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“God Blessed America”
After the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, baseball officials decreed that “God Bless America” be sung at the seventh-inning stretch during baseball games. Thanks to Irving Berlin and Kate Smith, this has become one of our nation's most beloved songs. Berlin, who came to America as a Russian immigrant with his family, wrote the song for an army camp show during WWI. It was rejected by the show's producers because they felt it was too trite. Berlin put it in the “rejections” file until 1938 when the most popular songstress in America, Kate Smith, needed a song to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the end of WWI. Berlin was asked to write a new song. He struggled to do so, but then he remembered the one in the files from 20 years earlier. The rest is history.
The words of “God Bless America” form a kind of patriotic prayer. They implore God to aide America in the future. “Stand beside her and guide her, thru the night by a light from above.” Written in wartime and published as war clouds gathered in anticipation of a Second World War. It's author, a Russian immigrant Jew who could not read music. Its singer, a larger-than-life singer with a voice like a booming, John Philips Souza marching band. Its moment in history with civilization hanging in the balance. Its no wonder that a national prayer for the blessing and guidance of God helped galvanize the nation.
I am pondering all of this as we approach Thanksgiving 2008. These times are challenging too. Two wars drag on and the worldwide economy in a shambles, hang over the planet. It is enough to make all people of religious faith want to stop and pray. Americans will sing “God Bless America” and it will be a heartfelt, genuine prayer for the future. But I think we ought to consider a different focus this year, lest we be swallowed in a flood of fear. Why not sing a variation on the theme? How about: “God blessed America/land that we love. /Stood beside us to guide us/when the night was so dark, dripped in blood. /God was with us in the valleys/ on the mountains, cities too. /Made the bad times become good times/ makes thanksgiving what we do.”
It is easy to pray for divine help in times of extremity. We ought to do that. It is harder to give thanks and praise when terror looms. Prayers of petition often place the focus on us. Prayers of thanksgiving shift the focus to God. That's a good thing. In this Thanksgiving season I am working on a list of ways God has blessed America. The old gospel song says: “Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God has done.” I'm beginning my list: 1.) National economic stability for most of our lifetimes. I'm giving thanks for that. 2.) Persistent religious liberty in an era when religious eccentricity sometimes runs amok. I'm giving thanks for that. 3.) Great achievements in health care, education, nutrition, communication, science, transportation, etc. I'm giving thanks for that. I'm working on this list until the last Thanksgiving giblet is gone from our table this year. And I'm going to trust the future to the God who blessed America in the past.
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