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Angry words in the Psalms

A collection of texts

Introduction by Ken Sehested

Years ago, in putting together a special issue of Baptist Peacemaker on the topic of anger, I asked two friends (thanks again, Steve & Marion) to do a bit of research. Read through the Psalms, I asked, and compile a list of verses that speak about anger and its various synonyms—expressions of hatred, longing for vengeance, threat of retaliation, etc.

Needless to say, there is a lot there; and it’s actually shocking that the believing community’s prayer book contains such a level of vile and violent accusations and bequests. (This material is formally referred to as the imprecatory psalms.)

In his Praying the Psalms, biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann says this material reveals ancient Israel doing three things. “First, you must voice the rage. Everybody knows that. Everybody in the therapeutic society knows that you must voice it, but therapeutic society stops there. Second, you must submit it to another, meaning God in this context. Third, you then must relinquish it and say, ‘I entrust my rage to you.’”

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How much longer, Lord, will you forget about me? Will it be forever? How long will you hide? How long must I be confused and miserable all day? How long will my enemies keep beating me down? • My God, my God, why have you deserted me? Why are you so far away? Won’t you listen to my groans and come to my rescue? I cry out day and night, but you don’t answer, and I can never rest. • I have no more strength than a few drops of water.  All my bones are out of joint; my heart is like melted wax. My strength has dried up like a broken clay pot, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. • You, God, have left me to die in the dirt. • God despises evil people, and he will wipe them all from the earth, till they are forgotten. • Get angry, Lord God! Do something! • Don’t let those proud and merciless people kick me around or chase me away. Look at those wicked people! They are knocked down, never to get up again. • Fight my enemies, Lord! Attack my attackers! Shield me and help me.  Aim your spear at everyone who hunts me down, but promise to save me. • Chase away and confuse all who plan to harm me. Send your angel after them and let them be like straw in the wind. Make them run in the dark on a slippery road, as your angel chases them. I did them no harm, but they hid a net to trap me, and they dug a deep pit to catch and kill me. • Surprise them with disaster! Trap them in their own nets and let them fall and rot in the pits they have dug.  • I have stumbled, and worthless liars I don’t even know surround me and sneer.  Worthless people make fun and never stop laughing. But all you do is watch! When will you do something? • Disappoint and confuse all who are glad to see me in trouble, but disgrace and embarrass my proud enemies who say to me, “You are nothing!” • Proud and violent enemies, who don’t care about you, have ganged up to attack and kill me.  • Do something, God! Defend yourself.  Remember how those fools sneer at you all day long. Don’t forget the loud shouts of your enemies. • Each of those nations sneered at you Lord. Now let others sneer at them, seven times as much. • You have ignored me! So pay close attention or I will tear you apart. • In his anger, God told them, “You people will never enter my place of rest.” • You have put me in the deepest and darkest grave; your anger rolls over me like ocean waves. You have made my friends turn in horror from me. I am a prisoner who cannot escape, and I am almost blind because of my sorrow. • Your anger is like a flood! And I am shattered by your furious attacks that strike each day and from every side. My friends and neighbors have turned against me because of you, and now darkness is my only companion. • God don’t keep silent! Destructive and deceitful lies are told about me, and hateful things are said for no reason. I had pity and prayed for my enemies, but their words to me were harsh and cruel.  For being friendly and kind, they paid me back with meanness and hatred. My enemies said, “Find some worthless fools to accuse him of a crime. Try him and find him guilty! Consider his prayers a lie. Cut his life short and let someone else have his job. Make orphans of his children and a widow of his wife. • You shot me with your arrows, and you struck me with your hand. My body hurts all over because of your anger. Even my bones are in pain and my sins are so heavy that I am crushed. • My days disappear like smoke, and my bones are burning as though in a furnace. I am wasting away like grass, and my appetite is gone. My groaning never stops, and my bones can be seen through my skin. I am like a lonely owl in the desert or a restless sparrow alone on a roof. My enemies insult me all day, and they use my name for a curse word. Instead of food, I have ashes to eat and tears to drink, because you