Its an interesting question, and one I struggle with when people say it. This post will operate under the assumption that there might be a deity of some sort out there, so more of a deistic approach rather than a purely atheist perspective.
Lets assume for the moment that Christian’s are indeed correct in their beliefs. This would make the assumption that world-wide denominations of religious organizations (i.e. Catholics, etc) would apparently have sub-sects of beliefs, because I find it hard to believe that Italian Catholics are fervently chanting “God Bless America”. So, on the surface this also serves to drive a religion apart, or at very least America vs. the rest of the world, which is also seems to be a common theme in our country.
So, when we continue our look at the question, we realize that this question is about as solipsistic as you can get, saying that America somehow has a special privilege above others. It’s this kind of thinking that drives and builds hatred for our country and culture. Much of which proclaims America to be the greatest nation on earth, and is demonstrably false. Let me be clear; I am happy to reside in this country, as there are much worse off places to call home, but there are certainly better, as well.
The other big issue from my perspective with this claim is that America wasn’t even know about at the time the Bible was written. There is, of course, ZERO mention of it in the entire Bible. I would argue that most Americans are afraid of people that look like Jesus would have. Jesus (based on all interpretations of the bible and any other writings that have mentioned him) was in fact, a long haired hippy with dark skin who obviously would not have spoke English, so, pretty much fitting all of the requirements of the “conservative right’s” xenophobic fears, which incidentally clings to Jesus as their favorite character in all of literature.
Other things despised by much of conservative America would not be things that Jesus taught his followers to do. Things like sell all of your possessions and give them to the poor, treat people with respect, and help the sick and poor. Our country’s GOP demonstrably detests many of these things.
It’s just emotionally frustrating to listen to people proclaim something so blatantly elitist as “God Bless America” in a manor that essentially disregards the rest of the world, despite there being lots of christians in other places of the world. Don’t get me wrong, America is one of the higher, if not highest (population percentage wise) nations of Christian believers, but to proclaim that elite status in a deity who supposedly created the entirety of the world, is in a word: asinine.
I believe that this mentality grew out of the ideas of Manifest-destiny that reigned supreme while we were developing as a nation. And indeed, it proved to be an effective tool for rallying and mobilizing an entire nation, just taken too far, I feel.
A friend of mine recently wrote a similar article about this, on a smaller scale and slightly different context, but similar none-the-less. Check out Jamie’s blog: Change From Within
Atheist Tyler 