Seattle Press on Line - God Bless America

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God Bless America

By Curt Firestone

May 23, 2002 -- America--at least the United States of America--is blessed.

God has blessed North America with an abundance of natural resources, food and healthy agriculture.

Compared to most peoples of the world, the vast majority of North Americans live in moderate to extreme economic abundance. Americans should be asking for God's blessings for the less fortunate, in the United States and in other countries.

God bless the victims of poverty. God bless the victims of greed. God bless the victims of war.

God in his/her almighty wisdom should direct the huge wealth of the few to enable all people to enjoy the fruits of a very rich mother earth.

God should give guidance to those who are the purveyors of greed; so they will see the error of their path and the cruelty of their actions. Greed leads to war between nations as one strives to dominate another.

And war is also the state between individuals when greed becomes the driving factor in one person's personal relationship with another. What else do you call it when one individual attempts to control another's assets or force one's own doctrine or faith upon another?

Religious leaders (Christ, Muhammad, Buddha, Moses) are revered because they put others before themselves. They found beauty in all peoples and found no higher calling than to strive for the betterment of others.

Today, America and its leaders yell out, "God Bless America." They are misguided. America has God's blessings. God must be called upon to give his/her blessings to all people of the world; especially those who are the victims of America's greed.

May God give the United States of America his/her blessing by showing a new path, one that shares America's resources with all nations and all people. For only when the world is blessed will America be truly blessed. And America will be blessed when its domination comes not from military power but the power of love and sharing.

Curt Firestone is a Seattle community activist. He ran for City Council in 1999 and 2001, and is also a former officer of the Washington State Rainbow Coalition, the Green Party, the Democratic Party and the national Independent Progressive Politics Network.

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Chris Barker	Jul 10, 2002	Auburn WA	System Engineer
In paragraph 5, Curt says, ìGod in his/her almighty wisdom should direct the huge wealth of the few to enable all people to enjoy the fruits of a very rich mother earth.î In paragraph 7, Curt says, ìWhat else do you call it (but war) when one individual attempts to control another's assets or force one's own doctrine or faith upon another?î So which is it? Is directing the wealth of the rich people to non-rich people wisdom or war? Is it good for God to control the assets of rich people, but bad for you and me to do it? Maybe we canít personally direct the huge wealth of others, but we can pray for God to do it? We, the United States, tried directing peopleís assets. We called it Welfare. Welfare drove millions of people into deep, multi-generational poverty. When we stopped Welfare, they started rising out of poverty. The former Soviet Union tried it, using the same concept, but derived from the Communist Manifest, ìfrom each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.î They turned most of a continent into a smoking garbage heap filled with sickly, poverty-stricken people. So, Iím guessing itís bad for mere humans to do this. I canít think of any instances of any God personally taking most, but not all, of a rich manís money and distributing it among the poor. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and some other religions encourage people to give their own money to the poor. Modern liberalism is, I think, the only ìreligionî which finds personal honor in confiscating Bobís money, against his will, and donate it to the poor. I get the impression that Curt thinks Godís blessing on a nation centers on Godís delivering to it money, or at least goods and services, simply because it is poorer than some other country. And this blessing is to be extracted it from a wealthier country. (Some religions hear God telling them to go to war to gain wealth, but this does not fit Curtís model.) However, most such religions require regular and specific activities by each individual simply to earn Godís attention, let alone a blessing. (Buddhism, lacking an active, central God, is pretty much out of the picture in country blessing activities. But Buddhist ìblessingsî are still gained by individual effort.) Our Founding Fathers thought the Christian Godís blessings of ìlife, liberty and the pursuit of happinessî were sufficient. No blessings of money, free medical care, or housing, just the freedom to pursue them. The test results are in, and the evidence is conclusive. They were right.


mudassar aziz	Dec 30, 2002	wah cantt/pakistan/asia	student


Bob Vale	Apr 16, 2003	South Bend	Pastor
Recently I went to work with some missionaries in Mexico and Honduras. I was overwhelmed by the poverty in both countries and all I could think about is how overly blessed America has been the past 100 years. I am challenging my congregation this next Sunday to realize this and give of their abundance to the poor both in this country, but particularly to the poor in other contries.


Mike Farman	Dec 14, 2003	Texas	Engineer
Why "God Bless America"? Why should Americams claim a special relationship with the Divinity? Are they really superior or more deserving than other human beings? Shouln't we be saying "God help the Human Race"?