are furious and have thrown me aside. My life fades like a shadow at the end of day and withers like grass. • Show how much you love me by destroying my enemies. • In heaven the Lord laughs as he sits on his throne, making fun of the nations. The Lord becomes furious and threatens them. His anger terrifies them. • Be smart all you rulers, and pay close attention . . . the Lord might become furious and suddenly destroy you. • Come and save me, Lord God! Break my enemies’ jaws and shatter their teeth. • Make your teaching clear because of your enemies. Nothing they say is true! They just want to destroy. Their words are deceitful like a hidden pit, and their tongues are good only for telling lies. Punish them, God, and let their own plans bring them downfall. Get rid of them! Attack my furious enemies. See that justice is done. • Evil people are trapped by their own evil deeds. The wicked will go down to the world of the dead to be with those nations that forgot about you.  • Make his children beg for food and live in the slums. • Now break the arms of all merciless people. Punish them for doing wrong and make them stop. • The Lord will send fiery coals and flaming sulfur down on the wicked, and they will drink nothing but a scorching wind. • Won’t you chop off all flattering tongues that brag so loudly? • I am innocent, Lord! Won’t you listen as I pray and beg for help? • You made my enemies run, and I killed them. They cried out for help, but no one saved them; they called out to you, but there was no answer. I ground them to dust blown by the wind, and I poured them out like mud in the streets. • May the Lord bless everyone who beats your children against the rocks. • With your mighty arm, Lord, you will strike down all of your hateful enemies. They will be destroyed by fire once you are here, and because of your anger, flames will swallow them. You will wipe their families from the earth, and they will disappear. All their plans to harm you will come to nothing. You will make them run away by shooting your arrows at their faces. • Good people will be glad when they see the wicked getting what they deserve, and they will wash their feet in their enemies’ blood. • The wicked kill with swords and shoot arrows to murder the poor and needy and all who do right, but they will be killed by their own swords, and their arrows will be broken. • Everyone the Lord curses will be destroyed. • Your vicious waves have swept over me like an angry ocean or a roaring waterfall. • Wake up! Do something, Lord! Why are you sleeping? Don’t desert us forever. • Send your sharp arrows through enemy hearts and make all nations fall at your feet. • My enemies are liars! So let them be trapped by their boastful lies. • Make their table a trap for them and their friends. Blind them with darkness and make them tremble. Show them how angry you are! Be furious and catch them. Destroy their camp and don’t let anyone live in their tents. • Do something, God! Judge the nations of the earth; they belong to you. • Our God, don’t just sit there, silently doing nothing! Your hateful enemies are turning against you and rebelling. • Babylon, you are doomed! I pray the Lord’s blessings on anyone who punishes you for what you did to us. • Don’t let the wicked succeed in doing what they want, or else they might never stop planning evil. They have me surrounded, but make them the victims of their own vicious lies. Dump flaming coals on them and throw them into pits where they can’t climb out. Chase those cruel liars away! • My Lord is at your right side, and when he gets angry he will crush the other kings. He will crack their skulls, leaving piles of dead bodies all over the earth. • Let trouble hunt them down. • Praise God with songs on your lips and a sword in your hand. Take revenge and punish the nations. Put chains of iron on their kings and rulers. Punish them as they deserve. • God will destroy you forever! He will grab you and drag you from your home. You will be uprooted and left to die. • Do I not hate them that hate you, O Lord?

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Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

How do you deal with anger?

Pastoral commentary

by Ken Sehested

Introduction

Many years ago a friend wrote to ask about how to handle anger, naming a specific incident regarding
her congregation’s skewed budget habits. Of course, the incident is not unique, and the question
of what to do with anger stretches across a wide range of personal and public contexts.
Below is her question and commentary, then my response.

Dear Ken,

I have a question on which I would really appreciate your thoughts: what is the role of human anger in God's work?

At the moment I am working through some issues surrounding anger. On one hand I often see it as part of the passion to do God's work—as a response to injustices, thus a force that gets one to work for change. However, I am also aware that people get burned in the process of (my) anger—hmm, not likely a God objective.

