Foreign Forum

As an impressionable young Canadian, I once read The Ugly American, by William J. Lederer. I thought what he described must be the way it was: Americans bungling into the world like bulls in china shops and gaining notice more for their rudeness than for their brains. The sense of entitlement, the ignorance of other cultures, and the narrow-mindedness that some take abroad has aggravated much of the world.

Later I came to see that Americans are a charming and disarming lot, generally. Still, I speculate on how a country of such giving and friendly people can be perceived this way. The U.S. has given so very much to the world; people are blessed by your largesse. Yet as one dissatisfied customer can undo the good PR that stems from 20 satisfied ones, so one ugly American can ruin the reputations of many beautiful ones.

1. We are becoming dominated by the trendies, the young, the politically correct. U.S. is not the flavor of the month. President Bush is most unpopular. The war is a hot topic here. President Bush is not liked by many for dragging Australia into the war. I personally do not support warfare, esp. in far away lands that are not a threat to our shores.

2. I admire U.S. generally for its proclamation of Christianity, something very much lost here. However, a perception among many is that the national belief is shallow and hypocritical. (eg. a president who believes God blesses the Iraq war). In many ways it brings shame on the name of Christ. God's people should be separate from world politics. We are the called-out ones.

In short, my view is that American Christians would do well to stand in the name of Christ and not align themselves with the corrupt politics of this world. I'm sure that many do and that we should trust in God alone to fulfill His plan for the coming years in these last days.

From their landings on the coast of France in June 1944, it had taken the Americans ten long months to reach our town in the heart of Germany.

The German defenders were retreating. There was a lull in the shooting. A U.S. army officer and his interpreter were warily driving their Jeep along the deserted main street.

A lone civilian was standing in front of an empty bakery. The Americans stopped and talked to him. He turned out to be the baker. He told them, "People around here haven’t had anything to eat for days."

Then he pointed in the direction of the silos some distance down the road. "If I could get the flour, I would bake some bread."

The officer and his interpreter talked for a while. Then they motioned the baker to their vehicle. "Jump in!”

The baker looked startled. Should he take the risk? After some hesitation, he climbed into the back of the jeep.

All around the silos were army trucks with white five-point stars on their sides, bonnets, and roofs. The Americans had so much equipment. The officer found an empty truck and told the driver to follow the baker. With the help of a few more G.I.’s, the truck was soon loaded with bags of flour and heading back to the bakery. That was in the morning.

That afternoon, I popped my head above the stack of sandbags at the entrance to our air-raid shelter. There 30 weary souls from around the neighborhood had taken refuge for several days, waiting for the cacophony of war to die down before they dared venture out into the open again. As the foolhardy 13-year-old, I was the first one to emerge from that stuffy cellar. The air was thick with acrid smoke.

Following the scent, I ducked along the footpath to the corner of the street, and from there I could see a long line of dusky figures all the way to the bakery. I ran and joined the queue. As we moved up, we could see those leaving the bakery, each juggling an oval loaf of hot bread. When my turn came, I did the same. It was hot all right!

Back at the cellar, my mother did the best she could to cut the loaf into 30 even slices. No bread had ever tasted better.

The world was still at war in April 1945. Off and on, the world is in a state of war again.

People in the heart of Germany had been hoping and praying that the Americans would get to their towns and villages before the Red Army. Christians were praying for Christ to return.

The Americans were hailed as liberators. Christ Jesus, our hope (1 Timothy 1:1), will liberate humanity.

The army officer did the unexpected: He helped feed his enemies. Christians have been given the job of offering Jesus Christ, the bread of life, to people who are by nature still hostile to God.

We have the words and promises of Jesus: " I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35, NLT).

The U.S. troops were a motley lot. Their 25th Infantry was known as the Rainbow Division. They had men of all races in their ranks. The same is true of Christians.

The Americans had endless supply lines. God’s people have the unfailing support of His Spirit.

The baker stepped out in faith. He knew that only the Americans could help him get the flour for the bread to feed his hungry neighbors. Christians know that only God can give the bread of life to a humanity starved of hope.

Speaking of Jesus, Luke wrote: "There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12, NLT).

As a boy, I delighted in mischievously singing “God Bless America” as “God Bless Australia” instead. For me, it was a savored patriotic moment tempered by the ongoing friendly rivalry between English-speaking brothers of the U.S. and Australia — nothing more.

The perspective from “the land down under” is that America is a jigsaw of enigmas. My father often reminisced of his boyhood experiences during World War II when the U.S. troops helped liberate Europe. What followed was an international aid and rebuilding program never equaled.

