“ANTI-IMPERIAL” SPIRITUALITY

by Jon Sobrino

[This essay on the 25th anniversary of Oscar Arnulfo Romero’s murder is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, www.mzf.org/publik/gh_zip/gh96.pdf . Jon Sobrino, b. 1938, is a Salvadorian theologian and former advisor to Monsignor Romero.]

1. THE EMPIRE, AN ALL-EMBRACING IDOL

Empire and imperialism seemed like dead terms. But reality has awakened them to life again. In describing the subjugation of most people of this world, we cannot only speak today of capitalism and oppression. The North and multinationals, especially the US, have a grip on the majority of people that was unknown in the past. They are a holy empire.

With their immense power and will to victory, they force their will on the whole planet, in all areas of reality and with all means: with an economy that ignores the “oikos” (the well-being of the house), with the armament industry, with barbarically unjust trade through manipulated untrue information, through wars and terrorism with the appearance of legality, through ruthless barbarism, through contempt and contestation of international law, through violation of human rights when it seems necessary and through destruction of nature. In the long term, that individualism and success constitute the nature of the person and that irresponsible enjoyment of one’s life can occur without reflecting on the consequences (so that an athlete, singer or film actor has nearly as much income as the budget of a state of the sub-Sahara) is very terrible.

All this frightens and alarms but the empire proclaims this is good for the world. It is Good News, eu-angelion, that the end of history has come, the eschaton, the global village, God’s reign. The contemporary person is glad to live in this world. The empire has the divine mission of securing and expanding this world. Although people do not speak of theocracy, the empire can be described with religious categories. Like a divine being, the empire claims ultimate and exclusive importance. The power constellation does not represent a danger that destroys the weak but expresses the divine will taking effect all over the world. Like a divine being, the empire offers redemption, its supreme form of prosperity. It allows no discussion and no one can stop it. Absolute faith, a cult and above all – like Moloch – sacrifice are demanded. What is left for the poor of this world? Only the crumbs of Lazarus.

The shamefulness and impudence of the empire are horrifying. How should we act? Pedro Casaldaliga’s answer is: “We oppose the liberating policy of God’s reign to the oppressive policy of every empire!”

Others will outline the concrete content, theory and praxis of this liberating policy. We will concentrate here on “anti-imperial spirituality,” the climate, impulse and spirit through which people can be moved to resist the empire and transform it into a realm of brotherliness and sisterliness.

2. THEOLOGICAL ASPECT: HONEST TOWARD REALITY AND SUBMITTING TO GOD ALONE

The Apocalypse (ch. 12 and 13) says evil or the beast sharing in the destructive power of the dragon uses the empire as an instrument. Evil is “murderous.” Therefore spirituality has the preeminent task of expressing compassion and mercy with the victims, being in solidarity with them and protecting their life with creativity and determination. This liberating attitude ready for martyrdom can be encountered everywhere in Latin America and also among many persons in solidarity who have to live in the “beast.” Since this is well known, other dimensions of the anti-imperial attitude should now be analyzed.

Evil is “lying.” Given the constant deceit of the empire, spirituality has the first task of unmasking the fraud and remaining honest toward reality.

This honesty is simple although evil disguises itself and does everything to appear as its opposite. The empire celebrates itself as a benefactor, the watchman of the good, the source of good and liberator, even of the disadvantaged. The wind of globalization is at its back today after the collapse of socialism. Therefore our analysis must be more profound.

a) A climate of deception arose through the sudden enthusiasm after the fall of the Berlin wall. The radical evil seemed to disappear. Massive belligerent conflicts seemed out of the question although the victorious bloc was ready for war for oil, water and Coltrane. The surviving superpower regards its mission as securing the prosperity of superfluous societies and promising the same prospects to the poor. Peace was a Pax Americana, an heir of Pax Romano and the Hellenistic Eirene (the Greek goddess of peace) instead of Shalom, reconciliation, brotherliness and sisterliness. Without discussion, many delegated responsibility for peace to the US. If the US had acted in a good way, it would have been seen as a well-meaning superpower and not had to transform itself into an oppressive empire. However an oppressive empire was encouraged with the backwind of history.
b) All this went along with globalization surrounded by its advocates with the glittering halo of Good News. The language shows how globalization is stylized as given and not worth questioning. The appendage “in a globalized world” is always added. The powerful regard everything as good and wholesome even when they admit problems.

