I began this day, America’s 250th Birthday, wondering what is meant behind the statement: God Bless America.

What exactly is the intention behind that request? Is it even a request to an Almighty Being, Creator God? Or is it just a pithy statement we make out of tradition? Like repeating a rhyme we learned in preschool? Would it be any different if we went around today repeating “Mary had a little lamb” to one another?

Gallup says that 81% of Americans claim to believe in God but only 21% attend weekly services at their local place of worship. Does that mean that we are fed up with God and over the notion of a Creator? Or does it mean we are fed up with organized religion and the way it exploits people and keeps fueling wars worldwide?

I’ll leave to you to ponder that.

I’m still hung up on this notion of what it means to ask the God of all creation to bless this country. If you’ve followed my writings at all you know that I don’t like the word “bless” used in reference to our relationship with Creator. I much prefer saying I’m grateful for the life I have rather than saying I’m blessed. One puts the emphasis on Creator God, the other puts the emphasis on me. But us writers, we care about the order of words and what those words mean. If I say: “I am so blessed” that gives off a very different vibe than saying “I am so grateful.”

I have no doubt that when Stephen and Katie Miller ask God to bless America they mean to the exclusion of all others. I’m sure Trump means it that way as well. I suspect the majority of his cabinet including those with immigrant parents like Marco Rubio or Kash Patel also intend the statement as one of exclusion. God Bless America but only those who support Trump and all the foul policies they are implementing. I am sure when Pete Hegseth says God Bless America he is thinking “and destroy all those who stand in our way of being a super power in the world.”

I don’t ever say God Bless America myself. I think that’s because I’ve traveled enough to know that God doesn’t have a favorite country, or despite what Trump and Netanyahu would have us believe, a favorite people group.

Look if being God’s “chosen” requires the decimation of others – Palestinians, Lebanese, Iranians, Ukrainians, or Russians even – I’m going to reject that entire paradigm. I hold fast and true to the notion that God’s first and foremost principal is that we love others. And the word itself “others” implies those not like us.

So if the point of saying “God Bless America” is to get Creator to piss on everyone else, yeah, no thanks. I want no part of that ideology or theology.

But if by saying God Bless America you mean to say God help us find our way which we seem to have lost, then yeah, count me in.

It’s all about the emphasis. One is a plea for God to make us a better people, the other is a statement that we think we are already the better people of the world.

Which we clearly are not.

Is the intention of the plea to move God toward our specific worldview of arrogance and exclusion? Or is the intention to recognize that we are in desperate need of God’s intervention in our country?

What do you mean exaclty when you ask God to bless America?