Our congregation’s annual meeting is on Sunday. This is the time where money decisions get made. I am angry that our congregation has, and likely will continue, to focus on maintaining our building and not take on work outside the walls of the church. There are many issues here: the congregation's lack of vision of substantial work other than bricks and mortar, the failure of the spiritual leaders of the congregation (clergy and lay) to name this and act upon it, a lack of development and feeding of spiritual issues with the congregation.

The list goes on. I will speak on Sunday to the budget and name the shortfalls I see in it, but this is something I am really angry about. I think this is a ball of tangled thread I need to unwind. I think in the process I will separate the multiple issues of anger, including the force of God's presence, acting on the side of the oppressed, and being a catalyst for change.

How have you dealt with the anger, which I assume you feel and have felt over situations of injustice and willing blindness?

Chris

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Dear Chris,

You ask a great question, about anger. From what you've described, I'd say your instincts about the appropriateness of anger are much the same as mine. I’m not sure I have anything to say which you don’t already know; but we all need reminding of what we know, so let me make a few comments.

As you note yourself, anger is always the appropriate response to injustice. I would go so far as to say that in such circumstances, it is evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit. (You've probably heard this quote from St. Augustine: "Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage: anger at the way things are and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.")

Unfortunately, I suspect that you and I were both reared in a religious culture that strongly discouraged the expression of anger. (Typically, females have been more repressed than males, for reasons of gender.) And we don't have many good models on appropriate expression of anger.

On the face of it, Scripture seems contradictory at this point. Jesus warned that "every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment" (Matthew 5:22). Yet Jesus himself is pictured as expressing anger, particularly when he overthrew the tables in the temple. On the other hand, Paul wrote what I think is the pivotal text: "Be angry, but sin not" (Ephesians 4:26).

How do we do that? How do we avoid sin in the midst of anger?

Like you, I have had numerous experiences where I was very clear of the truth of my convictions, in the course of discussion or debate (in church contexts, in particular). What I have to constantly do is make a crucial distinction between the power of the Truth and the power of my argument.

I am well aware, in times past, when I was advocating for a particular position (not unlike the one you describe, re: the church's self-absorption with its own building), that part of the agitation I felt stemmed from fear—fear that I wasn't going to win the argument. When that happens, the fear in me gets expressed as aggression and enmity toward those with whom I'm debating; and it often provokes a response in kind: they become defensive and respond with hostility (often masked with piety, of course—which is the worst kind of hostility).

It's this latter kind of "anger" which, I believe, is sin. It's rooted in our own insecurities—ultimately, in our own shaky confidence in the power of the Gospel itself. (i.e., If we don't win the argument, evil will prevail—the attitude from which, in the extreme, wars develop.)

This is why the notion of nonviolence is so central to my theology and is slowly but surely impacting my actual behavior! Our tendencies to violence, like ground-in dirt, often takes a lot of “soaking” to loosen their grip on the fabric of our lives.

For each of us, I think, the true power of the Gospel gets expressed in the refusal to coerce, to insist that my conviction be upheld over alternative convictions. In other words, in the ability to "lose" without "losing it" (i.e., without getting angry in a sinful way). This confidence, ultimately, rests in our confidence in the Resurrection: that not even death, finally, can take away anything of essential value; for God is at the Center; that "while the moral arm of the universe is long, it bends toward justice" (one of M.L. King's favorite sayings, quoting Carlisle).

But be very clear at this point: This confidence is no justification for passivity or withdrawal. We will do our very best to speak the truth, as compassionately, as powerfully, as strategically, and as intelligently as possible.

In the end, though, even with this commitment to nonviolence, you can't help but make some people mad. Trying to always be "nice" (i.e., behaving so that no one is unhappy with you) is itself a form of self-absorption and self-preoccupation. It didn't happen for the prophets, for Jesus, for the disciples—why should you think you could do it if they failed?!

We do everything possible not to make people mad, of course—including taking on unmerited suffering without retaliation. But even at this point (as my wife is fond of saying), there's a difference between taking up the towel and basin of water (to wash feet) and being a doormat for people to wipe their feet on. The latter is never, ever a form of righteousness.

