God Bless America...well, maybe

[Stavros]

The article below may be 'over the top', it is after all the Daily Telegraph and the author is leading an excting life writing a biography of Pat Buchanan. The question for our American friends, has the term 'God Bless America' now indeed become a tagline rather than a heartfelt expression of gratitude and respect? Should it be representative of anything other than the religious populations of the USA?

I wasn't aware that Nixon was the first President to use it, but I do remember the furore in Berlin in 1979 when The Deer Hunter was shown at the Berlin Film Festival and the Russians (and others) objected to the 'russian roulette' sequence. The film ends with a rendition of 'God Bless America' and in context is a troubled form of relief and respect for the survivors.

I have met two Americans who claimed to be Communists, and they were some of the most extreme I have met -one also told me he was going back to DC to work on a campaign to elect a friend of his, a Republican. I tried to point out the contradiction but he shrugged his shoulders 'Its all politics'..! Extreme Americans can however be very scary.

For the records, God Save the Queen is used sparingly here, and thank -er, heavens? -for that. Enjoy. The link follows the text.

The attack on the 9/11 cross exposes the bizarre fundamentalism of American atheists


By Tim Stanley (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/timstanley/) US politics (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/category/us-politics/) Last updated: July 28th, 2011
[/URL]
(http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100098875/the-attack-on-the-911-cross-exposes-the-bizarre-fundamentalism-of-american-atheists/#disqus_thread)

http://1.2.3.11/bmi/blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/files/2011/07/wtccross2large.jpg
America’s culture war took an unpleasant turn this week. A group of atheists filed a suit (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/27/atheist-group-files-lawsuit-against-display-wtc-cross-at-11-memorial/) to take down a cross erected at the Lower Manhattan memorial to the victims of 9/11. The cross was formed from two intersecting steel beams that were found intact in the rubble. Dave Silverman, head of the American Atheists, called the display a breach of the separation between church and state. He said that the cross “has become a Christian icon. It has been blessed by so-called holy men and presented as a reminder that their god, who couldn’t be bothered to stop the Muslim terrorists or prevent 3,000 people from being killed in his name, cared only enough to bestow upon us some rubble that resembles a cross.”
The story itself is a storm in a tea cup. The cross will probably stay because it has attained a cultural status beyond religious symbolism. To many viewers it is a physical reminder of the devastation and a metaphor for the resurrection of New York as a city. What is remarkable is where Silverman’s American Atheists have chosen to make their big stand. Picking on a memorial to the victims of 9/11 exposes the profound lack of sensitivity of the New Atheism and its obsessive, socially awkward edge. Some atheist activists suggested that the cross could stay if it were accompanied by symbols from other religions. They miss the point that the cross was only erected because it was found at Ground Zero. Presumably, if a fax machine had been discovered melted into the shape of Ganesh then that would have gone display, too. But that didn’t happen and it’s extraordinary, given its tragic origins, that the American Atheists can’t tolerate this modest statement. What will they protest about next? The crosses over the graves at Arlington Cemetery?
The fact is that the New Atheists aren’t interested in either pluralism or being left alone. They are iconoclasts and they enjoy breaking things. Take the case of the Mojave Memorial Cross - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Mojave_Memorial_Cross_1.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Mojave_Memorial_Cross_1.jpg/220px-Mojave_Memorial_Cross_1.jpg"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/2/23/Mojave_Memorial_Cross_1.jpg/220px-Mojave_Memorial_Cross_1.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojave_Memorial_Cross), erected in 1934 in memory of Americans killed in war. It was a beautiful, simple white cross that stood above the rocky desert and gave comfort to millions who saw it. The problem for those who cared: it was planted on public land. For years it was subject to vandalism and law suits, until the Supreme Court ruled that it could stay after the earth it stood on was transferred to a Veterans group. In May 2010, it went missing – stolen by a protestor. Again, it’s important to stress that the Mojave Cross had never been a purely Christian monument. Like the 9/11 cross, it used a universal symbol of death and rebirth to celebrate the sacrifices of millions of America’s soldiers. Whatever lunatic stole it, it was a truly sociopathic act.
What the New Atheists don’t get is that religion is functional: people engage with it in a million different ways and entirely on their own terms. Many people pick a Christian wedding not because they believe Jonah was swallowed by a whale but because the vows are pretty and the church is beautiful. They hanker for transcendence, regardless of doctrine. The New Atheists, like all good fundamentalists, regard this functionality as hollow or hypocritical. The religious call it a paradox and they just live with it.
America has always been a Christian society in that same secular, paradoxical sense. Political communication experts David Domke and Kevin Coe have written a fascinating analysis (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1735972,00.html) of the origin of the phrase “God Bless America”, often used by Presidents at the end of their speeches. The practice started with Richard Nixon, who slipped the words in at the end of a televised address on Watergate in 1973. Ronald Reagan turned it into a standard sign-off. He ended 90 percent of his major addresses that way – George HW Bush did so on 90 percent of occassions, Bill Clinton 89 percent and George W Bush 84 percent. Domke and Coe make this observation: “Used sparingly, the words “God bless America” would have to be taken as a serious theological proposition. Instead, like Nike’s “Just Do It” or any other ubiquitous catchphrase in American culture, the words eventually lose their meaning. Today, “God bless America” has become the Pennsylvania Avenue equivalent to the taglines of Madison Avenue.”
Domke and Coe write with a heavy dose of sarcasm, but their study reinforces the point that over time religious symbolism develops a civil dimension. Christianity, Judaism, Islam and all the other world’s faiths have shaped our culture in a way that is inescapable. Eradicate them from the public sphere and we’d all be culturally and linguistically poorer for it. The cross should stay and the geeky, bizarre people that it offends should try looking the other way.


