America the Beautiful? Yes

America the Beautiful? Yes

One mild October evening in 2001, my ABC News pals Kayce and Peter Jennings hosted a party in their elegant New York apartment to celebrate the book I’d just published, a history of the song, “America the Beautiful,” whose stirring message captures this country’s spirit far beyond the natural splendor of its opening lines.   The timing was surreal.  As I revealed the back story of “amber waves of grain” (think Kansas wheat fields) and shared the…

Hymn Guide: America the Beautiful

"America the Beautiful" is one of our popular patriotic hymns. But in the church, this hymn is a victim of its own success.