Domination looks like the cross

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“In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor, and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People.”

          Eugene Victor Debs

 

“I was there, and I thought my faith was strong. Authoritarianism is a lack of faith = Lack of faith is authoritarianism.”

          Matthew Edward Hall,

 

“Social conservatism and neoconservatism have revived authoritarian conservatism, and not for the better of conservatism or American democracy. True conservatism is cautious and prudent. Authoritarianism is rash and radical. American democracy has benefited from true conservatism, but authoritarianism offers potentially serious trouble for any democracy.”

          John W. Dean

 

My Kingdom is not of this world

          Jesus

___________________________________________

 

Sometimes it is confusing to see people whom I know to be

Of normal intelligence and good of heart

People who would do anything to help a neighbor

 

No matter, in most cases

Who that neighbor is

Good, bad, or indifferent

 

To see people who say

With complete sincerity

God is love

And

Jesus saves

 

Become enmeshed with, and even worship

Power and dominion

 

Perhaps part of the problem is that the church has

Almost forever

Considered earthly power a thing to be grasped

 

God, the church says, is about domination

And if you follow God, then you get to have dominion too

After all, Jesus is King

King Jesus is all

 

“To be a representative of God is to have dominion.” (actual quote).

And so, we have Project 2025, and worse (if there is such a thing)

 

It is not that God is not over all

It is just that God’s dominion is not about coercive power

It is about transformative love

 

If you think in terms of Jesus

How he lived and loved, what he taught,

Christian Nationalism is an oxymoron

Right up there with small giants

 

“If you want to be great in the Kingdom, you must be the servant of all…

The first shall be last, and the last shall be first!”

What about that do we not understand?

 

“Yes,” the evangelicals say, “but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak."

 

Here it seems is the problem.  When you have an angry, coercive God, you become angry and coercive.

When you have a strict, controlling, even cruel God, you become strict, controlling, even cruel

 

But it goes deeper than that.

Most American Christians have been told that obedience is everything

Not just obedience

Blind obedience

 

The Bible is literally inerrant.  If the Bible says it, believe it,

No questions asked

No questions

No

Questions

 

Many Christians are taught not to question,

Not to think

Not to challenge

 

Obey God (not a bad thing, if your view of God is healthy)

Obey the Church

Obey your pastor

Your husband

Your parents

 

Obey

 

Just trust and obey, for there is no other way

To be happy in Jesus

 

But they aren’t trusting and obeying Jesus

They are trusting in earthly power

And they are obeying earthly powers (obey authority)

They forget that Jesus said obey God, and no one else

 

And so when authoritarians emerge and (so often) claim God

The people of “faith” go all in

They don’t question, don’t think, don’t challenge

Ever

 

They obey, blindly

And they believe disobedience should be punished

Severely

 

Obey Trump

Obey ICE

Even if what is happening is wrong, don’t resist

 

And if you do resist?

God will punish you, and we, God’s people, will help.

 

ICE will beat you, throw you to the ground, and handcuff you.

Your car window will be broken out

You will be brutally incarcerated

 

The President (God save the King) will impose martial law

The legal system will punish you

The church will shun you

 

The programming is powerful, and the response automatic

“She should have obeyed.”

“She is a domestic terrorist.”

“They deserve it.”

 

If you disobey, you become less than human

And it means anything that happens to you

Is your fault, deserved

 

I do believe God is over all

But what does dominion look like, God style?

It looks like love, compassion, generosity, and kindness.

 

It is finding enough safety and strength from one’s connection to God

That one has the ability not to control, not to coerce

Not to use power poorly

 

Domination looks like the cross.

Godly domination looks like Jesus on the cross

Saying “father forgive them”

 

Christ conquered sin and death by feeding, forgiving, and healing

By loving

And by dying

 

We need to figure that out.

Now

Before it is too late