Letter provokes thought about religious slogans
LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Dec. 9, 2004
Bravo to Ms. Amanda Bigelow for her efforts to expose the shallowness (and in some cases duplicity) of those who use religious refrains to express their politics!
For many years I have questioned that refrain, much like I question the use of a similar line by athletes when they win the game and praise Jesus. Does that mean Jesus didn’t like the losing team? Did Jesus ignore the prayers of the other athletes who did not perform as well on that given day? Similarly, does “God bless America” mean that God doesn’t or shouldn’t bless others, or, more disturbing, that God blesses us “more,” because “we are a Christian nation”?
Those who sincerely believe this slogan will argue that they are just underscoring the source of their benefits. If God is the source of good for one, is God likewise the source of the privations of good for others? Is God then the source of the lack of wealth for a country other than the one God “blesses”? What about the sincere believers of this country who are not blessed with prosperity, but with poverty and suffering? Subscribers to the slogan frequently respond that God blesses those who love God or follow God’s will.
Then I have to ask if it is a sign of our following God’s will and a proof of his blessings on us when we immorally and illegally invade other countries, take their oil and kill tens if not hundreds of thousands of their civilians? Is it a sign of our following God’s will and receiving his blessing that our reigning President gives massive tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans while increasing the burden on the poor and middle class among us?
In sum, the two most disturbing things about such a religious slogan are the gross inconsistencies behind it and the exclusionary implications within it. The exclusion is this: if you are not an American, or are an atheist (or gay, or in favor of gun control, or not adamantly opposed to abortion), you don’t and shouldn’t have God’s blessings (or as many of them) because you don’t follow his will (as though people can know categorically and unequivocally what that will might be).
Even more disturbing is another connotation I have heard people mutter who use this slogan: if you live here and are an atheist or don’t believe God (rightfully) blesses America over all others, you are not “really” an “American,” or are unpatriotic, as though belief in God was the litmus test of American citizenship or the foundation of the American Constitution or, dare it be said, of democracy itself. Anyone who studies the Constitution in any detail knows better than to hold this.
I applaud Ms. Bigelow for taking the time to present a thought-provoking essay. People should think about such phrases before barfing them up so blithely.
Dr. Robert Abele
Philosophy Instructor