O Beautiful for Diversity

We usually sing, “O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears! America!  America! God mend thine every flaw, confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law.”  But it seems to me, after watching two very different  funeral services, that of Aretha Franklin and John McCain, on TV this weekend that a new verse needs to be added.  It might go something like this:  O beautiful for diversity that makes us more than who we are, makes us better, one people, one nation!  America!  America!  God help us grow “Wholly Holy” until we become the dream we dream.  I’m not much of a lyricist, but I hope you get the idea.  

Aretha’s funeral was held at Greater Grace Temple in Detroit in the black tradition.  Her father, C. L. Franklin, was highly respected pastor and a leader in the civil rights movement.  John McCain’s funeral was held in the nation’s capital at the National Cathedral in Anglican fashion.  His father and his grandfather were four-star admirals in the United States Navy.  Aretha was “The Queen of Soul” and John McCain was a Senator and a GOP nominee for the office of president of the United States.  Both were always “Climbing Higher Mountains.”

 “Aretha was,” as Jesse Jackson eulogized her, “born in a shack in Memphis (225 blacks were lynched in Tennessee the year she was born, he added). She was born in the midst of oppression.  No one was saying Black Lives Matter then.”    John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, and lived most of his growing up years on military installations, went to private schools, attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis.  Two completely different backgrounds, two completely different lifestyles, two totally different cultures, two different expressions of Christian  faith—but both Americans who dreamed a dream.

I was deeply moved by both services and those who shared a word, a song, a thought—from the Reverend Jackson to Joe Biden, from Stevie Wonder to Henry Kissinger, from Barack Obama to Jennifer Hudson singing “Amazing Grace,” from George W. Bush to Chaka Khan singing “I’m Going Up Yonder,” which had Congresswoman Maxine Waters dancing in the aisle, from Bill Clinton to Meghan McCain.  Diversity is what makes America beautiful.  But it is not “lived into” easily, as both Aretha Franklin and John McCain’s pilgrimages demonstrate.  But it is diversity that makes us beautiful—if only we have eyes to see.

Pastor William J. Barber II said, “Before Obama said, ‘Yes, we can,’ Aretha sang, ‘We conquer hate forever, yes, we can,” alluding to her song “Wholly Holy.”  It seems to me Henry Kissinger said the same, “None of us will ever forget how even in his parting John has bestowed on us a much needed moment of unity and renewed faith in the possibilities of America.  Henceforth, the country’s honor is ours to sustain.”  Will we?  Can we?  Yes, we can!