Food For Thought On The Nation's Birthday

The Rev. Patricia Templeton, rector of St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church in northwest Atlanta, reflects on the phrase "God Bless America" in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

[It] seems to me that too often "God bless America" has become less a prayer and more a battle cry. Less a call for God's protection and guidance, and more an arrogant shout of superiority, a demand that God bless this country above all others...

Recently I reread Mark Twain's essay "The War Prayer," written in the early 1900s in response to the Philippine-American War. The piece is set at a church service held to send the town's young men off to war... Twain's daughter urged her father never to publish "The War Prayer" because it would be seen as an affront to both Christians and patriots. Indeed, it was not published until 13 years after Twain's death.

At the risk of causing offense, I believe there is great sense in what Twain's stranger said; that his warning is one we should all heed on this holiday on which God will be called on countless times to bless our country in a time of war.