I was a young Air Force officer when this song came out. It was played in every military club I ever stepped foot in. People cheered wildly for it. But the song always profoundly disturbed me with its jingoistic message.

And jingoism is exactly how it was used — to put the American military on a pedestal free from criticism. I served most of my military career in Europe, and sometimes I would hear this song play in an American military club and I would look around and think, don’t you people realize the absurdity you’re cheering for? You are currently stationed in a beautiful country filled with people who are undeniably free and prosperous — more well off than some of you will be when you go back home to Appalachia or the rural South.

But reality is no match for the marriage of American exceptionalism with fundamentalist religion.

It’s a seductive message though, the patriotic religious message I learned in church as a boy. I can’t count the number of times that I heard from the pulpit that Americans are God’s new chosen people.

This Bible is being marketed to people who believe that.