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Law and Policy Religious Legal Theory Spirituality

Christians and Memorial Day

I enjoy Memorial Day. As an American, it feels right to remember and celebrate the sacrifices of our soldiers. As a Christian, however, I feel ambivalent about this kind of celebration. Pageantry, uniforms, parades, and the rhetoric of civil virtue — all of these things are seductive. It is so easy to fall into idolatry, to equate my polis with the City of God.

I wonder whether any Christians cheered during Titus’ triumphal procession through Rome in 71 A.D., after his armies had destroyed Jerusalem. Here is how the Jewish historian Josephus described it:

Now it is impossible to describe the multitude of the shows as they deserve, and the magnificence of them all; such indeed as a man could not easily think of as performed, either by the labor of workmen, or the variety of riches, or the rarities of nature; for almost all such curiosities as the most happy men ever get by piece-meal were here one heaped on another, and those both admirable and costly in their nature; and all brought together on that day demonstrated the vastness of the dominions of the Romans; for there was here to be seen a mighty quantity of silver, and gold, and ivory, contrived into all sorts of things, and did not appear as carried along in pompous show only, but, as a man may say, running along like a river.

Among the spoils Titus carried into Rome were the treasures of the Second Jewish Temple:

But for those that were taken in the temple of Jerusalem, they made the greatest figure of them all; that is, the golden table, of the weight of many talents; the candlestick also, that was made of gold, though its construction were now changed from that which we made use of; for its middle shaft was fixed upon a basis, and the small branches were produced out of it to a great length, having the likeness of a trident in their position, and had every one a socket made of brass for a lamp at the tops of them. These lamps were in number seven, and represented the dignity of the number seven among the Jews; and the last of all the spoils, was carried the Law of the Jews. After these spoils passed by a great many men, carrying the images of Victory, whose structure was entirely either of ivory or of gold. After which Vespasian marched in the first place, and Titus followed him; Domitian also rode along with them, and made a glorious appearance, and rode on a horse that was worthy of admiration.

For all the excitement of Titus’ memorial parade, it must have been a frightening and sad day for Roman Christians, most of whom likely would still have thought of themselves as Jews. Indeed, the Biblical book of Revelation reflects Christian attitudes towards the Roman polis of this time:

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. With a mighty voice he shouted:

“Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!
She has become a home for demons
and a haunt for every evil spirit,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird.
For all the nations have drunk
the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”

Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
“Come out of her, my people,
so that you will not share in her sins,
so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
for her sins are piled up to heaven,
and God has remembered her crimes.
Give back to her as she has given;
pay her back double for what she has done.
Mix her a double portion from her own cup.
Give her as much torture and grief
as the glory and luxury she gave herself.

In her heart she boasts,’I sit as queen; I am not a widow,and I will never mourn.’
Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her:
death, mourning and famine.
She will be consumed by fire,
for mighty is the Lord God who judges her. (Rev. 18:1-8)

Why are things so different for American Christians? Here are some snapshots of Church groups marching in the Hawthorne, New Jersey Memorial Day parade. The first two show the representatives of the local Catholic parish:

The next is from a Reformed church:

Here is the Episcopal parish:

And a nondenominational evangelical church:

It’s interesting to note how each of these local church bodies expressed their differing relationships to culture through these marchers.  The Catholic entry was old-school Northeast Italian Catholic:  American civil religion as generational heritage.  The Reformed church’s float offered an integration of the cross and the flag:  American civil religion as common grace.  The Episcopal church knit together themes of peace, prayer, flags, and troops:  American aging hippie counterculture meets civil religion.  And the independent evangelical church advertised its gospel outreach through “vacation Bible school” (complete with a web address):  American consumer culture meets civil religion.

In contrast with Revelation 18’s sentiments towards Rome, the fact that such a variety of Christian congregations all participated without irony in a parade honoring armies and wars seems striking.  Of course, there are two thousand years of history between John’s Apocalypse and Memorial Day 2010.  The Constantinian Settlement, Christendom, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the close connection between Protestant Christianity and the founding of the United States, all help explain the difference:  America in 2010 is not first century Rome, and our wars are not Rome’s wars.

And yet….  Has every American war been manifestly just, a clear defense of ordinary, peaceful people against oppression? Certainly not. Even if we concede that the “just war” criteria are universally valid (a concession I’m not prepared to make in light of other alternatives, such as the “just peacemaking” approach), many American military conflicts fail that test. It’s painful to remember that so much of United States territory was taken from Mexico and from native peoples by illegitimate force. World War I, in retrospect, seems like a pointless waste of millions of lives, fueled by stupidity and pride. The conflicts in Korea and Vietnam remain controversial, and there seem to be very strong arguments that the present Iraq War was initiated on false pretenses and contrary to international law. Even the American Revolution appears ambiguous when judged by “just war” standards. Would the Church today sanction violent revolution over unfair taxation? I hope not, given the ludicrous amount of property taxes we pay in New Jersey.