Of course, even when we already know these things (as I know you do), learning about how to "be angry, but sin not" comes from practice. Unfortunately, experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.

So, be angry, dear sister . . . but sin not.

Ken

©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Being Good and Doing Good

Martin Marty, Fortress, 1984

reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

This is an old treatment of ethics by a veteran theologian and historian, and it’s significant that its relevance remains constant still.  An interesting perspective is Marty’s identification of a literary basis for being ethical.  ‘Let a text speak to us and present a horizon through imagination and emotional acts’ (p 57); this is an alternative to the rational arguments for ethical discourse and action.  The final two chapters deal with how we live:  the public sphere where the individual is linked with fellow believers as well as non-believers in the whole world of human beings, and the personal sphere, various areas of private life that also have public effects (p 91).

Marty’s methodology does not go into details about what to do in certain issues (eg abortion, pacifism) but to see the relatedness of all life in what he calls ‘zones’.  The zone of the body (the self), those where we are intimately related to family, friends, the neighbourhood, institutions (schools, local church), place of employment.  The impetus to responsible living comes from our baptism, living the forgiven life.  He closes his book with an appeal to Christians to contribute to the common good, to find themselves at the foot of the cross in sight of an open tomb.  ‘That is the space where Jesus meets humans’ (p 128).

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Toward a True Kinship of Faiths

The Dalai Lama, Three Rivers Press, 2010

reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

This is a moving examination of inter-faith sharing, with the Dalai Lama reflecting on the implications of our world’s spiritual dimensions.  His paradigm for spiritual sharing is not the identification of religious elements that are the lowest common denominators.  ‘The move to the pluralist position of interchange with other religions by no means involve abandoning one’s central commitment to one’s own faith; it hugely enriches the understanding and practice of one’s own religion.  It allows one to see convergences with other religions; it broadens one’s respect for the extraordinary range and diversity of spiritual approaches developed entirely outside one’s faith tradition’ (pp 17,18).  He draws a distinction between what can be seen as three key aspects of a religion:  ethical teachings, doctrines (metaphysics), cultural specifics (p 150).  He points out that there is a ‘great convergence of the world’s religions:  the central message of all these religions is love and compassion; the purpose of all religions remains the same:  to contribute to the betterment of humanity.  There are fundamental doctrinal differences among the religions.  The challenge is to find a way in which the followers of these traditions can remain true to their doctrinal standpoints and see them as representing legitimate paths to G-d.

For me as a Christian, the question is not what I believe as I meet others, but how Jesus would interact.  A powerful book that struggles with the possibilities of religious pluralism from the perspective of Jesus.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Wresting With G-d

Roland Rolheiser, Penguin, 2018

reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

The last few decades have brought about major changes in our lives. Globalization has reshaped virtually all of our communities in terms of ethnicity, culture and religion.  The sexual revolution has radically altered how our world sees love; political and religious extremism polarize our communities. This sets before us a whole range of new challenges in terms of how we understand life, love, sexuality, family, country, religion, faith and G-d.  Rolheiser’s book helps in a search for not only meaning and faith but a greater steadiness in life.  ‘Steadiness is the key word.  Real faith is not a set of answers; rather, it leaves us in mystery, in longing, in desire, but open to something bigger…. Our deepest desire is a gnawing disquiet inside us, a longing for Someone big enough to embrace our questions and hold our doubts’ (p 16).

Embracing our questions, struggling with our own complexity, is a continuation of the Socratic claim that ‘the unanswered life is not worth living’, and so Rolheiser outlines our wrestling with seven areas of life (eg our nature, our eroticism, our fear, our mandate to reach out to the poor, G-d, Faith and culture.  The final chapter suggests guidelines ‘for the long haul’.  Trim our spiritual vocabularies to three words:  forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness!  Religious and moral fidelity, when not rooted in gratitude and forgiveness, are not enough.  Metanoia is the large-hearted reminder to never close the doors to others.  Taking away the sins of our community, by transforming tension. Praying—being aware of the Spirit praying in us and for us.  Remember that we are safe through G-d, even in death. Choose the regrets we can live with best.

