God Bless America

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Thursday, July 18, 2019

Do what is good and run from evil so that you may live!  Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper, just as you have claimed.  Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice.  Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people.  Amos 5:14-15

I’m drawing on a memory that is from about 60 years ago (which is a bit dangerous, considering I have trouble remembering what I had for breakfast yesterday).  Nonetheless, it is a memory that returns often.  The singer was Kate Smith, and the patriotic song I first heard gave me goosebumps. 

Irving Berlin wrote God Bless America during World War I in 1918.  It was updated in World War II and became Kate Smith’s signature song[3].  I loved it when I first heard it in the mid-1950’s, and I got weary of it after September 11, 2001, when it became the music to accompany the seventh-inning stretch at ball games.  Berlin wrote and updated the song as a contribution to developing a culture of peace.  It has become something of a marching song to support the troops in wartime.

Let me be quick to say I do love this country (lest I be just as quickly invited to leave).  I love so much of what this nation’s founding has as its base, political and religious freedom, and the open opportunity tradition that offers everyone the right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. 

(By the way…you have the right to pursue it, but you must catch it for yourself…there’s no guarantee it will be handed to you on a silver platter!)

I believe there are (at least) three ways you can sing Berlin’s song; you can sing it as favorite, a filler, or as a prayer. 

Favorite

There are songs we just like because they’re easy to remember and everybody else seems to know the words too.  They’re like drinking songs, making you smile and feel good when everyone joins-in.  Some of the favorites when it comes to the hymns at church are like this, which is why we wear them out.

Filler

At the ballpark you need something to take your mind off how boring some games can be…or at least how much your back is aching after sitting on a metal bench for 3½ hours.  Filling the seventh inning stretch with a rousing patriotic marching song tends to bring you back to the ballpark to buy $4 hotdogs.

Prayer

This is a lot harder than favorites and fillers.  When you really mean what the words say in this song, you’re putting your life on the line.  To ask God to BLESS America, you’re asking God to take over and make this country what HE sees as best, not for the sake of America, or any political ideology, but for the sake of God’s Kingdom.  The reason for that is God’s Kingdom supersedes any earthly nation, kingdom or ideas. 

This prayer is no baseball theme song, it’s a serious offering of who you are to be used in God’s plan.  When you ask God to stand beside her, and guide her, through the night with a light from above, you’re not asking God to steer this ship toward invincibility from enemies, but to the position of holiness to do God’s will.  This isn’t rubbing the good luck charm to stay on a winning streak; this is bowing before holy God to report for duty.

For You Today

God bless America.  If you honestly love this land, and all the godly principles upon which she has stood, sing the song as a prayer.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com        Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

[2] For another post by this name God Bless America 7-7-15

[3] See Parade Magazine 7-3-18 article “6 Things You Didn’t Know About the Song ‘God Bless America’

Explicit Language

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Monday, January 7, 2019

Don’t use foul or abusive language.  Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.  Ephesians 4:29 (NLT)

…in 1915, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that movies were not considered protected speech under the First Amendment and thus were subject to regulation.[2]  After wrestling with what the movie industry could show on screens for a decade and a half, the 1930 Hays Code became the first ratings system to alert the public as to content in a movie.  That code evolved into the modern-era ratings system (1968 MPAA) created by the movie industry itself.  That system now includes explanations of why movies are classed G (general audiences), R (restricted audiences), and so-on.  Violence, Sex, and Language are the main considerations. 

But it is the why that always catches my attention.  When Elizabeth and I are trying to decide which movie to watch, I look at the ratings.  Explicit language always gets a pass for me.  I just don’t want to hear it.  I threw my lot in with the Apostle long ago, that being a foul-mouth just isn’t helpful to living a Godly life, and being taken seriously as a follower of Jesus Christ.  Foul language displays hatred, and anger; it also conveys a sense of distaste for others, including disrespect and denigration. 

I also have to laugh when I see movies that earn a more restrictive rating (like “R” or “NC-17”) because they contain what is termed explicit language – it’s anything but explicit!  That word means “clear” or “obvious” or “plain”.  What Hollywood calls explicit is simply vocal shock filler, replacing the need for elevating ideas with genuinely-intelligent vocabulary by polluting the atmosphere.  Let’s face it, if you haven’t got the brains to say something clearly, profanity can deflect attention from your ignorance…and if it’s yelled louder, you’ve got a real shot at hiding gross stupidity!

There is a story about the 19^th century author Samuel Clemmens (also known by his pen name, Mark Twain[3]), a man committed to the constant use of profanity, and his wife, Olivia, a godly woman who was always trying to get her husband to clean up his foul-mouthed ways.  She had little success.  

One day Olivia decided to pull out all the stops.  She figured if she demonstrated for him just how awful profanity sounds, he would quit.  Walking into the room where Samuel was writing, she stubbed her toe against the door jamb (on purpose), and then let fly a string of locker-room curses that would have turned any air blue.  Without looking up, or missing a beat, the legendary Mark Twain blew out a puff of cigar smoke and said:  My dear, you oughtn’t talk like that.  Smugly, Olivia replied:  You don’t like the sound of those words, Samuel?  Said the author:  Oh, they’re great words, but you just don’t have the music to go along with it.  In an ironic and perverse way Samuel Clemmens nailed the Apostle Paul’s point, that cussing, foul-mouths are a strange fit for God’s family. 

In Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus Paul gave us the higher level for speech, letting every word dropping from your lips be helpful and encouraging.  It’s hard to do that with an alphabet that is only 4 letters strong!

For You Today

Hollywood does nothing but push the limits of culture’s envelope when it comes to holding-up profanity, obscenity, and violence as normative or trendy-cool.  And that means exactly what it sounds like, you can expect next year’s Oscars, Emmys, and Music awards to contain worse than this year’s! 

The question begs:  Is this what we really want our children to see, hear…and become?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

^[2] The Meaning of Movie Ratings

[3]Image:  Pixabay.com