Really!? I Can't Say "God Bless You?"

I have been trying to make a point lately to stop saying things like "have a nice day" or "take care" or "take it easy" when I leave someone's company -- particularly when I am dealing with someone I don't really know.  And, no, I am not trying to replace those expressions with something more trendy or cool -- partly because I am not really sure what the cool expressions are these days.  Instead, I have decided to go with something more like "God bless you today."  

I am not out to offend anyone, and I don't think I have.  You just never know when someone might need God's touch or a word of encouragement, and I don't think "have a nice day" really cuts it.  If you are going to say "have a nice day" you pretty much might as well say something like "later dude."  It's really become just an empty expression.

To be honest, most of the people I run into don't seem to react one way or the other when I say "God bless you" instead of something more politically correct.  I'm guessing, but I think it's because, as I said before, those parting words from a stranger are just a meaningless social formality, so they are not really paying any attention anyway.  But there are exceptions.

When I was at Home Depot last weekend the lady at the checkout told me to "have a nice day."  I thanked her and responded "and may God bless you today."  She did a double-take and gave me a momentary "did he just say that" kind of look.   But then came a big smile.

Yesterday, though, I found out that there are certain times and certain places where "God bless you" apparently is just not the right thing to say.  One of those times and places is the funeral of any veteran at the Houston National Cemetery.

I am not all that surprised that one can't say the name "Jesus" on such an occasion.  "Jesus" is just too controversial of a name.  The mere mention of Jesus, after all, could start a riot.  Innocent people could be trampled.  I mean, really, is invoking the name of Jesus to comfort a grieving family really worth taking that kind of risk?

But not to be able to say "God bless you" to a grieving family, or to mention God at all?  To me that is just going too far.  I just don't see any risk that saying "God bless you" at a military funeral will bring down the free world, offend the not-so-free world or cause mass conversions to Christianity.  (You can find a link to one of the articles discussing this policy and the resulting lawsuit against the Department of Veteran Affairs at the bottom of this blog.)

In a few days it will be Independence Day, and this "no God allowed" policy got me thinking.  It made me wonder what all of the men and women who ever fought, were wounded or died for our freedom would think of some of the things we have become.  What if we told the men who were signing up for the Revolutionary War that they needed to fight to keep Americans from being unfairly taxed, to gain freedom from oppression and to make sure that no one says "God bless you" to any of their family members at their funerals?    

I'm just asking.


www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2010015/Veterans-BANNED-saying-God-Jesus-military-funerals.html?ito=feeds-newsxml