The Sunday closest to Independence Day has always been an odd moment for me. I like the national anthem as much as anyone else, but singing all three verses while standing up is a bit wearisome. And America the Beautiful gets crazy in the last verse: "Thine alabaster cities gleam/ Undimmed by human tears."
This is complicated even more when the conservative politics of many members influences patriotic sentiment in ways that I am not always comfortable with. Suffice it to say that I have gritted my teeth at times on the first Sunday of July.
That's why I was so pleased with this Fast Sunday. The testimonies were focused on the gospel, not the cultural aspects of Mormonism that can be problematic. I was especially touched by the closing prayer and how the good brother who offered it gave thanks for this nation, a land of freedom in which the gospel could be restored and then taken to all the world. In a succinct and heartfelt prayer, this man summarized the essence of gospel-based patriotism.
Over the weekend I read this blog entry at BYU's Religious Studies website, and I find it an insightful way of viewing the past holiday and the implications for Latter-day Saints. The entry gets at my own pet peeve, the tendency we have to replace genuine patriotism and love of country with demagoguery and nationalism, and I appreciate the warning tone.
I see this issue a lot like parenting. I don't love my children because they are better than another person's children, but because they are mine. We love our country not because it is better than Spain or Japan or Kenya, but because it is ours, and because we have an obligation to constantly make it better.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment