Last night I read what it took for early Christians to align themselves with the power of the empire. For those of us who believe in the teachings and life of Jesus, aligning ourselves with state power is contradictory to the very Gospel we know. Yet this happened under the reign of Roman emperor Constantine (306-337 C.E.), and it still happens today as Christians endorse governments and their decisions to harm and inflict violence on people.
During emperor Constantine’s reign, author Walter Wink shares in The Powers that Be, the following: “when the Christian church began receiving preferential treatment by the very empire that it had once so steadfastly opposed, war, which had once seemed so evil, now appeared to many to be a necessity for preserving the empire…” It took protection and power granted by the state for the Christian church to give itself in and give up the practical teachings of Jesus rooted in peacemaking, nonviolence, and love for all people.
I am reminded of the atrocities committed through the colonial conquests of the Americas, those under the expansion of the Manifest Destiny, and those from wars thought to be “holy,” that were blessed by the Christian church. We see this in present time with the U.S. evangelical backing of the Zionist movement and the Israeli government as they commit genocide towards Palestinian people. In her book, The Hero and the Whore, author
says that this justification of violence and conquest is, “one of the greatest threats to our earth’s well-being and humanity’s flourishing.” Hernandez is right because death-dealing powers do not equate to a living and abundant Gospel Jesus demonstrated. Death-dealing powers come from a desperate place of scarcity, deficiency and no regard for human life.To imagine death and dominance as part of a Divine plan falls not only short, but in opposition to the God of Life, Love and Liberation who sent Jesus to dwell as “God with us” and “with the least of these.”
Most days I wake up and wonder if I still want to associate with the Christian faith in light of such distorted f*cked up histories and continual harm Christians endorse/remain silent and complicit in. I’ve been able to differentiate that my struggle is more towards being associated with people and institutions that continue to misrepresent the God I, and my ancestors have experienced. I can still engage with the God I know is Good, not evil, harmful or abusive. From this sacred and intimate space I owe no one an explanation and hope you feel the same liberty.
I want to add that power and an expansion of the Christian faith has never been my concern, and it makes sense why I cringed at street and door-knocking evangelism and missionary work since young. In reality, none of these efforts are my concern for a power hungry faith system because I’ve experienced a Holy Ghost who arrives to others without my help, and who resonates with people without my efforts. She is always working and revealing Herself in Her time after all and meeting God’s image bearers where they are at. She is already there.
In Latina Evangelicas, Dr. Martell reclaims the Gospel as goods news not in the sense that we would go to heaven, but in the sense that the reign of God is in the midst of us, in the midst of our suffering, affliction, and dehumanization from social, political, economic, religious, and familial structures. Martell goes on to affirm that those persecuted and disregarded as the lowest of lows in our world are not, “sobrajas1 but children of the Living God.” This is a reminder that God not only moves among the oppressed, but adopts the afflicted into the Divine family elevating our status and worth. Warfare, empires, and military might are not where God reveals God’s reign —it is in the poor, brokenhearted, and despised. My comfort is found in the fact that this truth remains and will not change for a God who is always for the people. This reminder and truth is what I will cling tightly to in a power hungry world at the feet of desperate empires.
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