Why say "God bless America?"

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

If you believe in God, wouldn't you want Him to bless the entire world?

Sure but wouldn't you also want him to bless America too?

 

[WillowTree]

How about this?

So you agree with Wright?

I didn't used to, but then I had a frontal lobotomy and he just made so much sense. That was about the same time I voted for Barack Obama.

you so bad!

 

[Centrism'sVoice]

Wouldn't many religious people interpret the phrase to imply that God bless only America?

No. When we ask God to bless us, do we think we are asking God to exclude everyone else? No.

Why on earth would you think that?

It's obviously not the only possible interpretation, but you have to admit that it's at least one reasonable interpretation.

Aside from which, if you believe in God, why wouldn't you wish to make it clear that you want everyone to feel His love?

 

[AllieBaba]

We do. And we get hammered for trying to "force it down people's throats" when we do.

 

[Modbert]

We do. And we get hammered for trying to "force it down people's throats" when we do.

There's a difference in expressing YOUR love for God and forcing your religion down everybody's throats.

Example: Creationism

 

[Liability]

To say "God Bless America" is to INVOKE the blessing of the Almighty on our Republic. It is a recognition that He sees over us.

For those of us who are not overly religious, it should hardly matter.

For those of us who are religious, it is perfectly appropriate to Ask the Almighty for His continued blessings, thereby implicitly acknowledging those blessings which He has already bestowed on us.

Wouldn't many religious people interpret the phrase to imply that God bless only America?

I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. What difference could that possibly make?

If you sneeze and I say "God Bless You" does that mean that some religious people might assume that I call upon God to bless ONLY you?

Should I care about that silly interpretation from such people?

Is that something that ought to legitimately make me alter my behavior?

Not seeing it.

 

[Douger]

If you believe in God, wouldn't you want Him to bless the entire world?

No.
If you ask an Amurkin....pick one with a flagpole in his yard, next to his house trailer............. Everywhere else is backward, evil, stupid or commie...........or "third world", where I live.

I had an ole high school buddy ask me how I liked "island living" I fucking live in Central America !
Oh BTW don't eat any pistachios.

 

[editec]

Why say "God bless America?"

Because saying "God DAMN everybody else" sounds too harsh?

 

[DamnYankee]

Why would I not want my community blessed?

You're asking God to pick yours out alone among everything else that sounds selfish about it. It's not really Christian to say God bless your community or country alone but nobody else's.

Nah.... It's about the same as sitting down at the table and asking God to bless the food you're about to eat and those who prepared it.

 

[DamnYankee]

So you agree with Wright?

I didn't used to, but then I had a frontal lobotomy and he just made so much sense. That was about the same time I voted for Barack Obama.

 

[DamnYankee]

Nothing is wrong with well wishes. It's the way the specific wish is being used as a poltical tool. The people who insist on 'God Bless America' don't want the majority to say Buddha Bless America or Allah Bless America.

It's about power and domination.

But another way of looking at it is that it's about holding firm against change and not wanting inclusive language used. Too PC. Some use the 'it's tradition argument.

Slavery used to be a tradition. No voting rights for women or blacks used to be tradtion.

God Bless America is here to stay. God Bless Amurka is another issue.

No, the majority who say God Bless America are Christian. America is 75% or so Christian. Why must the majority cater to the minority?

Inclusive language? What's wrong with using whatever term you personally believe in? Just say 'Budda Bless America' instead.

We try in the US to not have a tyranny of the majority. That's why we work to include all our citizens.

Public Choice Theory
The notion that, in a democracy, the greatest concern is that the majority will tyrannize and exploit diverse smaller interests, has been criticized by Mancur Olson in The Logic of Collective Action, who argues instead that narrow and well organized minorities are more likely to assert their interests over those of the majority. Olson argues that when the benefit of political action (e.g. lobbying) are spread over fewer agents, there is a stronger individual incentive to contribute to that political activity. Narrow groups, especially those who can reward active participation to their group goals, might therefore be able to dominate or distort political process, a process studied in public choice theory.


[edit] Objectivist view
Ayn Rand, developer of the philosophy of Objectivism asserted that a group, as such, has no rights. A man can neither acquire new rights by joining a group nor lose the rights which he does possess. The principle of individual rights is the only moral base of all groups or associations. She maintained that since only an individual man can possess rights, the expression "individual rights" is a redundancy (which one has to use for purposes of clarification in today’s intellectual chaos), but the expression "collective rights" is a contradiction in terms. Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).[4]

Tyranny of the majority - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm sure you can prove, absolutely, that such tyranny exists.

 

[Avatar4321]

Why say "God bless America?"

Because saying "God DAMN everybody else" sounds too harsh?

Does anyone want God to damn everyone else?

 

[AllieBaba]

We do. And we get hammered for trying to "force it down people's throats" when we do.

There's a difference in expressing YOUR love for God and forcing your religion down everybody's throats.

Example: Creationism

There's a difference in expressing YOUR love for baseless theories and forcing your relgion down everybody's throats.

Example: Your ridiculous harassment of Christians on the board.

 

[Bfgrn]

If you believe in God, wouldn't you want Him to bless the entire world?

How about this?

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH5ixmT83JE]YouTube - Jeremiah Wright - God Damn America - Obama's Spiritual Mentor / Pastor[/ame]

Simple minds swallow out of context tiny snippets of a man's sermon without knowing the true meaning of the WHOLE sermon...

 

[Avatar4321]

Simple minds swallow out of context tiny snippets of a man's sermon without knowing the true meaning of the WHOLE sermon...

Then enlighten the world instead of just insisting he didnt say what he said.

 

[eagleseven]

If you believe in God, wouldn't you want Him to bless the entire world?

