Word: godding
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...finale, Alford breezes through the crowd of exiting guests. She’s prevented from answering my probing questions by the seemingly innumerable flow of friends who want her face in their pictures, so we arrange to meet up at the Eleganza afterparty. “Oh my God, Natasha!” a girl screams as Alford walks into the lobby of the Sheraton Commander, where Eleganza VIPs have congregated to celebrate yet another year of Harvard fashion shows. Alford weaves to the front of a long line and enters the infamous afterparty. I follow—again dropping...
...just these specific words that have entered the presidency with alarming regularity. Presidential requests for divine blessing or guidance, phrased in any fashion, also took off with Reagan. Presidents from Roosevelt to Carter did sometimes conclude their addresses by seeking God's blessing, often using language such as "May God give us wisdom" or "With God's help." But they didn't make a habit of it. In fact, five of the eight Presidents during this period concluded this way in less than 30% of their speeches. Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Ford did so a bit more often...
...change? It's not that the past four Presidents were simply more pious than their predecessors. Few would doubt the honest faith of Dwight Eisenhower, or Johnson, or Carter. It's that "God bless America," true to its presidential birth on that April evening in 1973, has grown to be politically expedient. The phrase is a simple way for Presidents and politicians of all stripes to pass the God and Country test; to sate the appetites of those in the public and press corps who want assurance that this person is a real, God-fearing American. It's the verbal...
...Used sparingly, the words "God bless America" would have to be taken as a serious theological proposition. Instead, like Nike's "Just Do It" or any other ubiquitous catchphrase in American culture, the words eventually lose their meaning. Today, "God bless America" has become the Pennsylvania Avenue equivalent to the taglines of Madison Avenue...
...David Domke is Professor of Communication and head of the journalism program at the University of Washington. Kevin Coe is a doctoral candidate in Speech Communication at the University of Illinois. They are authors of The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America. /www.thegodstrategy.com...