The closest I’ve been to the Statue of Liberty was in the glossy pages of a magazine. The sheer size of this bronze statue and what she represented for millions of migrants to “the land of the free” was enough to foment any boy’s imagination.

America seemed so big and rich, yet fair and friendly. I couldn’t understand why such a freedom-loving country would allow its citizens to bear arms. We heard more about shootings and muggings in Los Angeles than about starving people in India.

I have wondered about the United States’ inability, in spite of its greatness, to meet the needs of so many of its homeless after Hurricane Katrina. Then there’s the United States’ ailing international profile — unable to extricate itself from the bloodbath in Iraq.
How can we understand that three percent of the world’s population could inherit forty percent of its wealth? Surely there was a Divine connection, an inheritance somehow related to the words featured on U.S. currency: “In God We Trust.”

In this thread an answer may exist. The same God on American coins told Abraham millennia ago that through his faith, all other nations would be blessed. In a physical sense, that is true today. But with greatness, wealth, and military might comes moral responsibility and an ongoing faith in the ageless, God-given values at the heart of national and family life.

Last year I had the privilege of visiting the U.S. With thousands of fellow believers, I sang a gutsy “God Bless America” — and didn’t even try to substitute “Australia.”

Whatever parochial differences I perceived as a boy are now superseded by a growing awareness that with wealth and prominence come responsibility and leadership — something both Australia and the U.S. are actively learning.

America is rich and powerful because her moral and ethical principles have been Judeo-Christian. Also, she accepted the persecuted Jews from Europe and Russia on a large scale and is a close ally of Israel.

The blessings of your nation’s democracy, liberty, justice, human rights, peace, pursuit of happiness, and power or wealth (capability to help poorer nations) can be sustained only by adhering to the biblical and moral principles laid down through “the people of the Book.” If political leaders veer from this focus to put their minds on the “black gold” of the Middle East, they will lose God’s blessings. As long as America lives out the noble dictum “In God We Trust,” the God of Israel will continue blessing her with power, wealth, influence, and moral leadership in the world.

As Portuguese, I am interested in the American elections. Our newspapers, radios, and televisions show the fights between the candidates. Our only problem is that we cannot vote.

The main problem of the U.S. is not the result of its elections but the moral degradation of its society. America took the same journey Europe took many years ago. Our secular European politic annulled the Christian vestiges and excluded the signs of its Judeo-Christian roots. The U.S. currently is rejecting its moral origin based in the Word of God. On top it placed the love of money and, more recently, relativism and secular society with its free and promoted sins. The result is a society that loses solidity and a country that slides in economic weakness and in effective leadership in the present world (Isaiah 24:4, 5).

Europe keeps its love-hate complex regarding the U.S. With a dose of political and moral cynicism, we reject a deep involvement in the troubles of planetary life and easily forget help received from the U.S. in the postwar period (Marshall Plan). At the same time, Europeans have the feeling that Washington’s politic suffers the difficulty of finding consensus with its western partners, as a matter of balance in worldwide crises. Thus we live with the effects of European cynicism and American autism.

For Christians of any country, such should not astonish us. The Word of God cannot be opposed; biblical prophecies fulfill themselves in their time. No nation will fulfill the designs of God. That is why we expect the coming of our King Jesus Christ, who will rule the world in His millennium kingdom (Revelation 11:15).

AlI I seem to hear about America is housing problems, food shortages, and a failing economy. Why? What could lead the greatest nation on earth to its knees? God has a way of grabbing our attention. Israel was taken captive, yet God restored wealth as she left Egypt. Maybe America is going through a spiritual Egypt, and this is a wake-up call — time for a nation to wholeheartedly return to God. After captivity comes freedom. At the end of the year, Americans will vote. A new leader waits in the wings: a new Moses may emerge to lead America through this wilderness, whether the journey be fifteen days or forty years!

Regardless of who the President may be, Christian influence is not the apparent driving force in the U.S. political arena. The Christian label is used without evidence of personal commitment to Christ. This results in America being often resented for her wealth and what appears to be selfish motives.

Founded with freedoms, America now allows all religions and invites the non-religious. Has she forgotten her founding faith?

The anti-Americanism spreading around the Middle East and parts of Europe has a life span. This world has been blessed by God through the agency of American dominance. The legacy of respect for the rule of law, liberty, human rights, etc. has been spearheaded by the American people. May God bless America and turn away the evils from all our hearts, not just Americans.

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