Growing up in the “Lord’s Army”

How nationalism slipped into my theology one Sunday school song at a time

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We Called It Sunday School

Here’s the thing nobody told us: we weren’t just learning Bible stories between the juice boxes and crafts. We were getting our first lessons in what it means to be a Christian in America, and those lessons came wrapped in catchy tunes that would stick in our heads for decades.

I remember those Sunday mornings so clearly…the smell of coffee brewing in the church kitchen, the sound of little voices echoing down hallways lined with felt board Bible scenes, and always, always, the songs. We sang about Jesus loving the little children, sure, but we also learned other things. We learned that being a Christian meant being part of something bigger, something that required defending, something that had enemies lurking just outside our church doors.

Nobody sat us down and explained Christian nationalism as a theological concept (frankly, most of the adults probably couldn’t have defined it either). Instead, we absorbed it through repetition, through ritual, through the simple act of singing the same songs week after week until they became part of our spiritual DNA. And looking back now, I can see how those innocent Sunday school moments were actually forming us into a very particular kind of Christian…the kind who thinks following Jesus means picking up a sword instead of picking up a cross.

The Song That Started It All

“I may never march in the infantry, ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery, but I’m in the Lord’s Army—yes sir!”

Can you hear it? That bouncy, irresistible melody that had us stomping our feet and saluting like tiny soldiers? I must have sung that song hundreds of times, complete with all the motions…the marching, the galloping, the finger-guns pointed at invisible enemies. It was fun. It was energetic. It got us moving when we were getting restless during the longer parts of Sunday school.