Goshen anthem issue a case for freedom

Earlier this month, Goshen College “banned” “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Again.

The East Allen County Schools did the same to the Marine Corps uniform.

Now, just this week, NBC edited “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance during its coverage of a golf tournament.

Who says there's not a vast left-wing conspiracy trying to destroy the very things that have made this country great?

Well, I do – maybe. And so does Goshen College Director of Public Relations Richard Aguirre, who said the school's recent national anthem decision has not only been misconstrued but has generated the kind of unintentionally humorous irony that should cause people on both the left and right to exchange their moral or patriotic preening for some good old-fashioned American common sense.

Some of the responses were like, “We're the freest country on Earth. You must do the anthem,” said Aguirre, insisting that the 1,000-student school about 50 miles northwest of Fort Wayne wasn't really banning the anthem at all when it decided to restore a tradition rooted in its Mennonite origins: the desire to seek peace over conflict.

The anthem – supposedly a symbol of unity and common purpose – had indeed been a source of friction since at least 2008, when a visitor to a Goshen basketball game expressed disappointment at the absence of a ritual that had not been part of the school's tradition since its founding in 1894. Conservative talk radio and other media soon got hold of the story, and the college, which had been reviewing the issue even before it gained national attention, began to play an instrumental version of the song before some athletic events last year. That decision was rescinded in June after a year-long “listen and learn” exercise found that diverse feelings toward the anthem “compromised the college's ability to advance (its) vision together.”

Some people, as has been widely reported, did object to some of the more militaristic aspects of the anthem's lyrics, which Francis Scott Key wrote during the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812. Others had no objection to the anthem, while still others believed its use inappropriately elevated America above other nations, or even God himself.

As for “banning” the anthem or patriotism, Aguirre said, that just isn't so. Nobody would be disciplined for singing it, and the Stars and Stripes hangs prominently from a pole just outside the student union – right next to the United Nations flag.

Now, you and I may not be quite as idealistic (or perhaps naïve), but we should at least be open-minded enough to respect the Mennonite tradition, which dates back to 1525 and embraces not only the belief that the Bible forbids the use of force but also the Reformation principle that the church and state should be separate, with a Christian's primary allegiance to God. In the name of “diversity,” too many once-unique institutions – especially religious institutions – have been willing to compromise their principles, becoming blandly homogenous in the process.

You can still find plenty of colleges where the anthem is played – usually in front of people who don't sing it, place their hands over their hearts, remove their hats or pay attention.

I have considerably less respect for supposed peace advocates – let's hope it's a minority in Goshen's case – who claim some sort of moral superiority in opposing conflict in all its forms. Peace at any cost is just another form of tyranny, and while war can represent the height of immorality, it can also be argued that this country's military has saved far more lives than all of history's pacifists combined. People who disagree should at least be willing to admit that their ability to do so was won not only by people willing to die for their freedom, but also willing to kill for it when necessary.

True American freedom seeks to compel neither faith nor patriotism, giving individuals and groups alike wide latitude when determining the proper place of both. So give Goshen College credit for sticking to its proverbial guns, and the East Allen County Schools too, for insisting that Leo High School senior Kylee Furnish wear a cap and gown, not her Marine dress blues, to the commencement ceremony. A Marine, of all people, should know the value of esprit de corps, of following legitimate orders and of wearing a uniform appropriate to the occasion.

As for NBC, it apologized for its selective editing of the pledge but insisted it never intended to upset anyone.

Godless commies.