{"id":64998,"date":"2016-09-27T00:07:24","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T05:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=64998"},"modified":"2016-09-25T18:11:24","modified_gmt":"2016-09-25T23:11:24","slug":"america-the-great-by-leslie-leyland-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/09\/27\/america-the-great-by-leslie-leyland-fields\/","title":{"rendered":"America the Great!? By Leslie Leyland Fields"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

By Leslie Leyland Fields<\/p>\n

My husband\u2019s running for state office right now. I\u2019ve kissed babies, shaken hands, handed out fliers, waved in a parade, edited op-eds. This national election cycle has become personal in unexpected ways. When the nation goes to vote on November 8, the fate of our own lives here in Kodiak, Alaska for the next several years will be decided as well.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

But there the parallels end. My husband is not calling for Alaska to return to some former \u201cgreatness.\u201d I don\u2019t recall him using that overused word even once. But it\u2019s the adjective de rigeur<\/em> in this election cycle. Even Obama has used it.<\/p>\n

In one of his State of the Union address this last year, he assured us that we\u2019re \u201cstill<\/em>\u00a0the greatest nation on earth.\u201d Earlier this year, most of the Republican candidates endlessly recited the president\u2019s damages to that claim, and promised\u00a0they\u00a0would restore our nation to its former glory and make American great \u201cagain.\u201d Trump was not the only one. He was the loudest, though, and he and his slogan prevailed. (The phrase is not new, of course. Bill Clinton used it repeatedly 1991 and 1992 in his own race to the White House and then used it again in a campaign ad for Hilary in 2008.)<\/p>\n

But the patriotic phrase, cue flag-waving and hat-tossing, deserves at least one question:<\/p>\n

Yes, American is beautiful but Why <\/em>must America be great?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me qualify: I might accept this aim toward \u201cgreatness\u201d if the adjective were exercised in its dictionary sense of \u201can extent, amount, or intensity considerably above the normal or average.\u201d Who doesn\u2019t want to live in a country \u201cconsiderably above average\u201d? But its connotative meaning is much closer to the Mohammed Ali sense of \u201cI am the greatest!\u201d which is beyond the reasonable goal of becoming again an estimable nation. Interestingly, our American exceptionalism, which used to be a purely Republican trope, has crossed party lines. Michelle Obama pronounced recently, \u201cThis right now is the greatest country on earth.\u201d Hilary\u2019s in on it too. At the American Legion National Convention in Cincinnati, in August, Clinton said, \u201cThe United States is an exceptional nation. It\u2019s not just that we have the greatest military, or that our economy is larger than any on Earth, it\u2019s also the strength of our values.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a>Why must we be the \u201cgreatest country on earth?\u201d Or, more accurately,\u00a0why must we believe<\/em> we are the \u201cgreatest country on earth,\u201d\u00a0superior to the 195 others?<\/p>\n

Aside from the political posturing, each side driving in their stake for votes, it\u2019s the lamentable human condition.<\/p>\n

Remember the day that twelve men walked a dusty road, arguing? They were famous. They could touch a broken leg and heal it, they could pray over an afflicted woman and stop her hemorrhage. They could restore a little boy\u2019s hand, burnt in a fire, back to wholeness. They could even touch a dead body and lift it to life, on occasion. Big stuff. Crowds followed them. They were wildly popular. People hushed when they spoke, cheered when they healed.<\/p>\n

They kept a record, each one of them, secretly: how many healings, how many exorcisms, how many hands shaken and babies kissed and cripples running races. But they couldn\u2019t keep it quiet.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, how many you got there, John, buddy? I\u2019ve had three raisings from the dead. Not to brag or anything, but that\u2019s pretty great, I\u2019d say. \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReally? I took a poll in that last city and I\u2019m definitely on top. They wanted to make me mayor!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor! That\u2019s nothing!\u201d scoffed Andrew. \u201cThe Zealots want to make me president! I cured a whole colony of lepers!\u201d<\/p>\n

And so it went.<\/p>\n

In their bickering and bragging, they even forgot about Israel, which was why they got into this campaign in the first place. They were all looking for a Messiah who would set Rome on fire, who would rout their political and religious oppressors and restore Israel to power and supremacy again. \u201cMake Israel Great Again!\u201d That was what they signed on for.<\/p>\n

But, full of miraculous healings, pride and applause, even that heady slogan was lost. Ultimately, it came down to them. To each one of them vying against the other.<\/p>\n

Aspiring to \u201cGreatness\u201d does that.<\/p>\n

They were wrong about everything that day. Jesus didn\u2019t come to do any of that. The power Jesus granted was the power to forgive, the power to humble the proud, the power to be as pure-hearted and dependent upon God as a child. The little girl or boy he pulled into their midst made that clear. \u201cTruly I tell you, unless you change<\/strong> and become like little children,\u00a0you will never enter the kingdom of heaven<\/em>.\u201d Jesus didn\u2019t end there. He clarified what aspect of that child we need to emulate: \u201c . . . <\/em>whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a>And later, \u201cWhoever wants to be great among you must be your servant.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

My husband and I are lucky. In our town and state, we\u2019re not tempted to claim either present or former \u201cgreatness.\u201d Our goals are more modest. We\u2019re just trying to serve the people in our district and balance the budget of a state that\u2019s going bankrupt. If my husband should win, there won\u2019t be confetti and national headlines; we won\u2019t be dressing in designer clothes, dancing at a lavish ball to celebrate. We\u2019ll be working, often in remote villages, riding around in skiffs, wearing rubber boots and raincoats.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Leslie Leyland Fields My husband\u2019s running for state office right now. I\u2019ve kissed babies, shaken hands, handed out fliers, waved in a parade, edited op-eds. This national election cycle has become personal in unexpected ways. When the nation goes to vote on November 8, the fate of our own lives here in Kodiak, Alaska […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerica the Great!? By Leslie Leyland Fields<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Leslie Leyland Fields My husband\u2019s running for state office right now. 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