America's Manifest Destiny?
Faith in the Public Square
October 7, 2007
Manifest Destiny is deeply rooted in the American psyche. We have tended to see ourselves destined by providence to spread our influence and values across the world. It fueled the westward movement of the 19th century and it gave impetus to the missionary movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries - when Jesus and American values were carried together to all parts of the world. It also fueled Christian support for wars with Mexico and Spain.
To give but one example - Lyman Abbott, a Congregationalist minister and social gospeler, gave voice to an American imperialism in his reflections on the Spanish-American War:
“We fought the American Revolution to free ourselves, the Civil War to free a people whom we had helped to enslave, the Spanish-American War to free a people to whom we owed no other duty than that of a big nation to an oppressed nation.”
He expressed a common vision that it was proper for the United States to extend its imperial reach into the Caribbean and on to the Philippines. It was our destiny!
From the earliest days, Americans have defined our national identity in terms of exceptionalism and innocence. We tend to see ourselves as somehow different from other nations, for we're seemingly untainted by their “sins.” In our self-understanding, we see ourselves carrying out our duties with selflessness and without imperial designs. This perception of ourselves makes it difficult for Americans to understand why other peoples harbor ill will toward us. Why, we wonder, do they resist our gifts of freedom?
Returning to Lyman Abbott's glowing comments about American designs in the Spanish-American War, the famed preacher ignored the fact that the Philippine people didn't welcome our occupation and fought a three-year war against American occupational forces (1899 to 1902).
Of course, the history of European-American engagement with Native Americans is another painful reminder of the legacy of Manifest Destiny. It seems that the gift of freedom often comes at the cost of submission to another imperial power.
As the reigning Super Power in the world, we have become in a sense the New Rome, and like this earlier empire we seek to extend our influence around the world because of our interests in those parts of the world.
Although Rome offered a Pax Romana or Roman Peace, it came at a price. Living, then and now, under the influence of the empire offers innumerable benefits and blessings, but there are trade-offs. The empire expects a certain amount of obeisance.
Although Rome offered a Pax Romana or Roman Peace, it came at a price. Living, then and now, under the influence of the empire offers innumerable benefits and blessings, but there are trade-offs. The empire expects a certain amount of obeisance.
Then, as now, the empire rooted its claims in an imperial theology, a religious ideology that helped define the empire's identity and purpose. Claims that America is a Christian nation are often combined with support for and even rationales for the extension of American power around the world. In making the claim, advocates of this ideology merge a religious identity with a national identity and insist that God has a special purpose for the nation.As a follower of Jesus, I'm reminded that he died on an imperial cross because he proclaimed a different kind of kingdom - the Kingdom of God. The foundation of this kingdom is radically different than that of any empire - for it is rooted not in violence but nonviolence. Caesar understood that to give allegiance to God is to take it away from him, and Caesar demanded total allegiance.
Since the time of Constantine, Christians have subsumed the message of the Kingdom of God under that of the empire and have made Jesus the empire's patron. Indeed, whenever we who are Christians merge our Christian identity with our American identity by proclaiming this to be a Christian nation, we make Jesus the foundation of empire.
For America or any nation to consider itself Christian, it must answer “Kingdom of God” kinds of questions, such as how the nonviolent teachings of Jesus should define our foreign policy. We would have to consider how his teachings influence policies toward the poor, the indigent, the young and the elderly. When we hear presidents and presidential candidates speak of their faith, we should then ask them about the relationship between that faith and their actions and decisions. Ultimately the question has to do with our loyalties - to whom shall we bow? Are we citizens of the empire, or of the Kingdom?
Dr. Bob Cornwall is pastor of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Lompoc (www.lompocdisciples.org). He blogs at www.pastorbobcornwall.blogspot.com and may be contacted at lompocdisciples@impulse.net or c/o of First Christian Church, P.O. Box 1056, Lompoc, CA 93438.
October 7, 2007
Comments
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This is an intriguing question -- does the exporter expect the importer to bow down before it?
In one sense the American celebration of freedom, the sharing of our constitutional principles, etc. isn't a bad thing. Indeed it's a good thing.
The problem is that we too often in our history we have tried to export this ideology through the barrel of the gun -- not so much because it will benefit them, but because it will benefit us.
Lyman Abbot celebrates America's gift to its conquered territories, but doesn't stop to consider whether these territories wanted us to stay around and impose the benefits on them. I think this is what we're seeing in Iraq now.