God really is not a father that lives in the sky, though John’s Gospel imagines it in today’s reading. This father god does not grant salvation to those who believe in him and obey him. Neither does this imagined deity condemn those who do not. All of that is just a projection put onto God by such fathers here on earth. That invented god image is an earthly father stereotype that leans heavily on the qualities of a judge. Judges are to be revered as segregating the deserving good from the undeserving bad. Even though the image of a just God judging between the saved and the condemned doesn’t match Jesus’ way of relating, it persists as an image of God promoted by some self titled christians. These christians are actually perpetuating the religion of Militarism (Worshipped superior who justly inflicts suffering and saves through violence). One of Militarism’s elements is military justice. Military justice is also called atonement theology. It promotes the belief that some people deserve to be condemned and suffer for the sin of disobedience to Militarism’s invented father god and its earthly representatives. Militarists claim the condemnation and suffering confer justice.
Belief in military justice explains the sad state of affairs in U.S. christianity. Some self-titled christians are among the most ardent supporters of the religion of Militarism practiced through the U.S. Empire’s justice system. It is the justice system of most if not all nations, currently and across history. This would include the justice system of the Roman Empire responsible for condemning Jesus to death and executing him. Empires glorify the weapons they use to exact their military justice. For example, the Roman Empire often used a cross to execute its death penalty justice. Empires have never disavowed their death rows. They have only changed the weapons used to execute human beings on them. Any cross, blade, noose, rifle, injected gas or jolt of electricity will do. This is the violent military justice system some self-titled christians ardently support. It was more than sad, gruesome in fact, to see self-titled Christians supporting some of the most recent death row executions by the U.S. Empire. One condemned man in Ohio writhed in pain and suffered for 26 minutes before eventually dying. The premeditated murder of another man by the state of Oklahoma took a full 43 minutes of the man suffering before he finally died. These are our brothers in Christ. To champion the religion of Militarism’ inflicted suffering of these men as a deserved follow up to the believed suffering they inflicted on others is not to be a follower of Jesus. It is to be a follower of all those who cause suffering, all those who execute death. Jesus suffered under Militarism’s same judges executing the same justice system. People who support such a murderous justice system are not Christ-like. They are military-like.
To worship a God who grants favor to the saved and death to those it judges guilty is to have made an idol of Jesus’ killers.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, help us to love as you love.
Question: How do I experience God?
June 15, 2014 Gospel John 3:16-18 Feast of the Holy Trinity