Dear Bob, you appear to have had a genuine conversion — perhaps even a religious conversion to Christ. I say this hesitantly because I am totally unfamiliar with the religious language you use. But you do seem to confirm that much of American religiosity is at best sub-Christian, and your description of a July 4th “worship service” is distinctly non-Christian. Great fun, all good rousing stuff, I am sure; probably harmless — except that it distracts from God, his Son and the Holy Spirit. From the bottom left hand corner of Australia I send my heartfelt thanks and wish you well in your ministry.

I am not against a bit of patriotism at times, it helps to bind society together, provides a link with those of other faiths and none. But it should be kept in proportion and not taken too seriously. For myself I have a Welsh father and an English mother, and I have spent half my life in the UK and half in Australia. I can still get a bit dewy eyed on hearing a verse or two of “Hen Wlad fy nhadau”, the Welsh national anthem, and buy me a drink or two and I will give you a rousing chorus of “Sospan fach” — they remind me of my youth and both should be sung at Rugby football matches, or in a pub, not in church. Those, and another couple of songs, exhaust my Welsh vocabulary, and that is as far as patriotism should go.

Here in Australia we have the annual dawn service on Anzac Day, commemorating the Gallipoli landings of WW I. Bands and military parades indeed, and rousing patriotic speeches after the service, but at the service it is hymns and prayers that are recognisably Christian, and the service is led by clergy robed as clergy rather than as ‘seeker friendly’ entertainers. It is still too “patriotic” for me, but then I have too many memories of WW II. I thank God that Anzac Day is only once a year.

I always remember the aphorism of Samuel Johnson from the 18th cent.: “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scounrel!” I think it is probably true — there is a bit of a scoundrel in all of us. But the US of late seems to have cornered the world market in scoundrels with the Patriot Act. On a reasonable assumption, half the population approve of the Act — they are self-confessed scoundrels. The other half, who do not approve, accept that their opponents are scoundrels, and are in turn scoundrels themselves in the eyes of the Act’s supporters. So we have the USA made up of 100% scoundrels!!!

As for Christian worship, I go along with the Psalmist — ‘Be still and know that I am God!’ At the regular weekly Eucharist I seek communion with God,through the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit. All very unspectacular, done “decently and in order” as St Paul would have it. And although I know that I often do not attend to God, He never forgets me, and just occasionaly I am vouchsafed a glimpse of God — the hem of His garment, as He passes by, or His face reflected in the smile of a child, and I know that my true home is not here but the New Jerusalem.

God Bless,

John D Lewis