The idea of “globalization” is closely entwined with the idea of “empire.” Both refer to a totality, a kind of harmony in all humanity or at least a kind of order that overcomes chaos and a center able to organize reality positively. The supporters of globalization do the empire a service by delegating the alleged or real positive effects of globalization to the empire. Certainly, not everyone thinks this way. “Worldwide Relations or Conquest?” was the title of a 1999 book by “Cristianisme i Justicia” on globalization. Jurgen Moltmann formulated this even more strongly when he characterized the century of western progress.

“The corpse-fields of history we have seen forbid any progress-ideology and globalization euphoria. [..] If we can use the achievements of science and technology to destroy humanity, it is hard to be enthusiastic about the Internet or genetic technology.” [J. Moltmann, Progress and the Abyss. Remembrances of the Future of the Modern World, in: Orientierung 65, p.17.]

Pursuing globalization does not mean justifying empire.

On spirituality, awakening an attitude risking conflict out of love for the victims and in opposition and resistance against the empire is vital. Because of the veiling, the first effective step of an anti-imperial spirituality consists in exposing the veil. Dealing honestly with reality is essential. This honest confrontation is hardly self-evident, even for so-called “progressive thinking.” We humans still succumb to sinful tendencies. In the past, the term “original sin” was used often in very improper interpretations. Neither the fall of the Berlin Wall nor progress of the Internet or biotechnology represent guarantees that imperialist oppression or subjugation will disappear.

The true God must oppose the empire because an idol is involved in a veiled way. For Christians, the true God is the God of Jesus. Sometimes this must be explained explicitly. Today people are not accustomed to speak this way, not even in some Christian texts. If we cannot speak of God in confrontation with the empire, we must make clear that the true God is at stake for us. Archbishop Romero said once “No person has self-knowledge without encountering God. Therefore there are many ego-worshippers, many arrogant self-satisfied persons who worship false gods. They have not yet encountered the true God. Therefore they have not yet discovered their own true greatness.” (Feb 10, 1980)

“Only God is God.” Neither the emperor nor the empire is God. Momentous consequences are involved when one is not clear about oneself, as a believing or secularized person. Emphasizing this theologically grounded spirituality may seem absurd to all kinds of pragmatists. Still an anti-imperial spirituality needs a theological approach. Spirituality cannot be content with rebelling against the idols and unmasking idolatry. It must speak positively at some point on the question of God.

3. THE JESUAN ASPECT: A CRITICAL CULTURE ACCORDING TO THE GOSPEL

Imperialism counters us through geo-politics, through the more or less inevitable submissiveness of powerful circles, through the selfish interests of capital and the exaggerated loyalty of people. In this mixed situation, decisions are made over life and death, human development and dehumanization of whole countries. This global imperialism is our blatant adversary. The movement that articulates this struggle most clearly appears under the call “Another World is Possible!”

Day after day, imperialism invades human hearts in different ways: with the so-called “American culture” or the “American way of life.” Some are seduced; the majority of people are blinded. This culture forces two powerful values on us: individualism as the supreme form of human realization and success as the irrefutable proof for the meaning of life. These values are offered or stylized as the best history has produced. On the other hand, brotherliness and sisterliness, compassion and readiness for service are regarded as second-rate cultural products that are tolerated but not promoted. Suing for them is stamped “politically incorrect.” The demand for equality of the French revolution, not to mention the brotherliness and sisterliness of the gospel, has become obsolete. In Afghanistan, the Afghans do not count. In Iraq, Iraqis are worthless and Africans do not matter in Africa. We are seduced by the “prosperity” culture to which everything must be sacrificed. In this way, the life of others and the monstrous suffering of the planet are played down. The empire causes a spiritual poisoning. The atmosphere in which the human spirit moves today is suffocated and poisoned.

