Did God really shed his grace on us?
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 7, 2001 9:00 p.m.
Rubinson is a lecturer in the UCLA writing programs.
By Greg Rubinson
The day after the terrorist attacks, members of Congress stood
on the steps of the Capitol and sang “God Bless
America.” The President ended his address to the nation
with “God Bless America.” Across the country,
people holding candlelight vigils on street corners displayed
banners declaring “God Bless America.”
As I drove down the freeway the other day, a car dealer’s
marquee shouted out at me: “God Bless America.” On
late night TV I saw a montage of opening ceremonies for baseball
games across the country: choirs singing “God Bless
America.” On the cover of Newsweek: “God Bless
America.”
We all know the aphorism that there are no atheists in foxholes,
but this is supposed to be a nation founded on the separation of
church and state.
The now ubiquitous message of “God Bless America”
defies this founding principle. It declares a direct link
between religion and nationality and it implies that God has
singled America out for special attention.
Our leaders and our pundits rightly decry the fanaticism that
led to the horrors of Sept. 11, but in response America has been
demonstrating its own dangerous tendency toward intertwining
nationalism and religion.
The myth of American invulnerability has been debunked. In order
to make ourselves feel safe again we have turned to the religious
and nationalistic myths we learned in elementary school.
America, we learned then, is better than other nations because,
as we sang, “God shed his grace on thee.” Our
politicians constantly tell us that America is the greatest country
in the world, and Americans are now echoing it back to them with
chants of “U.S.A.!”
In our time of need, a belief in manifest destiny ““ the
conceit that God had a special plan in mind for our country when it
was founded ““ has returned with a vengeance.
No matter what lies ahead, we tell ourselves we will win because
we are America. After all, we are the greatest and most powerful
nation in the world ““ the greatest democracy ever known,
right?
It’s too easy to say “God Bless America” and
believe it. Does God make distinctions about which countries
get preferential treatment?
Our national tendency to believe that America gets special
approval from God has something in common with the abhorrent belief
that it is God’s will that America be attacked: in both
cases, people are projecting their own beliefs onto God in order to
legitimize them.
Though it may not be intended by those who say and sing
“God Bless America,” there is an implicit arrogance in
that message. Somewhere in the range of emotions Americans are
experiencing now should be a strong dose of humility. Our
mighty towers have tumbled: the icons of our technological and
economic superiority have been reduced to ash by a band of men with
knives.
When faced with danger, people cling to whatever beliefs will
give them hope and a sense of security. Americans are now uniting
behind God and country. We are waving the flag and singing
patriotic songs.
But in the process we are emphasizing our separateness from
other nations and glossing over the international scope of this
disaster.
Our television networks and the front pages of our newspapers
have all announced that this was an “Attack on
America.” But it wasn’t. The most recent reports show
that citizens of 62 countries were killed in this attack.
It was an attack in America on humanity.
We need to unite, but we shouldn’t be doing it through
ideologies that separate us from other cultures. To be more
inclusive, Americans and everyone else in the world should rally
around our common humanity and our revulsion for the destruction of
human life.
Americans now have an opportunity to expand our understanding
and acceptance of others in the world rather than isolate ourselves
in jingoistic pride.
Until humankind as a whole can transcend religious and
nationalistic differences at least enough to embrace our common
humanity, there will always be terrorism of one sort or
another.
