The American Civil War was the deadliest conflict in the nation’s history. 

Over half a million people died, both soldiers and civilians. All from a conflict inextricably linked to the topic of freedom.

The southern States broke away and formed the Confederacy as a show of protest against the growing strength of the federal government. The catalyst of this separation was the fear that the president would bring an end to the institution of slavery upon which much of the culture and economy of the South was built. 

And so the fighting began.

It was during this time that the poet Julia Ward Howe wrote the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, an anthem for the Union cause to win the war and end slavery. What strikes me most about this is its liberal use of biblical imagery. 

Filled to the brim with references to Scripture and the Gospel, the message of the song comes home to roost in this line of the last verse…

As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,

Over a century later, there lived another American songwriter, one many of us are familiar with, Bob Dylan. 

Dylan grew up in a United States devoid of slavery (though not the racism that came with it) and, in 1979, released an album called Slow Train Coming. On this album, he has a song that, at first glance, seems completely antithetical to “Battle Hymn of the Republic”...

But you’re going to have to serve somebody, yes indeed

You’re going to have to serve somebody.

In the West, we see freedom as the ability to do whatever we want, whenever we want. But that simply wasn’t how the writers of the Bible saw it. To them, freedom was the ability to live the Way of Jesus and, thus, in alignment with life’s truest potential.

I believe both these gifted songwriters speak to that tension.

Dylan makes the point that humans are prone to building their lives around something- that we are never “free agents” through and through. This harkens back to what we spoke about in the fourth part of this series.

To Dylan, it isn’t a question of whether or not we will live under something, but what we will live under.

He is not so different from the Apostle Paul who saw true freedom as service to the highest possible good- God Himself.  Such a freedom manifested in self-sacrificial love and in a life based around Jesus.

And that seems to crop up in Julia Ward Howe’s famous line as well.

It was only because “He died to make men holy” that the Union soldiers could “die to make men free”. These soldiers brought a much-needed physical freedom to African Americans, the model for which was set by Christ on the Cross who made spiritual freedom available to all.

Such a declaration exposes all that is wrong with the post-Enlightenment take on freedom.

After all, the Cross is the greatest sign of freedom there is. Where self-sacrificial love conquered corrupt power and desire. Where an example was set for us to live not for the temporal but for the eternal. To live not out of love for self but love for God and others.

That is the truest liberation of all.

And isn’t that why we, as a Church, are here? To show that love and freedom to those around us? To invite them into it?

Or as the non-wartime version of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” puts it: As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free,

Yes, His truth is marching on.

Video of the Day

Everyday we will include the short of the day, related to the topic of the newsletter. Today: Battle Hymn of the Republic