I had a reader e-mail me (info@roberthittneill.com) with a suggestion that I write about the Flag for a Fofa July column.  

Good idea, but I’ve done that a lot of times over the two dozen years I’ve been writing this weekly syndicated column, not only the American Flag and its history, symbolism, and meaning to me and my generation, but also several columns about the Confederate Battle Flag (which is not called “The Stars and Bars”) that my ancestors fought under, and which I fought under, in a manner of speaking, because that was the Ole Miss Rebel Flag away back when I played football there and Ole Miss boasted the Number One Team in America.   

Betsy was a Rebelette and Top Six Beauty at Ole Miss too, so she marched into Battle (and believe you me, even the Rebelettes and Cheerleaders were under fire when we played at LSU or Little Rock or Knoxville!) under that Rebel Flag.  

Yet I agreed with my reader that the American Flag was the mainmost emphasis for this Fofa July holiday. Rightfully so.

Yet you know what also struck me, when I got to cogitating? Most of you know that I lead the music at my church, Calvary Baptist in Greenville, and as the Music Director, it’s my responsibility to put together the Sunday programs, with the order of songs for each service.

I wasn’t a Bred-in-the-Bone Baptist, nor was Betsy, as readers of my latest book, THE HOLY GHOST HAS A FUNNY BONE, will know. Big Robert was a Presbyterian and Miz Janice was an Episcopalian, so I divided time betwixt those two denominations growing up. Betsy’s Momma was Methodist and her Daddy was Catholic.

We visited around a lot after I came home from the Navy (where Chaplains are essentially non-denominational) and eventually ended up becoming Baptists.  

Here’s the point: with all that denominational experience, we learned that most of the hymnbooks don’t contain the same songs except for twice a year: the familiar Christmas Carols in winter, and the same selection of patriotic songs in summer, for Memorial Day and the Fofa July. A judicious Music Minister can also slip some of those latter songs in for Labor Day, Veterans Day, and even for Thanksgiving, if he’s sly about it.

Personally, I think it’s great that our hymnbook putters-togetherers included those tunes: “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” or “America the Beautiful,” and I even found all four verses of “The Star Spangled Banner” in one, for our Choir Special.  

Some hymnbooks Down Heah in modern times even have “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” but my grandmother Ma’am would roll over in her grave if she knew that a preacher had once talked me into singing that’un in church. Truth be known, it does have a wonderful bass line, and Ed Loudon & I once snuck behind the bleachers of a different choir that was doing “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah” for some occasion, and we added our voices on the bottom end of the SATB version.

When one looks at the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, or walks around our nation’s Capitol, there are all manner of references to God, put there by our forebears, who wanted the world to know exactly where their faith was as they formed and built this new land, America.  

Nowadays the folks who consider themselves smarter than the rest of us sort of sneer at references to the Almighty, and even have taken out “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance in some instances. Down Heah, most of us know where they’re headed with that not-so-subtle rearranging, and we cringe at what’s going to become of us as we push God further and further out of our dealings with government, schools, armed services, and court systems.

Sing it, Americans! Let those old patriotic tunes ring out!

“God Bless America” will be booming forth from most of the churches in our nation this weekend (as I write this), and there are modern tunes which express the same sentiments, that we’ll be singing, as well:
“I’m Proud to Be an American!”