Can someone explain to me the phrase "God bless America"

[Martin Aigner]

"Yes I've been to Europe but certainly I wouldn't claim to be very knowledgable at all about customs, morals, and laws of the countries I visited. Being in the USA for 6 months isn't a guarantee of anything. Your statements about religion in the role of that religion and the USA indicates to me a lack of knowledge."

You sure are right that 6 months aren´t enought to understand the thinking of a culture. I just wanted to indicate, that I have been to the USA, and that I don´t decline everything in the USA. I´m in no way an "Americanos-hater". What I think I´ve learned about people in the USA is that they are (on average) religious in a higher degree that they are in Austria.

"Could you elaborate? Are you saying that the news media is utilizing propoganda (lots of news sources in the USA btw so if you can remember specific ones that would be helpful)? The US government? Both?"

The media I was talking about was TV. There were several Newsstations (I was in New England and New York), CNN and others more (some channel of NBC and FOX and ABC I think). They had about 24hrs coverage of showdown with Saddam. I didn´t watch too much of it, since the purpose of my trip wasn´t watching TV :-) , still I watched some of the reports. 100% of them were pro war, some of them with ridicullous arguments. The silliest one was from some senator, who was interviewed and said: "We have to go to war against Saddam, since we KNOW that he has weapons of mass destruction. The reason why we know it is that he already told us years before". Wow, what an argument.

Maybe I just watched TV at wrong times, but there really wasn´t 1 single person interviewed on TV while I watched who was against war. For me, this honestly looked like propaganda pro war against Iraq, and therefor pro Bush.

"It would be wrong to refer to unilateral opinions in the USA. There is no doubt that some in the USA that believe the USA is entitled to devine guidance and intervention. I'm certain it's not the majority opinion though. The USA govt is secular and there is ongoing struggle here, in the USA, to have it remain that way."

I´m happy to hear about that. I have read "Body of secrets" by James Bamford, and not later than ever since I
don´t believe too much a government says. (For those who have read it, I´m esp. refering to the chapter handling about cuba in the 60s).

Furthermore I must admit, that I was both surprised and happy, that there were big demonstrations in NY (and the rest of the world) against the possible war. I also heard in TV, that pro/contra war poll about 10 days ago was something like 58/42, which did surprise me a little, because of the media-situation (the situation I felt how it was). I would have expected something like 70/30 pro war (or even more pro war).

"They want Saddam disarmend the stated positions of Blair, Bush, Annan, Blix, etc. There's more or less unanimous agreement in the UN about that. "

No problem with Saddam being disarmed. Probably the whole western world agrees to that.

Regards

Martin Aigner

[Martin Aigner]

"I played for many years in smoky cardrooms and still wonder how much damage I might have done to my lungs. Since I've had the pleasure of playing in smoke-free cardrooms in more recent years, I can't see going back to the old ways, for me, especially if the smoke is heavy"

I can´t argue against that.

"
Do you expect that the Europeans will ever so slowly come around to the realization that smoking indoors is incredibly harmful to their own health and the health of others?"

I honestly don´t know. There are some efforts, but they aren´t that successfull yet. So if you ask me what would happen if a card room in Europe would turn nonsmoking, my answer would be: It would have to close soon after. The majority of the players smoke. But as I have stated, it isn´t that bad as some americans say it is in the normal way of life. Smokers and nonsmokers are seperated in the offices, airports are smokefree (unless on the smoking areas), it´s no problem in restaurants. But it sure is a problem in casinos. The reason probably is easy to explain. People tend to get exited while playing. When people are nervous, they smoke even more. So the problem is way bigger than in normal life.

"With all the things that are banned in Europe--as brad pointed out, referring to someone in England as a "homosexual" can get one arrested--can't Europeans see that forcing others to breathe their smoke in places of public accomodation is a great deal worse and more of an assalt than any name-calling could possibly be? Name-calling or even racist epithets may hurt someone's feelings--but smoke hurts others' health."

I´ve never heard that hmosexuals get arrested in GB,and I honestly don´t believe it. We hear of some strange laws in some parts of the USA too, which I doubt that anyone inforces (I would have to check the internet for it, but there are somr funmails which refer to this laws).

One funny thing is, that americans tend to think that it´s the land of the free. For (middle-) europeans this it just seems the opposite. :-) Probably it´s always the way you look at it.

"I'd love to visit Europe but if it's as smoky as some say I'd be rather reluctant. Once you get used to smoke-free environments stepping into smoky rooms is like being hit with a ton of bricks--you can feel it, and you feel it afterwards and the next day too."

As I´ve stated, it doesn´t seem that extremly bad to me (unless in casinos)

Regards

Martin Aigner

[olemissgolf]

Martin: "We haven´t done anything to be born or raised in one or another country, so I don´t see too many reasons to be proud of that matter of fact, no matter what citizen someone happens to be."

