<p>How come people say “God Bless America” and not “God Bless the World”?</p>
<p>On this bulletin board at my school that said “God Bless America,” someone crossed out “America” and put the “world,” but someone crossed it out again and put “America.” Why the ethnocentrism? Why do people want God to bless only this country?</p>
<p>I’ve often wondered the same thing. I’m thinking God may not pay that much attention to man-made borders.</p>
<p>Oh, please.</p>
<p>Vive la France!!!</p>
<p>Maybe they think that America needs God’s help more than those other countries do.</p>
<p>“Viva la France” is a heck of a lot different than “G-d Bless America”!!!</p>
<p>To me, this question is equivalent to the ad nauseum (and increasingly ugly) arguments about whether to say “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas”…it detracts from the important underlying issues in favor of arguing about semantic minutiae. The United States shares its “blessings” with many countries by way of monetary and personnel contributions. Which is more important?</p>
<p>I don’t think that most people who offer nightly prayers to a higher power bother to list every neighbor on the block by name, that but doesn’t mean they wish for them NOT be be blessed. Same with this rote phrase. Don’t assign it more meaning than it has.</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>Similarly, why do some sports teams pray to God before a game? Do they think it will help their chances of winning?</p>
<p>And then there are some of us who find the “God” part of this song objectionable.</p>
<p>It’s not our national anthem, of course, but the very concept of expressing patriotism by invoking religion seems a bit out of place in a country that supposedly values the separation of church and state.</p>
<p>But at least most people can sing this song, which is not the case with The Star-Spangled Banner.</p>
<p>Our kids prayed before every game to keep the players safe and to honor God with good sportsmanship.</p>
<p>And what’s wrong with saying God Bless America? I say God Bless this or that all the time. It doesn’t mean I want everything else to be damned.</p>
<p>I thought this was going to be a discussion about Kate Smith. 
When I was growing up, my parents had friends who worked for the Philadelphia Flyers and the team started playing God Bless America instead of the national anthem because the team’s record was better when they played Kate Smith. She even came to a few games and sang it live! The team erected a statue in her honor outside the arena in the 80’s. </p>
<p>I don’t know what the origin of the phrase is but, amazingly enough, I tend to agree with HH here. Overanalysis is sometimes a mistake.</p>
<p>The thing that always gets me on this issue of praying before games, etc. is when someone wins an award or a big game or some such, and immediately thanks God, say it was all due to God’s will, or something similar. I always wonder why it is that they think God is rooting for them and not for the others who are nominated.</p>
<p>I’m smiling at AlwaysAMom’s reference to Kate Smith and the Philadelphia Flyers. Having grown up watching the Flyers and attending their first Stanley Cup win, I recall the God Bless America tradition with Kate Smith quite well. </p>
<p>I agree with others who say this is over analysis. Asking God to bless our country is not equivalent to asking that other countries not be also blessed. </p>
<p>I also agree with AlwaysAMom in her remarks about those who feel they won this or that due to God’s will.</p>
<p>What about God Save the Queen…</p>
<p>What about praying for victory, does that mean that the other team, God doesn’t them so God makes them lose?</p>
<p>Or thanking God all the time, as if God was making sure that person won an Oscar</p>
<p>I like the first line of our national anthem: Jose can you see?</p>
<p>I don’t mind immigration status one way or the other, just want to make sure their vision is safe for the road.</p>
<p>===</p>
<p>CGM: fighters on both sides of a conflict have often been sure that their cause was God’s. “Gott Mit Uns” (God is with us) was on, what, the old German army belt buckle circa WW I?</p>
<p>I understand the OP’s point of origin on this, and it’s easy to see the logic, but I was at a large family dinner today and there was a blessing and the blessing specifically expressed thanks and wishes for the family members, present and absent.</p>
<p>One could argue that that is offensive. One could argue that God bless America, by comparison, is remarkably broad-minded and expansive. But few people read into that much more narrow supplication directed to our family members that ill will or the Creator’s disfavor should rain down upon all those not expressly mentioned.</p>
<p>God bless America is not a command or request for special treatment as much as it’s an expression of who we regard as our close family. I think it’s a wonderful or profound statement – more worthy of being our national anthem, in fact, than the Star Spangled Banner – largely because of its inclusive lyrics. I think it’s a wonderful sentiment to regard this nation of ours as a home and as our family (complete with dysfunctional quibbling!) in the same way I felt a connection to my own family at today’s blessing when prayers and wishes were focused on the relatives with whom I was breaking bread and others who could not be physically present with us.</p>
<p>Zeroing in on a focus group that’s more finite than “all of the universe and beyond” isn’t a device that’s excluding. That misses the beauty and magic of the prayer message. The focus doesn’t exclude others outside the focus. It connects us to all that’s within the focus.</p>
