By now I'm sure you've heard all of the outrage over Obama's pastor's "God damn America" sermon. Although many seem to think that the remark was over the line, I am reminded of the following "fabled damned of nations" quote:
(For the immediate context, go to http://www.fullbooks.com/Complete-Prose-Works5.html and for the full text for his essay go to http://www.fullbooks.com/Complete-Prose-Works4.html) .I say of all this tremendous and dominant play of solely materialistic bearings upon current life in the United States, with the results as already seen, accumulating, and reaching far into the future, that they must either be confronted and met by at least an equally subtle and tremendous force-infusion for purposes of spiritualization, for the pure conscience, for genuine esthetics, and for absolute and primal manliness and womanliness--or else our modern civilization, with all its improvements, is in vain, and we are on the road to a destiny, a status, equivalent, in its real world, to that of the fabled damned.
Walt Whitman - Democratic Vistas, 1871
Is it fair, or not, to assert that America, with all of its blessings, should be judged harshly when it fails to extend those blessings to others?
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12:48)Jesus harshest criticisms are always for those who should have known better, frequently Pharisees, but also notably stewards, the caretakers or managers of a master's estate. I read parables like Luke 12:42-48, and the social justice aspect of the parable is clear: those who hold the power will be held accountable for how they used, or misused, the power delegated by the master.
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