No! God has not damned America.
To the contrary, He has never blessed another nation to any greater extent. And no other nation has blessed the world to any greater extent. The relationship between giving blessings and being blessed can be a precarious one.
For instance, the initial group of Americans were blessed with miracle after miracle in shucking off the yoke of a mortal king. A new nation was formed. It was an imperfect union. Yet, it was more perfect than anything else on earth.
As time went on, many challenges arose. Our elected leaders made choices, based off of a set of values that were passed down to them from history. As “acceptable” changed, we changed. Some of the most influential voices during our revolution and then formative years of the nineteenth century were from the pulpit.
We eventually battled with ourselves. Killing a million Americans, laying waste to several states, and from the ashes we rebuilt ourselves into a single United States called America.
Then America offered its youth to rescue Europe, and maybe even humanity, from the horrors of the “Great War.” While our work was global, our leadership was pushed to the backseat of the world order that followed. A generation later, the world was in the grasps of National Socialism and other shades of Totalitarianism that threatened to snuff out the last hope of individual freedoms.
Fortunately, America chose to once again answer the call for help. Hundreds of thousands of Americans gave their lives for the millions who were dying at the hands of evil from that mid-twentieth century global war. Our outlay of treasure for the cause was without equal in history. After the dirty part of stopping evil was done, America demanded a front seat in global leadership.
Since then Americans have continued to freely give their lives and treasures so that the world might have a chance to know peace, prosperity, and liberty. America is the bright, shining city on a hill that leads the world with her productivity, prosperity, and technology.
Even when America was attacked on 9/11 she showed great concern for humanity. Possessing the power to kill by the tens-of-millions, America showed great restraint by choosing to surgically removing two evil governments from power, freeing their people, and teaching them to fight the terrorists lurking in their midst. It takes a long time, and it cost a lot to do it like that. America has a long history of investing in peace with it’s blessing of technology and treasure. Likewise Americans don’t just rely on their elected government to organize all the investments. Billions of dollars are collected by Americans by way of private organizations that do what they can to make life better for folks at home and abroad. Many American dedicate their lives to going to strange, often wild lands just so they can help others. Too many of those folks ultimately give their lives in that quest to bless others.
These blessings are not unnoticed by the all powerful, all knowing God. He blesses America because America is good.
The occasional corrupted clergy-person may be able to whip his congregations into a frenzy with poetic lies to the contrary. While it might keep hate alive, and promote the growth of racism in his flock, it won’t change God’s perspective.
God is never fooled.
Oh certainly, America is still less than perfect. The holocaust on America’s unborn will be a stain on our country forever. Individual Americans will continue to commit horrible crimes like pedophilia-based crimes, rape, and murder. Some American politicians will violate the trust given to them by lying, cheating, stealing, and tolerating others that also do.
Yes, tolerating them is bad too. You can’t always be a uniter, sometimes you have to divide the goats from the sheep.
But even with all this imperfection, there is still enough good in America for God to tarry with his judgment on the world.
Yes, America is imperfect, but it is still more perfect than any other nation. God is still blessing America for being good.
While past blessing performance is no guarantee of a nation’s future favor with God, they do provide a common-sense guide for future sermons.
It just makes sense.