Wesley was not overly enthusiastic about nationalism in worship....so much so that his hymn “Come, Thou Almighty King” was intentionally set to the same metre as that used for “God Save the King.”
That said, what a pity that Irving Berlin did not place a comma between “God” and “bless” in the title, so that it would read “God, bless America” reinfocing the intercession intended by the opening lines (which are too seldom heard much less sung) which conclude “as we lift our voices / in a humble prayer: God bless America....”
Without the comma it reads as though we are commanding God—rather than beseeching Him—to bless. But that is an issue beyond the pastor/columnists comprehension.
You are correct; he also used the tunes of drinking songs, I'm told, to convert these tunes to a better use for people whom he lifted up from lives of hopelessness and addiction. Methodist singing was one of the main teaching tools, and one for which I, as a right-brainer, was most grateful in times of trouble later on, when the psalm-based lyrics of those hymns would come back to me.
In posting this, it was more about the overall cynicism of the pastor who is using the name of Methodist. How far this once strongly Christian denomination has fallen...