America, 2018:

Make Worship Patriotic Again? The Top 10 Songs for Fourth of July Services

At Sunday services this weekend, churches across the country will direct congregants to flip to the section of classic patriotic songs in their hymnals or display lyrics to more recent nation-centric tunes like Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” Chris Tomlin’s “America,” or even “Make America Great Again,” a song composed at First Baptist Church of Dallas using President Trump’s famous slogan.

Despite ongoing concerns over conflating worship of God with worship of country, the majority of churches in the United States mark the Fourth of July in song—a tradition that in some places goes back to the years surrounding America’s first Independence Day.

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So much concern…

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Most Americans—especially evangelicals—continue to believe, as many of the songs imply, that America has a special relationship with God.

While a majority of Protestant pastors (61%) believe it’s important to celebrate the country around July 4, they also recognize the tensions at hand. A 2016 LifeWay survey found that a little over half say their congregation sometimes seems to love America more than God.