Published: November 03, 2009 10:30 pm      

John Cannon: Musings about faith and the national anthem: 11/4/09

As my duties here at The Independent change as a result of the new realities of the newspaper industry, I find myself spending far less time at my desk in the proverbial “ivory tower” and far more time in the real world. In short, I spend as much — if not more time — being a reporter as I do being a columnist, an editorial writer and an editor.

On Monday, I covered two events as a reporter, and I hope readers could not detect my opinion on what was said at the events in the stories I wrote for Tuesday’s newspaper. However, now that my job as a reporter for those events has ended, I use this space to share two personal opinions drawn from those events.

At Monday night’s “Keeping the Faith in the Public Schools” gathering at Ashland Community and Technical College, one comment by Eric Beuhrer, founder and president of Gateways to Better Education, sticks out.

Teachers should actively encourage their students to live their faith in the classroom, even if their faith is not Christianity, Beuhrer said, adding that Christian parents should encourage their children to live their faith in school and everywhere else they go.

My comment: We should all live our faith at home, at work and wherever else we go. To me, living one’s faith is another way of saying we should “practice what we preach” or “walk the talk.”

There has been a court battle raging in this country about displaying the Ten Commandments in public school and in government buildings. My own view is that we should spend a lot more effort trying to live the Ten Commandments and a lot less time trying to tack them on a wall where they are unlikely to be read by 99.9 percent of the people who walk past them each day.

It will do little good to post the Ten Commandments on a wall if students regularly hear the Lord’s name taken in vain by coaches and teachers, know of teachers who have broken their marriage vows and see those in authority lie and cheat to get their way. In short, if you are not living your faith, it doesn’t do any good to tack that faith on a wall.

I write this not to be holier than thou. The Lord knows all too well that I fall far short of what God expects of me, but I hope that people do see in me someone who is at least striving to live a life that is holy.

Of course, one problem with encouraging students to live their faith is that too many of today’s young people lack a faith by which to live. But that’s another issue. If those of us who have faith live that faith, the world would be a lot better off than it is.

End of sermon.

Nine hours before listening to Eric Buehrer’s talk, I heard Marine Sgt. Tim Lee give an inspirational speech at Boyd County High School, but Lee’s talk was not what impressed me most at the assembly. Instead, it was Navy JROTC Cadet Ashlee Stewart’s rendition of the national anthem. In my humble, unprofessional opinion, it was superb.

Regular readers know that I do not think the “Star-Spangled Banner” should be our national anthem. In fact, one of my “hopeless causes” — good ideas that have little or no chance of ever being adopted — is to replace the “Star-Spangled Banner” with “America, the Beautiful” as our national anthem.

“America, the Beautiful” is a lot more descriptive of the nation I love than a song about a battle during the War of 1812 and in which the only verse most Americans know ends in a question: “Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

I don’t know, does it?

I also think our national anthem should have an original tune, not one taken from another song.

But most of all, I think our national anthem should be a song ordinary Americans can sing, and few Americans have the ability to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” well. I have heard too many terrible renditions of the song.

However, Ashlee — who I do not know — did a great job singing the national anthem on Monday, and it’s because she didn’t try to overdo it or sing it like it has never been sung before. She sang it the way it is written, and it was great.

I still don’t like the “Star-Spangled Banner,” but I’d listen to Ashlee sing it any time. In fact, I think her rendition may have been the highlight of a very good day for me.

JOHN CANNON can be reached at jcannon@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2649.