“others argue that the message of the lyrics and the history of the song is not divisive.”
It’s in many/most Baptist hymnals; it’s in ours. It wasn’t meant to be divisive; just the opposite. It’s a celebration:
“It speaks joyfully about the hope and resilience of Black people transcending the enslavement and discrimination of the past and CELEBRATING FREEDOM.”
The left has co-opted the hymn in a way that would make the brothers who wrote it spin in their graves.
“It wasn’t meant to be divisive; just the opposite. It’s a celebration:”
It is a patriotic Christian hymn.
It is not a bad song, but I hesitate to call it a hymn. There is no mention of God until the last verse. When it does invoke God, it is mostly to celebrate and preserve what they have, and not as much about salvation and Heaven. I would guess the writer was much more secular in his outlook than religious.
That is the problem. That it had been appropriated by the Left. It isn’t the song, how it sounds, or what is in it.
It is that the execrable people and organizations who have appropriated it are heavily steeped in racial grievance, and have appropriated it for a reason. Too many people are saying “Oh, it is a hymn” or “Oh, it doesn’t say anything bad” are missing the point completely, and often, intentionally. After all, the Rainbow was once a symbol of something beautiful, a covenant with God, and visually, they are beautiful. But look at what it stands for now.
Just imagine, for a minute, if “America The Beautiful” was adopted as that anthem of some white nationalist movement (which would be the white analogy of Black Lives Matter).
See just how fast “America The Beautiful” would be removed from everywhere, all at once.
It’s a nice song’ but it’s NOT the anthem which describes the beginning of our Nation. We had to fight for the beginning of or nation against all odds. Because of it, we developed a Constitution promising freedom, and justice for ALL.
Anyone who has a problem with that can take a boat to whichever nation on earth that more closely represents their political sentiments. Which is exactly what our founders, the Pilgrims, did in coming here in the first place.