The words, “under God,” were added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. No doubt this was done out of a self-righteous desire to encourage Americans in their conflict with “atheistic” Marxism. Before that we were just “one nation, indivisible.”
But the Living God is not mocked or used. God is not easily enlisted in anyone’s political agenda. God is not anyone’s national mascot to be trotted out to pump up the crowd. Inviting God’s influence into your common life has consequences. Claiming to be God’s people or in some way uniquely “under God” compared with others, especially your enemies, is not something to do lightly. The moral standards to which you subject yourself are exponentially higher when you claim a special relationship with God, as distinct from when you are just doing what is politically expedient.
We may have imagined that proclaiming ourselves to be “under God” would generate enthusiasm for preserving and defending our traditional way of life. Unfortunately, the God we invoke is notorious for messing with and demolishing traditions and ways of life that do not reflect and express God’s will for justice and equality. I wonder how many of the controversies that our nation has gone through since 1954 aren’t a result of God messing with us at our invitation.
A lot of that has been what John Lewis called “good trouble.” The Supreme Court decided Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, and three years later President Eisenhower had to send Federal troops to Little Rock to enforce a school desegregation order. The civil rights movement was kicked off by the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began in 1955. Emmett Till was lynched that same year; unlike the thousands of these unspeakable atrocities that had happened previously, this time people cared. Bob Dylan even wrote a song about it.
Since then, social progress has been made in many areas… and vociferously resisted by exactly the people who insisted on adding this affirmation to the Pledge. They thought that our claiming to be God’s special people would please God. Perhaps they forgot that Jesus Christ said that those who merely proclaim with their mouths “Lord, Lord!” will have no place in his Kingdom. Maybe God heard the Name invoked and didn’t like what we were doing in that Name. Maybe bringing up God’s Name actually brought down God’s judgment on our injustices. It’s not like the biblical Israel and Judah somehow got away with anything because they were God’s chosen. Just the opposite. The Hebrew prophets devote the bulk of their time criticizing and predicting disaster upon their own people.
In World War II, “Gott Mit Uns” (“God With Us”) was stamped on the belt-buckles of Nazi soldiers. It didn’t go so well for them, either.
We cannot claim to be “under God” and continue to be ruled by our own fear, hatred, and anger. We cannot allow lynching or racial segregation. We cannot despise Gays or transgendered people. We cannot unduly restrict immigration, or ban Muslims, or enact voter suppression laws, or continue to commit genocide against indigenous people, or poison God’s creation out of insatiable greed. We cannot sink untold trillions of dollars into armaments and engage in pointless wars. We cannot invent huge and obscene disparities of wealth. We cannot do with impunity any of these things if we have decided to loudly proclaim that God is on your side. Maybe if we’re not living according to the way God wants us to live it would be more prudent to just stay under God’s radar.
What if all our social advances since 1954 are actually God’s doing, getting us in line with what God says in Scripture about the poor being lifted up, and the meek inheriting the earth, and people who live by the sword dying by it? What if those opposing those changes, supposedly in the name of “Christianity” are actually against what God is doing? In the Bible, God liberates people from slavery and oppression; God is about equality and inclusion, compassion and social justice, forgiveness and love. How well did we think 1954 America would stack up to that vision?
Accepting our invitation in the Pledge, perhaps God looked around and basically said, “Well, if you’re going to use my Name, we’re gonna hafta have some changes around here. I have my brand to protect, as you would say. So brace yourselves; you’re in for a bumpy ride.”
+++++++
No comments:
Post a Comment