[url]http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100098875/the-attack-on-the-911-cross-exposes-the-bizarre-fundamentalism-of-american-atheists/

[Faldur]

"This is all the inheritance I give to my dear family. The religion of Christ will give them one which will make them rich indeed." Patrick Henry in Last Will and Testament, November 20, 1798 Moses C. Tyler, Patrick Henry, p. 395 (1898, reprinted 1972)

"I have tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty; through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to Him for mercy; pray for me." Alexander Hamilton's last dying words, July 12, 1804

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religious, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here.” Patrick Henry 1776

“I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator and, I hope, to the pure doctrine of Jesus also.” Thomas Jefferson

“Oh, eternal and everlasting God, direct my thoughts, words and work. Wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the Lamb and purge my heart by thy Holy Spirit. Daily, frame me more and more in the likeness of thy son, Jesus Christ, that living in thy fear, and dying in thy favor, I may in thy appointed time obtain the resurrection of the justified unto eternal life. Bless, O Lord, the whole race of mankind and let the world be filled with the knowledge of thee and thy son, Jesus Christ.” George Washington

“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.” John Quincy Adams 6th US President and son of John Adams

"The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools.” The US Congress 1782

"Without a humble imitation of the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, we can never hope to be a happy nation." George Washington

"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian Nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." John Jay the first Supreme Court Justice (for those of you who didn't know that)

To many of us we still hold these principals dear, to us our nation was founded under God and continues today with His blessings.

[Stavros]

Faldur, as a lover of history I appreciate your choice selection of quotes....however
while most schoolchildren are aware of the Christian origins of the early settlers and most of the founders of the Republic, the US has surely developed beyond the imagination of Washington and Hamilton; so
a) your quotes offer an eclectic, selective view of America's Mission Vision as it was 235 years ago, and
b) does not really answer my question about the meaning -today- of the phrase, God Bless America.

[hippifried]

It's always been a tag line. There's no official religion here. There's also no culture war. It's all a bunch of crap. The country wasn't founded as a "Christian nation". Each person has their own beliefs, & the supreme law of the land prohibits government interference with that principle. That IS the American culture. We don't have a "defender of the faith" because faith doesn't need defending. The only argument is over whether the government should proslytize. Common law states over & over & over that it shouldn't.

As for this particular case: Extremism oozes from all over the political sphere. It was a private civil suit. I don't know the details & don't care. Welcome to American culture. It seems petty to me from all sides.

[Faldur]

Faldur, as a lover of history I appreciate your choice selection of quotes....however
while most schoolchildren are aware of the Christian origins of the early settlers and most of the founders of the Republic, the US has surely developed beyond the imagination of Washington and Hamilton; so
a) your quotes offer an eclectic, selective view of America's Mission Vision as it was 235 years ago, and
b) does not really answer my question about the meaning -today- of the phrase, God Bless America.

