Imperial Power -- America's dilemma


Marcus Borg writes in The Heart of Christianity:



"For Christians in the United States, taking the Kingdom of God seriously means critical thinking about what it means to be an imperial power. Like it or not, we are the world's imperial power ever since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

Militarily, we are the world's superpower. We are also the world's major economic power. The combination of global military and economic power is the defining characteristic of empire. We are the Rome of our time."


If I remember the story correctly -- Jesus, Paul, Peter, and thousands more died at the hands of Rome -- just a thought.

Comments

jonathan said…
Last time I checked, radical Islam, not our nation, is the biggest threat to Christianity. We still have religous freedoms (however limited) in this country, but radical Islam would say that we should be wiped out.

I guess if there was a better reason - other than the fact that the US is powerful - for our safety to be of concern, I would follow along. But I just don't buy it.
Mystical Seeker said…
I have often pondered the analogy between ancient Rome and the modern US. The fact that Jesus and Paul and others were killed by the Empire they lived under ought to give us pause today, given that the modern US is the new Rome, the new dominant Imperial force in the world. Jesus did not just resist nonviolently a single Empire; he resisted the entire imperial system. The problem is that the US is simply a new empire, but the concept of an imperial system has not changed. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

The radical in me says that simply replacing the current emperor with a better one won't solve the problem. The problem isn't who is in charge of the empire, but the existence of empire itself. I don't think that a single major presidential candidate of either party is going to challenge the imperial system, or for that matter the corporate interests that drive US foreign policy.

It seems to me that the best way we can honor Jesus is by challenging Empire just as he did in his day.

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