A powerful book of analysis and of life.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

The Beginnings of Politics

Moshe Halbertal & Stephen Hollmans, Princeton University Press, 2017

reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

The biblical book of Samuel is a book of political thought; it does not paint a flattering portrait of any of the work’s principle characters (eg Samuel, Saul, David, Absalom and a handful of others); no one party or individual is endorsed.  In the pre-Samuel period no standing army was established and no unity of purpose or centralization of political-military power was achieved. No standing army was established and no enduring unity of purpose or centralization of political-military power was achieved.

No single stable ruler capable of asserting his supreme authority over tribes and clans often embroiled in blood feuds could emerge.  But a supreme authority is the underpinnings of any human political order.  This is why all political entities aim to organize a smooth transfer of power one leader to the next.  Dynastic-monarchy offers one possible solution to the problem of regional continuity; the bloodlines of the king’s family provide a possible nonviolent transfer of power.  Dynastic succession is the experience of the Samuel-era Israeli state as dynastic succession seeks to provide unity and continuity. The price paid by the people for this is the imposition of taxes and military drafts.

In detailing the rise and rule of two very different kings, the writer(s) of Samuel focus on the concept of power that refuses to acknowledge moral restrictions for living among their supporters.  They end up using the power they have been granted for the welfare of the community by clinging to political power for its own sake (eg Saul’s plot to have David killed, 1 Samuel 18); the writer(s) of Samuel point out the need for community of sovereignty.  The author of Samuel does not argue against the dynastic solution to the continuity problem, but points out what centralized power inflicts on the ruler and on his children, mingling family love and political ambition.

The Beginnings of Politics is a powerful treatment of political implications of power in politics, whether in David’s time or in ours.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

The Sin of Uncertainty

Peter Enns, Harper, 2016

reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

Our beliefs provide a familiar structure to our life; they give answers to our big questions:  does G-d exist?  Is there a right religion?  Why are we here?  Church is too often the most risky place to be spiritually honest.  For Enns, true faith and correct thinking were two sides of the same cover, and his religious structure no longer constituted an unshakeable persuasion.  He came to see that ‘knowing’ as his church held, has its place but not at the centre of faith, and he realized that he could choose to trust G-d regardless of how certain he felt (p 15), when we too often confuse G-d   with our thoughts about G-d (p 19). This results in the problem of trusting our beliefs rather than trusting G-d (p 21). The problem is that knowledge based faith is a largely unquestioned part of our western culture.

Faith in the biblical sense is rooted deeply in trust in G-d.  A life of faith that accepts this biblical challenge is much more demanding than being preoccupied with correct thinking.  ‘Trust is not marked by unflappable dogmatic certainty but by embracing as a normal part of faith the steady line of mysteries and uncertainties, seeing them as opportunities to trust more deeply’ (p 205)  ‘Trust in G-d, not in correct thinking about G-d, is the beginning and end of faith’ (p 211), a faith rooted in trust, not in certainty.  ‘The life of Christian faith is more than agreeing with a set of beliefs about Christ, morality or how to read the bible.  It means being so intimately connected to Christ that his crucifixion is ours’ (p 162).

Enns focuses on the essence of Christian faith, on trust ,not on formulae.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Beyond Occupation: American Jewish, Christian and Palestinian Voices for Peace

Rosemary Reuther and Marc Ellis, Beacon Press, 1990

reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

The Israeli occupation of the territories won in the Six day War of 1967 entered a new phase in 1987 with the beginnings of the Palestinian uprising (intifada).  Beyond Occupation explores frameworks for peace in the Middle East in this development.  The American Jewish contributors look at the meanings that the intifada holds for the theology of Judaism; Christian contributors articulate an ethical framework for a peace settlement, seeking to distinguish between anti-semitism and a critique of Jewish policies; Palestinian contributors offer a perspective on the long history of events leading up to the intifada, arguing for an awareness of the Palestinian experience as the necessary basis for reconciliation in the Middle East.

