Journal Time

by Ray Waddle

The year's most patriotic season, summer, has arrived — baseball, Memorial Day, fireworks, grilling out, national park vacations, July 4 pride in the Constitution, Bill of Rights and that singular American self-evident truth: all are created equal.

It's high season also for the most familiar theological statement in the land — "God bless America."

God bless America — a mere three words, carrying profound ramifications. It's an Irving Berlin tune and unofficial national anthem. And a lot more.

Peer awhile at the phrase, and it gets mysterious. Is it a declaration, a hope, a prayer, a claim, an exclamation of gratitude, a case of wishful thinking? Sticklers for grammar are tempted to fiddle with the phrase to get clarification. Maybe add a comma — "God, bless America." Or alter the verb — "God blesses America." Or insert a word for emphasis — "God (please) bless America."

God bless America — in a frustrated time of red-state/blue-state divisions, it's a statement up for grabs. The religious dimension of the culture wars might be boiled down to this: When does God bless America? Christian liberals tend to believe God blesses America when the nation lives up to its commitments to justice and equality. Christian conservatives tend to believe God blesses America when the nation rededicates itself to biblical foundations of personal morality and respect for family.

God bless America — no matter who's doing the talking, it's a phrase firmly lodged in public speech. Ronald Reagan started the modern presidential habit of concluding his addresses with it. Ever since, no president dares to finish an important speech without some variation of it.

God bless America — it's a providential statement. It might be one of the last. The idea of providence, that great Presbyterian legacy, is being crowded out by rival 21st century notions as a basic day-to-day instinct. I wonder if providence is losing ground to lady luck, for instance. Legalized gambling is now a national pastime, a popular alternative to progressive taxation. By turning gambling into a tool of public policy, the nation sanctifies a new faith — not trust in God but a winner-take-all fatalism. A nation of casinos and lotto (48 out of 50 states now have legalized gambling) is statistically a nation of losers.

God bless America — it's a heartfelt phrase that manages to eclipse, or cover over, the startling shifts and contradictions of modern moral America. The USA is now a place where Christian fiction outsells the Bible, and its soul is divided between imperial Rome and New Testament Jerusalem, exercising the military options of the world's lone superpower, while also claiming allegiance to the Prince of Peace.

God bless America — it's a declaration that implies a relationship, a two-way street, a covenant. If God blesses America, what is America's responsibility in the bargain? What is it about America that God blesses? Its high levels of churchgoing, the work ethic, the Declaration of Independence, the love of freedom, a fondness for the underdog? Or shopping malls and The Sopranos?

Summer marks another patriotic moment: The July anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg of 1863, followed by Lincoln's words of dedication at the site later that year. With a deep sense of the mysteries of divine providence, Lincoln resolved "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom." In recent weeks Gettysburg has become the site of a new battle. Developers want to put up a casino nearby. Hallowed ground clashes with a noisy new entrepreneurialism.

God bless America: Within the soul of a humbling three-word cry of faith there's a tug-of-war, an ancient conflict of impulses. The glorious phrase can be abused for every self-serving agenda, or it can re-energize democracy, generosity, and welcome to strangers — values of the American way.