Is "American Exceptionalism" All About Christianity


A President of a seminary in the Southern Baptist Convention, Richard Land, has been writing on right wing religious sites for decades. He embodies the complete "old white men" Christianity. In a column today he carries on about how young people are rejecting American exceptionalism. The underlying message is they are not accepting Christianity.

Land made a good living being a Southern Baptist and can't understand why young people do not see the value of what he holds dear. Part of it may be the efforts of old white men like him to link American Exceptionalism to conservative Christianity. 

It is easy to see why American Exceptionalism is slipping. Going back some decades there was Vietnam. We went in thinking we knew how to "win." I remember a blow hard in my office back then saying, "We just need to find every North Vietnam soldier creeping south and kill him. It will be over." They were in underground headquarter and moved weapons, ammo and supplies south on bicycles. They won. 

Another fiasco was invading Iraq. I just read a book about it. W. Bush watched as troops moved into major cities. Some people on the street scowled. Some ignored. "Why aren't they cheering?" he asked those with him. A country that was "exceptional" would have found weapons of mass destruction after promising they were there. It turned out we were not exceptional.

An exceptional country would have had in place the best defense science could provide before the Coronavirus arrived. Instead the agency with that mission had major unfilled positions. 

Through all of these failures the Christian right continued to support right wing and incompetent Presidents. Religious leaders were preoccupied with gay marriage and abortion. It is said young people today have been subjected to more advertising than any generation before and this gives the sensitive B.S. meters. 

The Richard Lands are not respected but are simply part of a parade of old white men from the past that young people are ignoring. I think this makes out future brighter. 

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