Well I fully agree with you that the view of American's today has changed radically. Heck we have like 35% of our population that can even name the current Vice President. Our schools have dumbed down our countries origin and history to the point that most of todays graduates could not pass a citizenship test. Sad really, our most treasured possession is where our contry came from.

[Faldur]

It's always been a tag line. There's no official religion here. There's also no culture war. It's all a bunch of crap. The country wasn't founded as a "Christian nation". Each person has their own beliefs, & the supreme law of the land prohibits government interference with that principle. That IS the American culture. We don't have a "defender of the faith" because faith doesn't need defending. The only argument is over whether the government should proslytize. Common law states over & over & over that it shouldn't.

As for this particular case: Extremism oozes from all over the political sphere. It was a private civil suit. I don't know the details & don't care. Welcome to American culture. It seems petty to me from all sides.

I encourage you to read the founding documents of Yale and Harvard Universities. And who is it that our currency says we trust?

[trish]

Real scholars and actual historians (you know...the one's who read the founding documents stored at Harvard, Yale and elsewhere) concur that the U.S. was founded on the principle of separation of Church and State inspired by the plight of many at the time who fled the persecutions of "right thinking" Christians and sought asylum in North America. Not all our founders were Christians, though most were Christian of one sort or another. Still they agreed that the Law was an issue separate from religion and they signed the First Amendment into Law when they signed the Constitution.

But what if the founding fathers sniffed each others asses and howled at the moon in ritualistic ecstasy. Does that mean we have to? If you want to live in a nation whose laws are based on religious principles move to Israel. Move to Iran. We found a better, more inclusive way to govern ourselves.

Oh, and I hate to disappoint you Faldur, but the phrase "In God We Trust" wasn't placed on our currency by the founders. It's usage on our currency dates back to 1954. The challenge to the motto was denied by the Supreme Court which stipulated the Constitution presupposed a "Supreme Being" but was no more specific than that; He might be Hindi, or Jewish, or Muslim, or Christian, or Taoist, or Bokonon. Thereby, such an acknowledgment on our money doesn't establish a religion. But here you are, making an argument by authority that our currency is testimony to Christian principles, and at the same time you're cherry picking against the authority of the Supreme Court which says your wrong.

[trish]

One of the weirdest things I've come across along these lines (with the exception of my recent discovery that some Christians on this board believe Jesus traveled backwards in time to make appearances in the Old Testament) is that there are apparently some Christians these days who believe nations have the metaphysical power to bless deities. To me it sounds like sacrilege and blasphemy, but what do I know.

[Faldur]

One of the weirdest things I've come across along these lines (with the exception of my recent discovery that some Christians on this board believe Jesus traveled backwards in time to make appearances in the Old Testament) is that there are apparently some Christians these days who believe nations have the metaphysical power to bless deities. To me it sounds like sacrilege and blasphemy, but what do I know.

Well any Christian that believes in the bible, and the Trinity, and has a pretty good understanding of basic theology knows the Trinity existed at creation. The word "Elohim" was used in the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and earth." Elohim is a plural noun.

To think that the creator of the universe just suddenly decided to "have a kid" is ridiculous. The Trinity existed at creation and it wasn't until God saw we were so broken that he decided to send His son to earth. The Old Testament references are easy to find, try googling "fourth man in the oven, Daniel".

Now back to the original point..

"The motto of Harvard University adopted in 1692 was “Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae” which translated from Latin means “Truth for Christ and the Church.” This phrase can be found embedded on the Harvard Shield and on many buildings around campus including the Widener library, Memorial Church, and various dorms in Harvard Yard. It was originally established by John Harvard to train Christian ministers to preach the gospel but, over the past centuries, has experienced a shift from its original purpose (http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~gsascf/shield.html). After Newsweek published its “Harvard’s Crisis of Faith” article last year, the need to review and address the spiritual state of the Harvard student body has become more evident (http://www.newsweek.com/2010/02/10/harvard-s-crisis-of-faith.html). Many of our other great Ivy League universities (such as Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia, Amherst, Brown) were established on a similar Christian foundation. (cut and pasted from http://socialtransformation2011.org/?page_id=253)

I completly agree that these beliefs were from a long time ago, and that all of the above listed schools no longer have any ties to Christianity or God. But our beginnings were all about it.. Even in Church and State.

