What happens if we embrace the notion of a violent God who hates and smites enemies, calls for the wholesale slaughter of people in the way of Israel as they come into the Promised Land, and even causes a global flood wiping out all but a handful of people and animals?
The musical, South Pacific, tells the tale of dynamics at play during WWII on an island in the South Pacific where troops awaited advance. The musical was a hit, producing some of the best known and most loved songs from Broadway, including “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” and “Some Enchanted Evening”. While two love stories are part of the show, it’s really a story about prejudice. Will a young woman choose to remain with the widower she’s fallen for after she learns that his young children are mixed race? Will a young officer seriously entertain the idea of bringing home a young islander woman with whom he had been having a romantic relationship? The officer expresses his insight and torment in the song, “Carefully Taught” (here performed by James Taylor):
You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!
Prejudice and racism are taught, mostly covertly from one generation to another. The worldview of individual families and larger cultures pass along their biases. Whether or not those views are consciously recognized or embraced is another issue. The beliefs of the father are passed down to the son...
It stands to reason, then, that if we hold beliefs about God being violent toward God’s enemies, then we, God’s children, will likely emulate such characteristics and behavior. If we perceive that one person or group is an enemy of God, then we are free to hate them and hurt them, since we believe this is what God is already doing. Violence becomes an act of faithfulness. This is clearly illustrated in those who yell “Praise God!” as they carry out suicide mission terrorist attacks aimed at creating fear by killing innocent civilians as they worship and work. September 11, 2001 will forever be remembered for such an act. After it happened, hatred toward Muslims skyrocketed. We can easily see that this group of Muslims believed that we represented God’s enemies, and therefore to kill such enemies was an appropriate and faithful act. We can easily look at such an act and be appalled, as we should. Unfortunately, Christianity has been guilty of violent horrors as well, stemming from the same belief that there are people that God hates and smites, giving us license to do the same.
The World’s Largest and Most Violent Religion? Mohammed announced that he had received a revelation in 613 CE from the same God of Adam, Abraham, Mary, and Jesus. Some Christians embraced his revelation, viewing him as a “brother” and at least entertaining dialogue with his followers. As Brian McLaren notes in his book, Do I Stay Christian (Chapter 3), by 746 CE, Mohammed was classified as a “false prophet” and later a heretic. In 1093, Pope Urban launched the first of five Crusades aimed at converting-and-or-killing Muslims in the name of God – a 300 year assault. Those who agreed to fight were promised heaven as their reward since their sins would be absolved. The “Crusader mentality”, as McLaren coins it, led to a four-fold approach to all people of non-Christian faiths: convert to Christianity, get out of the way of what Christians were doing and leave, submit to Christian dominance as a second-class citizen, or die (40).
While the Crusader terminology came to an end, the violent expansion of Christianity did not, being replaced by colonialism instead. In the Doctrine of Discovery, Pope Nicholas V (1397-1455) – followed similarly by Pope Alexander (1431-1503) – blessed the violent colonization of non-Christian territory on the part of Catholic states:
McLaren points out that post-Reformation countries took a similar route forward, but without the requirement to line the church’s coffers. This resulted in Great Britain’s creation of the largest colonial empire. The United States, of course, earned its freedom from the United Kingdom, creating a different model of government. Yet even as our Founders declared that all men are created equal, the early years of this country thrived economically owing in large part to slavery, and its geographical expansion to the subjugation and/or annihilation of Indigenous People, all explicitly or tacitly endorsed by dominant Christian voices. There is no possible way to calculate how many millions of lives were lost over those five centuries.
During the 20th century, one researcher estimates that 50 million have been killed fighting to be liberated from colonization. As McLaren notes, “wherever Christians have gone, we have brought a legacy of schools, hospitals, and other institutions to improve our quality of life and the lives of others. But make no mistake: we have also brought the fourfold ultimatum of convert, leave, submit, or die, which is the unwritten contract of crusader colonial Christianity, past and present” (44). Statistically, the violent outlook remains to this day. As Robert P. Jones noted, “White Christian churches, both Protestant and Catholic, have served as institutional spaces for the preservation and transmission of white supremacist attitudes. The more racist attitudes a person holds, the more likely he or she is to identify as a white Christian.”
Jesus’ Response to Violence. Jesus lived at a time when his people and homeland were under Roman occupation. The Roman Empire had colonized a massive amount of geography including much of modern-day Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa. This, obviously, included ancient Israel. There were many fellow Jews who called for a violent revolt. But not Jesus. He knew that rising up against Rome would end in calamity and many Jewish casualties. More, he knew that overthrowing violence with more violence would lead to more and more and more violence. This did not seem congruent with his experience and understanding of God as Abba of everyone and everything. This Daddy wanted his kids to get along on a planet they cared for. Jesus, therefore, called for nonviolent resistance, forgiveness, grace, kindness, even love toward enemies as fellow human beings. All very radical, and much of it ignored by most Jewish people. Instead, Israel opted for violent rebellion. In 70 CE, Jewish rebels fought against Rome and took Jerusalem. Months later, Roman forces finally broke through Jerusalem’s walls, killed thousands, and burned the city to the ground. Although Jerusalem was gone – and the form of Judaism it supported – Jesus’ followers steadied on, meeting together all over the Roman Empire, teaching the nonviolent, enemy-loving Way of life that Jesus taught.
Jesus was remembered saying “don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword. [Remember the Prophet Micah who wrote) ‘I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Your enemies will be right in your own household!’ If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it” (Matthew 10:34-39 NLT). Jesus was not talking about a literal sword wielded for literal violence. He was noting that the Way he was modeling and teaching was so counter-cultural and counter-intuitive it would cause division even among family members. It still does. When people come to face to face with Abba, their vision is transformed as Saul/Paul – it’s as if we were blind, and then scales fall from our eyes and we could see clearly. People who have not experienced Abba in the same way will view Jesus, his teaching, and the Way as utter nonsense. They will be vehemently opposed to the Way, in fact, and will likely call for violence in one form or another. They have been carefully taught to see the world the way they do, and it will not be easily changed.
Despite the violence all around them, the earliest followers of Jesus continued to meet, break bread together, encourage each other, remind each other of the Way of Jesus and commit to carrying it forward. They knew that the Way really does lead to life (even when it is hard) and leads to hope for a violent world (even when the sting of death looms). Jesus’ mission to persuade his fellow Jews toward nonviolence failed as they picked up swords to revolt against Rome nearly 30 years after his death. Yet his mission succeeds whenever we wake up to the difference between what we’ve been taught compared to Jesus, and then choose the Way of shalom. The invitation to wake up and follow is still before us. How will you respond?
Things to consider...
1. Are there any positions on any issues where you know you differ from your family of origin? What made you shift?
2. Can you think of any beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors that you knew were incongruent with Jesus’ teaching and you changed your ways? What led to such a change?
3. How will you know whether or not your current held beliefs line up with the Way of Jesus? What might compel you to trade up your current way for the Way that leads to life?