<p>Again, just earlier this week, I attended an interdenominational breakfast held to call attention to the suffering of the civilians in Iraq – an event attended by those who support and oppose the war – and by offering prayers and supplications for those people, nobody was excluding impoverished Americans, Coalition troops, vicitms of genocide in Darfur, or political and military leaders. Instead, what happened – or was supposed to happen – was that we were connecting with the civilians in Iraq that morning and recognizing them as part of our family. Asking for a blessing from your preferred divine force is a very powerful device…a device of connectivity, not exclusion.</p>
<p>As for those who erect a wall when they hear the term “God,” consider breaking down these barriers that are needlessly thrown up – even if you think it is the speaker or writer who’s at fault. Instead, consider that word – if you will – to be a shorthand for the terminology you prefer to use for the universal prime mover, the ultimate supernatural being, Creator, Jehovah, Yahweh, Truth, Allah, Almighty, Lord, providence, Ishtar, Ashanti, Parvati, Vishnu, Krishna, Kahuna, Karma Fairy, spiritforce, Gaia, Prince of Light, Holy Ghost, Zeus, Ra, intelligent designer, Big Bang, big guy (or rabbi) in the sky, Nanook, Odin, Oracle, etc., whether singular or plural, masculine, feminine, neuter or other.</p>
<p>“As for those who erect a wall when they hear the term “God,” consider breaking down these barriers that are needlessly thrown up – even if you think it is the speaker or writer who’s at fault. Instead, consider that word – if you will – to be a shorthand for the terminology you prefer to use for the universal prime mover, the ultimate supernatural being, Creator, Jehovah, Yahweh, Truth, Allah, Almighty, Lord, providence, Ishtar, Ashanti, Parvati, Vishnu, Krishna, Kahuna, Karma Fairy, spiritforce, Gaia, Prince of Light, Holy Ghost, Zeus, Ra, intelligent designer, Big Bang, big guy (or rabbi) in the sky, Nanook, Odin, Oracle, etc., whether singular or plural, masculine, feminine, neuter or other.”</p>
<p>EXACTLY!!
Your post was so spot on.
People throw up walls, especially with Christians, because of the history, the reputation, the media (TV hucksters and all that).</p>
<p>There is so much we have in common- Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other religions. So much more than we DON’T have in common. We’re all striving to perfect our humanity in some way.</p>
<p>watched a “preacher” on TV today, on a “family” channel</p>
<p>he was asking for his watchers to send him $1000, and for the next three months, God would answer all their prayers, because those that give receive</p>
<p>it was appalling, to be frank</p>
<p>that those that sent this charleton $$ would be blessed by God…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, let’s see…God Bless America was written by Irving Berlin in 1938. It is just a song, not even our anthem. I don’t like the lyrics to 50 cent songs…so I don’t buy them. How sad to live in an age when people object to “God Bless America.” </p>
<p>Besides “God Save the Queen,” etc. in the British anthem, we have reference to the “Good Lord” in the Marseillaise, as well as “Sacred love of France;” in “O Canada” we have–“God keep our land glorious and free;” Mexico includes “Gird your country, your brow with olive, the divine archangel of peace, for your eternal destiny was written in the heavens by the hand of God.” I’m sure there are many, many other countries whose anthems reference God.</p>
<p>I can ask God to bless my dog if I feel like it: I can certainly ask the same for my country. This doesn’t have the remotest thing to do with “separation of church and state.” Neither does reference to God in a national anthem. I bet people here don’t have a problem with France’s, Mexico’s or Canada’s National Anthems? (Just a guess.) </p>
<p>Btw, ours does not include reference to God until the fourth stanza: “Praise the power that has made and preserved us as a nation” and “And this is our motto–in God is our trust.” Maybe you can start a protest movement, but it’ll have to be worldwide, I think.</p>
<p>Excuse me, I get a little agitated that my uncle died and my dad fought in the 82nd Airborne throughout WWII to preserve the freedom of the citizens of this COUNTRY (as well as helping out France a little). Maybe you’d have preferred the paganism of Hitler as your state religion all these years. What are you people thinking? You are FREE to call upon God to bless this country, or NOT–get it?</p>
<p>hereshoping,</p>
<p>Thanks for nod to the Irving Berlin as the writer…</p>
<p>The first lines go:</p>
<p>“God Bless America, land that I love…”</p>
<p>I would the song lyrics as his ode to America. Given his immigrant background and his success in America, it makes all the sense in the world.</p>
<p>CityGirlsMom, </p>
<p>BADman.</p>
<p>And when you hear about a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim who does something wrong, do you automatically assume he/she represents the religion? </p>
<p>Just because someone gets ahold of a TV spot doesn’t mean anything. Just like people coming to your door. You can’t always believe what you see on TV.</p>
<p>Snake-oil salesmen.</p>
<p>Just like the folks who sell “stones” to heal you, or “lay hands” or “hypnotise” you out of your cancers…</p>
<p>They’re out there. But you can’t let them lead you away from a message of redemption, love, forgiveness, compassion. THAT message you’ll find in many religions. Don’t let the charletans ruin the good message.</p>
<p>I understand that sometimes, it’s understood that in saying “God Bless America,” we don’t necessarily mean to exclude other countries. However, as I said in my original post, this is a case where the person deliberately crossed out the “world,” meaning he purposely wanted to exclude other parts of the world from God’s blessing.</p>