American Greatness

It's the "greatest country on earth." At least that's what we've been told all of our lives. It appears that most Americans have drunk the Kool-Aid on this one too. Most of us have believed all of our lives that America is the greatest country on earth.

There has, for decades now, been an American sense of exceptionalism. Perhaps at one time it was an idealistic and generous form (of exceptionalism). But today it may have become harder and more hubristic. In fact, on closer examination - reading of blogs, editorials and letters to editors of publications, etc. - something else emerges.

It is more a solipsistic brand of exceptionalism that Americans seem to tote around on the bumpers of our cars. Our belief in the superiority of America is more grounded in extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of our feelings, desires, etc. In other words, America is such a great country simply because we feel that way, want it to be that way, etc. We take deep-rooted (albeit self-centered) perspective and simply decree it to be true. And we do so without examining the facts.

Don't get me wrong. I'm an American. I'm proud of my country and I love my country. I am very blessed to be here. And I am more than a little grateful for the life I get to live in this land. That said, I think it takes the effort of some very active imaginations to conjure that America is the "greatest" or "best." Let me explain.

Measuring military strength, yes, we are the mightiest nation on earth. Our spending on defense is more than the next several dozen countries combined. But on many other fronts - which may matter more in determining true greatness - its a different story. Americans turn in a dismal score ... especially when compared to the blessed advantage that we start our performance at.

American children, for example, routinely turn out to be more ignorant of basic subjects like math and geography than their counterparts in other industrialized nations. They are also more likely to die in infancy or grow up in poverty - and those odds are increasing.

Everyone agrees that our health care system is "broken," but we spend more money on health care than anyone. News reports this week state that healthcare consumed more than 17% of all American spending this past year. And yet Americans are not living the longest lives in the world ... or the healthiest. Obesity, diabetes and other diseases are overwhelming our health problems.

There's much talk about America's "crumbling infrastructure"' too. Crumbling roads, creaky bridges and tunnels, railways, sewage and water systems, electricity grids and other parts of our infrastructure are suffering from deferred maintenance.

We have lost so much of our edge in science and technology that even American companies have begun to outsource their research and development efforts --- to third world countries! Of course there's much we could say about sending jobs offshore.

Americans are considerably underemployed and overqualified. Few Americans would tell you that they're performing in jobs which truly challenge them or give them the best ability to contribute. Couple that with the raping and pillaging of corporate finances by executives and shoddy boards --- and you get a dismal picture of corporate America.

It's true that America is first in a lot of areas. That I won't deny. For instance, we are the most generous nation on earth --- giving more money to help the poor around the world than anyone. But not all the ways that we're first are so good. Some are downright awful even.

We have the highest percentage of our overall population incarcerated. In fact, we have more people in prison than repressive regimes like China. We also also have the greatest level of inequality in wealth and income --- where the rich just get richer and the poor multiply rapidly.

We are plagued by the highest incidence of gun violence on earth. And we are slaves to the highest levels of personal debt on earth. Ironically, our government shares that malady by being the greatest debtor government on earth and having the biggest spending deficits on earth.

Americans voluntarily slaughter more babies through abortion than any other nation on earth. And we spend more money on fertility drugs and treatments ... trying to get pregnant with more babies. We also have the highest level of children in the foster care system - removed from abusive and neglectful parents.

Look, I'm not saying that America is not great. But I am a little tired of the flag-waving pollyanna's who don't seem to have a grip on reality. We keep saying that this is the greatest country on earth. But what definition of greatness are we using to draw such a conclusion?

It's time we get a more realistic view of this land that we so love. It will only be when we have an accurate assessment of our true condition that we collectivley roll up our sleeves and get to work at the things that would truly make this the greatest country on earth.

Being Heard

So there is this phenomenon in American culture. It is that we want to be heard. It's not really important what the subject is - we just really want to be heard. And it's hard to explain how deep that desire is. You see, Americans consider being heard as something that is quite valuable indeed.

One of the more remarkable examples of this is something called Angie's List. I'm not sure who Angie is (or if there even really is an Angie). It is billed as a company that aggregates consumer reviews of local service companies. But it is actually a private community that only paying members can participate in. That means that in order to see a review on any company you might have an interest in, you have to pay the $59.00 annual membership fee. Similarly, to provide a review on a particular company, one must also pay the $59.00 annual membership fee.

Now you can imagine that not too many people would be willing to pay $59.00 in order to read other lay evaluations of particular vendors - whom I haven't identified yet. So how does Angie's List recruit its members? Mostly be advertising in local newspapers as a place to complain. "Had bad service? Had a poor experience? Tell it to Angie!" So here we are, like sheep being led to slaughter, willing to pay for the privilege of telling someone how awful we've been treated as a customer. Like I said, Americans place great value on the ability to be heard.

So I wonder what America might be like if Americans placed as much value on listening as they do on being heard. How might our priorities change? How do these dynamics impact our culture? I suspect the truth is that we don't know. We are probably ignorant of this impact.

Clearly there is no Biblical correlation. We are to pray without ceasing - being heard by God. But I don't find anything that says we should be heard by anyone but God. So when I see what Americans are willing to pay in order to be heard, my gut instinct tells me that this phenomenon is not without its ramifications. Now I just have to think about what those are!

