The history of the phrase 'God Bless America.'

With Memorial Day upon us, politicians and civic leaders alike will utter one phrase more often than any other today: God bless America.

As ubiquitous as it appears in the modern American political vernacular, it wasn't used with any regularity until the 20th century, and even then didn't gain traction as a political closing remark until 40-years ago.

The song 'God Bless America'--a melodic hymn that nearly usurps 'The Star-Spangled Banner' in patriotism--isn't nearly as old as the country's national anthem.

Written in 1918 by Irving Berlin while serving in a U.S. Army camp, 'God Bless America' wasn't popularized until 1938 when the rise of Adolf Hitler throughout Europe led the songwriter to submit the twenty-year old tune as a song of peace. One of the preeminent singers of the era, Kate Smith, recorded the song at the time, and the rendition remained popular throughout World War II and for years after.

It wasn't until April 30, 1973, that any major American politician used the phrase 'God bless America.' Richard Nixon (who few would consider religious, or even terribly patriotic) used the phrase that day in April during the height of the Watergate scandal. In a speech broadcast from the Oval Office which announced the resignation of three administration officials (including the Attorney General), Nixon concluded the speech with, "Tonight, I ask for your prayers to help me in everything that I do throughout the days of my presidency. [...] God bless America and God bless each and every one of you."

The phrase still didn't gain traction until the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan grabbed a hold of those three words and used them routinely at the end of his political speeches. From there, 'God bless America' no longer was just a popularized war-time song of a bygone era, but a catchphrase habitually doled out by Republicans and Democrats alike for every speech.

A few months ago, Michigan Live thought to ask various clergy and religious leaders what the phrase meant to them. This included Fred Wooden, senior pastor at the Fountain Street Church, who is also a bit of a fan of language, who had this to say:

"Putting my grammarian hat on, what we have here is a truncated subjunctive statement. What we are trying to say is ‘May God Bless America.’ We are asking for divine favor. ‘May God Bless America’ does not make a good song lyric, so the ‘May’ was left off.  Today, we forget the ‘May’ was ever there and simply say ‘God Bless America,’ which grammatically is an imperative statement, sort of ordering God to do it."

There we have it. Leave it to Richard Nixon to kinda-sorta order a deity around.