by Joe Wooddell
I dont know about you, but I was surprised to see Seattle pull out such an amazing win. Congratulations to them. The commercials during the Super Bowl are always interesting, and this year was no different. (The Tim Tebow ones were pretty funny this year.) But what does Coke mean by America is Beautiful?
Coke did a commercial that started off great a cowboy out in the mountains and America the Beautiful playing in the background but then digressed into a celebration of various languages and religions while the song was playing. The commercials intent was clear: what makes America beautiful is its diversity.
I welcome debate within the marketplace of ideas, I am in awe of Gods creativity in designing variety within the human race, and I am willing to tolerate diverse religions (or people of no religion at all) with which I disagree; but ideological, linguistic, or cultural diversity itself is not what makes America beautiful. Rather, what (in part) has made America beautiful is its unity on a few crucial tenets, in spite of its vast diversity.
Dennis Prager talks about this when discussing what he calls the American trinity, which consists of the three phrases on our money: Liberty; In God We Trust; and E Pluribus Unum, the last of which is relevant for our discussion here. Its the unum out of the pluribus that makes us great, not the pluribus itself.
Yes, Revelation 7 mentions the heavenly masses from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, but even here they are unified by a few particular tenets in their worship of the one true God. So even in Heaven it is not our diversity which we celebrate, but our unity in the things of God. This is what America should rally around.
A better rendition of America the Beautiful as a song around which diverse people can unify is found here. And here they sing all four stanzas. I wish Coke had included stanzas 2 and 3 especially, so I include the text of all four stanzas here, and with these I close:
(1) O beautiful for spacious skis, for amber waves of grain; for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain. America, America, God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.
(2) O beautiful for pilgrim feet whose stern impassioned stress a thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness. America, America, God mend thine every flaw. Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.
(3) O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life. America, America, may God thy gold refine, till all success be nobleness, and every gain divine.
(4) O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years, thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears. America, America, God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.