President Obama’s recent “apology tour” has highlighted the guilt many Americans feel for power we wield in the world. Of course, it’s a bit more nuanced than Obama or his conservative critics would have us believe.

Alongside the botched military campaigns, misspent aid, and other assorted acts of hubris, our soldiers have disproportionally bled on foreign soil for others’ freedoms–even when our own have not been threatened. American citizens have given billions–perhaps even trillions–of dollars in foreign aid through voluntary charity and tax dollars. Thousands of Americans have given up comfortable suburban life to serve in non-military roles in troubled parts of the world as Peace Corps members, missionaries and other NGO workers.

Interestingly, the complex and often contradictory aspects of America’s relationship with the rest of the world were not adequately reflected in our president’s legitimate acknowledgment of our faults. And it was particularly telling when he made these remarks in the presence of dictators and autocrats who themselves have such a low view of freedom and human life.

My recent reading (Tony Horwitz’s A Voyage Long and Strange and Jon Meacham’s American Lion, among others) has helped me see that, if anything, the injustices of America have been inside–not outside–our borders. Historically, our relationship to other nations has been uncharacteristically benevolent for a country of our size. (Contrast the colonial aspirations of France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK as they were at their apex.)

What is unconscionable is our treatment of native peoples and black slaves, and–dare I say–millions of unborn children. These qualify as systematic acts of injustice and genocide that cause recent international incidents to pale in comparison. Their impact and consequences are still being felt by the victims and the descendants of the perpetrators.

Some people think I’m Irish (because of my last name, of course). I’m not, but Thomas Cahill’s great book How the Irish Saved Civilization makes me wish I were. [HT to Ted for the recommendation.] Anyhow, one of the most engaging aspects of Cahill’s book is his lengthy discussion of St. Patrick, whom he suggests may be the first real missionary after Paul. There were others of course, but Patrick’s the most documented–and the most shrouded in legend. A few interesting points …

• He was initially an involuntary missionary–born a Brit, captured by Irish raiders and dragged to Ireland as a young slave. Later, after escaping, he received a vision from heaven and returned to the land of his captors to evangelize them.
• As a missionary, he actively campaigned against inter-clan violence and the slave trade in Ireland–and saw it abolished in his lifetime, 1300 years before Christian leaders like Wilberforce saw any fruits for their efforts in considerably more “civilized” Britain.
• He baptized an estimated 100,000 converts and planted hundreds of churches in Ireland–all this from a barely-literate swineherd who was turned down the first time he approached his church leaders with his vision of reaching Ireland.

“I am Patrick, a sinner, most uncultivated and least of all the faithful and despised in the eyes of many.” – St. Patrick, died A.D. 461