Another discussion group member sent this. Thought it was well written and makes sense. I don’t know anything about the author except that he writes on Twitter and Facebook (which I don’t participate in).
The complete article starts out referring to Billy Graham who was still alive in 2012 when the article was written. But I thought this part is particularly worth sharing:
The phrase “I have hope for America because of Jesus Christ” really set me off. Why? Well unless you are a Mormon (or a member of some other faith where the United States actually has a role of sorts in your revelation) you have no business ascribing a particular interest in the USA to God. You can believe in that. if you want, and it is clear that a lot of people do, especially politicians. But no priest, minister, rabbi, imam, bonze, or other cleric has any business making that kind claim from the pulpit. To do so is a kind of idolatry; it makes a fetish out of the nation, and places God’s concerns and Human concerns on the same plane, perhaps even subordinating God to man. This is the disturbing underbelly behind John Winthrop’s famous (an oft-appropriated) “City on a Hill” quotation, the city that Ronald Reagan always described as “Shining.” If we are shining on a hill then where is everyone else? Dirty in a valley? Tarnished in a hole?
I always get a kick out of Christians who in one breath tell us “We are all God’s children and He loves each and every one of us infinitely”, and in the next, “God favors group XYZ”. I can see god sitting up there scratching her head at a) how utterly illogical that is, and how her children can be so dumb given the brains she gave them, and b) being pissed off…“wait what? you just dissed which of my children whom I infinitely love?”