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City on a Hill: American Exceptionalism and the Elect Nation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
Some years ago I was invited to spend a day in an elementary school in Columbia, South Carolina. The day began, as I imagine every day began, with the national anthem and the pledge of allegiance to the American flag. The children then sang a song, a ditty really, which began as it ended with the simple refrain: ‘I am special’. Later I was shown some of the work the class had been doing. Across the back of the room were pinned up the children’s attempts to answer a question that had been exercising me, namely what was special about the United States. Some of the responses were fairly predictable. America was special, one seven-year-old wrote, because it was a democracy. Others singled out freedom or liberty as their country’s unique virtue. One brave soul boldly asserted that America was special because Americans were rich, while another thought the secret had something to do with happiness.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Studies in Church History , Volume 36: The Holy Land, Holy Lands, and Christian History , 2000 , pp. 299 - 318
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2000
References
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