World War II, the “good war,” seems like the only modern American conflict that clearly was just in its inception. But even with the good war, there is the problem of how the fighting was carried out. The fire bombing of Germany and Japan, and of course the atomic bomb, introduce grave moral ambiguities into the story of the greatest generation.

So, I celebrate Memorial Day.  I sincerely salute the veterans as they march or drive by my lawn chair.  I eat hamburgers and drink iced tea.  I remember the truth that “greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  (John 15:13).  I give thanks to God for freedoms of religion, assembly and speech, and for the prosperity of economic freedoms.  But I wonder whether our religion has become perhaps just a bit too civil in the face of war.

Categories
Law and Policy

The Virtues of Copying

Here’s a great TED video for intellectual property geeks on the virtues of copying in the fashion industry.

Categories
Humor Law and Policy

A New Church-State Decision on Teaching Global Warming

Well, not really, but this Onion News Network video clip satirizes the absurdity of many of the ongoing disputes about “balancing” public school curricula.


Christian Groups: Biblical Armageddon Must Be Taught Alongside Global Warming

This clip would be very funny if it weren’t so sad. It’s sad because, like all good satire, it’s based in truth. When the Texas School Board rewrites its curriculum to include country music as an important cultural movement, demonize the U.N., emphasize the state’s rights side of the arguments leading up to the Civil War, and so on — primarily at the urging of presumably good-hearted but seriously misguided religious people — humor seems a better response than despair. It’s also sad because it captures the cultural influence of the Left Behind phenomenon. As the Left Behind website asks:

“Are you ready for the moment of truth?
  • Political crisis
  • Economic crisis
  • Worldwide epidemics
  • Environmental catastrophe
  • Mass disappearances
  • Military apocalypse”

And this in turn is sad because it detracts from the authentic teaching in Christianity and other religions that there is a purpose to the ordering of life and society in this world — an ordering that implies final Divine judgment of evil. Many Biblical texts, such as 2 Peter 3, warn that the reality of final judgment is not a trifle. I would argue, in fact, that the reality of justice and final judgment is one of the basic reasons why “law” and “policy” truly matter.

Categories
Books and Film

I, Robot Interview

This is an interview with my son, Connor, about Isaac Asimov’s book I, Robot, for a school project.  He had to read a book that a family member enjoyed as a kid and then interview the person about the book.  This turned out pretty cool.

Categories
Theology

Soul Sorting and Election

My third and (I think) final post on the “soul sort” narrative is up on Jesus Creed. This one is about “election.”  This topic ultimately is a deep mystery, upon which I offer my reflections as tentative at best.  Here’s the conclusion of the post, but I encourage you to hop over to Jesus Creed and read the whole thing:

We, the Church, have been elected for mission. But this emphatically does not mean that those outside the visible Church are forever outside the reach of God’s grace. Barth’s approach is helpful here: God has already said “yes” to all of humanity in Christ. The eschatological victory over sin, evil and death is sealed. In my view — given what I know of God’s character revealed in Christ – at the final judgment, only those who persistently reject God’s grace will remain outside the Kingdom. Karl Barth, C.S. Lewis, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Leslie Newbiggin, Donald Bloesch, Dallas Willard, and the like, were right: it is wrong to suggest that all people who do not (as far as we can see) have access to the Gospel in this life are simply cast off by God. (Whether God’s salvation encompasses an ongoing post-mortem “harrowing of Hell,” as many Eastern Church Fathers and contemporary Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic theologians suggest, I do not know, though I personally suspect something like this is so. ) Yet, as always, it is not for me to pretend to constrain what God can or cannot do, or to pry too deeply into His mysteries. Judgment and salvation belong to God alone.

Meanwhile, we who know Christ go into the world with great hope and anticipation for the wedding feast to come, as people chosen by God for His mission of redeeming all of creation, trusting that nothing God has done or will do is in the slightest way unloving, unjust, unfair, or wrong, working out our own salvation, and content to leave the mystery of final judgment to our good and beautiful God.

