Sunday’s first reading concerns child sacrifice. Yahweh wants Abraham to murder his young son, Isaac, as a test of faith. Will Abraham offer his son in a blood sacrifice ritual for Yahweh? It turns out that Abraham will. At the last moment, however, Yahweh stops Abraham but commends his willingness to obey the violent command. Biblical commentaries interpret Abraham’s murderous compliance as laudatory. Abraham has demonstrated he is a man of faith, a dutiful soldier. He is willing to follow a command to murder, even his own son, in a human sacrifice ritual.
Research indicates human sacrifice is an early practice of tribal religion. The most basic and still practiced tribal religion is Militarism. Militarism revolves around warlords and their blood sacrifice rituals which are threefold. The first human sacrifice Militarists performed is the murder of a living being just before a battle. Warriors would offer their own prayers and another’s flesh while begging their War Lord deity for victory. The second human sacrifice ritual, which we know too well, is the murder of human beings on the battlefield itself. Thirdly, after the battlefield victory, soldiers would have a follow-up meal in which the victors eat the flesh of the defeated warriors. Abraham’s story with Isaac is part of Militarism’s human sacrifice practice. It is also the larger story of human progress. It shows one ancient tribal War Lord, Abraham, deciding not to practice child sacrifice. It is horrible to consider Militarism’s practice of human sacrifice having been practiced on children. It is more horrible to know the practice is current. Militarism’s human sacrifice, including of children, is kept current through war. War kills children all the time, every day. Kept current too are more effective killing weapons to sacrifice children in war. Abraham’s knife and Moses’ sword have been replaced by guns and tanks and IED’s and drones. Children are always among those sacrificed in war by warrior members of the one same religion of Militarism – this includes soldiers of the Taliban, Syria, ISIS, Russia, and others, including the U.S. U.S. soldiers have sacrificed millions to Militarism’s one same War Lord deity (Afghanistan: 1 million deaths since 1979. Iran: 250,000 since 1980; Iraq: 1.8 million since 1980; … (UNICEF)). Children not murdered in the carnage are sacrificed by Militarism in other ways. They are recruited as child soldiers, made refugees, deprived of basic necessities, trafficked for sex and labor, and punished with severe psychological and emotional trauma. U.S. children sacrificed by Militarists include the 1,300 children who die annually from gun-related injuries. (Brady Campaign) All humanity is faced with the challenge to change the religion of Militarism and its human sacrifice practices, especially of children.
“When you see millions of the mouthless dead Across your dreams in pale battalions go, Say not soft things as other men have said … Then, scanning all the o’ercrowded mass, should you Perceive one face that you loved heretofore, It is a spook. None wears the face you knew. Great death has made all his for evermore.” (When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead – Charles Hamilton Sorley)
Prayer: Spirit of Life, guide us away from Militarism’s religion of death.
Question: In what ways can I change Militarism’s human sacrifice practices?
February 25, 2018 Gospel Mark:2-10 Second Sunday of Lent