Back before my conversion in my mid-teens, I used to think that the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” was a stupid song. I couldn’t understand what it was glorifying in the chorus, and I mistakenly thought that “in the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea” was as silly as the notion that Christ was crucified between two candles. I had no idea the hymn was simply evoking an image of far-away Holy Land flowers from the Sermon on the Mount.
As an adult, I came to realize that the “Battle Hymn” was a dead serious call to action, after a mishandled issue of justice left our nation with virtually no acceptable alternatives. Julia Ward Howe, the writer of the hymn, claimed that she had seen God “in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps,” where soldiers had built God an altar by showing up for battle. She writes that she can “read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps,” and that God was “searching out the hearts of men before His judgment seat.”
Indeed. But few could foresee the horrors of the war which lay ahead. Even Julia Ward Howe reportedly grew sick of the war in which she had seen God deeply involved. Yes, based on our refusal to take non-violent action to prevent it, it had to happen. But it was awful. Deity-awful.
It is understandable that the folks who have referred to the American Civil War as the “War of Northern Aggression” would be none too enthused about this hymn. Perhaps half of my blood ancestors might be included here, including the one who both fought for the Confederacy and impregnated his brother’s legally blind wife. (I’m sure he would see me as an accursed Yankee prig.) That’s why I am sometimes unsure whether to include this hymn in worship, unless I know the congregation well enough to know how they feel about it.
I think how today we seem to be edging closer to another bitter war, conducted at the moment (thankfully!) more by “lawfare” than by deadly weapons. How do we resolve the issues of truth and justice, before they spill over once again into literal bloodshed? I hope we can do better this time.
But as I listened once again recently to the heavy-metal band Stryper’s thunderous version of the hymn, however, I began to see at least the first verse and chorus of this hymn in terms of the great final judgment, the literal end-of-time return of Christ. “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword. His truth is marching on!”
Look out! Duck (if you can)!
God is on the march – a lot longer than the famous “Long March” of Chairman Mao. But God’s truth will prevail. It’s that Deity-awful mess in between that may cause us to wince. Yes, let God be glorified. Yes, let God be praised. Let us be faithful, without flinching. But let us hope that the cost will be not so frightful this time.
