The Civic Religion of Redemptive Violence

1. s. Walter Wink; Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination; Fortress Press ©1992.
2. violence
   • spirituality of the modern world
   • civic religion
   • appears to be in the nature of things
   • it works; its inevitable
   • the last -- often the first - resort
   • threat of violence alone can deter aggression
3. roots of devotion
   • the mythology of ancient Sumeria and Babylon in the myth of Marduk; s. The Assyro-Babylonian Mythology FAQ version 1.8html
   • redemptive violence: victory of order over chaos by means of violence
4. redemptive violence:
   • theology of war: identification of the enemy with the powers the god has vanquished: the enemy is evil
   • gives rise to anti-semitism, other "antis"
   • combat myth: idelology of zealous nationalism
   • protects the status quo
   • might makes right
   • idealogy of the domination system
   • order, any order, is preferable to chaos
   • peace through war
   • security through strength
   • chaos finally is not defeatable, but must be vanquished over and over again.
   • violence is in our nature
   • war is natural (re. VP Cheney)
   • Orwellian!!!
   • women: inertia, chaos, anarchy
5. bible vs Enuma Elish

   idea	Enuma Elish	the bible
   enemies	exterminate them	love them
   act of creation	violent victory over an enemy	good creation by a good God
   evil	proceeds and has priority over good; a constitutent of reality	good proceeds evil; evil derivative, not ontological
   chao vs order	chaos proceeds order and resists order	choas does NOT resist order
   godhead	inherently violent	inherently loving
   problem of evil	ontological	evil derives from our free choice
   war	ontological	intrusive as a result of the Fall
   creation of humans	from the blood of a murdured god => killing is in our blood	from the earth out of love
   shalom	humans incapable: origin from deicide; order must be imposed	humans called to liberation and justice
   free will	humans slaves of the gods	stewards and regents of God
   teleos	sacrifice to gods, build sacred cities; fight king's wars/order	love of God
   government	centralized; king as Marduk's representative; resistence is treason against the gods	distributed, democratic

6. this spread throughout the world as:
   • a male war god residing in the sky fights a decisive battle with a female divine being (monstor or dragon)
   • after vanquishing her, fashions comsoms from her corpse
   • cosmic order = violent suppression of the feminine: subjection of women to men
   
