And Now Ten Years Later…

“An even more significant aspect of the myth of redemptive violence is its contribution to international conflict. In this myth, the survival and welfare of that nation becomes the highest earthly and heavenly good. Here, Power is made absolute. There can be no other goods before the nation. Not only does this myth establish a patriotic religion at the heart of the state, it gives divine sanction to that nation’s imperialism. The myth of redemptive violence thus serves as the spirituality of militarism. By divine right the state has power to demand that its citizens sacrifice their lives to maintain the privileges enjoyed by the few. By divine decree it utilizes violence to cleanse the world of the enemies of the state. Wealth and prosperity are the right of those who rule in such a state. And the name of God–any god, the Christian God included–can invoked as having specially blessed and favored the supremacy of the chosen nation and its ruling caste.”

Walter Wink wrote those words in 1998, they may ring more true today than they did then. Now, almost ten years later, as I sit and listen to more justification for our blatantly unjust war, I’m also reminded of President Eisenhower’s warning to against the military-industrial complex. What happened to us? I first call myself a Christian, a disciple of Jesus. Second, I call myself an American, a citizen of the United States. On days like today I wonder if the two can be held together in integrity and coexist in harmony.

Something has to give.

~bh ><>