An Anthem, by Goshen

Goshen College, a tiny (1000 student) liberal arts school has deep Mennonite traditions. It's ensconced in lush Amish and Mennonite country of north central Indiana. The Mennonites are a "peace church," with well-established pacifist ways.

One of Goshen College's enduring customs was not to play the national anthem, which they perceived as a war anthem, before college sporting events. As a NY Times article reports, they broke with that custom at a baseball game this week, though they followed an instrumental recording of the anthem with a prayer attributed to St. Francis.

Apparently the administration felt pressure to conform to cultural standards and bow toward a student body that, while still Christian, is decreasingly Mennonite. Perhaps the change was seen as preserving a fragile institution by making its ways less controversial.

In my estimation though prudent, playing the anthem without words still seems a kind of capitulation by Goshen College to public pressure at the sacrifice of values.

The playing of the "Star Spangled Banner" originated in 1918 in Chicago at a World Series Game. The country was at war and President Wilson had declared the SSB the "unofficial" anthem of the United States of America. When the series moved to Boston, the team's showman/owner ratcheted up the ante: at each game a large and enthusiastic band played the anthem.

The SSB didn't become the official anthem until 1931. The events around WWII, then of the Cold War led to a larger practice of playing the national anthem before all sports events.

Richard C. Crepeau, a scholar who has studied the relationship of the national anthem and sports, concludes, "In recent years, the national anthem has lost its patriotic air in most sports venues. It has become an occasion for entertainers to display their talents or lack thereof, fans to create new cheers, and the networks to run commercials. Its symbolic significance has been overshadowed by commercial purposes and public indifference, but it can still rattle the cages when someone uses it as an occasion for protest."

I've often wondered about the incongruous custom of the anthem opening sports events. And I've long suspected that the gestalt of spectator sports has religious significance with ritual, pageantry, patriotism, hero-worship and more to lift the spectator to a higher level of consciousness/being. In this regard the anthem reflects the amalgam of what is called Americanism, the melding of patriotism and religion.