Beyond Occupation is arranged in four sections.  The first contains Jewish responses to the uprising, showing the diversity of opinions and perspectives within that community; common themes by the six essayists are the role of ethics and the shocking policy of lethal force ad bone breaking beatings.  The second section has four Christian contributors seeking a just balance between concern for national security and for Israeli and Palestinian rights, seeking to distinguish between anti-Semitism and a critique of Israeli policies.  The third section consists of five essays dealing with the Palestinian story from the perspective of the British mandate and the Balfour Declaration.  The final three essays attempt to identify common ground for discussion among the three groups.

A helpful book for understanding the nature of the Middle East situation.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

The Ministry of Listening

Donald Peel, Anglican Book Centre, 1980

reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

It is an old book, but still relevant in the attempt to equip lay people minister to others.  Peel not only helps lay people to minister to others, but stimulates us to identify the areas where the congregation can be strengthened and helped.

While hospital visitation is probably the readers’ first identification of an area of visitation, Peel identifies a basic technique of creative listening to help the congregation strengthen its membership: Hospital visitation, visiting the elderly, housebound young mothers, stressed workplace individuals, neighbours across the back fence, parents of Sunday School students, newcomers to the congregation.  Peel sketches the shape of creative listening to include not only hospital patients but also their relatives and friends.  And the hospital staff!  What he attempts is to see the shape of caring from a pastoral orientation that sees the need for better training of congregational membership to the sustained exercise of pastoral care by an articulate membership.

Peel calls for the development at the congregational level of training and identification of frequently encountered needs.  Active listening is the use of feeling, helping the participant to articulate for herself/himself authentic responses to G-d’s healing grace.  Peel sketches the use of prayer and scripture, and visiting the dying, those who mourn, the elderly, and pastoral care on the psychiatric ward.

A useful small book to strengthen pastoral care at the congregational level.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  3 July 2018 •  No. 166

Processional. “There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me. / The sign was painted, said ‘Private Property.’ / But on the backside, it didn’t say nothing.  / This land was made for you and me.” —Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, “This Land is Your Land”

“Purple Mountains Majesty” photo by Russ Bishop

Special edition
PATRIOTISM

Invocation. “In seasons of dark desire eyes strain for Eden’s refrain and flickered light ’mid the fright of earth’s travail. Oh, Beloved, unleash your Voice of Pardon from wrath’s consuming reign. Speak peace to the hungered of heart.” —continue reading “Speak peace to the hungered of heart,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 85

Call to worship. “This Land Is Your Land,” Woody Guthrie.

Good news. Amazing story of 10-year-old Sarah Haycox recovered a forgotten story in her town’s history and successfully lobbied to give it prominence. —CBS Sunday Morning (2:52 video. Thanks Abigail.)

Hymn of praise. “This is my song, O God of all Nations / A song of peace for lands afar and mine / This is my home, the country where my heart is / Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine / But other hearts in other lands are beating / With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.” —Indigo Girls, with Michelle Malone, “Song of Peace (Finlandia)”

¶ “Over the past 15 years the aphorism ‘freedom is not free’ has become a popular patriotic refrain. But we forget that, in 1953, Army Chief of Staff General Matthew Ridgeway used the phrase to identify the difference between those who torture their captives and those who, like us, believe the disavowal of torture is among the “self-evident truths” dating from our Republic’s founding. The ‘cost’ of freedom entails moral accountability.” —continue reading, “The cost of freedom entails moral accountability: The need for truthtelling about the CIA’s torturing practices”

One hundredth birthday of “God Bless America.” We forget that this popular tune was penned by a refugee—Irving Beilin, who changed his name to Berlin. “The first reference to the song in The New York Times describes a performance at a dinner sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, where religious leaders repudiated the “doctrine of race and hate” in totalitarian Europe and urged Americans not to let it happen within their own communities. In a 1940 leaders of a joint Ku Klux Klan and the pro-Nazi German American Bund rally called for a boycott of the song.

        Listen to the radio star Kate Smith’s first performance of the song.

        Woody Guthrie’s song, “This Land Is Your Land,” was originally written as a sarcastic comment on the Berlin song and was titled “God Blessed America for Me.” First recorded in 1944 by Moses Asch, this controversial verse was not included and, in fact, forgotten until 1997 when Smithsonian archivist Jeff Place heard it while digitizing the acetate master: “There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me. / The sign was painted, said 'Private Property.' / But on the backside, it didn't say nothing. / This land was made for you and me.”

