I suppose citizens of the United States enjoy fireworks partly because our National Anthem celebrates bombs bursting in air. (I won’t go to Wikipedia to check.) Last night, the better half and I discovered, much to our surprise, that the window in our guest bedroom provides a terrific vantage from which to watch the City of Hillsdale’s fireworks. We are only a couple blocks from the Fairgrounds, the site from which municipal workers launch those bombs. Earlier in the day (all about us), we enjoyed the City’s Fourth of July parade from the driveway of a good friend and neighbor, though we are still wondering why the parade and fireworks took place on July 3rd.
One additional wonder of this holiday season is why we know so little about Francis Scott Key, the author of The Star Spangled Banner, and another of Baltimore’s accomplished artists. Google Books shows a number of children’s books about Key, his song, and the anthem’s adoption as the nation’s song — it did not happen until 1931 (I wonder what they sang at baseball games when Babe Ruth was a rookie). But for any aspiring (or established) historian out there, the life of Key, who was an prolific poet and hymn writer, his poem about a significant battle during the War of 1812, how this war played in the imagination of the new nation, and the process by which later generations of Americans appropriated Key’s anthem, offers a historical canvass waiting to be filled. It could even work as well as the recent book of our neighbor and good friend.
Not to mention that Key’s anthem contains a political theology that few citizens of the United States ever consider. To remind my fellow Americans, here is the complete text of the Star Spangled Banner:
Oh, 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 thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, 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 foe’s haughty host 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 in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, 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!Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved 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!
Old Life 
The land of the “free” reminds me of The Wire, season four, episode ten. McNulty—“Let me tell you a little secret. The patrolling officer on his beat is the one true dictatorship in America. We can lock a guy up on the humble, lock him up for real, or drink ourselves to death under the expressway and our partners will cover us. No one, I mean no one, tells us how to waste our shift.”
Jeffrey Reiman, p74–Handled with Discretion; Ethical Issues in Police Decision-Making—“Police discretion begins where the rule of law ends. It is the subjection of law to a human decision beyond the law.”
LikeLike
And, in particular, Key wrote the words to the great hymn, “Lord, with Glowing Heart I’d Praise Thee,” sung to the tune “Ripley” (which is Gregorian chant), arranged by the marvelous Lowell Mason, from the church which Terry Johnson now pastors in Savannah (GA). This is number 80 in the Trinity Hymnal (Revised).
If you warmed up a little to the New Side, we could have a “glowing Hart.” Sorry, I couldn’t resist, Darryl. Thanks for reminding everyone of the words to the SSB. We can sing some things Key wrote at the communion table (but not the SSB, though commanded by an excited multitude–as Hodge famously protested in 1861).
LikeLike
McMark, look at you! From Calvin and Murray, to Hauerwas and then to Jimmy, all in one day. You get the OL July 4th award for versatility.
LikeLike
Alan, isn’t it enough that I sing “Lord, with Glowing Heart”? Does my heart also have to be warm? You New Divinity guys are so demanding.
LikeLike
McMark will probably get mad at me for saying what I am about to say but I am going to say it anyways. There is a lot to McMark- he is a very interesting guy. He is the most well read person that I know. He also has a brother who gets invited to speak at Federal Reserve and highly influential bankers conferences. I wonder who is the smarter of the two. His brother is also involved in a lot of other things that I won’t mention but which I find interesting. I could say more but will stop at that.
McMark has spent a lot of time trying to help me understand some of the more controversial issues in theology today- including the differences between Lutherans and Calvinists and the differences between an emphasis on legal union with Christ and an emphasis on our union with Christ by the Spirit. Not many have spent much time with me considering the past I have had. I very much appreciate McMark and all that he has done for me.
LikeLike
Guys above: Pu-Leeze read my conversation with Darryl and others (2K Dodges a Bullet,etc). I still say I am glad I spent 84 years in our USA and thankful for the values of our of our heritage: True, a mixed Christian and common sense (grace?) blessing. I don’t expect 426 comments, but I’d like to hear about why one can’t be an appreciative American AND (more basically) belong to Christ, not attacking my Brothers. I still don’t see why any brother would not sign the Manhatan Declaration ( http://www.manhattandeclaration.net ) for the reasons DGH spelled out to me. Help! PS, Darryl, How do you do it up there @ Hillsdale with all them fellows who love the SSB? 🙂
LikeLike
Francis Scott Key, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins, The Wire, the Yankees trampling the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored…..
Let me go for some bonus points.
David Lipscomb: “The magistrate is ordered and fixed to punish wickedness and to keep order. Hell is ordered and fixed for the same reason. Should Christians therefore ask for jobs running hell?”
Martin Luther: “Romans 12 serves the guidance and the peace of the inner man and his concerns, but Romans 13 serves that of the outward man and his concerns.”
Dwight Eisenhower: “Our form of government has no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith, and I don’t care what it is.”
