I know that I am unusual in this, but I am tired of Americans asking God to “God Bless America”. Is this a command? Is this a wish?Whatever fortunate has happened to this country and its citizens --- I don’t believe it’s because America has a special place in God’s “heart”. After all, if we face reality, we have done many bad things as a nation: slavery, Mexican War, internment of Japanese Americans, causing a lack of freedom and more poverty in many Third World country by overthrowing or helping to overthrow democratically elected governments --- that our leaders felt would not be good for business or might interfere with these countries being dominated politically and economically by us: Chile, Palestine, Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Ecuador, and many others. Oh, I forgot Iraq. Of course, we always cloak our desire for power and control in lofty terms. Hypocritical? Definitely? Why doesn't the USA try to act with humility rather than hubris?
It is not good to think that we are very special to the deity. It makes us think that what we do as a nation is somehow guided by God. President Bush claims to pray to God everyday for guidance. I don’t believe he has a clear channel to the Almighty ---- and least I hope not ---based on the tremendous damage this President has done to the world, the planet, and to the moral fiber of this nation.
We are not the chosen people. The Jews are supposed to be God’s chosen people. At least that’s the impression some have gotten from the Bible. My opinion is that the Jews chose to worship a certain concept of The Absolute so, in reality, they chose “God”. Judging from their treatment of the Palestinians--- something has gone haywire.
I remember as a Catholic on certain occasions, the priest would move down the aisle sprinkling holy water on the faithful. One time -- it was more of a "drenching" that a sprinkling.
Let's not fool ourselves as citizens or as a nation that we "do God's will". Let's stop sprinkling or drenching ourselves with holy water. We may fool ourselves, but we don't fool other nations --- and we certainly don't fool God!
