Chavez himself had a devout side to him.
Maybe he wouldn't approve.

is based on an old English drinking song.

How is this any different?

And I am not a fan of America the Beautiful.

My point is that this is no more offensive than injecting the name of someone's god into a song associated with unbridled merriment.

It's a two-way street.

my point.

I find it offensive that someone took a perfectly good party song and sullied it with phrases like, "God shed his grace on thee."

Looks like we have something in common.

I don't care for it either.

Perhaps you didn't know what group you were posting in.

I'm here trying to learn, and perhaps educate.

A safe haven that provides opportunities for people of all faiths, spiritual leanings and non-belief to discuss religious topics and events in a positive and civil manner, with an emphasis on tolerance. Criticisms of individual beliefs or non-belief, or debates about the existence of higher power(s) are not appropriate in this group.

How does pointing out that secular elements of a culture are just as prone to conscription by the religious as the other way around violate this charter?

And again I ask you: Are you the discussion police? I realize you have a hard time making up your mind about certain things, but surely you know whether or not you possess the credentials.

Is not going to go down well in the Interfaith group. This group was set up specifically as

He's one of our hosts

Not America the Beautiful. SSB's tune was originally for the popular British song To Anacreon in Heaven. One of the silliest things I ever read was a man saying that SSB was originally a military march: The problem with that is it's in 3/4 time, so were the troops supposed to waltz into battle?

I have always believed that America the Beautiful should be the American national anthem, not the impossible to sing (it has a range of over an octave) SSB. The official state song of Georgia is Georgia on My Mind, specifically as sung by Ray Charles. Here is Ray Charles singing America the Beautiful

It's not particularly religious (God is prominent in the fourth verse but who sings it that far?). So I can see why he switched it around.

Bryant

The situation is different because the national anthem adapted only the tune, not the words, of the drinking song.

Reuters in Caracas

Venezuela’s Roman Catholic church has admonished the ruling Socialist party for rewriting the Lord’s Prayer into an ode to its beloved late leader Hugo Chávez.

“The Lord’s Prayer, the typical prayer for Christians around the world, comes from the very lips of our Lord Jesus Christ … and is therefore untouchable,” the local Catholic church said in a statement.

A party member introduced the prayer on the podium of the party congress on Monday, imploring Chávez for protection from the evils of capitalism.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/05/lords-prayer-to-hugo-chavez-angers-catholic-church-in-venezuela