Read Article 1, Chapter V., (the bottom of page #14 and the top paragraph of #15) of the Harvard constitutional articles and legislative enactments.

Harvard founding constitution, original (http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/2582402?n=14&s=4&printThumbnails=no)

[Stavros]

Some fascinating exchanges, but I don't know how most Americans today would react to the extent of Christian imagery, values and aspirations that are embedded in critically important documents. The separation of Church and State to me is one of the key elements in American democracy that has enabled it to expand without growing out of its original principles, because the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are profoundly human in their orientation. Constitutions in too many countries are effectively 'dead letters' that proclaim equality, freedom, rights and so on, even as the rulers deny them to all.

In the meantime, as nobody so far has admitted to saying it, when you Americans gather for a Thanksgiving meal, be it Turkey or Tacos, and raise a glass, be it Burgundy, Bourbon, or water -do you say God Bless America? I have seen numerous Thanksgiving meals in films and in tv shows, but I don't think I have ever seen such a moment. I also note that only one correspondent has actually mentioned the attempt to remove the Cross at ground zero.

[Stavros]

'America, Bless God' reminds me of Forkel's remark about the composer JS Bach who said that he composed 'for the greater glory of God' -Germany be proud of him, but be worthy of him also. Tough act to follow.

[trish]

The motto of Harvard University ...If Harvard were the National University you might have an argument. But Harvard is a private school. So what if it's founders incrusted it's buildings with a religious motto or three? As you said, Harvard has experienced a shift of goals. The purpose of its founders i[s] irrelevant to its current goals. If the founders sniffed each others .... oh I already said that.

[hippifried]

I encourage you to read the founding documents of Yale and Harvard Universities. And who is it that our currency says we trust?
Yale & Harvard were both founded under the British crown, long before we declared our independence. We're not Brits. "In God We Trust" wasn't added to US coinage until the mid 19th century, & didn't become the official motto of the US till the mid 20th century. Anything else?

[hippifried]

Some fascinating exchanges, but I don't know how most Americans today would react to the extent of Christian imagery, values and aspirations that are embedded in critically important documents. The separation of Church and State to me is one of the key elements in American democracy that has enabled it to expand without growing out of its original principles, because the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are profoundly human in their orientation. Constitutions in too many countries are effectively 'dead letters' that proclaim equality, freedom, rights and so on, even as the rulers deny them to all.

In the meantime, as nobody so far has admitted to saying it, when you Americans gather for a Thanksgiving meal, be it Turkey or Tacos, and raise a glass, be it Burgundy, Bourbon, or water -do you say God Bless America? I have seen numerous Thanksgiving meals in films and in tv shows, but I don't think I have ever seen such a moment. I also note that only one correspondent has actually mentioned the attempt to remove the Cross at ground zero.
Ah yes, Thanksgiving. A 4 day weekend for national gluttony day. It takes 3 days to recover. For the most part, nobody's saying much of anything because they're too busy stuffing their faces. It's pretty much an all day affair. Lots of moaning & groaning if you happen to spit out some of the food trying to yell at whoever's playing football (real football, as opposed to that soccer shit). By the time the 3rd game rolls around, everybody's just laying there like a pod of beached whales, wondering why the pie isn't magically appearing in front of them. I'll have a slice of each, apple, pumpkin, & pecan. Don't skimp on the whipped cream...

[Stavros]

Sounds like Christmas! Lay off the football dude, the real beautiful game...the tradition here is Boxing Day, I have been but twice but its always a good a laugh although I think a lot of people go just to get away from their wives and parents...

[trish]

At our gathering it's apple, pumpkin, cherry, mince meat and shoofly. We got no big sports fans so we don't usually watch the game (unless someone has invited a boyfriend or a girlfriend who wants to see it). We play board games, admire the children, change diapers and wander out to the garage to smoke and talk politics. Of course the most important event is the Turkey diner. We sing a short thanks giving hymn. I never remember the words , but no worry, they're reproduced on a set of yellowing, worn cards, one to be found at each place setting (something about gathering to count the Lord's blessings__but nothing like the request-demand that "God bless America").

So yeah, it's Christmas without the responsibility of having shopped for presents.