Meditation

To those I love there are some things I must say. Your close attention is requested, not as a requirement but in the prayerful hope that my thoughts may be worthy.

I am unquestionably American. That is all I have ever known. In the context of Hebrew Scripture I am a God-fearing American in that my faith is in that which I reverently perceive as transcendent in every way, realized and not yet comprehended, to me. I find myself experiencing the era of American history in which we must—and I think may be about to—discover the power of God’s love to guide creative progress as the viable alternative to the historic paradigm of destroy and conquer.

There is no thought more unchristian than “country first.” This is an oath of allegiance to empire that utterly contradicts the ancient and universal maxim to love God first and foremost. The attempt to justify a definition of patriotism which is distorted by the assertion that God blesses imperialistic dominion is sacrilege of the highest order. Such allegiance is an archetypical expression of an egocentrism which can never harmonize with a reverential devotion to It, the Great Other, the Higher Power, God. Each one decides if such corruption is tangible evidence of the antichrist made manifest to human experience.

Putting God first naturally evokes an abject confession of having fallen short, of having missed the mark, of having failed to understand, appreciate, and experience the holistic and symbiotic unity of Creator and Creation. I come to God as an American who is undeniably God’s before I am America’s. I am therefore fundamentally at odds with every admonition to put anything before God, country included. The claim of discipleship is, therefore, authenticated through practical agreement with the Greatest Commandment as revealed in, by, and through the Christ.