Yes, Jesus' peace is not what the world calls peace. It's not Roman peace which was imposed by means of war. Rome's, like the Pentagon's, was peace through victory always supported by Roman religion. In fact, as scripture scholar John Dominic Crossan, puts it in God and Empire: Jesus against Rome then and now, the exact sequence was religion-war-victory-peace. Sound familiar?
By contrast, the peace Jesus bequeathed had nothing to do with Rome or empire in general. His peace is brought not by victory, but by justice especially for the poor. As I noted last week, that point was made in the programmatic sermon the Master gave in Nazareth at the beginning of his public life. These are the words with which he described his very purpose: "The Spirit of the Lord in on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (LK 4: 17-19).
Jesus was about serving the poor, releasing the imprisoned, caring for the disabled, liberating the enslaved, and ending debt servitude. His peace had nothing to do with victory as the world understands it -- as Rome understood it or as the United States does. The sequence of Jesus' gift to the world was religion-nonviolence -justice-peace.
Conclusion
And that's the sequence of Marianne Williamson's national defense program as well. It entails a spiritual conversion that takes its cue from Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. It also takes heed of Republican Dwight Eisenhower's warning about the dangers of the military-industrial complex. Williamson's program would:
- Have our country live within its means
- Emphasize peace building rather than war-making
- Rather than bombs and drones, it would in effect rain down rebuilt homes, schools, hospitals, factories, temples, mosques and churches on the enemies created by our imperial philosophy of peace through victory
And to those who say that all of that won't work or that it's totally unrealistic, Williamson is fond of responding, "And how's that realism working out for you?" In fact, it's creating more terrorists and mayhem while simultaneously destroying the planet.
We've got to try something different. And that means national spiritual conversion. It's in that call for repentance, transformation and restorative justice that the campaigns of Jesus and Marianne Williamson coincide. And that coincidence has nothing to do with memorializing, much less glorifying our country's ceaseless imperial wars.
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