March 28, 2005
KINGS SEEN AND UNSEEN:
Ban this racist hymn, says bishop (Jonathan Petre and Jonathan Wynne-Jones, 12/08/2004, Daily Telegraph)
A Church of England bishop has called on churches to ban the singing of I Vow to Thee, My Country, one of the best known hymns, because he says it is heretical and has racist overtones.The Bishop of Hulme, the Rt Rev Stephen Lowe, said the hymn's popularity was a symptom of a "dangerous" increase in English nationalism which had parallels with the rise of Nazism. [...]
The bishop said the words, written by Sir Cecil Spring-Rice in 1918, were "totally heretical" because they suggested that people should pledge their allegiance to their country before God. [...]
The bishop said the emergence of nationalism had been evident during the Euro 2004 football tournament and recent military anniversaries such as D-Day.
"It is like American culture where there is this view that America is the land of the free when we know it is not. But there are those in America who want to maintain that it is and want to impose their understanding, their culture, their way of doing things on everybody else. That is dangerous."
Allegiance can, of course, only be pledged to a country, not to God.
MORE:
I Vow to Thee, My Country (Cecil A. Spring-Rice, 1918)
I vow to thee, my country—all earthly things above—Posted by Orrin Judd at March 28, 2005 9:11 PM
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.And there’s another country, I’ve heard of long ago—
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.
"The bishop said the emergence of nationalism had been evident during the Euro 2004 football tournament ..."
Sheesh. Pretty soon about the only thing that will set European countries apart will be their national teams, the same way US states have their college teams. Since when has being a sports fan been something to find appalling? (Except for the Yankess and teams that make a cult of their being losers, of course.)
And then the next paragraph shows him to be a sactimonious ignoramus, too.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at March 28, 2005 10:35 PMWhere is the racism in the hymn?
Posted by: George at March 28, 2005 11:24 PMQuite simply, to be proud of your country and its (your?) values is by definition to be racist...
...if one follows the multi-cultural credo to its logical (and absurd) conclusion.
The corollary of which is that to be perfectly tolerant (the grand goal), one must jettison all feelings of patriotism, chauvinism, exceptionalism, and the superiority of certain values over others.
Aye, it's a slippery slope, for sure. But people can rationalize themselves into all sorts of knots---under the guise of superior (how's that for irony?) morality.
(Not realizing, however, that what starts out as "I'm OK, you're OK," may well---perhaps necessarily---end up as "You're OK, I'm not OK.")
Posted by: Barry Meislin at March 29, 2005 2:20 AMAnd, Barry, tolerance is defined as de facto approval.
Posted by: Randall Voth at March 29, 2005 4:24 AMThis twit said "American culture where there is this view that America is the land of the free when we know it is not". What BS. I wonder what country this moron thinks is more free. The UK? Please. Gun confiscation, Official Secrets Act, oppressive libel laws etc. Or maybe Cuba, you know they have universal health care. Based on the precedent of the Archbishop of Canterbury, is every bishop in England an idiot?
Posted by: Bob at March 29, 2005 10:09 AMIf the good bishop thinks that hymn is belligerent, it's clear he's unacquainted with the works of Julia Ward Howe
Posted by: Mike Morley at March 29, 2005 12:36 PM"I wonder what country this moron thinks is more free"
I once got the chance to ask this question to a Leftist who was bloviating on just this subject back around 1983. His answer: Ivory Coast. Why? Because it's President -for-Life rode a bicycle from his palace to the gov't offices. At that point I realized there was no reason to keep talking with the guy.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at March 29, 2005 6:05 PMI kind of like that hymn. A bit nationalistic? Perhaps, but it does focus folks on God and His kingdom.
Posted by: Dave W. at March 29, 2005 8:22 PM