singing along in the car as I was going across town. All of a sudden the last line of the second verse jumped out at me.

Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!

This is what John Adams meant when he said, “We have created a government for a religious and moral people. It will work for none else.” We see more and more every day the wisdom in his comment. The more secular our nation becomes the higher crime rates we see, the more laws are needed to keep people accountable, and the fewer freedoms we have. This is not to say that America was ever a perfect utopia, but we were a vast majority Christian nation in the beginning, and when the emphasis was on Christianity and our Christian roots, we had less government control because we had less crime, and our streets and communities were safer because people understood the need and were willing to govern themselves.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the change in American culture after the Supreme Court rulings kicking God out of our public schools. Prior to the 1962 and 1963 rulings the worst problems in school were children chewing gum. Now it’s children bringing guns to school and murdering their classmates.

When people control themselves there is no crime and there is no need for excessive laws. True liberty is unrestricted as long as we abide by the existing laws, but this can only work in a true Christian community where people understand that righteous, moral living is the best way, where there is a deep, inner conviction that certain moral standards must be upheld.

This kind of conviction doesn’t come from godlessness. Neither does it come from tyrannical religious systems that serve the leadership rather than the followers. Neither can it be forced upon anyone by the government. It comes from within, from a heart that has a relationship with Jesus Christ.

When asked what the greatest commandment is Jesus responded in Matthew 22:37-39, that the first great commandment is to love God with all of your heart and soul and mind. The second great commandment, He said, is to love your neighbor as yourself.

The significance of these two commandments is this: if you love the true God and live by His standards set in the Bible, not only will your spiritual needs be met, but your social, relational needs will be met as well. The Bible tells us to obey the laws of the land. It tells us to treat our neighbors with respect. This is the recipe for peaceful, harmonious living.

Yet the best handbook on developing peaceful relationships is discarded and banned from our public schools because somebody like the atheist ACLU might be offended. The ACLU doesn’t care about peace or anything that is good for the country. All they care about is their godless agenda. The more godless the country gets, the higher the crime rates grow, and the more our lawmakers add backbreaking laws and regulations to everything we do, which ultimately steals our liberties. And that makes the ACLU happy.

The answer is to get back to our Christian roots. It is those Christian roots that teach us to confirm our souls in self-control, to voluntarily restrain our liberties within the law, and to love everyone around us. Nothing could make America more beautiful than that.