One Nation

The Bible is pretty clear about how people should live their lives. And in the U.S., faith-driven people no doubt identify more with the good book’s heroes than its villains. Yet it’s fair to ask, is this country living up to God’s expectations?

When the last vote is tallied and the last yard sign pulled down, Democrats and Republicans must go back to being "one nation under God." That's especially important when we're drowning in economic woes at home and fighting at least two wars abroad.

As a Christian, I'm mindful that most Americans are citizens of two kingdoms. They're loyal Americans, but they're also people of faith. Thus, their patriotism is tempered by their loyalty to a God who transcends all national and international boundaries whose precinct is the universe.

True patriotism exists where citizens love their country enough to hold it accountable. That means working to make certain that the president we have elected and the government we have created live up to the words of our creeds and the dreams of our poets and prophets.

That kind of patriotism is at the heart of authentic biblical faith. The great prophets of the Bible were considered unpatriotic by many of their day. No wonder. In two of Israel's most cataclysmic wars one in the eighth century B.C. and one in the sixth B.C. both Amos and Jeremiah had the unmitigated gall to tell the Hebrew people that God was not on their side!

Can you image the howl that would erupt if a preacher today suggested that God was using Arab terrorists to humble America? The First Amendment might save him from arrest (the prophet Jeremiah was not so lucky), but any such preacher would almost certainly be relieved of his pulpit duties, if not run out of town. I'll be the first one to write off the Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a fanatical, even dangerous man in our society. Nevertheless, our brand of religion and patriotism is so widespread in our country today that most of us would never entertain the notion that America's foreign or domestic policies might fall short of what God requires.

Part of our challenge stems from the fact that we Americans have an overabundance of self-confidence. Management guru Marshall Goldsmith reports that 70% of the 50,000 people he has surveyed rank themselves in the top 10% of their peer group. Among doctors, pilots and investment bankers, the number is even higher. Once when Goldsmith told a group of doctors that his "extensive research" had revealed that exactly half of all doctors graduated in the bottom half of their med-school class, two in the audience insisted that this was impossible. Do you suppose there's any possibility that Americans don't have a realistic view of themselves?

I suspect we read the Bible much the same way. We don't identify with the Egyptians, Babylonians or the multitude of Israelites who worshipped the golden calf. We identify with Abraham and Moses the good guys. Likewise, in the New Testament, we don't identify with the scribes and the Pharisees. And we certainly don't identify with those hated Romans. We identify with Peter, James and John. But like Goldsmith's surveyed physicians, we might be fooling ourselves. Look beneath the surface, and much of what's plaguing the world is what's plaguing us.

For starters, we're greedy. America consumes more than its fair share of most everything: gasoline, food, plastic, you name it. On a personal level, millions of us are overweight, overspent and overleveraged. The sub prime mortgage crisis is all about people wanting more than they can afford. And despite greed's appearance on the list of "seven deadly sins" and the Bible's admonishment to refrain from excessive borrowing, the average American carries more than $2,000 in credit card debt on top of his household mortgage. Collectively, we behave much the same way. The unpaid balance on our national debt now tops $10 trillion and is climbing at a breath-taking pace. Overall public debt and other obligations outstanding are easily measured in multiples of our national debt too.

We're also violent. The United States remains one of the most violent of the so-called developed nations. I'm not even talking here about our various wars and incursions. We kill one another at an alarming rate. According to the Children's Defense Fund (a non-profit that studies these things), a child is killed by a gun every three hours in the USA. That's eight a day. And that’s just the children.

I have read that perhaps the best measure of a nation is how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. Here, again, we Americans fall short. Our infant mortality rate is among the highest of the developed nations. (And that doesn't include the millions of infants that we slaughter through abortion.) Our old people are living in continually deteriorating circumstances. They are not well fed. Many miss important medications because they cannot afford them. Most live alone and are not cared for. Many of our nursing homes are a travesty. Ironically, many of our nursing homes are too full to take in all of the people who need them.

Although growing numbers of us are volunteering, our government's efforts overseas are proportionately relatively meager when compared to other prosperous nations. Most of the overseas assistance we do provide is military-related and in service of our own strategic goals. In contrast, the Bible time and again admonishes God's people to advance the cause of the poor and to show hospitality to foreigners. Interestingly, nations are also warned not to put our trust in weapons of war. On a personal level, our giving is not generous. While it is true that Americans individually give vast sums of money to charity, that can be deceiving. Americans do not tithe, for example. Barna Research has surveyed our giving and among self-identified born-again Christians, giving to church or other religious organizations is less than 3% of their gross household income.

Don't get me wrong. The U.S. is a great nation. I love my country. It has pushed the bounds of science and technology and brought prosperity to the masses, creating the world's largest middle class. We have defeated some of the world's vilest villains and brought freedom and the rule of law to the farthest reaches of the planet. But it is not perfect. Some would be surprised to know that the United States has toppled democratically elected governments in favor of “friendly” dictators and firebombed civilians. We consume resources at a dangerous pace and ravaged the environment in the process. And, we have gone from a progressive tax structure, that was built upon the biblical premise that to whom much is given much is required, to one that provides massive tax relief to the people who need it least --- the rich.

The faith community has our work cut out for us if America is to be the beacon envisioned by some of our greatest leaders. And if self-awareness is the beginning of wisdom, perhaps we should start by reading the Bible with different eyes. Maybe we're not ancient Israel. Maybe we're Rome!