How about this?

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH5ixmT83JE]YouTube - Jeremiah Wright - God Damn America - Obama's Spiritual Mentor / Pastor[/ame]

Simple minds swallow out of context tiny snippets of a man's sermon without knowing the true meaning of the WHOLE sermon...

True Meaning of Wright's Sermon?

Slavery + Anti-Communism + Pro-Zionism = God Damn America


He's a preacher, not an academic. His words are blunt and clear, so all can understand his message. They don't need deciphering, as they are meant to be taken at face value. It's his job clear and easily understood.

Unsurprisingly, Obama is being a good disciple of Rev Wright. How? He's befriending Communists (Chavez, China, Russia), snubbing Zionists (criticizing Israel but not Iran), and pumping Washington full of minorities.

 

[Bfgrn]

Simple minds swallow out of context tiny snippets of a man's sermon without knowing the true meaning of the WHOLE sermon...

Then enlighten the world instead of just insisting he didnt say what he said.

Reverend Wright is not saying God Damn AmericANS, he is saying God Damn AmericA, the government and things the government did...like invading a sovereign country and STARTING a war...

The full story behind Wright’s “God Damn America” sermon

Editor’s note: CNN Contributor Roland Martin has listened to several of the sermons of Rev. Jeremiah Wright from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Portions of the sermons have been excerpted in recent stories. Martin says listening to the full sermons help put the excerpts in context.

I just finished listening to the nearly 40-minute sermon Rev. Jeremiah Wright gave on April 13, 2003, titled, “Confusing God and Government.”

For those of us watching and listening to the media in the last week, it is better known as the “God Damn America” sermon.

Wright’s scriptural focus was Luke 19:37-44 (reading from the New Revised Standard Version).

In this sermon, Wright spoke about the military rule during biblical days, led by Pontius Pilate. It was clear, through his language, such as “occupying military brigade” that he was making an analogy to the war in Iraq.

“War does not make for peace,” he said. “Fighting for peace is like raping for virginity.”

“War does not make for peace. War only makes for escalating violence and a mindset to pay the enemy back by any means necessary,” he said.

He then gets to the thesis of his sermon, saying, “y’all looking to the government for only what God can give. A lot of people confuse God with their government.”

Wright criticizes the Bush administration and its supporters for using Godly language to justify the war in Iraq. He equates using God in America as condoning the war in Iraq to the same perspective of Islamic fundamentalists.

“We can see clearly the confusion in the mind of a few Muslims, and please notice I did not say all Muslims, I said a few Muslims, who see Allah as condoning killing and killing any and all who don’t believe what they don’t believe. They call it jihad. We can see clearly the confusion in their minds, but we cannot see clearly what it is that we do. We call it crusade when we turn right around and say that our God condones the killing of innocent civilians as a necessary means to an end. WE say that God understand collateral damage. We say that God knows how to forgive friendly fire.”

“We say that God will bless the shock and awe as we take over unilaterally another country, calling it a coalition because we’ve got three guys from Australia, going against the United Nations, going against the majority of Christians, Muslims and Jews throughout the world, making a pre-emptive strike in the name of God. We cannot see how what we are doing is the same thing that Al-Qaeda is doing under a different color flag – calling on the name of a different God to sanction and approve our murder and our mayhem.”

He continues on his thesis of equating government with our God, saying that God sent the early settlers to America to take the country from Native Americans; ordained slavery; and that “we believe that God approves of 6 percent of the people on the face of this earth controlling all of the wealth on the face of this earth while the other 94 percent live in poverty and squalor while we give millions of tax breaks to the white rich.”

He also criticizes the “lily white” G-7 nations for controlling the world’s capital.

Then Wright speaks to:

1. Governments lie.

2. Governments change. He said long before the United States colonized the world, so did Egypt.

3. He then speaks of the government in his Bible text and said the Romans failed. Then he said the British government failed even after it colonized the world. He said the Russian government failed. The Japanese government failed. The German government failed.

 

[Avatar4321]

Reverend Wright is not saying God Damn AmericANS, he is saying God Damn AmericA, the government and things the government did...like invading a sovereign country and STARTING a war...

Okay... You realize youve just demonstrated that he said exactly what we said he said right?

So in context, he is still calling fo God to damn America. Has anyone but you suggested otherwise?

 

[Bfgrn]

Reverend Wright is not saying God Damn AmericANS, he is saying God Damn AmericA, the government and things the government did...like invading a sovereign country and STARTING a war...

Okay... You realize youve just demonstrated that he said exactly what we said he said right?

So in context, he is still calling fo God to damn America. Has anyone but you suggested otherwise?

I guess "context" is beyond your comprehension...Wright is saying God does not bless America killing in His name...he damns IT...he damns the action...

You also must consider he is a preacher using some poetic license...

I didn't realize I was talking to a statist...

 

[Centrism'sVoice]

To say "God Bless America" is to INVOKE the blessing of the Almighty on our Republic. It is a recognition that He sees over us.

For those of us who are not overly religious, it should hardly matter.

For those of us who are religious, it is perfectly appropriate to Ask the Almighty for His continued blessings, thereby implicitly acknowledging those blessings which He has already bestowed on us.

Wouldn't many religious people interpret the phrase to imply that God bless only America?

I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. What difference could that possibly make?

If you sneeze and I say "God Bless You" does that mean that some religious people might assume that I call upon God to bless ONLY you?

Should I care about that silly interpretation from such people?

Is that something that ought to legitimately make me alter my behavior?

Not seeing it.

Well, let's just suppose that someone who believes such a silly interpretation uses it as an excuse to harm someone else.

It wouldn't be the first time that evil was done in God's name, would it?