7. in the media
   • comics, cartoons, movies
   • indestructible good guy vs. irreformable and indestructible bad guy
   • Dick Tracy (coincidently the day after RFK's assassination):
     Violence is golden when its used to put evil down.
   • no repentance, no confession, no redemption
   • the Messiah: armed vigilante transcending weak democratic institutions and inept civil authorities and passive public
   • summary justice instead of trial justice
   • locates evil outside of ourselves:
     • gays
     • blacks
     • Arabs
     • Jews
     • Americans
     • Crusaders
8. in the nation
   • the combat myth is the spirituality of the nation
   • the security and welfare of the state is the highest good
   • there is no god before the nation
   • imperialism has divine sanction (re. manifest destiny)
   • all war is metaphysical; war is a religious experience
   • By divine decree [the nation-state] utilizes violence to cleanse the world of evil opponents who resist the nations sway [p. 26].
   • the name of God can be invoked to bless and favor a nation's supremcy
   • the inner spirituality of the national security state is the myth of redemptive violence
   • the nationis ultimate
   • Christianity must be fenced off so as not to compete with the nation state
     • God uses war to cleanse the earth of wickedness
     • redemptive violecne has even penetrated the bible (q.v. slaughters in the OT)
     • the national security church: s. TV evangelists; the religious right
   • re. Gulf War I, p 29:
     And the tragedy is that violence proved aso incredibly "successful" for the Allies. Why consider non-violent sanctions when our smart bombs are wiser than our diplomats.
9. why do people put up with this?
   • salvation through identifiation with Marduk and its earthly agents
   • one's personal well-being is inextricably tied to that of the hero-leader
   • price of the alternative is too high: ownership of one's own evil and acknowledgment of God in the enemy
10. Ender's Game: technology and redemptive violence
    • see Tolkien's Ring: The Magnification of Power by Technology
    • see Technolatry: Tolkien and Technological Power
    • Consider Olson Scott Card's Ender's Game
      • The story:
        1. Ender is a little boy (around 6 years)
        2. The earth has had two wars with the alien buggers (as they are called) and anticipates a third, final assault
        3. The military drafts him into its leadership school (the Battle School)
        4. The military has been monitoring him all of his life (he knows this)
        5. They need leaders to defeat the buggers
        6. This requires agility and youth, so they train up children to be the battle commanders
        7. Ender is trained in war games in zero gravity
        8. He graduates to Command School and begins training on the battle simulator, that is like a videogame
        9. He is very good; a natural
        10. He discovers along the way the human victor (Mazer Rackham) of the last war.
        11. He studies recordings of his strategy
        12. ... but cannot find a recording of the actual victorious assault
        13. Rackham becomes his final teacher and explains to him what happened (though at the time no one believed him)
        14. All of the buggers had simply stopped; Rackham had apparently destroyed the Queen.
        15. This was the secret of the victory.
        16. The buggers are a hive and without the Queen, they simply stop and eventually die.
        17. They would slaughter human crews
        18. But Rackham realized that to them it was just shutting down cogs in a larger hive
        19. No individuality; no individuals with distinct, independent genetic futures.
        20. Ender finally must engage in a series of grueling simulations one after the other before he graduates
        21. It is now that he discovers that the simulation isn't a simulation.
        22. He is remotely leading the pre-emptive attack on the buggers
        23. He strikes at their home world and destroys all of the queens.
        24. The buggers future is ended -- with no queens they are exterminated.
        25. Ender experiences a great deal of guilt.
        26. He spends his days speaking for the buggers.
      • Where is redemptive violence in this?
        1. The buggers are evil; they are the enemy.
        2. No effort is made on the part of the powers (the generals, not Rackham) to understand the buggers
        3. They must be destroyed at all costs, or humans are doomed.
        4. The third war is actually a pre-emptive strike on our part
        5. The children are monitored to serve the state.
      • How has technology made this acceptable?
        1. The "video game-ness" of the weapons
    • What technology today makes this acceptable?
      1. netted warfare
      2. "smart" bombs
      3. Total Information Awareness
    • How has technology enabled Marduk?
      1. Removes us from the humanity of the enemy (e.g. netted warfare)
      2. Reduces (supposedly) collateral damage (e.g. "smart" bombs)
      3. Reveals the enemy (via total identification schemes; see Spot the Terrorist)
    • Does this serve altruism?
      1. see Should We Love Osama?
      2. altruism: caring for the other as the other without regard to our own agenda
      3. including defending/liberating the other (aka the Iraqis) from unredeemable enemies
      4. unredeemable enemy: one who is bent on destruction at all costs
      5. altruistically, are we obliged to destroy such an enemy even with violence (defending the defenseless)?
      6. without revealed altruism (naturalistic altrusim only), yes
    • Revealed altrusim: love your enemy even if it kills you
      1. How might technology help us to do this?
11. overcoming the myth of Redemptive Violence
    • exercises
      1. You receive a letter from a colleague that is very critical of institutions to which you and other colleagues are very attached. It is a strident, "in-your-face", no-holds-bar commentary. You've been asked to pass it on. At first, you consider that it is too offensive. But you realize that their is truth in it and your critic needs to be heard. You e-mail it to your colleagues.
         • How might your friends respond to this "offensive" document?
         • How might its stridency (honesty?) contribute or detract from the truth?
         • How might you passing it on influence your friends?
         • How is this turning the other cheek?
      2. You rear-end with your used, old compact a SUV at low speed. A year later you are informed that the driver and passengers of the SUV are suing you for an unspecified amount of money and injuries. This is a common practice where you live (consider NJ). Your insurance company provides lawyers, defense, etc. You have no assets and its clearly a suit to get money from the insurance company. Instead of "playing the game", you dismiss the insurance lawyers and refuse any defense. Before the judge, you point out that now you have no assets at all except the clothes on your back, which you willing give over to the suitors. You strip and walk out of the court house naked.
         • What would be the response of the court?
         • Of the suitors?
         • Of the press?
         • Of neighbors and friends?
         • Of the public at large?
         • What might result from this "stunt"?
      3. You work for an engineering firm on commercial contracts. Because of the depressed economy these contracts have dried up. Your firm takes on a number of military contracts to develop future combat techniques. You must work on one of these or be laid off. You refuse to work on the military projects and are terminated. You find a position teaching engineering in a community college. As part of your teaching, you discuss with your students the necessity of an engineer to exercise their social and ethical consciousness in the work they do. You encourage them to put the good of society and morality above their careers.
         • How might the students respond to this teaching?
         • How might the college administration respond?
         • How might other faculty respond?
         • What might be the result of your "ethical" teaching to future work on military contracts?
         • How might this influence engineers today?
         • How is this going the second mile?
    • seeing ourselves no differently in kind than the enemy
    • seeing God in the enemy -- and in ourselves
    • seeing God as forgiver and lover and transformer of even the most evil
    • replace a preferential option for violence with a preferential option for the disadvantaged
    • stop speaking for God and listening to God
    • seeking God so to change, not preserve
    • practicing unconditionaly love of enemies rather than exterminating them
    • Jesus' Third Way: Nonviolent Engagement
      1. instinctive responses to violence: fight or flight
      2. Jesus' third way: nonviolent direct action: s. Mt 5:38-42; Lk 6:29-30
      3. NOT an invitation to nonresistence to evil or cowardice
      4. turn the other cheek
         • right cheek: right-handedness requires a back-handed slap
         • an insult and humiliation: master to slave; superior to inferior
         • submission the expected result
         • Jesus' audiences consisted of the ones marked as inferior
         • turning the other cheek is defiance
         • Gandhi: "The first principle of nonviolent action is that of noncooperation with everythning humiliating."
      5. give the undergarment
         • only the poorest of the poor would have only a cloak to give as collateral in a loan
         • Jewish law required its return every evening at sunset (to be used as a blanket)
         • indebtedness endemic in NT times
         • people have been driven from their land
         • giving your undergarment => marching out of court naked
         • if anyone should take you to court for your shirt and pants, give them your underwear too!
         • shame the creditor: your nakedness is his doing!
      6. go the second mile
         • required to carry a legionaire's pack a mile
         • sieze the initiative (carpe diem!) and volunteer to carry it another mile
         • the soldier is cast into uncertainity: what is happening here?
         • the victim, as in the other cases, has seized power
      7. these are example tactics: new tactics always needed
      8. The three responses to violence:

