South City Mouth

As we prepare to celebrate another Fourth of July this week, I find myself pondering the national soul.

Maybe it's always been this way, but increasingly, I hear a hopefully small but awfully vocal groups of Americans take our goodness for granted as an absolute assumption. We're moral and just and good, they say, simply because we're Americans. Our goodness is not based on our actions, they seem to believe, but simply on our mere being. Likewise, they say, criticize America's actions and you must believe that America is bad and evil. You apparently hate America.

I think of this in recent days as I've heard arguments made that because we're not as bad as al-Qaeda, we don't really need to consider systematic torture and mistreatment of detainess in Abu Graib or Guantanamo. Because our detention facilities are nowhere near as bad as the Soviet gulags or Hitler's concentration camps, we need not worry about conditions there. Becasue our goodness is absolute, we must always be absolutely right. Because the bad guys are so much worse than we are, self reflection is never necessary and we need never take responsibility for misdeeds or missteps. In fact, there absolutely cannot be any misdeeds and missteps, because after all, we're America.

This extends to our view of the rest of the world. Since we're naturally good, we must always be right. Any nation that disagrees with us must be wrong. Because most nations disagree with us on our war in Iraq, most other countries are wrong and probably even weak in character. Other countries supporting us in Iraq support us only officially with that support quite unpopular among the people there. So those countries must be weak in character, also. Therefore we can take whatever unilateral action we wish, and everyone other nation on Earth must be wrong and even immoral.

These same folks usually call themselves Christians and declare us a Christian nation. It's a nation in which a seeming majority of God's people have committed themselves to warmongering and global coercion; a steadfast, unwavering support for the status quo; and a draconian agenda committed to comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted. A few dissenting Christians might argue that this doesn't appear to be Christ's way. But the bulkd of God's people have spoken in America. Because we're God's people, they say, we must be right. If you disagree with our agenda, some of them even say, then you must hate God.

In the end, they say, we're great simply by being Americans, not by anything we say or believe.

I know these are tough words at a time when we should be putting tough words aside for at least a day to celebrate America, despite our differences. But this morning in church, we sang "America the Beautiful" and the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." I've always appreciated both songs, but listening to their words today, I was touched by the humility, self-reflection and true desire for goodness and righteousness they deliver. Both pieces imply an "if-then" statement. If we truly seek wisdom, righteousness and justice, then we truly are great, they say.

As you read the words to both hymns below, consider the message and ask youself what you base your patriotism on. A smug self-satisfaction and self-congratulation? Or a humble self-reflection and deep sense of responsibility to step forth to what is right and make amends for what is wrong?




Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
is day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
“As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal”;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free;[originally …let us die to make men free]
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.