Slice of Americana
I happened on this video, Garrison Keillor at the Washington National Cathedral. I’ve got mixed emotions with the way the editor mixed religion with America the Beautiful. How about you?
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Hmmm. GK mixes religion into the pot of the American experience, along with all the other ingredients of patriotism, raising our children, loving and losing love, etc. etc. Religion isn’t what we are exclusively, but it is part of what we are. It has a place. I thought his choice of America the Beautiful represented the middle ground between the militant hymn ”A Mighty Fortress” and the equally militant ”Star Spangled Banner” It was a poetic choice because, as he said, it’s poetry that saves us.
I’m a big Keillor fan, but there seems to be something wrong with the way he introduced the song in the National Cathedral. Public displays of patriotism are great - but in a church? I’m pretty sure we still have the law protecting separation of church and state. It’s not our tradition any more, but still the law.
The law provides the divide between church and state, so it an elected official did it we’d have a problem. Keillor, however is an entertainer who represents neither of those, but a fictional nostalgia that seems to resonate with a sizable portion of the population. Dare I say that this fictional nostalgia is part of the American mythos?
Hmm…. Nostalgia for an American mythos? Maybe - still makes me nervous
I’m struck at how Keillor’s tried-and-true populism makes Sarah Palin’s folksiness look just plain faux. I find the rendition of the song itself to be both touching and awkward.
I think the larger issue here is that many people have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the ties between religion and politics that have existed in this country since its inception. As this admixture happens during the art of storytelling in this case I think its fair game (even inside the National Cathedral). However, when it comes to actual laws and governance, separation of church and state is paramount in my mind.