What's America Asking For?

“God bless America.” What do we really mean when we say that? Does this phrase mean anything at all? Are we truly addressing God as Lord and asking for His blessing, and are we willing to be the kind of people that God would indeed bless?

You may know that last week President Obama came out in an interview with Robin Roberts of ABC News that he now favors same-sex marriage. He had been waffling on this issue for some time, having supported it while running for state office in Illinois in 1996, but in campaigning for Senate in 2004 and then President in 2008 saying that he believed marriage is the union between a man and a woman.

He has more recently said that his feelings about this issue are constantly “evolving.” Of course, his actions as President have displayed his real stance on the subject. While saying he opposed same-sex marriage, he has done just about everything in his power to promote the social causes of homosexuals and undermine the traditional view of marriage.

Even last week while North Carolina became the 30^th state to vote to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, President Obama publicly expressed his disappointment at the result. His evolution on this matter comes as no surprise.

I want to go on record to publicly express my disappointment in a leader who claims to be a Christian but seems to have no regard for the Word of the Lord. How can our nation expect God to bless us when we spurn Him at every turn? How can we continue to reject His instructions and then call on Him to bless America? How can we say we want His blessing but refuse to do things His way?

God has clearly spelled out His design for marriage. Jesus responded to critics in His day concerning divorce by saying, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:4-6). Wouldn’t the same answer apply to critics today who want to redefine what God has intended from the beginning? 

In the book of Judges, a telling rebuke on the sinful, rebellious attitude of Israel in that day reads, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). Couldn’t that be said of us today in America?

And in Romans 1:17, the Bible says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” That passage goes on to talk about how men who claimed to be wise became fools, because although they “knew” God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Specifically, it mentions how “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity…and dishonorable passions…, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:24, 26-27).

And we have now a President who, as a professing Christian, ought to know God’s Word about such things, but gives approval to those who practice them. If we follow this course we are asking not for God’s blessing on America, but His wrath.

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). If we really want God to bless America, let the people of God humble themselves and pray and seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways. God will hear from heaven, will forgive our sins and heal our land (2 Chronicles 7:14).