Is American Exceptional?

WaPo has a panel discussion about whether or not America is exceptional.. Here is their introduction:

Washington Post political reporter Karen Tumulty wrote Monday about the growing use of the idea of “American exceptionalism” by political conservatives as a “battle cry from a new front in the ongoing culture wars.”

Sarah Palin and many other prominent conservatives assert that “God has granted America a special role in human history.” It is this belief about America’s destiny that they say is “under attack” by liberals who downplay America’s distinctiveness.

Are these leaders saying that America has a special relationship with God?

How do you interpret this?

Tom Wright’s response:

In other words, being called to a special role is a given. But discernment of what that role is is not so easy. And even when wise discernment has taken place, watch out: all humans who are called to particular roles and tasks, e.g. clergy, police, magistrates, elected politicians, etc, receive with the call the standing temptation to abuse that position for their own ends, and the standing warning about what happens to those who give in to that temptation. Thus it’s impossible to use the Palinism quoted above to say ‘therefore what’s good for America is good for God’. God’s calling is always to act for the good of OTHERS, not oneself.

And of course Christians declare, by saying ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’, that Jesus himself is in charge of human affairs. Any attempt to confine his lordship to private religious business so that the world can be run without reference to him is — from the Christian point of view — nonsense. Whether America — or Britain or anywhere else — will rise to this particular challenge remains to be seen.

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite:

When we run on a myth of American exceptionalism that (roughly translated) means God’s in charge of this country and guiding our role in history, we become blinded by our own presumed light. We disguise our use of power in the world as virtue and mistake our assumed pure intentions with outcomes. We make all kinds of serious errors and alienate others around the world who can see that this kind of exceptionalism is far from exceptional–it’s business as usual.

Power in human affairs is never pure. The exercise of power always involves some degree of compelling people to do as you wish, either through diplomacy, or through the use of force or the threat of force. In neither case is the use of power totally virtuous–at best it is exercised to bring people together enough to find solutions we can live with to address some of the most pressing problems we face as a world.

The idea that God is in charge of America’s actions insults God as Creator of all, blinds us to our real motives in the use of power, and ironically enough, hides from us the true basis of American exceptionalism.

The myth of American exceptionalism makes us weak and vulnerable as a nation because we don’t know where our true strength lies. This myth of American exceptionalism is naive about power and that makes it downright dangerous. Instead, our true exceptionalism and our greatest security comes from living up to our democratic values.

Daniell Bean, a Roman Catholic and with the Faith and Family magazine:

Some hesitation to embrace the notion of America’s exceptionalism is understandable, however. History tells us that there is potential to abuse the idea that God favors us and blesses us as a nation. “Manifest Destiny”, for example, refers to many early Americans’ belief in the natural superiority of English-speaking people and God’s blessing on even unjust and abusive practices in the name of westward expansion.

Prominent conservatives who declare America exceptional today, however, don’t do so with the hopes of abusing power. They do so as a defensive measure against the anti-Americanism of those in positions of power on the left.

Barry Lynn:

After the European settlement, strange ideas about “manifest destiny” were used as an excuse to push Native Americans from their land. Later, in the antebellum South, some preachers routinely endorsed the thesis that slavery, American-style, was endorsed by God. Today’s “exceptionalists” are really no different, a theologian’s equivalent of the child in the backseat telling his sister that “Mom likes me better than you!”

God doesn’t play favorites among nations. Any “exceptionalism” in the United States is because of the character of her people and a structure of government which doesn’t pick sides in theological debates either. When we start thinking that God is patting us on the head more regularly, we’ll be “exceptional” only for our vanity and pride.

Jordan Sekulow:

The people of the world need America, want to live in a place like America, and often come to America seeking a better life. Any leader who is too scared to proclaim American exceptionalism or who rejects it outright poses a danger to the United States and the free world.