With July Fourth coming on Saturday – and Saturday coming so close to Sunday – with, that is to say, a night of fireworks commemorating the unique achievements of America followed by a morning of hymns and prayers to the Creator of us all, I was moved to think a bit about God and country.

Bill Maher, in his philosophically dopey but intermittently amusing anti-God film Religulous, says that Christianity and patriotism are mutually exclusive.  This is nonsense, of course, but there’s a point buried in there somewhere.  No mere loyalty to country can override our debt to God, our dedication to the moral law within.  God, after all, is not an American himself, not a Democrat or Republican.  He’s just a Jewish Boy trying to make his Way in the world.  There is no doubt in my mind that if he showed up in the flesh tomorrow, he’d be scourged by small-minded conservatives as quickly as by self-righteous leftists, crucified in the name of God as easily as in the name of atheism.  As the Good Book says, we all suck compared to His glory.  Okay, the Good Book doesn’t put it quite that way, but the idea is there.

None of which is to say we should temper the nature of the arguments among us.  There are important issues at stake and we need to make our cases before each other and the people as powerfully as we can.  But I think we might all temper the tone a little.  As a snark-meister and occasional provacateur myself, I know how much fun it can be to work the opposition into a lather.  Still, it may not be such a bad thing from time to time to remember that that frothing, snarling enemy shrieking curses at you with bulging, blood-streaked eyes is part of the creation himself. He may even have an occasional point to make.  In fact, I think remembering that is both godly and patriotic.

And now back to the fray.