God Bless America

... where the money changers will be welcomed back into the Temple through the front door with trumpet and cymbal and loud hosannas.

The widow and her mite will be rejected and despised and told that it doesn't even meet the required minimum payments. The Pharisee who prays with gratitude that he is not like other men can expect a loud and enthusiastic "Amen!" to his prayer. The Prodigal Son will be utterly cast out and told to get a job and work off his debts. The halt, the blind, and the lame will be told to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and that God helps those who help themselves. Our Lord will hand over the adulterous woman to be stoned to death telling her to accept the consequences of her actions. The Samaritan will heed common sense and leave the robbery victim lying in the road (he probably deserved it for not being careful). The Five Thousand will get a bill and a sermon about how bread and fish don't grow on trees and that there's no free lunch. The Wedding Party at Cana will drink water and be told to get a better caterer next time. Far from being told to love our enemies and to pray for them, we will be told to do to them before they do to us. It will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a poor man to enter heaven. "Then, who can be saved?" the Apostles ask desperately? "Only the strong and the fittest," Our Lord replies. Lazarus will stay in his tomb. The stones will be turned into bread. The Good Shepherd leaves the sheep to fight it out among themselves and forsakes the lost for wandering off in the first place.

Finally, Our Lord will listen to the taunts of the impenitent thief and of the mob gathered at the foot of his cross. He will come down off of his cross and save himself. His power and dominion will be irresistible. Love him or hate him, we shall all be compelled to submit regardless of our own wills. The Resurrection will be swallowed up in victory. Love will be swallowed up in Power. Hope will be swallowed up in Death.


This is our religion, the American religion, "Muscular Christianity."