by Berry Friesen (August 23, 2016)
The prophetic thread running through
the Bible is committed not to reforming the empire, but to replacing it with
something called the “kingdom of God.” That’s the core stance of If Not Empire, What?
Writers within this biblical tradition desired
the end of imperial rule, but they also regarded that end to be
inevitable. Why inevitable? Because YHWH—the god those writers worshipped
as the source of life—is compassionate, forgiving and opposed to injustice and
oppression.
For Second Testament writers there was
a second reason: YHWH had exalted Jesus
of Nazareth—the man who lived compassion, forgiveness and nonviolent resistance
to evil—by raising him from the dead.
When it comes to the empire, in other
words, the prophetic biblical witness is not to reform the empire so that it is gentler, less ruthless and more
long-lasting, but to resist it in a
way that is consistent with the character of YHWH. That is, with compassion toward the many dependent
on the empire for their daily bread, with a spirit of forgiveness toward one
another as we struggle to escape the grasp of imperial deceptions and policies,
and with nonviolent practices that create an alternative to the empire’s ruthless
methods and despairing future.
Resistance may strike many readers as
an extreme proposition, especially during an election year when supposedly we
have the power to decide who will lead the empire (or at least be its public
face) during the next four years. Don’t
we have the capacity to improve the empire by who we vote into office?
This is the assumption within which
most Americans operate (religious folks included). According to this perspective,
the US-led empire is different from all those before it—more benevolent, less
ravenous, more peace-loving, less violent.
We ought to support it, not resist it.
Events of recent years in Afghanistan,
Iraq, Somalia, Honduras, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen flatly
contradict this illusion of imperial exceptionality. Even under the so-called liberal President
Obama, the US-led empire has functioned internationally as a criminal
enterprise using violence and threats of violence to create chaos and extort control.
Here at home we see evidence of the
same spirit of domination in the militarization of policing and the frequent use
of lethal violence against civilians. We
see it as well in the popular infatuation with guns, the open efforts to
suppress voting by racial minorities, and the passage of trade, banking and tax
laws that enrich the wealthy elite while depriving the working class of
jobs.
Of course, those whose understanding of
the world depends on National Public Radio, the New York Times, cable news and the
big-name wire services know little of this. As they see it, the US-led empire isn’t in control of much of anything; mainly,
it bumbles along doing the best it can in a tragic world not of its making. For
those with this perspective, reform makes perfect sense, electing a new
President of the US is a big deal, and Clinton vs. Trump feels like a question
of nearly existential significance.
But for those who have crossed over to
the other side (both in how they read the Bible and in where they get their
news), the US-led empire is simply the latest incarnation of the “darkness” and
“death” of which the Bible speaks (Col. 1:13).
For such people, the existential question is not Clinton vs. Trump, but
how to align today’s living with an anti-imperial alternative that reflects the
character of YHWH.
Our book title (If Not Empire, What?) assumes readers are convinced of the urgency
of forging an anti-imperial alternative.
But of course, most living in the
West—religious or otherwise—are far from convinced. Instead, they remain
hopeful that with a leader who is a little smarter and a bit more principled,
the entity that has brought us continuous war and ruthless state terrorism will
change its spots.
That’s a far cry from the prophetic
thread within the Bible, which imagines the humiliation of the great powers
ruling the world, disarmed by the way of Jesus (Col. 2:15).
Hard to believe, I
know, so hard that it’s easy to see why many have embraced a christianity that
avoids this entire subject. Yet there it
is, in the Bible: the great existential
question isn’t who we will elect for President, but whether we expect the way
of empire or the way of Jesus to save Earth and all who live here.
