Does God Really Bless America?

So I have been trying to figure this out for a time now. We are a nation of Christians (supposedly) who think that the reason we have so much money and prosperity and comfort and power is because God is blessing us. Well I am on this journey...and came to a firm conclusion that God does NOT indeed bless America. I just kept wondering...Christianity means following Jesus. Jesus said to love the Lord, love your neighbor....oh and love your enemies.

So how can a Savior who says to turn the other cheek, preaches peace and forgiveness, chastises Peter for cutting off the ear of a soldier about to take him to face death (and "glues" it back on with his Heavenly powers),walks humbly to the cross and faces humiliation.... how could this God ever bless people who kill and destroy. I just don't understand that. I mean our nation is ran on an economy that not only neglects the needs of poor....but creates the poor. A nation whose response to attacks and murder of our people is to continue the slaughter of people outnumbering the murders of Americans...so saying that American lives matter more than theirs. (I don't think so.) A nation who puts profit before human lives. If God blesses that, then I don't want to have anything to do with him.

However none of that matches up with the life of Jesus Christ. I have to wonder if the "Christians" that run our country or support this image of life in the kingdom of God have opened their Bibles lately. All of my ramblings and thoughts were further confirmed in the book Jesus For President by Chris Hall and Shane Claiborne. Here are some excerpts:

"Some folks may be really bummed to find that 'God Bless America' does not appear in the Bible. So often we do things that make sense to us and ask God to bless our actions and come alongside our plans, rather than looking at the things God promises to bless and acting alongside of them. For we know that God's blessing will inevitably follow if we are with the poor, the merciful, the hungry, the persecuted, the peacemakers. But sometimes we'd rather have a God who conforms to our logic than conform our logic to the God whose wisdom is a stumbling block to the world of smart bombs and military intelligence." (pages 199-200)

On the economy: "Another, possibly the greatest, unholy aspect of our economy is its exploitation of people. While our economy floats on cheap oil, it too is carried on the backs of cheap laborers. If we ask, why do so many of our products come from China? We can certainly say this is aided by cheap oil for shipping, but it's essentially founded on easily exploited labor. The hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been lost in the United States testify to 'job creation' in foreign countries. Left in the wake are our neighborhoods, blighted with hundreds of abandoned factories and hundreds more abandoned homes. Christian have no problem with helping the poor. But question whether our 'blessings' are borne on the backs of the poor and things get messy. The call to 'make poverty history' needs a partner:'make affluence history'" (pages 188-189)

And now Fredrick Douglass: "Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference--so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked...I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity."
(quote found on page 176 or Jesus For Preident)

Well thankfully I don't plege allegience to the flag of this country, I pledge allegience to the cross of Jesus.