        The song wasn’t released until 1951, when McCarthyism was on the rise and Cold War politics became dominant.

        Guthrie never recorded another controversial verse, one that expressly calls out the church: “One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple, / by the relief office I saw my people.  / As they stood hungry,  / I stood there wondering if God blessed America for me.” —For more see Sheryl Kaskowitz, “’God Bless America’: 100 Years of an Immigrant’s Anthem,” New York Times; and Nick Spitzer, “The Story of Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land Is Your Land,’” NPR (audio version 13;00)

Confession. “This nation is founded on blood like a city on swamps / yet its dream has been beautiful and sometimes just / that now grows brutal and heavy as a burned-out star. —Marge Piercy, in “Circles on the Water”

¶ “I would suggest that such practices as the designation of 'In God We Trust' as our national motto, or the references to God contained in the Pledge of Allegiance can best be understood as a form of 'ceremonial deism,' protected from Establishment Clause scrutiny because they have lost through rote repetition any significant religious content. . . ." —US Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Lynch v. Donnelly (1984)

Hymn of supplication. “I was walking with my brother / and he wondered what's on my mind / I said, What I believe in my soul / ain't what I see with my eyes / And we can't turn our backs this time /  And the river opens for the righteous.” —Jackson Browne, “I Am a Patriot” (Thanks Thom.)

Words of assurance. “I raised my head and set myself / In the eye of the storm, in the belly of a whale / My spirit stood on solid ground / I'll be at peace when they lay me down.” —Loretta Lynn & Willie Nelson, “Lay Me Down” (Thanks Marsha.)

¶ “This year, five state legislatures passed laws mandating that every public school prominently display the U.S. motto, ‘In God We Trust.’ The addition of Arkansas, which passed such a law in 2017, brings to six the number of states with public school mandates, including Alabama, Florida, Arizona, Louisiana and Tennessee. Those laws, mostly sponsored by legislative prayer caucuses in about 30 states, were inspired by the foundation’s 2017 manual known as Project Blitz [a project of the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation], a 116-page guide for state legislators listing 20 model bills of which ‘In God We Trust’ is the first.” —Yonat Shimron, Religion News Service

Professing our faith. “Because our virtues as a nation are considerable, we tend to think our vices unremarkable. Such is not the case. At the same time, this is the case: If you do not love your land you cannot participate in its healing.

       “If we are to rightly interpret our condition, listening for the Word that is needed, we simply must take seriously the whole story—its glory and its shame.” —continue reading “Of Thee I Sing: An Independence Day meditation”

Hymn of resolution. “I’d hammer out a danger, I’d hammer out a warning, I’d hammer out a love between my brothers and my sisters, all over this land.” —Peter, Paul & Mary, “If I Had a Hammer”

Quotes on patriotism.

        • “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” —Samuel Johnson

        • “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” —Edward Abbey

        • “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.” —Charles De Gaulle

        • “The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?” —Pablo Casals

        • “Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.” —Bertrand Russell

        • “Born in iniquity and conceived in sin, the spirit of nationalism has never ceased to bend human institutions to the service of dissension and distress.” —Thorstein Veblen

        • “American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.” —James Baldwin

        • “When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish.” —Lao Tzu

        • “Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.” —Oscar Wilde

Hymn of intercession. “What makes a gringo your smart aleck lingo / When he stole this land from the Indian way back when / Don't he remember the big money lender / That put him a lincoln parked where his pinto had been / The almighty peso that gives him the say so / To dry up the river whenever there's crops to bring in / Such a good neighbor to take all his labor / Chase him back over the border till he's needed again.” —Merle Haggard, “The Immigrant”

¶ “Every year the major networks compete on this evening for viewers tuned in for the liturgical assurance of patriotic songs, “bombs bursting in air,” celebrity cameos, and the inevitable heroizing of troops. The latter urge is understandable, given the agonizing affect of hundreds of veteran suicides every month." —continue reading “This Land Is Your Land: Independence Day in light of Woody Guthrie’s enduring question about to whom the land belongs”

¶ “The devil lies to the kings and gets them blind drunk on his wine of Patriotism and they fill their subjects with the same stuff and tell them that their fatherland is in danger and they must fight to protest it. That is a lie of the Devil.

