Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Kingdom Friend,

Thank you for standing in agreement prayer!

Maybe what’s happening to beauty in America isn’t just cultural decay—what if the intentional assault on beauty is really a war on what reflects God?

⬇️ P.S. — If you want to feel it—gritty and soulful—check out Phil Driscoll’s America the Beautiful. It’s an anointed cry in brass from the 1980’s.

America, the Beautiful — Again

"O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain…"

These opening lines from America the Beautiful, penned by Katharine Lee Bates in 1895 on Pikes Peak, Colorado, are more than poetic nostalgia.

They’re a prayer—a vision of a nation marked by majesty and favor from God. The song’s later lines reveal its true heartbeat:

“God mend thine every flaw / Confirm thy soul in self-control / Thy liberty in law.”

Beauty, in the American imagination, was never just aesthetic—it pointed to order, virtue, and destiny.

But something has shifted.

Today, much of our culture rejects beauty. What was once honored is now dismissed as elitist, outdated, oppressive.

From architecture and the arts to language and identity … distortion is exalted, and disorder normalized. Ugliness is not just tolerated—it’s often celebrated as a perverse form of liberation.

More than cultural confusion. It’s spiritual erosion.

The Founders understood that beauty flows from liberty rightly ordered. John Adams foresaw this …

“I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy… in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture.”

Adams knew that beauty was the fruit of peace and freedom—and a mark of a flourishing civilization.

Today, we must pray not only for the restoration of truth and goodness in America… but for the return of the beautiful.

Because beauty reflects the nature of God. And a culture that scorns beauty is a culture losing its way.

We can draw on America's founding prayers, covenants, documents, and early experiences as "prayer architecture" for today. Adapt the prayer language below to your prayer voice as the Holy Spirit leads.

What if part of praying for America is asking the Lord to restore a culture of beauty? In our cities and public spaces. In our words and worship. In the way we honor one another. In how we build, plant, and imagine the future.

When beauty returns, God is near.

👑 “A crown of beauty instead of ashes” (Isaiah 61.3)

Lord, we see the ashes in our culture—confusion, distortion, decline. Forgive us for scorning what reflects Your glory. We’ve traded beauty for brokenness. But You are the Restorer.

We ask You to crown this nation again with beauty—not just in scenery, but in spirit. Let the arts rise in righteousness. Let architecture echo order. Let public life regain dignity. Let speech and song uplift. Make us a people who reflect You.

Confirm our soul in self-control. Anchor our liberty in Your law. And let the world see—You are beautiful, and You beautify those who return to You.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Brian Del Turco
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