Categories
Law and Policy

Faithful Presence

In his new book To Change the World, leading faith-and-culture scholar James Davidson Hunter describes the misplaced efforts by both conservative and progressive Christians in recent decades to change culture through law and politics.  In my view, Hunter’s deconstruction of the Church’s complicity in fostering unproductive culture wars is nothing short of prophetic.  But what does Hunter offer in place of political change?  The phrase he wishes to promote is “faithful presence.” 

“Faithful presence” does not imply that Christians should withdraw from law and politics.  Indeed, Hunter also critiques the “neo-Anabaptist” approach to culture, which is at turns loudly combative and unrealisticly pacifistic.  “Faithful presence” does mean, however, that the Church should not seek to “transform culture” by winning in the judicial and legislative arenas. 

There are two reasons why this Quixotic quest should be abandoned.  First this quest is, in fact, Quixotic; culture simply does not “transform” when laws change, at least not in the way that Christian culture warriors suppose is the case, and certainly not in ways that anyone can confidently predict.  Second, this kind of  quest is not consistent with the missio Dei.

This latter point, I think, is one that Christian and other religious legal scholars should explore more carefully.  How did legal and political change become so central to the mission of the Church?  Why does the political discourse in American Chrisitian churches, at least at the popular level, so rarely rises above the bar set by the Fox News Channel?  Why do many of the messages we receive in our email inboxes from parachurch organizations read like paranoid radical libertarian hate mail (or, if the organization is “progressive,” like Marxist propaganda)?  Is this what we believe life, death and resurrection of the Son of God, and the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, are all about?  As religious legal scholars, how can we help shape conversations about law and culture in ways that reflect a humble “faithful presence” rather than a drive to “win” at all costs?

Hunter predicted that his proposal would generate significant opposition, in no small part because the warrior mentality is now so engrained in our spiritual DNA.  Not surprisingly, for example, in a response to Hunter’s book in Christianity Today, Chuck Colson dismissed the notion of “faithful presence” as “quietism.”  This sort of response baffles me.  Whatever happened to Romans 12:18:  “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone“?  It seems the Apostle Paul lacked a sufficiently Kuyperian / neo-Calvinist take on culture and politics.

I do, of course, appreciate the push-back that some great moral movements in history were motivated by a form of religious engagement that seemed like more than “faithful presence.”  The abolition of African slavery is Exhibit A in this regard. 

And yet, upon closer examination, slavery is a curious case because the justification for slavery in the American South became increasingly “Christian” as the country careened towards the Civil War.  What if the Southern Presbyterians had exercised “faithful presence” in the antebellum years, rather than insisting that African slavery was part of God’s providential design and branding the abolitionists heretics?  The drive to eliminate American slavery was not a case of Christian abolitionists fighting against pagan or atheistic slave owners.  It was, tragically, in addition to all its other historical, economic and political dimensions, a contest of competing Christian theologies.  It seems to me that this cannot be compared to what the Church’s political presence should look like in response to openly anti-Christian culture.  (Anyone who argues for slavery as a case study in Christian cultural engagement should read John Patrick Daly’s book When Slavery Was Called Freedom:  Evangelicalism, Proslavery, and the Causes of the Civil War.)

In short, “faithful presence” seems to me exactly what Christian faith requires

Categories
Science and Religion

Pastoral Science Conference at Regent College

This week I’ll be at the Pastoral Science conference at Regent College in Vancouver. I’m incredibly excited about this conference — it’s the sort of thing I’ve been hoping to become involved with for quite a while.  Internet access will be limited, but I’ll post when I get back.

Categories
Science & Technology Science and Religion

Humans and Neanderthals Interbred

A new genetic study confirms that humans and Neanderthals interbred.  This is fascinating in its own right, and truly intriguing with respect to the faith-and-science connection.

Categories
Law and Policy Theology

Law and Justice at JC

Stop by and join the conversation on Law, Judgment and Justice.

Categories
Culture

Save the Dates: Faith, Law and Culture Speaker Series at Seton Hall

I’m pleased to announce the “Faith, Law and Culture Distinguished Speaker Series” to be held at Seton Hall University Law School during the 2010-11 academic year.  The goal of this series is to create dialogue between legal scholars and theologians around the theme of “faith, law and culture.”   Lectures are free to the public and will be held at Seton Hall Law School in New Jersey.  If you’re a regular reader of Through a Glass Darkly and you can attend one of the lectures, get in touch with me about the after-lecture dinner with the speaker.

September 15, 2010:  D. Stephen Long, Marquette University
October 27, 2010:  Miroslav Volf, Yale Divinity School
February 3, 2011:  David Bentley Hart
March 31, 2011:   Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale University