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You see the slogan everywhere: “God bless America.” It’s on bumper stickers, t-shirts, doormats, ugly wall-hangings, and any other sort of collectible/memorabilia you can imagine.
First of all, I want to qualify this all by saying, I don’t know anything I say about God for fact. What I’m about to say is my opinion, but I haven’t actually sat down and interviewed God to find out exactly what God thinks on this subject. I tried, but the secretary said God’s schedule is full for the next couple weeks and I should try calling back next month (which is what the secretary said last month).
Does God bless America?
Ahh, America. The Promised Land. God’s chosen country! … Who exactly did we decide this and why?
Maybe God blessed us so that we could bless others. We’re God’s chosen to distribute God’s blessing to others. Oh, really? Well, we’ve certainly done a shitty job of that. The USA has one of the poorer track records for giving international aid (as a percentage of the GDP). If God blessed us that we might use that blessing to help others, God made a pretty naive mistake. Or perhaps we’re the ones that failed God. But if that is the case, why would God continue to bless us? “Good job kids, you’ve royally f-ed that one up. Here, keep going. You’re only making it worse. Oh man, now you’ve really done it.”
Or maybe God didn’t bless us at all. I’m not arrogant to assume that God only or even preferentially cares about and blesses the USA. If America is God’s favorite, then what about the rest of the world? God must care less for them. Sure we’re currently one of the richest, most powerful nations on the planet. That’s no reason to think that God blessed us, though. After all, God didn’t bless Rome, Babylon, Persia or Egypt.
So God damns America.
Cursed for it’s wickedness and lawlessness, the entire country will be swept to the flames.
Damning a country, inclusive of an entire people group with no thought for the individual? God does not do this. Now clearly, if God has say in what goes on, God brings low the haughty and the proud. Kings are made fools, and empires are reduced to ruin. But those acts are a process is a purification and justification, reconciling oppressors to the oppressed, freeing both from the tyranny of violence.
God blesses the world.
God does not show favorites. God doesn’t love white people more than black people. God doesn’t love Americans more than Africans. God doesn’t love the millionaire more than the homeless man. God doesn’t love the West more than the Global South. God doesn’t love Christians more than Muslims. God doesn’t play favorites.
God bless America? God damn America? No. God bless the world.