This is my take (whether it's original or not): There is no true love without justice; there is no true justice without love. As a retired ELCA pastor, I loved your unwrapping of Luther's profound and incisive formulation.
Oklahoma, where I live, is already occupied territory--occupied by Christian nationalists, that is. I find DeSantis’s campaign for President terrifying. I retired from the professoriate here (philosopher of education & ecofeminist theorist) and have witnessed the Christian nationalist project of demolishing both democratic values and academic freedom in the university, to an extent that imperils education at every level and therefore our whole culture. Your analysis here is spot on.
I witness Christian-nationalist toxicity’s effect on even its diverse opponents’ spirits and realize how vulnerable we all are to unwitting transformation by it, socially and ethically destructive transformation of our very being. I am trying to be wide-awake about this not just at the level of political opinion but also at the level of my own felt responses to challenges I confront living enveloped in this ethos, lest I fall into the fashion of hateful bravado too.
Your study here and in your books is helping my struggle to stay awake with this. Thank you.
“In this version of the Christian Gospel, the exploitation and abuse of other human beings is a good. Homosexuality is an evil. And this global, heartless system of economic rationalism has morphed in the rhetoric of the Christian Right into a test of faith. The ideology it espouses is a radical evil, an ideology of death. It calls for wanton destruction, destruction of human beings, of the environment, of communities and neighborhoods, of labor unions, of a free press, of Iraqis, Palestinians or others in the Middle East who would deny us oil fields and hegemony, of federal regulatory agencies, social welfare programs, public education—in short, the destruction of all people and programs that stand in the way of a Christian America and its God-given right to dominate the rest of the planet. The movement offers, in return, the absurd but seductive promise that those who are right with God will rise to become spiritual and material oligarchs. They will become the new class. Those who are not right with God, be they poor or Muslim or unsaved, deserve what they get. In the rational world none of this makes sense. But believers have been removed from a reality-based world. They believe that through Jesus all is possible. It has become a Christian duty to embrace the exploitation of others, to build a Christian America where freedom means the freedom of the powerful to dominate the weak. Since believers see themselves as becoming empowered through faith, the gross injustices and repression that could well boomerang back on most of them are of little concern. They assuage their consciences with the small acts of charity they or their churches dole out to the homeless or the mission fields. The emotion-filled religious spectacles and spiritual bromides compensate for the emptiness of their lives. They are energized by hate campaigns against gays or Muslims or liberals or immigrants. They walk willingly into a totalitarian prison they are helping to construct. They yearn for it. They work for it with passion, self-sacrifice and a blinding self-righteousness. “Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty,” Simone Weil wrote in Gravity and Grace. And it is the duty of the Christian foot soldiers to bring about the Christian utopia. When it is finished, when all have been stripped of legal and social protection, it will be too late to resist. This is the genius of totalitarian movements. They convince the masses to agitate for their own incarceration.”
Chris Hedges, American Fascists. The Christian Right and the War on America, Simon and Schuster, 2006.
Excellent commentary! Both… And requires a generosity of heart that is only birthed out of our honest recognition of the grace of god available to all.
Thank you for this. Another excellent post! DeSantis and those like him truly frighten me. They are dangerous. Richard Rohr has said and written:
“The only way evil can succeed is to disguise itself as good. And one of the best disguises for evil is religion. Just pretend to love God, go to church every Sunday, recite the creed, and say all the right things. Someone can be racist, be against the poor, hate immigrants, and be totally concerned about making money and being a materialist, but still go to church each Sunday and be “justified” in the eyes of religion.”
This is a very interesting angle to view this from. By chance, do you (or any other commenters) have more info on the influence of Martin Luther on notions of freedom/liberty for the last 500 years?
Thank you! I hope you will make this open to unpaid subscribers. I live in FL and am daily appalled at what DeSantis is doing. It grieves me to see so many follow him. You speak clearly on what real Christian freedom is. Floridians need to hear this truth more.
For my part I’m offering a Bible study session using Brueggemann’s Interrupting Silence. Just for the record, I’m white, privileged female, Presbyterian, college educated, a recently, retired educator, in my late 60’s.
Growing up I was reminded quite often that my “rights” ended where someone else’s began. That helps me understand freedom as a two-way street. Thank you for speaking out with wisdom and clarity.
This is my take (whether it's original or not): There is no true love without justice; there is no true justice without love. As a retired ELCA pastor, I loved your unwrapping of Luther's profound and incisive formulation.
Oklahoma, where I live, is already occupied territory--occupied by Christian nationalists, that is. I find DeSantis’s campaign for President terrifying. I retired from the professoriate here (philosopher of education & ecofeminist theorist) and have witnessed the Christian nationalist project of demolishing both democratic values and academic freedom in the university, to an extent that imperils education at every level and therefore our whole culture. Your analysis here is spot on.
