If I were an American, I’d sing the chorus of “God Bless America” every morning and encourage family and friends to do the same. I would organise a “God Bless America Day” and invite fellow Americans to join me in celebration of the things that made our nation great. I would get preachers well-known for their refusal to compromise to speak on The Pilgrim Fathers and the faith that inspired them to leave Great Britain and brave the Atlantic ocean and so find freedom in The New World.
I would also reprint front cover pages from “The Saturday Evening Post”, which illustrated aspects of the USA in the1950s. Stories in the magazine featured values esteemed by Americans at the time and inspired great men and women to stand for integrity in their hometowns.
I would encourage fellow Americans to give thanks to Almighty God for His Son, the Lord Jesus, who gave his life as a sacrifice for not only the sins of Americans but also the sins of the world. These things would make a good start.
Americans: sing from your hearts “God Bless America” over and over until you mean it. Your enemies will hate hearing it, which is a good reason to sing it often — and not softly.
Lorraine and I were in LA on 4th July once, and friends took us to their church in Newhall, where they sang “America the Beautiful”. Everyone sang with hands on hearts. We were impressed. “God Bless America” is not a song, though, but a prayer, which is why I would sing it every morning.
“Australia” has the same number of syllables as “America” but has no equivalent, and even if we had, would not sing it with hand on heart. We fought no War of Independence or Civil War, and so lack the emotional feeling for our land that Americans have for theirs. We sing the ponderous “Advance Australia Fair”, our national anthem, dutifully but without the same heartfelt feeling Americans sing theirs.
A far better anthem would be “We are Australian”, but the rights are unavailable. The motto of the USA is “E pluribus unum”: “Out of many, one”, which fits well with the opening words of “We are Australian” — “We are one, but we are many.”
The song was written and sung by Judith Durham, after her retirement as lead singer of “The Seekers”. Still, I know of no law that would prevent Australians from paying for the song online and then singing the first verses to themselves every morning, maybe followed by “I’m Glad to be an American”, with a barely noticeable name change to its four-syllable title. With all that nation’s problems, at least US citizens can sing “At least I know I’m free…”
I’ve a brother who has lived in the USA for most of his life and loves its people and its values! He’s still an Aussie though and says “G’day” with the same dry undercurrent most Aussies do when greeting one another. Anyhow, “God Bless Australia!” and “God Bless America” too — Almighty God has more than enough blessings for both.