Spirit of Americanism
Easter, the holiest day on the Christian calendar, marking the resurrection of Jesus, will be celebrated in hues of red, white and blue this year at the annual Hollywood Bowl Easter sunrise service.
From a processional entry of Boy Scouts and Los Angeles Police Department Emerald Society Pipers playing “America the Beautiful” to a military color guard and an invocation by an Air Force Reserve chaplain, this year’s service will mix faith and patriotism as war with Iraq winds down.
The service will be broadcast in full on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service for the first time in 13 years.
The program is reminiscent of Easter observances at the bowl during World War II, when uniformed men and women were incorporated into the service, and clergy laced declarations of Jesus’ “victory over the cross” with allusions to a sure and certain victory of the Allies over Germany, Italy and Japan.
“There’s a spirit of Americanism no matter where you go. It’s so strong. Everyone is just happy we’re doing the service the way we are this year,” said Norma Foster, president of Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service Inc.
“I think they would have felt a little amiss if we didn’t feel a little strongly about recognizing the whole spirit of Americans and America the beautiful, and what we’re all standing for right now.”
Patriotism just seemed to go hand and hand this year with a national sense of unity in the face of war, said Foster and other promoters of the 81st sunrise service.
Others find the mix more troubling, including the minister who will deliver the sermon at the bowl this year.
“I saw it as problematical,” said the Rev. Richard R. Kurrasch, interim senior minister at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles.
Kurrasch personally opposed the Iraq war but had committed to be the keynote preacher before the war started.
While he had doubts about the program when he found out about it, he said, “I felt it was an honor, and I still do.”
The blend of religion and patriotism has been a recurrent theme in American history, creating a tension within religion on how to navigate the demands of the secular and sacred, Kurrasch said.
“This falls under the rubric of civil religion,” he said. “The church is always called into tension with the society and culture within which it exists. That’s a dimension of discipleship.
“But we see what happens when that tension disappears. An example is what happened in Nazi Germany,” he said, referring to the failure of churches to forthrightly speak out against the German government’s policies.
“The question is not should we mix politics and religion -- politics and religion are already intertwined with each other -- but how does one inform the other to achieve ends?”
Others are more blunt in objecting to what they see as wrapping the flag around the cross.
“Any time religion sacralizes the profane, we are involved in acts of idolatry,” said Donald Miller, an Episcopalian and director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at USC.
“While individuals certainly have the right to express their political opinions, they also better be able to justify their use of Scripture or their use of tradition if they’re going to drape the cross with the flag in the Easter context.
“There’s something of a sacrilege by engaging in this kind of activity.”
Foster said peace themes also are included in this year’s service, including the reading of a peace message from Pope John Paul II, the singing of “Let There Be Peace on Earth” by soprano Li Zhang, the Chinese opera star, and the ceremonial release of the white birds of peace. This year’s theme is “Peace on Earth.”
The program this year has more patriotism than usual, Foster said.
But she noted that some patriotic elements are always present.
The Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service bylaws, for example, require “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” to be sung every year, along with such familiar hymns as “Holy, Holy, Holy” and George Frederic Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus.
The use of color guards, the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of “America the Beautiful” have been spotty. There were no color guards in 1991 and 1992 and from 1998 to 2000, Foster said. The Pledge of Allegiance has been omitted on two occasions since 1987. Singing “America the Beautiful” is new.
Foster said the Salvation Army International Staff Songsters from England also will sing. She quickly added that their selection, which was made before the war in Iraq, had nothing to do with Great Britain’s participation in President Bush’s “coalition of the willing.”
During World War II, patriotic themes were woven through the service. In 1945, for example, women in the Army, Navy and Marines presented the colors as 50 cadet nurses stood in the background.
The preacher that year, the Rev. Cleveland Kleihauer of Hollywood-Beverly Christian Church, said, “If Hitler had read more history, he would have discovered how definitely the cards of right and truth were stacked against him.”
In 1942, just four months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, only 5,000 people were allowed to enter the bowl because the Army would not permit larger gatherings so near the coastline.
Those present heard the Rev. J. George Dorn of Hollywood Lutheran Church connect the Easter story with a belief that the U.S. would triumph.
“Building a new and better world from the wreckage of the present conflict will be no easy task,” he said that year.
“Yet life comes out of death. Victory rises from the ashes of defeat. This standing miracle in a skeptical world proclaims that God still is in heaven, in spite of bedlam on Earth. He lives and rules, and no power that evil men can muster can take away the glory and victory of Easter.”
Foster said 10,000 to 15,000 people are expected to attend this year’s service, which will begin at 5:30 a.m. and is free. She advised those who plan to attend to be seated by 5:15 a.m.