I know this title just seems like the result of one too many Friday nights in college spent with a dictionary instead of a girlfriend. But these words are so precise in describing what I wanted to talk about that I had to use them. On this Fourth of July, most would add their “Amen” to the proclamation that America is a special place. (Even those who would not agree will ironically use the freedoms only Americans have to make their points.) But here is the question. Is America exceptional intrinsically? Or extrinsically? In other words, is America exceptional just because it is? Or is it exceptional because of things it has chosen historically to associate itself with?
I would argue the latter. But with that argument I open up the possibility that America could cease or perhaps even has stopped to be exceptional. And that makes many people uncomfortable. But I seek to persuade you to understand that only with this perspective can we truly seek to make or keep America exceptional. Only if the exceptional nature of this country is something that can be effected by external things is there any reason to stand up and fight for the things we value. Only then can we stress the importance of being loyal to those things.
There are many in America who believe that American exceptionalism is an intrinsic value of our country. They truly believe that God has established America as a new Zion and therefore is it good by nature. This idea in fact has made strange bedfellows in our day. Indeed those who warred in former days now embrace one another freely. If you do not believe me, watch as Mormons and Baptists pat each other’s backs on the Glenn Beck show as they preach this concept. But with this view, why stand up and fight? If this country is exceptional by nature, it cannot be changed from the outside. We might as well just sit back and watch God do his thing with his country.
God indeed sets the time and bounds for all people and countries. But we have no scriptural reason to believe that this nation has been established by God in any special relationship to Him. And so, America only truly is exceptional in so far as it yields to exceptional things, things like hard work, charity towards the needy, love of God and neighbor. When these and other exceptional things are put away, the country just becomes another page in the chapters of history books.
On this day when we consider that America is a special place, let us spend some time asking the question, “Why?” Let us not simply assume that the red, white, and blue will ever be of value regardless of what we do.