         Jesus' Third Way	Flight	Fight
         seize the moral initiative find a creative alternative to violence assert your own humanity and dignity as a person meet force with ridicule or humor break the cycle of humiliation refuse to sumbit to or accept an inferior position expose the injustice of the system take control of the power dynamic shame the oppressor into repentance stand your ground make the Powers make decisions for which they are not prepared recognize your own power be willing to suffer rather than retaliate force the oppressor to see you in a new light deprive the oppressor of a situation where a show of force is effective be willing to undergo the penalty of breaking unjust laws die to fear of the old order and its rules seek the oppressor's transformation	submission passivity withdrawal surrender	armed revolt violent rebellion direct retaliation revenge

      9. examples for today:
         • a battered wife having her husband arrested
         • a squatter community in S. Africa whose sheltered was invested with lice; the government refuse to fumigate it; they gathered the lice-infested blankets and dumped them at the administrator's office; they rec'd immediate attention
         • What other examples can you think of?
    • how do these apply to us who are dominant?
      1. Consider Joseph of Arimethea; we are closer to his situation
      2. this is militant pacifism
      3. Mt 5:39a: "Do not resist an evildoer" should be "do not mirror evil"
      4. s. Rom 12:17,21
      5. non-violence is for those inclined to violence
         • if you are courageous enough to risk yourself fighting, be even more courageous to risk yourself resisting non-violently
         • seek out conflict in order to bring it into the open and cure it
      6. how might we "not mirror evil"?
      7. how might we stand with the oppressed?
12. Lesson Outline
    • General Background
      • evil never is allowed to pass
      • we are to seek out evil and confront it.
      • everyone is a child of God. never forget this!
      • violence breeds violence; hatred breeds hatred
      • violence is always a failure
      • do not return violence for violence; evil for evil
    • Detailed Background
      • Jesus was re-humanizing everyone
      • Jesus was invoking the power of the Spirit
        1. risk inviting
        2. surprising
      • Jesus provided alternatives to violence by example
      • Jesus wanted us to internalize non-violence; for example:
        1. my instructions to my daughters when they are cornered
        2. goal: to flee successfully
        3. regret invoking violence: internalized boundry
      • conform your mind to Jesus
      • Think! Jesus gave examples, not rules
    • Now Matthew 5:38-42
    • Applying this to the government
      1. Paul in Romans 13:1-7 says governments are called to retaliate
      2. he assumes a government is doing God's will.
      3. s. Romans 13:8-10
      4. government has a role to play in God's Kingdom
      5. What would Paul have said about persecutions?
      6. should have Christians stop being Christians?
      7. s. Revelations 13, 18; Acts 17:6-7
      8. civil disobediance should never be done lightly

References

1. Steven Levy; Spot the Terrorist; Newsweek; May 12, 2003.