        “The highest type of patriotism is to refuse to fight with carnal weapons and stand by Him who taught us to love our enemies and put up the sword.

        “O Reader, don't let the devil fool you on this false notion of patriotism. . . . Will we, followers of the Prince of Peace, dedicate our bodies to the god of war to murder or butcher our fellow man? God forbid!” —W.S. Craig, writing in the “Repairer” publication, April 1918, rooted in the Free Methodist tradition

Offertory. “Unforgettable,” Bill Waltrous (RIP – 1938-2018).

Preach it. “When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion—its message becomes meaningless.” —Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Can’t makes this sh*t up. “. . . we have the right and obligation to protect what others have fought and died for.” —letter to the editor, Asheville Citizen-Times, of a motorcyclist rejecting calls for stricter enforcement of vehicular noise regulations

Call to the table. “Lovers of the world unite / Bound to Creator’s vision, bright / That even these, our darkest nights / Become the light, become the light." —Alana Levondoski, “Hope Beyond All Hope”

The state of our disunion, from the world of gazillionaire athletes. Superstar basketball player LeBron James left a $35.6 million contract offer from Cleveland on the table; and then, a few days later, signed a new one with the Los Angeles Lakers for $38.5 million per year. Let’s do the math.
        The National Basketball Association regular season schedule is 82 games per year. So, LeBron’s salary comes to a wee bit over $1,878,000.00 per game (a bit less per game if they reach the playoffs).

Best one-liner. “Nobel Prize now a near-certainty for Trump after he does the impossible: Unites Canada.” —Paul Duncan (Thanks Linda—and a belated happy Canada Day to friends north of the 49th.)

For the beauty of the earth. Time-lapse video (1:15) of cactus blooms unfolding. (Thanks Lori.)

Altar call. “I want our nation to listen to a poet who dares to unchoke love from bellowing patriotism. One who will resuscitate the word with the sharp rib-cracking pressure of truth, so that the gasp of the future may rush into our lungs, that we might breathe together and survive our broken hearts.” —Rivera Sun, “Sing the Body Politic, Electric,” CommonDreams

Benediction. “Tend your sick ones, O God. Rest your weary ones. Bless your dying ones. Soothe your suffering ones. Embrace your afflicted ones. Shield your joyous ones. Grace your shamed ones. May the love that abides and never dies stay secure in us, around us, and beyond us, forever and ever. Amen.” —continue reading “Call to prayer and pastoral prayer,” Nancy Hastings Sehested (adapting a prayer from St. Augustine)

Recessional. “From the north to the south / from the west to the east / hear the prayer of the mothers / bring them peace / bring them peace.” —Yael Deckelbaum & Prayer of the Mothers, “This Land” (English translation of Hebrew and Egyptian Arabic lyrics), a 14-member ensemble of Jewish, Arab and Christian women

Lectionary for this Sunday. “Good pleasure,” a litany for worship inspired by Ephesians 1:3-14

Lectionary for Sunday next. “Strangers we were,” a litany for worship inspired by Ephesians 2:11-22

Just for fun. The Sunday when Bart Simpson switched the hymn. (1:23 video. Thanks Sally.)

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Of Thee I Sing: An Independence Day meditation”

• “Good pleasure,” a litany for worship inspired by Ephesians 1:3-14

• “Strangers we were,” a litany for worship inspired by Ephesians 2:11-22

• “Call to prayer and pastoral prayer,” Nancy Hastings Sehested

 
Other features

• “The cost of freedom entails moral accountability: The need for truthtelling about the CIA’s torturing practices”

• “Speak peace to the hungered of heart,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 85

• “Colin Kaepernick, national anthems, and flag-flown piety: Commentary on what is and is not sacred”

• “This Land Is Your Land: Independence Day in light of Woody Guthrie’s enduring question about to whom the land belongs”

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