Practical, therapeutic, theological talk
Motto: “The real game is the game you are in”
I do not recall expressing appreciation to this journal for publishing my talk. I do so now. The website has 48 contributions by me, the first of which is found in the Fall 1987 issue. Although I have not kowtowed to the editors, after 100 issues I admit it is an honor to have a place in this conversation and because of that, I have a thankful heart. I honor the persistence and accomplishments of Pietisten, and I appreciate its willingness to publish my column “Practical, therapeutic, theological talk” and some stories by me.
Having said this, it is time for some tough-mindedness.
What has particularly caught my attention and disgust is the long history of violence that surrounds us and in which we live. Violence is nearly always justified by some kind of cause portrayed as a righteous crusade, as a belief with the accompanied conviction that this belief must be imposed upon everyone. So much so that it becomes “necessary” to go to war to advance the truth. The crusades these convictions engender have wreaked havoc, death, and disaster throughout human history.
It needs to be noted that the “Christian” crusades of the Middle Ages were disasters. Only one of them, the first, was successful in any sense. The crusaders on that occasion recaptured Jerusalem from the Saracens (and lost it back to them later). All subsequent crusades were dismal failures involving loss of life, destruction, and escalation of enmity. So, if someone uses the word crusade to describe their objective, it would be well to know that crusades have never really worked. Also, each of the Christian crusades was kicked off with the crowd at the announcement shouting as it did at the Council of Clermont in 1095, “God wills it!” Subsequent failures left advocates like Bernard of Clairvaux with the question “how have we displeased God?” Arnold of Brescia said it was because it was not a thing for followers of Christ to do.
The adoption of Christianity in the Roman Empire by Constantine was the big turning point set in motion by Constantine’s vision of a cross in the sky above the sun with the words rendered into Latin as in hoc signo vinces—in this sign, you will conquer.
My heart drops, as did and does the hearts of many followers of Jesus—to say nothing of the pain in Jesus’ heart, when right off the bat Christianity became a blessing for conquest and the violence of the Roman Empire. From this point on, success in warfare and conquest was taken as the benefit and primary advantage of Christianity. How could that be?
Jesus was a peacemaker and a kind man. But it is a fact that the promise of military victory kicks off the history of the imperial Christian church. How quickly Christian mercy and love and kindness became secondary to war, violence, and oppression. Politics and power led to support of activities like the inquisition, the witch hunts, massacres of Jewish people, and other pogroms. Terrible stuff the likes of which persist.
Let us remember the invasion of the Americas, set off by Columbus with his mission to search for gold and his inhuman exploitation and slaughter of the native peoples. Let us remember the United States removing Native Americans from land, which had been theirs to live on for centuries before it was abruptly and violently taken. There is so much that is horrible; our American history is permeated with injustice like slavery and lynchings. This is the history of America that our president and others do not want to look at and don’t want school kids to learn about because they want to purify the history and make heroes of people, many of whom were bad guys engaged in violence. Howard Zinn in his “Young Peoples’ History of the United States” writes:
Why should we think it heroic to do as Columbus did, to arrive in this hemisphere and carry on a rampage of violence, in order to find gold for the King and Queen of Spain? Why should we think it heroic for Andrew Jackson to drive Indians out of their land? Why should we think of Theodore Roosevelt as a hero because he fought in the Spanish-American war driving Spain out of Cuba, but also paving the way for the United States to take control of Cuba?
Yes, we all need heroes, people to admire, to see examples of how human beings should live. But I prefer to see Bartholmé de Las Casas as a hero, for exposing Columbus’s violent behavior against the Indians encountered in the Bahamas. I prefer to see the Cherokee Indians as heroes for resisting their removal from the land on which they lived. To me, it is Mark Twain who is a hero, because he denounced President Theodore Roosevelt after Roosevelt had praised an American general who had massacred hundreds of people in the Philippines. I consider Helen Keller a hero because she protested against President Woodrow Wilson’s decision to send young Americans into the slaughterhouse of the First World War.
Recently, I have been blessed by several provocative, thoughtful, and valuable books that provide understanding. These books are fun despite the hazards that we are facing as human beings living on this earth.
Our duty, is it not, is to oppose violence at every turn?
A short list of books to strengthen, clarify, and entertain include “Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul” by John Philip Newell; the novels and essays of Barbara Kingsolver; and the fairytales of Oscar Wilde. I can’t resist mentioning that the foundational documents for my life, including the Bible (even though it has plenty of violence), have been “Uncle Wiggily and Friends” and “School Days in Disneyville.”
Part of the difficulty is the complexity of life—the pluses and minuses of actions. Unintended consequences plague even our best intentions. This is why one of Pietisten’s premises, recorded on the inside front cover page of this 100th issue, is to strive to be “as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves,” as Jesus said. Let us be strong appreciators of the good. I am confident that Pietisten will continue to strive for the clarity that comes with such endeavor and will proceed under the guidance of its Premises in issue 101 and beyond.