WAR, RELIGION, AND IRONY:
Reflections on Lincoln, Bush, and American Leadership
By David R. Cook
From the earliest settlements on the American continent the image of this new nation-to-be was suffused with a providential ethos. Whether it was surviving privations or enjoying the fruits of abundant resources, Americans have tended to equate fortuitous circumstances with the blessings of God.
This is the source of our American exceptionalism. American interests, American actions, American power is always deployed on the side of “good”. Our wars are always moral and we always are fighting on the side of righteousness. As noted, this national sense of ourselves has a very long history which continues unabated in the 21st Century world of global commerce and the threat of terrorism.
That America is a very “religious” nation is an undebateable fact. Unfortunately, this aspect of the American character has too often been expressed without awareness of the ironic situations into which American religiosity so often propels us. The vices which are hidden in our virtues go essentially unnoticed, especially by our leaders. The great exception to this tendency was Abraham Lincoln.