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How Great Thou Art:
On the Birthdate of Phyllis Schlafly, I celebrate her favorite hymn.
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by Anne Schlafly Cori
Chairman, Eagle Forum
I recently had the privilege of joining in the beautiful service of worship and remembrance for our beloved fellow freedom fighter, Donna Hearne, who passed away earlier this summer.
As we gathered together, even at a distance, we sang some of Donna’s favorite hymns, such as Great is Thy Faithfulness, It is Well with My Soul, Because He Lives, and Hallelujah from Handel’s Messiah, I was overcome with precious memories of my mother and with an overwhelming sense that what our country needs more than ever is to congregate in person and in song to worship our Great God!
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Anne Schlafly Cori with her mother, Phyllis Schlafly, Christmas 2010.
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We, as fallible humans, often do not appreciate what is so important until it is taken from us. Was attending church and participating in worship only a rote obligation? We have been deprived of worship and fellowship for months. I will never again take our religious liberties for granted and I know I am not alone.
Over the past six months, government officials, Hollywood celebrities, and other cultural elites have told us that the quarantine measures were for the “greater good.”
This makes me question their understanding of the word “great.”
Quarantine measures have devastated our economy, kept us in isolation, and have imposed perverse priorities on Americans. Walmart and Target are “essential,” while smaller businesses that sell the same goods were deemed “non-essential” and, in some cases, were prohibited from doing business. Anyone who has been labeled by our government representatives as “non-essential” is devastated and it is demeaning to their work and their life. A free people can never allow a government to pick the winners and losers during this created crisis.
Destructive and violent riots are lauded as vital free speech and Tinder “hookups” during the pandemic are declared a judgment-free zone by high-level government advisors. Meanwhile, the courts affirmed the unconstitutional and overreaching decisions that shut down churches, who provide the vital fellowship and corporate worship.
It has never been more important than ever that we assemble ourselves together as scripture commands to worship our great God.
My mother, Phyllis Schlafly, had a unique understanding of the true Greatness of our God. She also understood that America is Great (even before President Trump popularized the slogan) precisely, and only, because we are a nation founded on principles found in the Holy Scriptures. Our nation is founded on the principles that all of us are created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This understanding fueled her passion to protect policies that support America’s unique identity as a nation whose God is the Lord.
That passion motivated my mother’s political activism, and it fueled her passion for worship, for extolling the Greatness of our holy God.
At church services in the 1970s, Phyllis Schlafly would belt out (and I mean BELT OUT) the lyrics of her favorite hymn, “How Great Thou Art”. She was the loudest voice in the church.
In this time of crisis, each and every one of us needs to be the loudest voice in the room.
As I think about my mother on her birthday, I invite all of you, throughout the country, who share her passion for our Great God, and for America, the Great nation His providence has afforded us, to join us in humbly asking for God’s Grace and healing on our land as we worship Him and acknowledge His greatness.
Now, belt it out like Phyllis!
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