Feb 28 2009
God Bless America?
We hear it constantly. It’s the subject of a song. Presidents end their speeches with it. Church leaders remind us to pray for those in power and for the country as a whole. May God Bless America. The words have become, well, just that.
Empty words.
The sentiment is nice; I don’t deny that. Just thinking of getting the stamp of approval of the “Big Guy” in the sky is pretty cool. The question is whether America deserves God’s blessing.
For purposes of this discussion, we will assume God does, in fact, exist. Why? Well, for one, the question is moot if God doesn’t exist. Then there’s the fact that I’m not in the mood for a bunch of discussion from both sides of the philosophical question by people who act far too superior to even hear what the other side is saying.
Oh, I guess we should probably also assume God cares about any of us. I mean, gods who don’t care probably can’t be bothered to hand out blessings.
So, let’s look at what we know:
- We kicked God out of our schools. Hmm…maybe He didn’t mind all that much. Have you been in a high school lately? I probably wouldn’t want to go back there.
- We kicked God out of our government. Sure, sure…public officials still pay Him some lip service every now and again, but any religious symbols have to be removed.
- We kicked God out of religion. No, not every church, of course. That would just be silly. But have you noticed - those of you who pay attention - that various religions seem to spend more time bickering amongst themselves about which interpretation of a certain verse is right than they do spreading His message?
- We kicked God out of our culture. I know, some of you are saying, “what culture” but that’s a different issue. Let’s face it, we’re a culture of consumers and God doesn’t sell very well. It’s been tried. It usually doesn’t work. And what do we do with something that we can’t sell? We replace it with something else; the next big thing.
- We kicked God out of our holidays. Ignore for a second that many of the so-called religious holidays have Pagan roots. If God exists - and we’re saying He does in this discussion - then He would pre-date everything so all roots would be of Him. But remember all those days that are supposed to be sacred times for prayer and reflection? Remember what Christmas and Easter are supposed to represent for the Christian faith? Yeah, we replaced God with Santa and the Easter Bunny. I don’t know if other faiths had their Holy days overrun by commercialism, so I can’t speak on them. Not without more research, anyway.
So, taking into account that we’ve basically removed God from every aspect of our society, I’ll ask again: Why should God bless America?
Your post is so true!! Scary stuff if you really think about it.
I’m sure God isn’t too happy up there.
I’m not sure how I feel about this one. I find the “God wanting to bless” assumption difficult to believe, depending on which face of God you are looking at. Old Testament God is probably all Zeus-like, thunderbolt in hand, ready to kill us and crap. Jesus is probably just weeping. There’s a Christian school out there (Liberty University) which doesn’t allow young men to wear long hair. Then they go to church on campus, and worship Jesus. Who, in most depictions, has long hair.
God has a right to be angry. Maybe not for our ignorance, but for our blatant disrespect of each other and our planet.
Slcolman - That’s why I write…so I don’t have to think about it.
Star - Maybe the new season of South Park starting next week will cheer him up?
Tara - I know. We could probably debate from now to eternity whether God wants to bless anyone so that’s why I went ahead and made it one of the assumptions.
Ah…have to love the hypocrisy of some of the Christian Universities. I’m with you 100% on the disrespect of each other and the planet. It’s a wonder we haven’t all be smited from existence by now.
It’s South Park that is saving us Jen. If it wasn’t for that, we probably would be gone.
Star - So true…”Boom, baby!”
David - I think you bring up some valid points. While the concept of “generic one God fits all” would not fly with several religions - in particular I’m thinking of Christians just because I know the most about them - I think it’s the only logical thing a country as diverse as ours can do. Of course, some might argue that the country was founded by a bunch of religious hypocrites, but…*shrugs*…I don’t have the energy for that can of worms tonight.
I think so many people twist the separation of church and state thing around that it’s lost its meaning. (Not saying you are, btw.) It was originally written as a way to keep the government from imposing a national religion on its subjects, yet it is often pointed to whenever someone wants to keep a public official from expressing their faith. Simply put, that’s wrong. To force someone into silence over their religious beliefs is as wrong as to impose one’s beliefs onto another.
Seriously, does it hurt anyone if an elected official takes their Bible or Koran to work? Does the country come to a grinding halt because someone in power proclaims they do not believe in God? Do we all lose our ability to choose what’s right for us when a Wiccan in government says, “What up? I believe in xyz.” ?? While I’m wholly against people in a position of authority *cough* Hollywood celebrities *cough* using their position as a platform for religious conversion, I still think they have the right to their faith.
Just my opinion though…