Possession is of central importance in this Sunday’s Gospel. Jesus heals a possessed man and people are astonished at his authority to do so. Commentators on this and other Gospel stories of possession sometimes alter or dismiss the possession element. They suggest possession is a misunderstanding of mental illness. However, possession may in fact be the accurate description. Possession may describe the spiritual dimension to mental illness. Mental illness severs a person’s connection to reality. It disrupts their thoughts, feelings, and ability to relate to others. So much so it sometimes leads people to think they hear voices telling them to kill people. The spiritual dimension proposes that a mentally ill person, or even a group, is not in touch with reality because they are indeed under the control of, or possessed by, some other force. It is a harmful external force and can indeed go so far as to tell them to kill people. All of which means a mentally ill person is not acting from their own conscientious internal authority. A human being’s conscientious internal authority empowers them to heal people, as Jesus witnessed.
There is a current example of a mentally ill individual and in fact a mentally ill nation that is not in touch with reality because they are indeed under the control of some other force. It is a harmful force. It is not empowering people as a conscientious authority able to heal. It is telling people to kill. That force is Militarism. The late Chris Kyle, the American Sniper, along with the U.S. and its military that sent him and other soldiers to Iraq, is that current example of possession. Militarists are not in touch with reality. They are not in touch with the reality that the U.S. developed and maintained Iraq’s terrorist dictator, Saddam Hussein. They are not in touch with the reality that the U.S. sold Hussein chemical weapons. They are not in touch with the reality that Hussein later threatened to deny the U.S. access to oil. They are not in touch with the U.S. then sending soldiers to be killed and to kill hundreds of thousands of other human beings, or, “savages,” as Chris Kyle called them. Militarists are not in touch with the reality that this was done on the deceitful pretext that the secular Hussein was responsible for 9-11. Militarists are not in touch with the fact that the U.S. knew 9-11 was perpetrated by oil rich Saudi Arabian royalty supporting the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. Nor are Militarists in touch with the reality that Al Qaeda is led by a religious fanatic, Osama bin Laden, whom previous U.S. rulers, like the GOP headed by Ronald Reagan, helped train and supply with weapons to kill Russians back in the 1980s. Chris Kyle and all U.S. military personnel who kill are not in touch with any of this reality because they are possessed by an external force telling them to kill; Militarism. Militarism is more than the U.S. military, or any other nation’s military, or even any Al Qaeda type of military. It is all militaries. It is the religion of militaries. Together, all militaries constitute a controlling possessive force of religious fanaticism telling people to kill.
Militarism is a world-wide religion in possession of too many people. It explains how Chris Kyle and the U.S. military, with all their many supporters, could believe they are saviors, religiously justified in murdering other human beings. That possession would also explain how U.S. citizens, many of whom call themselves Christian, could enjoy Hollywood’s recent revisualization of the carnage in a movie about Chris Kyle. Possession would further explain why too many U.S. Christians are not acting from their conscientious internal authority that empowers them to heal as Jesus witnessed.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, heal us from our possession by Militarism.
Question: How is the religion of Militarism infecting me, this empire, and institutional chriitianity?
February 1, 2015 Gospel Mark 1:21-28 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time