You don't choose your family, but I hope you're proud of them.
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Martin: "BTW, I´m pretty sure that if any american was born/raised where I live (Vienna, Austria), he´d love to live here"

As well he should!
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Martin: "English isn´t my mother tounge, so I might be completly wrong about this, but these words implicate in a very sophisticated way to me, that the USA is superior to any nation on earth"

To me, that is not what they imply. To me, it means-
"May God be with you, in times of struggle, may He watch over you, and protect you, and keep you humble, and guide you down the proper path." We should all (individually, or nationally) be humble when mentioned in the same sentence as God.
We also say a blessing before meals. "God bless this food to the nurishment of our bodies" and we say, "God bless you (usually shortened to "Bless you") when someone sneezes. These are just things that are said and done, not any implications of superiority.
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Martin: This phrase is not about anyone seeking help from god for himself, (although in its origing it might have been meant this way). This phrase should mean: "We are better. So God will help us".

I think this is misinterpretation. It has never meant that to me. Closer to the point, "I am asking, so God help us".

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Martin Aigner,
Have a nice day, cheers, take care, and God bless you!

[John Ho]

God loves Americans more. That is why we are the most powerful nation on earth.

And when someone wins a Grammy or Oscar and thanks God - that's the right thing to do because God loves the winner more than the losers.

[IrishHand]

lol - That was outstanding!

[HDPM]

Not all Americans are comfortable with the statement. Sometimes its innocuous, but other times I think it does carry a more negative/sinister undertone. After September 11, I was not happy at all about the use of patriotism and religion together, as when the Congressmen sang God Bless America on the steps of the Capitol. Since we were attacked by irrational religious barbarians bent on destroying the progress of reason, I saw no reason to play into their hands by havig collective religious "counterpoints" to their irrational crap. I am offended at mixing religion and war. I am not saying that war is necessarily wrong, but if we are going to go in and crush a bunch of people we should do it without any reference to religion. Killing terrorists is just fine with me, but we don't need to do it in the name of God IMO. You are correct that Americans can be funnny about religion. In fact, if you poke around the internet you will find some columns criticizing Western Europeans for not being Christian enough thereby becoming excessively anti-American. These colums are not well reasoned, but a lot of people agree with them. Many Americans belive we are a Christian country even though our Constitution designed a completely secular government. But views in this regard are not homogenous at all.

[HDPM]

Yes, but mostly God favors certain athletes. Do you think He bets the games? I love it in interviews where an athlete invokes God as the reason for victory. I always wanted to be a major league pitcher so I could throw at batters who crossed themselves. I guess I'd get suspended, but if I hit one I'd tell him he didn't really believe because God hit him with the ball. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

P.S. Anyone pay attention to Michael Waltrip's statement about the Daytona 500 last week. He won in a rainout and admitted praying for rain. He essentially said, "First I pray for fogiveness, etc...., then my family and loved ones and world peace or whatever,.... then I pray for what I want." It was awful. I'd be waaaaaay too tempted to wreck him this week if I were a NASCAR driver. That would be wrong tho.

[John Cole]

Martin,

I think you missed part of the "how-to-end-a-speech" formula. The correct wording is "God bless you, and God bless the United States of America." I'm not sure who began the tradition (although I suspect it may have been Reagan), but it is now grounds for impeachment to end any formal political speech without these words. (I think it might also be seditious, too, but I'll have to check on this.)

In addition, when a war begins, all American recording artists are now required to work in "God bless the USA" into every song. The rules for this are, thankfully, somewhat relaxed, so as long as "God bless the USA" is audible, even if the recording is played backwards at 78 RPM, the spirit of the law has been upheld.

Quite frankly, I find the endless repetition of these words annoying (as you've probably guessed), but truly religious people should be much more outraged because the words they truly believe in are rapidly becomming emptied of all meaning.

John

[Zeno]

Mr. Aigner, Not everyone in America is in agreement with the "God Bless America" statement. Check this out:

America


-Zeno

[adios]

From the responses in this post Martin I think it's fair to say that the USA doesn't uniformly embrace references to religion in the name of USA actions and government policies. Realize John Ho's response was tongue in cheek which I'm sure you do. Personally I think various government bodies in the USA ought to bend over backwards to avoid the conflicts between "church and state." The applicable principle here is separation of church and state.

A couple of comments on your thoughtful reply. I was reading an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal on the op-ed page where the columnist was complaining that the coverage of the USA media was too one sided in favor of those protesting war. So I would suppose it depends on your perception. Personally I don't like the media sources you referenced and seldom watch them. There is very, very strong opposition to USA military action in this country. I noticed that Blix has given Saddam a deadline for destroying missles and related hardware of March 1. I also noticed that Saddam wants to negotiate this order by Blix. I more or less predicted that events would go down like this with further inspectors. If Hussein gets away with this I don't think the UN will last very long as any kind of organization to maintain world peace.