In the 1990s and early 2000s I used to listen to Michael Medved's show. As I remember him, he was fairly conservative in his opinions at that time although he came out of a liberal background. He used to put out history oriented CDs and he had one that discussed America's special place in the world and the idea that God had blessed this nation more than any other in all the ways that we know (or knew) and that blessing came with an obligation to do good things in the world, to help bring about peace where we could, to help the needy.

I've thought of this idea a lot lately, and wondered if we are losing or have lost that special status in God's eyes after what has happened the last few years.