American Greatness

To listen to Trump, America is in trouble because we haven’t been adequately looking after our own interests. To make America great means to put American interests first.

Which raises a question: Is putting America first the way we became great in the first place? 

Might America’s greatness instead have had something to do with the generosity and hospitality of the American people, philanthropists, institutions—our missionaries and businessmen and our military? Might American greatness be somehow related to the Puritan vision of a city of a hill, America as a lamp whose light shines far beyond our own borders?

We oughtn’t gloss our many failings, but I don’t think it overly rosy to say that over the long run, on balance and considering the alternatives, the United States has, as Richard Neuhaus liked to put it, been a force for good in the world. 

Is American greatness related somehow to American goodness? If so, can American become great again by looking only to our own interests? 

And that raises a deeper question: Is it possible to approximate, however distantly and imperfectly, Paul’s “Don’t look out for your own interests, but also for the interests of others” as national policy? If so, shouldn’t that be the Christian agenda for America?