“Romans 13:4, “It does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.” If ever there were a just use of force, this was it. The U.S. government carried out its God-ordained task and has acted as God’s minister bringing His wrath upon one who practiced evil. The U.S. government isn’t God’s only minister of the sword. But tonight was our night, and I am grateful that justice was served.”
With these words begin the reflection of Dr. Denny Burk, Associate Professor of New Testament and Dean of Boyce College (the undergraduate arm of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky). In his statement the professor declared that the “U.S. government carried out its God-ordained task and has acted as God’s minister bringing his wrath upon one who practiced evil.” Can you imagine making such a statement with a straight face? Can you imagine telling the Churches of God around the world that our military has “carried out” God’s ordained task to kill and maim other human beings at the direction of the President of the US, his Cabinet, and the U.S. military high command? Are we well connected with the divine or what? (Forgive my sarcasm attack!)
What an incredible and complete expression of arrogance from our part. We are so righteous, so close to the divine that our purpose as a nation turns into God’s own purpose in the world. This almost reads like the Gospel of the United States, where the US (the new Messiah) and the Father are one. That is to say, the US expresses god’s desires so perfectly that they are one and the same: the US “has acted as God’s minister bringing his wrath.”
We are so right, our cause is so just that the reality lived by other people in the world is insignificant compare to ours, because we do understand god’s will. Although we are only 6% of the population of the world, we know what is best for the remaining 94%. Mr. Bin laden was responsible for the planning of the terrorist acts of 9/11/01. The actions of this man were crimes against humanity not just the US, to say the least. Believe me, I am not crying over the death of a man who lived his life developing machinations to kill people in other parts of the world. He lived by the sword he dye by the sword. But where do we come off so self-righteous? What gives us the high moral ground to make these kinds of statements as if our hands, and I mean American’s hands, were clean from spilling innocent blood, as if we were a righteous nation who only acts in the best interest of its neighbors? Has anyone ever consider that our military is there to protect our national interest. In every war we have been involved it is our interest what has driven our actions not altruistic love for our fellow human beings (regrettably, we do not have room here to expand on these issues but I urge you to do it on the web).
If god is so bent on “bringing His wrath upon one who practiced evil,” as Professor Burk states.Why didn’t God send a group of special forces to take out Henry Kissinger, after he and the CIA orchestrated the Cout d’Etat in Chile? Which caused thousands of Chilean lives (including a few Americans)? Why didn’t God send a group of special forces to take care of President Reagan for his support and organized acts of violence against the people of Nicaragua (and so many other places around the world), which cost thousands of lives to that country? Why didn’t God send that same group of special forces to punish the man who lied to the American people in order to enter in a war that has cost us thousands of America lives and hundreds of thousands of lives to the Iraki people, and people in the region. Why is it that the lives that seem to have greater value in the eyes of this kind of rhetoric are the lives of the US citizens and European citizens? Why is it that every time violence erupts in other parts of the world where the populations are poor and dark skin we attribute their violence to evil forces working through them, but every time that we, and other European nations, take military action we portray ourselves as been sanctioned by God, and, of course, for the greater good?
We must thank professor Burk for his powerful illustration of that theological and ideological doctrine for which we are well known around the globe: American exceptionalism. Indeed, as much as we try to hide it the fact of the matter is that we, as a nation, continue to up-hold this ideology-theology of domination where even the gods, the Christian god in particular, as well as other god’s, collaborate to show that we are God’s chosen people. We are a special people whom the god has placed in this world to bring god’s will. Therefore, we will deliver god’s justice against evil doers (of course, evil and evil doers are defined by us), and we will impose our way of understanding the world over everyone even if we have to kill them. If you think this is far-fetched just think of all those places we have invaded, or collaborated to create “regime” change: Irak, Granada, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, Vietnam, Korea. No one expressed this ideology-theology of domination more eloquently than our own Henry Kissinger when he spoke about the situation in Chile: “I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.”
Like this message, there are thousands of examples where we present ourselves as having “superior” knowledge, as the world’s Messiah, as those who know what is best for the world. Maybe professor Burk has adopted this ideology-theology of domination. I, for one, believe that the God of Jesus, the one who gave his son to the world (John 3:15-17), would have a very difficult time accepting this message which all imperial powers have been declaring for centuries as a way to justify the subjugation of people around the world. This same ideology-theology was also used by the imperial powers that killed Jesus the Christ.
You might call me hard-core-liberal, or bleeding-hart-liberal, but I simply call my-self a disciple of Christ. Let us come and walk together with him, let us show to the world that other way of life is possible if our loyalty remains only with Jesus’ message, not with Caesar. As much as I would be willing to give my life for my country, I love Jesus more, therefore my ultimate allegiance is with him alone.
The fallacy that the “U.S. government carried out its God-ordained task” and “has acted as God’s minister bringing His wrath upon one who practiced evil,” only serves the purpose of sustaining the ideology-theology of domination of American exceptionalism. Within this mentality might makes right, this is not Good News (Gospel), if anything it is diabolic propaganda that only serves to fuel more hate instead of peace (Matthew 5:9).
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