It is obvious to most who read the fourth verse of the Star Spangled Banner that its author was a devout Christian.
Francis Scott Key conducted family prayers, attended church regularly, was a lay reader and a vestryman – terms any Episcopalian can understand today.
Key attended the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1817. That was four years after his stirring composition that made him famous. Ironically he fervently opposed the War of 1812 and the invasion of Canada – a lawyer with a mind of his own.