Calling all U.S. citizens, how will you celebrate the Fourth of July? We always have a full day: parade in the morning, home to cool off, and then the community get together and fireworks in the afternoon/evening. This year our church is handing out bottles of water for parade-goers and cards of encouragement to send to soldiers overseas at the parade. What will you be doing? How does your church family celebrate our nation’s founding? Should churches have patriotic music and special celebrations to mark the birthdate of our country? Or is this combination of patriotism and worship dishonoring to God?
As for me, I plan to attend a July 3rd Freedom Concert with (blast from the past) Dallas Holm at a local Methodist church. I remember Dallas Holm and Praise from way back when, and I would love to hear him sing Rise Again.
Some picture books for July 4th:
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Paul Revere’s Ride.Illustrated by Ted Rand. Dutton, 1990.
Dalgliesh, Alice.The 4th of July Story. Alladin, 1995. (reprint edition)
Spier, Peter. The Star-Spangled Banner. Dragonfly Books, 1992.
Bates, Katharine Lee. America the Beautiful. Illustrated by Neil Waldman. Atheneum, 1993.
Devlin, Wende. Cranberry Summer.
Also on July 4th:
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born July 4, 1804. Advice from Nathaniel Hawthorne on Blogging.
Stephen Foster was born on July 4, 1826. The PBS series American Experience has an episode on the life of Stephen Foster, author of songs such as Beautiful Dreamer and Oh! Susanna.
Calvin Coolidge was born on July 4, 1872.
The poem “America the Beautiful” by Katharine Lee Bates was first published on July 4, 1895.
On July 4, 1970 Casey Kasem hosted “American Top 40” on radio for the first time. I cannot tell a lie; in high school I spent every Sunday afternoon listening to Casey Kasem count down the Top 40.
James M. Kushner at Mere Comments recommends David McCullough’s book 1776 for Fourth of July reading. I haven’t read it yet, but I’ll probably add it to The List. I plan a six month update on The List very soon, for those who are interested.
Last but not least, via Ivy’s Coloring Page Search Engine, I found this page of free coloring sheets for the 4th of July. We liked the fireworks page.
Go celebrate with your own fireworks–or watch some—or something. Happy Independence Day!
L had to chuckle a little at your comment about whether or not I thought churches overstep their boundaries in using patriotic music in their worship services. I guess there has to be guidelines to follow everywhere about the appropriateness of when and where certain types of music should be allowed, but if our church HADN’T included a few of the “traditional” patriotic songs in our hour of worship today, many of us would have thought something was surely amiss!
I am writing this on Sunday, July 3, and I recall how my heart swelled with pride when we held our hands over our hearts, as our small congregation of little more than about 95 members, faced the beautiful Americam flag, and sang the Star-Spangled Banner! Some sang in their croaking, raspy voices and others in clear, melodic ones, but their was no doubt in my mind that each person knew what the words meant!
And I’d like to add that the minister’s topic for his sermon was…to some…a controversial one. He had the audacity or the gumption (a Southern word for courage) to speak about those four small words on our dollar bill and engraved on our coins: the words “In God We Trust! I hope to never live to see the day that those words will no longer be there because of those who felt like it was not “politcally correct” to have them there!
What say you?