I've been preaching through the "Book of Revelation" this year. That's the book that end-time charlatans use to scare folks into thinking that God is so pissed off that any day now, wrath, judgment and hellfire will rain down on us all. Well, almost all. A few -- an elect, the great-washed righteous -- they get to beam up out of here before all hell breaks loose. Yet another example of Christian cowardice.
But "Revelation" is not about predictions of the end of the world. Rather, it is very much an analysis revealing the horror of Roman Empire. Those are the guys who marched into Israel, crucified 20,000 bodies outside of the walls of Jerusalem and then burned the whole town down. "Revelation" reveals the dynamics of empire while encouraging a young Christian movement to endure because this too will pass away. Empire will sow the seeds of its own destruction and fall.
Preaching through this book, I can't help but think about American Empire. We too are a nation red in tooth and claw. We're stuck in a script we don't know how to rewrite. The sinfulness of Bush's war has now become the sinfulness of Obama's war. The one we hoped would restore American idealism into foreign policy turns out to be very similar to the one who turned our nation into an enemy of the world. He just talks better. Or, in other words, he is a more effective manipulator.
Obama's war escalates into Pakistan, the military budget increases, torture is subcontracted to other nations, a secret-ops commander is put in charge of the next phase of slaughter, more civilians die with no end in sight: In short, we are a nation that doesn't know how to repent.
We're like an alcoholic who keeps repeating the same behavior expecting different results. We keep thinking if we hit them harder we can crush them. But the harder we hit, the more they endure and grow. Who are the "they"? No one knows. It's just them.
What we do know is that we won't offer bread, we won't build bridges, we won't fund schools and electrical grids, we won't send an army of engineers to listen and build what is needed for prosperity. Rather we build bases, we send troops, we offer drones, we kill the innocent, we treat everyone as if he or she is insignificant.
And what for? It's the pipelines, stupid. Our troops die for nothing more than corporate profit and a way of life that crucifies creation. I wouldn't blame God for being pissed. But here's my question:
How do Christians pray for the defeat of our nation so that our troops can come home and we can finally repent of empire?