Nation Under Who

There’ve been a lot of news headlines lately about this being a nation, a nation under God. Nothing like taking a slap at one of our American symbols that will sure draw the ire out of good folks. I don’t blame them on this one. Some dads need to focus more on junior’s multiplication tables and sentence diagrams rather than hauling the school system into court over a simple pledge.

I never served in the military. They quit enlisting right after I got my draft card during the Vietnam era. But I do love this country of ours. I fly the flag daily, take my hat off at the national anthem, and get big chills when an F-16 flies by or I see a bald eagle. And I’d watch a presidential state of the union everyday if he felt so inclined for the chronic updates. So patriotic? Me? You bet your bottom dollar.

But this being a nation under God? I really don’t believe that’s quite my call. I am aware that it was the brainchild of those remarkable forefathers of ours, Thomas Jefferson et all; but I don’t think I would have ever come up with that moniker myself. Nor would I sue somebody over a few words and ruin everybody else’s parade, but I do like to ponder it.

I know there’s a lot of folks in this country who think the sun rises and sets around their derriere, but this being a nation under God? Wow, that’s a toughie. I can see how that might sound a bit presumptuous to a lot of our foreign friends, leaving them out in the cold and all. Then again who cares what the French think. It does make you wonder though. Who created their nations? Beelzebub and Brown and Root?

No, it seems to me, based on my readings, that this is more probably a whole world under, or maybe a solar system under God, or whatever the biggest word we can come up with to describe everything. So just trying to claim Him as our own? Kind of reminds me how the kids at day care shared their candy after Easter.

But now that we’re on the subject, let’s just suppose that this really is a nation under God. I’d like to taste the proof in that pudding?

Maybe God was on our side early on when we got here and wiped out all those eastern seaboard Indians, and then when we headed west and wiped out all those mid-western plains Indians, and of course after we settled Florida and herded up all those southeastern Indians and sent them to Oklahoma. Yep, there was no doubt a lot of divine providence going on back then. Though it probably didn’t hurt that we had whiskey; whiskey, rifles, and syphilis on our side.

And I’d like to think that it was God who helped us against the Nazis and the Japanese and all those other evil empires of old back during WW’s I and II, but there again I’m guessing it really came down to good ole American military firepower. Like today, look around. Sure we can still win wars, but how’s the rest of our landscape look? Where’s God in all of that?

It’s not like the Christians haven’t established a pretty good foot-hold for themselves here in the contiguous forty eight. Though the percentage has been dropping since they started polling in the mid 1900s, some 77% of the population, or approximately 280,000,000 Americans claim to be Christian. There are approximately 68,500 Christian churches here in America. The Christian products industry tracks approximately $4.2 billion dollars in annual sales. There are approximately 43 different Christian TV shows beaming out to the four corners. Finally, Americans are as charitable a bunch as any nation in the history of the universe; tithing some $103.3 billion dollars in 2008 alone. Simply amazing. Some folks just can’t hang on to a dime. I do wonder though how smart and selective they are dropping their ten percent in the wicker basket each week.

Far be it from me to lay all the blame over there, but you have to admit, by in large the church population in our country has suffered, on a statistical basis at least, just as much divorce, bankruptcy, unwanted pregnancies, murder, drug abuse, prison time, school drop outs, suicide, incest, and felonies as the rest of us. Of course, were this just another organization, the Boys Club for example, or the Daughters of the American Revolution, then I’d chalk it up as just another case for the law of averages. But these are supposed to be church folks.

In a recent report from the US Department of Educations’ National Center, the Secretary of Education tells us that basically we’re just average. Finland and Canada cleaned our clocks in reading, where we tied the Czech Republic. In math and science- you guessed it. Japan and Korea held top honors where we again tied the Czech Republic; the Czechs and the Norwegians if that makes you feel any better.

And have you seen Greg Critser’s book "Fat Land" in your local bookstore yet? He tells us sixty percent of Americans are overweight and twenty percent are obese and approximately one quarter of Americans under the age of nineteen are too heavy, a figure that has doubled in the last thirty years.

I know there’s more to life than looks and academic inclination. But I thought this body, this nation of folks presuming to be under God above all others, is suppose to have that heavenly host, that invincible shield watching their collective backside. Really makes me wonder though. From the looks of it, we’re about like most of the other countries in this ole world. Not pointing fingers or nothing. I say, if this really is a nation under God, all playing children of God, then we’re owed some back-due child support.