LikeLike
Bob, what is SSB?
Also, do Protestants and Roman Catholics agree on the gospel? I hope you say no. Then why does MD use gospel as a bond among its Protestant and Roman Catholic signers? If you would try just once to answer that question, you might generate a few responses. Please, no more biographical details. Just an answer will do.
LikeLike
McMark, you should have quit while you were ahead, with Jimmy.
LikeLike
Dear Darryl, SSB, I think, was used by commentator Alan Strange. Star Spangled Banner. Have you read my great advice to you? My 4th comment re. Manhattan Dec. @ “2K Dodges a Bullet…” Love, Old Bob
LikeLike
DGH,
We spent some quality time yesterday with Kass, Kass, and Schaub’s “What So Proudly We Hail,” which also includes the full text of the Banner. Between that and the local food from the downtown fair, it may have been our first Front Porch 4th.
Later, we replaced the audio from the semi-local televised fireworks with the livestream concert from Philly. I’m not sure how to reconcile localism with internet substitutes, but if any transformationalists want to conquer the airwaves for Christ, they could do a lot worse than Daryl Hall live.
LikeLike
Bob, you have yet to explain why the MD authors invoke the gospel for their concerns. How many times do I need to point out the anomaly of RC’s, Prot’s and Orthodox getting together on the basis of the gospel?
LikeLike
Mike K., I’m glad to know of your Front Porch moment. But aren’t you too young for Hall (or Oats)?
LikeLike
John Howard Yoder, What Would You Do?, p42 —“Egocentric altruism is to claim oneself to be the incarnation of the good and righteous cause for which others might rightly be killed. It is stating one’s self-justification in the form of duty to others.”
LikeLike
Yeah, if not for a deluge of adult contemporary radio in the Delaware Valley during the 80s and 90s. I can remember 3rd and 4th grade classmates singing Hall and Oates in the cafeteria.
Granted, the girls were more about the New Kids.
LikeLike
Mike, I can’t stop listening to this girl:
LikeLike
Darryl, you made it clear to Old Bob that you dont like biographical stuff. I have often found that I learned something worthwhile by listening to those who lived on earth some 30 years longer than I. Try this one that I learned while at WTS under R.B.Kuiper. Our preaching teacher. One of the young guys in class (of about 15) had just finished a practice sermon. It was filled with mean criticism of Reformed “Reformed”? theologians who had some “essential” all wrong. I don’t think Jonathan Edwards was one of the”bad guys” 🙂 Frame, Keller, and Leithart were just kids or not born yet. :)After young Mr. X sat down, R.B. went to the podium. After a very long pause, he growled in his gravelly voice to the former speaker, “YOU’RE not so SMART!” I have read enough (some) of the almost daily posts you produce and SOME of the 100s of comments shared. (Who could read’em all?) Some are VERY helpful! Thanks guys! I believe that R.B., (born 1874, I think) might respond in a similar way to SOME of the more sarcastic, hostile offerings at OLT. Darryl, sometimes I think you don’t read my comments. Missing the meaning of Strange’s SSB. More seriously, what I recently wrote @ OLT about the Gospel and good news. Also I wonder about whether you read my advice to young DGH. Sorry it has a bit of BioStuff! Yes, I still love you! OB.
LikeLike
Old Bob,
I bet you make a good grandpa.
-Jon
LikeLike
Darryl:
I am no more New Divinity than is Charles Hodge. And I know that you know that I am no follower of Hopkins, Emmons, and company. I realize thus that you are being jocular. But all of your readers might not know that.
Particularly they might not know that one can have New Side sympathy and be Old School, as was Hodge, and Old Princeton more broadly. Hodge was rock solid, of course, on Adam’s federal headship, the imputation of his sin, the nature of the atonement, etc. The New Divinity was not. And I am in obvious agreement with Hodge and Old Princeton on such matters and eschew the position of the New Divinity on these and other matters.
Perhaps I should not be so labored and pedantic, but it was you who called me a “New Divinity guy.” I only intimated that you were not “New Side.” And then you sought to paint me as “New Divinity.” Oh well, I guess there’s a first time for everything (although it does come to mind that someone in a response to a review that I had written once implied something similar).
LikeLike
Bob, you still haven’t explained how the Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox Christians who signed MD agree on the gospel.
LikeLike
Alan, I was joking.
