By Rev. Coleman S. Glenn
As we were singing the national anthem on the 4th of July, I was struck by the fact that its entire first verse is an extended question. It’s easy to miss this because of the way it is structured, but here is a re-arranged prose paraphrase:
“Tell me - can you see in this morning’s first light the thing we hailed in the last light of sunset last night? The thing whose broad stripes and bright stars streamed throughout the perilous fight so gallantly over the ramparts we were watching? Overnight, the light of red rockets and bursting bombs proved that our flag was still there; but tell me, is that star-spangled banner still waving over the land of the free and the home of the brave?”
The question is answered affirmatively in the second verse of the anthem, but we rarely sing that verse, and so we’re left with a question. And I think that is powerful - every time we sing the anthem, we challenge ourselves with the question of whether we are living up to our ideals.
The Writings for the New Church speak to the power of asking questions. Conjugial Love 183 quotes angels who declare that “although a perception of something does indeed flow in when gained solely from listening, still it does not remain unless the listener also thinks about it for himself and asks questions regarding it.” We do not really absorb something unless we ask questions about it, explore it for ourselves.
This is one of the reasons why the Lord wants us to ask things of Him, even though he already knows what we need: “It is common in all Divine worship for a person to first wish, desire, and pray, and for the Lord then to reply, instruct, and effect. A person does not otherwise accept anything Divine.” (Apocalypse Revealed 376)
The freedom to speak and write freely includes the freedom to ask questions, even difficult ones. This in turn allows people to explore ideas, to come to new conclusions, to rise above previously held notions. True Christian Religion 814 says of nations that lack freedom of speech and the press, “When that freedom is restrained, freedom of thought, that is, the freedom to investigate matters to the furthest extent, is also kept in restraint.” In contrast, nations with this freedom are compared to “eagles which rise to whatever height they please”.
It seems fitting, then, that in this nation — founded as it is founded on principles of freedom — the anthem we sing is a question that we are continuously challenged to answer anew.