God Bless America

"God bless America," the leader proudly said in the microphone.
I looked at my wife. "Did I just hear 'God bless America?"
She looked back confused, "I think so."
The confusion wasn't a lack of patriotism or of shock, but rather a recognition of that nationalistic spirit rearing its head again. That wouldn't be so bad in some contexts: fourth of July fireworks at the lake and a twelve pack, a baseball game in the seventh inning stretch that has become common after 9/11, or even some civic event honoring members of the local VFW. This one was a little confusing because of the time and place.
Tulsa has recently been hit by an ice storm, let me rephrase. Tulsa has recently been crippled by an ice storm. 250,000 homes were without electricity in a city with a population of 1,000,000. Figuring an average of two people in a home, which I think is conservative, would mean half of Tulsa residents were without electricity. And it was for days. We were out for 8 days. But we are also in our mid twenties and healthy without children. For those with young children, the sick, or the elderly this power outage means serious danger.
Our church, Asbury, has been acting as a Red Cross shelter for the past four days. We have been averaging about 500 people in the building at night. This particular Thursday, we were preparing for our normal worship service on Thursday night, but our schedule was all off because of the storm and those who were seeking shelter int the church. To provide a little much needed entertainment was the Tulsa Praise Band, yes I know an altogether creative name. The Tulsa Praise Band was a pseudo-big band that was set to play Christmas music, and apparently patriotic music. I should have expected that considering the context of Tulsa, Oklahoma the true center of the Bible belt.
I had moved to Tulsa initially because of college, Oral Roberts University. ORU was the backbone at one time of the building of South Tulsa, now South Tulsa could survive on its own it still owed much to ORU. Tulsa is one of the only places where you could walk into an Applebee's or Chile's and see a televangelist on the restraunt tv. My alma matter is also the school that has recently made headlines because the then president, Richard Roberts, was accused, but not yet proven, to have coerced students and faculty into supporting Republican candidates in local and state elections. This is the backbone of South Tulsa, and yet I was surprised when I heard God Bless America start playing!
I guess it wasn't too bad to hear that song playing. I am just a little uncomfortable with Christians identifying themselves according to two kingdoms: Christ and America. But after all this is Tulsa.
I am also a little uncomfortable when I see the woman in the back of the room stand up and cover her heart with her left hand and raise her right hand high in the air. Besides the obvious worshipesque pose already assumed by this woman I then also saw her close her eyes and mouth some unheard words which made her look more and more like she was worshiping. But just who was she worshiping?
I guess I shouldn't too surprised though, this is South Tulsa.