LikeLike
Sorry Darryl! Uhhhhh, Sorry, Darryl! 🙂 I still don’t think you read my recent comments (“2K Dodges a Bullet…” etc. 6/30) . And I was serious that my old WTS preaching Prof, R.B.Kuiper, may be crying out from heaven, if he reads SOME of OLT’s countless contests, “YOU’RE not so SMART!” D.G, you STILL haven’t told us of the common ground you have with Richard Dawkins, 9/11 type Muslims, and even some nervous Brothers, in NOT signing the MD. And Jon, many thanks for betting that Old Bob is a good Grampa. I try. With God’s great help! Elaine and I really didn’t have much to do with becoming grand parents of 25, but our 4 kids couldn’t have reproduced them without us! Thanks too, to Alan Strange for your recent helpful perspectives! Love to ALL the many OLT writers, Old Bob
LikeLike
Hi, Guys, Darryl, in this PS to my most recent comment to OLT, I’m wondering if I should make some of my comments 2 U personally? You told Alan you were sometimes just joking. I often have a hard time deciding if you are joking, being sarcastic, or for real. Perhaps you could indicate, if you are joking or being sarcastic by preceding not-for-real stuff by a big (J) of (S)? Also, you keep saying I didn’t answer your question about MD and Gospel. I say I did! And, I keep referring to the ADVICE I gave you in my 4th comment on your 6/30 offering. Part of which was to spend less time on scrapping with Brothers and more on applying Eph. 5:25. IF you are falling a bit short there like everyone else! Sorry I bagan my last comment by hinting (J)! that DGH was a sorry guy! I love you anyhow! Old Bob
LikeLike
Bob, I read the comment. You still haven’t explained how Prot’s, RC’s and Orthodox agree on the gospel. I understand that you think good people signed MD. So? I believe there are many good people who are members of the Democratic Party. Does that mean I vote for them? The gospel is a lot more consequential than simply following people whom you admire.
LikeLike
Bob, btw, if you’re going to invoke Kuiper, I could invoke Machen and say that he is rolling in his grave at the thought of a WTS alum and a president of the seminary no less giving away the gospel for a joint-declaration on social issues.
LikeLike
Zrim, thanks. Emo-hippies singing in a van make me nervous, but when she started playing the kazoo, I knew it would be alright.
LikeLike
Mike, c’mon, that’s what local music should look like. But, yeah, the kazoo makes it.
LikeLike
Zrim, how could it be ‘local music’ if they’re moving along in a van? Yokel music, maybe, based on the dress. Do you know Cletus Spuckler?
LikeLike
David, I’m more a Family Guy guy. Ok, yokel cover music. Sure beats Christian pop (is there such a thing?). Bada bop tish.
LikeLike
Darryl, I am long past the end of my enjoyment of OLT. Flash! In going through all the stuff I have collected in our ATL home of 40 years, preparing to go to Alexian Village in Chattanooga, a Seniors’ residence, I came across a thick wad of items I mailed to you in 1996. Good stuff! I don’t think you ever responded. How’s this for plowing up old matters? I sounded a bit like some 2K folks in those papers including some mild criticisms of the OPC! Maybe I am saying that you should give up claiming I never answered your most recent questions! (“Gospel”). Much of these OLT writings (Req. Intell. & Philos. now 509 comments!) WoW! I have already shown amazement at this! I guess, like Jon, (HE IS RIGHT ON, seems to me!) I really don’t understand all about 2K as it is mostly UNDEFINED throughout. Maybe 2K is a ruined word a la C.S. Lewis. (Good guy?) You may recall he said words are RUINED when you have to define them every time you use them. He started with “gentleman”. Once simply meant a guy of means and property. Morphed into a compliment and finally now is found on doors of certain restricted areas —- GENTLEMEN, (not ladies),”MEN’S Rooms”. This is changing!!! Can we say that “Christian” has become a ruined word? “Tolerance”? “marriage”? “Reformed”? and maybe “2K”? Should I resend the material I sent you 16 years ago when you were @ WTS, Philly? I will try another answer if you do! 🙂 I still advise you— (I know you don’t seem to welcome advice nor biographical stuff)— BUT, try not to fight the “good fight” with Brothers, and try to spend less time @ OLT and more in loving your “better half” as you recently referred to her, as Jesus loves His Church. Love, Old Bob
LikeLike
PS. I am glad Peter A. Lillback is prez of WTS. I suspect Machen would not bad mouth him as you have done to me! Many times!I still love you, Bob Morris
LikeLike
Bob, how could material you sent to me 16 years ago possibly explain why signers of the Manhattan Declaration use the word gospel to pursue social ends? I am not attacking you. I am (STILL) asking.
LikeLike
Bob, let’s be clear. By turning my criticisms into personal “attacks,” you do far more to bad mouth me than I you. If you ever read about Machen and his critics, you’d know that they always resorted to “love” to demonize him. Because they could “show” he wasn’t “loving”, then he wasn’t worthy of a hearing or good standing in the church.
Whatever Machen would say about Lillback, the former would have no patience for the latter’s understanding of the church’s responsibility for society.
LikeLike
Darryl, Maybe I was the pot calling the kettle black. I guess I will write what may be my final visit to OLT @ the 2k Mojo thing where it is more likely to be read. (If I can control my addiction to getting too feisty as well as I control any addiction to body damaging smoking, my teetotaling decision and my never “looking” at any woman except my wife of nearly 60 years, PTL, not Bob!.). I love you anyhow, Old Bob
LikeLike