Submission under this kind of being and life grossly contradicts the gospel. Therefore Christians must oppose this submission with the manner of being that was Jesus’ own manner. The empire will emphasize the ideal of eating, drinking, singing, pursuing sport and enjoying ourselves as in North America. Therefore we must eat and drink in table communities, cultivate a music that is not simple entertainment but evokes joy in community and pursue sport that is thrifty, manages without offensive compensations and understands itself as a disciplined competition in one and the same family. This would be an anti-imperial spirituality in everyday life. This is also important for “nationalism” in the sense of the right to diversity and protection of God’s good creation in different peoples, traditions, cultures and religions.

In view of the dominant pressure of cultural unity, the anti-imperial spirituality must be founded on those culture-critical characteristics that come from Jesus himself.

“Jesus impresses through his mercy and the prominent role that mercy plays. Nothing is more important. On the basis of mercy, he defines the truth of god and humankind. Jesus impresses through his honesty in dealing with reality and his will to truth: how he judges the situation of the oppressed majority of people and the oppressing minority, how he makes himself the voice for those who have no voice and raises his voice against those with too much political influence and how he reacts to this reality by defending the weak and unmasking and accusing the oppressor. Jesus impresses through his steadfastness with which he defies inner crises and the persecution coming from the outside and holds fast to honesty and justice to the end. Jesus impresses through his freedom to release and absolve, to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath and break the Sabbath, a freedom that does not allow what stands in the way of service to life. Jesus impresses through his determination to end the disaster of the poor and the self-absorption of their persecutors. That is the reason for the beatitudes. Jesus impresses through his manner of accepting sinners and the marginalized, sitting at table, celebrating with them and rejoicing that God reveals himself to such people. Jesus impresses through his symbolic acts – modest signs for god’s reign – and his utopian horizon embracing the whole society, the world and history. Lastly, Jesus impresses through his trust in the near humane God whom he calls Father and through his availability for the will of the Father, the `mystery God’ who cannot be manipulated.” [Sobrino, Jesus the Liberator, 1999, p.395]

These could be characteristics of an anti-imperial spirituality. They aim at what makes us humans (“Ecce homo,” under tragic circumstances) and bring together a family of humanity. This spirituality undermines the imperialist arrogance of the “civis romanus sum” with its contempt of all who are different.

4. THE SALVATION-HISTORICAL ASPECT: THE SCANDAL OF A SALVATION FROM BELOW

The empire must be combated in different ways. Christians may not shirk from developing anti-imperialist theories and creating social and political organizations that resist and undermine the empire step by step. They may not shirk from collaborating in just revolutions as occur in the course of history. We will not explain this further here. Instead several specific Christian elements will be underlined that could contribute in this struggle even if some view them as “absurd” or seemingly “ineffective.” They could work like the little stones in the vision of Daniel that roll down from the mountain and crush the shaky foundations of the great empire. These “little stones” are the great truths of Christianity even if they are regarded as scandalous and pointless. Spreading these truths is part of anti-imperial spirituality because they break through the logic indwelling the empire that only stresses submissiveness and power.

The essential anti-imperial thesis is that liberation starts from the victims of the empire. This is often not self-evident, particularly for the church hierarchy. Power must b used in a proper and different way to undermine and remove the empire. However power alone never leads to a liberation befitting human beings. The Biblical-Christian tradition – an expert for the theme liberation and ways leading to liberation – does not start with power. Rather liberation and salvation start from what is weak and insignificant, from a barren old woman, a little people Israel and a marginalized Jew… What appears weak and insignificant forms the center of a dynamic that leads to liberation. The insignificant and small are the bearers of liberation and not only its beneficiaries. The utopia corresponds to their hope, not to the hope of the powerful. Their insignificance attests that salvation comes undeserved and not through the hubris of those who want to see results.

