God Bless _________

With all due respect to my southern neighbours I ask some of you to consider the following:

George W. Bush is not Lord. The Declaration of Independence is not an infallible guide to Christian faith and practice. Nor is the U.S. Constitution, nor the U.N. Universal Declaration on Human Rights. "Original intent" of America's founders is not the hermeneutical key that will guarantee national righteousness. The American flag is not the Cross. The Pledge of Allegiance is not the Creed. "God Bless America" is not the Doxology.

Sometimes one needs to state the obvious—especially at times when it's less and less obvious.

Believe it or not, this is from a Christianity Today editorial. Fred Clark reflects on this poignant reminder from a potentially unlikely source.

Comments

[Leslie]

Mike, didn't you used to work on Bay Street? Always read the fine print, my friend. It seems that this article isn't about George at all, it is refuting the Family Research Council's suggestion that the Declaration of Independence & the US Constitution are the documents that will restore the moral compass of American society -- namely domestic family issues, not foreign policy.

The overall message is that people should put God before politics. I'm trying not to jump to the conclusion that you were trying to make a point about a separate issue by quoting an article out of context. Maybe I misunderstood.

I guess, I'm wondering...do any of my fellow Canadians ever keep an eye on Canadian news anymore? Wasn't Bill C-38 just rammed through parliament? The Gomery Inquiry? Is our own government very virtuous? I think Jesus said something once about a plank in someone's eye...let the nation that is without sin cast the first stone.

Perhaps it is more Christian to clean up our own Canadian act instead of spending so much time pointing fingers at others.

Just a thought.

God bless America.
Lord have mercy on Canada.

[bobbie]

as an american who lived for 10 years in canada i feel i have a perspective on this that many might not have. being out of the u.s. helped me to see the knee-jerk patriotism that has seeped into the church, to the level that is truly scary.

on memorial day at our church we actually had 'worship' with a woman singing 'there she stands' with the flag flapping in the breeze on the two jumbo-trons - worship. doesn't this scare anyone else? i'm sure being the '4th of july' weekend we'll get another round of red, white and blue... sigh.

you can be patriotic and a christian - but the mixing of the two has become so cloudy that it truly borders on idolitry.

the irony of the 'no graven image' thing in the 10 commandments has been forgotten in this battle to 'save' the monuments that are being blindly fought for. the inconsistencies would be laughable if they weren't so very sad.

thanks for the head's up on this mike, i don't like where he took the article in the end (worship church, not god...), but many of the points he made really need to be exposed to the american church as a whole.

[David]

Leslie, I think you missed the point - not to state Canada as virutous, but to level the field and recognize America as equally fallen. Have you ever heard of British Israelism? It's making a comeback in a new form - America as God's Chosen People. American Christianity, to paint in broad strokes, is taking some frightening forms and I think this reminder is a healthy one. No one is beating on the Americans here, but their patriotism and partisanship have merged with their faith and now to be a good Christian often means to be a good American. It is healthy to remember where your citizenship lies if you are a believer, and America - or any other nation - is not it. Heaven is. Everything else is competition.

I find it equally interesting that you ask God to bless America while asking him to have mercy on Canada. I suspect we should ALL be asking for mercy. He's been blessing for years and years and we've squandered it. We should be ashamed to keep asking him for his blessing. Why? So we can have more WalMarts? What possible blessing could we be given that we haven't already had and abused?

[David]

Postscript to Leslie - I re-read my comments, if it sounds like I am attacking you I am sorry, that's not at all the tone I mean to take. You are right, the bit quoted is out of context. I still think it stands all on it's own without context and I suspect that's what Mike intended. Forgive me if I sounded aggressive, didn't mean to be.

[DavidT]

These are great thoughts from my name sake - David, so perhaps I should identify myself as DavidT. Although I consider myself a mongrel... Born in the USA, raised in Scotland with a British (now lapsed) passport, and now carrying a Canadian passport, I think my place of first arrival allows me to express some views on the USA. And the West.

I think good old Jacques Ellul is correct: despite all the natter about secularization in the West, the West is not anti-religious. It has simply changed its gods. The Republican White House is the new shrine to many Christians who are fed up with their own sterile Christianity. We eat too much and live too well, but there is a profound quest for real spirituality. "If Christianity in the West is to regain a footfold, it must first of all learn to drink at the fountain of its own heritage and reclaim the vision from which it sprang." (Ellul)

Well said.

[Matt]

As one of the "Southern Neighbors", I've written a response, which may be found at http://www.msquaredt.com/blog/2005/07/01/worship-as-higher-politics/.

After living in the Chicago area and attending a church where several of the CT editors, etc., were members, I wouldn't be so surprised at this article. :)

[Leslie]

David, Please be assured I did not feel the least bit attacked by your comments. In fact, I appreciate that you care enough to take the time to try to enlighten me. I am aware of British Israelism and its new American application.

Still, your explanation of the point I supposedly missed speaks exactly to the point I was trying to make. To make judgements about anyone (person or nation) requires the speaker to assume a position of higher virtue if their words are to be at all credible. God is the only one virtuous enough for this task. He is the only one with the authority to level the field – so to speak.

If, in fact, Jesus is relevant in all aspects of our lives, then why aren’t we Canadians mixing our patriotism and our faith more?

Anyway, yes I suppose society today is too quick to ask God to bless others, and we have definitely squandered many blessings. So instead of closing by asking God to bless you, I shall close with something more in keeping with the ideas you suggest.

May the Lord have mercy on you. May the Lord have mercy on all of us here in Canada.

[ScottB]

I've been doing a lot of reading of NT Wright lately and have been profoundly impacted by his contention that the heart of the gospel is the confession that Jesus is Lord - which, while it may seem like a statement of the obvious, in its context carried the equally weighty confession that Caesar was not. Great article here: http://www.ctinquiry.org/publications/wright.htm

I find this incredibly unsettling as an American whose context is largely evangelical. I think the truly subversive nature of the gospel is completely missed by a disturbingly large portion of what passes for Christian thought in my country and tradition, and I wonder how we would ever expect to be able to speak prophetically about injustice when we are so aligned with the system that creates it - regardless of political belief, liberal/conservative/what-have-you. I think that until we start trusting in Christ more than we trust in government, we'll continue to be Jesus shaped caricatures of politicians, instead of Christians.