I witness Christian-nationalist toxicity’s effect on even its diverse opponents’ spirits and realize how vulnerable we all are to unwitting transformation by it, socially and ethically destructive transformation of our very being. I am trying to be wide-awake about this not just at the level of political opinion but also at the level of my own felt responses to challenges I confront living enveloped in this ethos, lest I fall into the fashion of hateful bravado too.
Your study here and in your books is helping my struggle to stay awake with this. Thank you.
Funny..I wrote an article with the same title but with a completely different interpretation. https://open.substack.com/pub/philprojectphoenix/p/war-is-peace-freedom-is-slavery-ignorance?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Funny..I wrote an article with the same title but with a completely different interpretation. https://open.substack.com/pub/philprojectphoenix/p/war-is-peace-freedom-is-slavery-ignorance?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
And I would guess you may have been one of them. Seminary?
Luther's Theology of the Cross - calls a thing what it is. Thank you for writing.
“In this version of the Christian Gospel, the exploitation and abuse of other human beings is a good. Homosexuality is an evil. And this global, heartless system of economic rationalism has morphed in the rhetoric of the Christian Right into a test of faith. The ideology it espouses is a radical evil, an ideology of death. It calls for wanton destruction, destruction of human beings, of the environment, of communities and neighborhoods, of labor unions, of a free press, of Iraqis, Palestinians or others in the Middle East who would deny us oil fields and hegemony, of federal regulatory agencies, social welfare programs, public education—in short, the destruction of all people and programs that stand in the way of a Christian America and its God-given right to dominate the rest of the planet. The movement offers, in return, the absurd but seductive promise that those who are right with God will rise to become spiritual and material oligarchs. They will become the new class. Those who are not right with God, be they poor or Muslim or unsaved, deserve what they get. In the rational world none of this makes sense. But believers have been removed from a reality-based world. They believe that through Jesus all is possible. It has become a Christian duty to embrace the exploitation of others, to build a Christian America where freedom means the freedom of the powerful to dominate the weak. Since believers see themselves as becoming empowered through faith, the gross injustices and repression that could well boomerang back on most of them are of little concern. They assuage their consciences with the small acts of charity they or their churches dole out to the homeless or the mission fields. The emotion-filled religious spectacles and spiritual bromides compensate for the emptiness of their lives. They are energized by hate campaigns against gays or Muslims or liberals or immigrants. They walk willingly into a totalitarian prison they are helping to construct. They yearn for it. They work for it with passion, self-sacrifice and a blinding self-righteousness. “Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty,” Simone Weil wrote in Gravity and Grace. And it is the duty of the Christian foot soldiers to bring about the Christian utopia. When it is finished, when all have been stripped of legal and social protection, it will be too late to resist. This is the genius of totalitarian movements. They convince the masses to agitate for their own incarceration.”
Chris Hedges, American Fascists. The Christian Right and the War on America, Simon and Schuster, 2006.
Excellent commentary! Both… And requires a generosity of heart that is only birthed out of our honest recognition of the grace of god available to all.
Amen, sister!
I am not only inspired by Diana, but by all of the peoples remarks.
I’m a Southern White privileged Presbyterian woman who was a church educator (DCE), divorced, and will be 89 in May.
We need more prophets that will guide us to be freedom activists.
Diana thank you being one of our guide.
Thank you for this. Another excellent post! DeSantis and those like him truly frighten me. They are dangerous. Richard Rohr has said and written:
“The only way evil can succeed is to disguise itself as good. And one of the best disguises for evil is religion. Just pretend to love God, go to church every Sunday, recite the creed, and say all the right things. Someone can be racist, be against the poor, hate immigrants, and be totally concerned about making money and being a materialist, but still go to church each Sunday and be “justified” in the eyes of religion.”
This is a very interesting angle to view this from. By chance, do you (or any other commenters) have more info on the influence of Martin Luther on notions of freedom/liberty for the last 500 years?
Amen.
Thank you! I hope you will make this open to unpaid subscribers. I live in FL and am daily appalled at what DeSantis is doing. It grieves me to see so many follow him. You speak clearly on what real Christian freedom is. Floridians need to hear this truth more.
For my part I’m offering a Bible study session using Brueggemann’s Interrupting Silence. Just for the record, I’m white, privileged female, Presbyterian, college educated, a recently, retired educator, in my late 60’s.
I firmly agree!
Growing up I was reminded quite often that my “rights” ended where someone else’s began. That helps me understand freedom as a two-way street. Thank you for speaking out with wisdom and clarity.