This tradition of saving insignificance pervades the whole Holy Scripture. However it goes even further. In the Old Testament, the mysterious form of the suffering “Yahweh servant” appears who is a victim and not only “poor” and “insignificant.” God chose this servant to bring salvation. The scandal of the insignificant is now surpassed by the idiocy of the sacrifice. “The singer of the servant of god hymn can only discover what is the exact opposite with the eyes of history through a strenuous act of faith,” the murdered Salvadorian theologian Ignacio Ellacuria said. This idiocy is also historically effective in the world of the poor.
In Asia, as Aloysius Pieris explains, the poor are chosen to their mission because they are powerless and rejected, not because they live saintly. “They should help the rich to salvation. The weak are called to liberate the strong.”

In Africa, E. Veng follows the same insight regarding interchurch relations. “Africa’s church as African has a mission for the whole church… With its poverty and humility, the African church should remind all her sister churches of the core of the beatitudes and proclaim the Good News of liberation to whose who cannot resist the temptations to power, wealth and domination.”

In El Salvador, Ellacuria said: “All the blood of the martyrs shed in El Salvador and Latin America will fill the people with a new spirit ready for engagement and new hope instead of spreading despondency, despair and desperation.”

We could add other scandalous Christian theses to this central thesis. They could have a far-reaching significance and act like the little stones in overthrowing the empire.

a) God’s reign will come as a civilization of poverty contradicting the civilization of wealth that did not make human life either secure or more human. The peremptory necessity of criticizing prosperity results. This prosperity is not questioned but only praised though it robs persons of their human nature and produces rich extravagant spenders and poor Lazaruses. The empire is not entitled to profligacy by creating prosperity.
b) The highest authority on the planet comes to the suffering even if they cannot sue before a legal authority. For this reason, democracy has to be criticized or at least exposed to suspicion. The past “masters of suspicion” are sorely missing to us today! At best democracy is on the side of citizens who are the source of power. The empire is not entitled to appeal to democracy because the empire is a strange kind of democracy, democracy light, low-intensity, fraudulent and only with limited sovereignty…
c) The uncritical carelessness of praise should end – everything described as dialogue and tolerance without allowing the least space for dialectical conflict or condemnation of oppression and subjugation. The empire is not entitled to amass its profiteers, conduct discussions and act as though it listens to the oppressed.
d) Extortion by the allegedly ungovernable state of lour countries as a product of political polarization should end. This claim only veils the deadly split between the few and the many. The empire is not entitled to guarantee governability on the world plane.
e) Lastly, the language defined by the powerful should be challenged. We will not allow the definitions of terrorism, peace, international community and civilization to be prescribed. More importantly, we will not allow what is “human” and what is not human to be prescribed. Accepting a “politically correct” language mans joining in the game of the empire.

5. THE KINGDOM OF THE GOOD

Jesus spoke of a world determined by God’s magnanimous goodness, not by the coercion and force of an emperor. Everyone should know this. Therefore we Christians with heartfelt conviction should be adversaries of the empire and forerunners of God’s reign. Two current challenges for Christians should be mentioned in conclusion.

The Brazilian theologian Jose Comblin correctly identified the first challenge. Contemporary imperialism of the US confronts Christianity with a problem that always existed but is raised today with new sharpness. In Asia and Africa, “Christianity” – apart from a few exceptions – is equated with “the West.” In today’s world, the Moslem population, more than a billion people, sees Bush as a symbol of the West and a symbol of Christianity. The mission of Christians understood as dialogue-openness, brotherliness and sisterliness, not as proselytizing is very hard. Who can convince the nations that Christianity and the West may no be identified when the empire, Bush and his clique pray publically to the God of Jesus and intentionally miss all those Christians in resistance, including Pope John Paul II? As long as the empire has dominion, proclaiming Jesus’ Good News will be very difficult.

The second challenge should have been known to everyone for a long time but is ignored with the enormous number of canonizations… They killed Jesus because he was no friend of the empire. Everyone should reflect on the goodness that came into the world and that Jesus was no friend of the empire. In Latin America, thousands have lived friendship with the poor and with God instead of being friends of the empire and the emperor. Many of us live from this inheritance. This is the best description of “anti-imperial spirituality.”