Un/Freedom Talk and Walk in Song: Music and US Civil Religio-Political Discourses and Praxis of Freedom

Anti-freedom and freedom movements are intrinsically intertwined, exemplified in current US political imaginaries and praxis that impede or empower freedom. In myriad ways, US civil religion perennially re/constructs an exclusionary or an inclusive worldview of “we, the people” in the US body politic. Music participates in US religio-political discourse and praxis about identity and envisions alternative possible futures. Music constitutes and signifies a sharp contrast between repressive and liberative notions of freedom, symbolized in current civil religiously-based authoritarian regimes and solidarity movements. Historically rooted in abolitionist, suffragist, and multiple subsequent social justice movements, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” played an unexpected prominent religio-political role in the 2025 US presidential inaugural event and counterinaugural protests. This paper analyzes and juxtaposes how this hymn was re-cited and re-construed in both President Trump’s inauguration and in the Women’s March-sponsored People’s March to advance either state-sponsored violence or intersectional visions of liberation, respectively.