Scripture scholars treat Moses and his deity, Yahweh, as leaders. Moses is a military leader, a War Lord, as is the Yahweh deity he invented. They dominate, inflict suffering, and kill. Their military leadership is evident in Sunday’s first reading concerning the 10 Commandments. From Yahweh, “I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment…on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation.” From Moses “All who touch the mountain must be put to death. No hand shall touch them, but they must be stoned to death or killed with arrows.”
Tyranny comes from the French and means rule by a lord, master, monarch, despot. It is rule through domination and violence and describes the military leadership model. Domination and violence are first used against recruits beginning with boot camp. The domination and violence used against recruits are then used by recruits in the field against all others. Thus a military tyrant can routinely and ruthlessly say, “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.” Who besides a military tyrant, the same one, would say in public, “It’s fun to shoot some people. . . . You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil….So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.” The military tyrant is General James Mattis; aka Mad Dog Mattis, aka U.S. Secretary of Defense. In the military empire that is the U.S., military tyrants routinely dominate and promote violence throughout the culture. A milder example is after Trump received a ceremonial saber, another military tyrant said, ““You can use that on the press sir.” That military tyrant is General John Kelly, aka Director of Homeland Security. Examples of normalized and sanctified domination and violence are endless in this empire. Militarists in the U.S. Empire are further normalizing and sanctifying their domination and violence through a recently developed research group led by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman aptly titled Killology. It is a training program for soldiers and police. Killology devises how to get otherwise healthy people to dominate and kill. Not so surprisingly, it is usually unsuccessful in devising methods to get these now unhealthy people who are returning home, to stop dominating and stop killing. As the public knows all too well from mass shooting statistics, soldiers don’t always stop their dominating and killing. The reason they don’t stop is because Mattis, Kelly, Grossman and other military tyrants are so very effective in training soldiers for tyranny; to normalize and sanctify domination and killing. The military does not train leaders. It trains tyrants. Our challenge as peacemakers is to change this tyrannical U.S. culture dominated by killing that is made holy by its religion of Militarism.
When Jesus clears the Temple in this Sunday’s Gospel he is clearing the world of the religion of Militarism. The Temple is the sacred sanctuary of Militarism’s War Lords, earthly ones and the heavenly one they invented, Yahweh. He is confronting the dominating military tyrants, their domination and their violence. It is why he gets a whip to lead the animals away. He is leading the animals away from their impending blood sacrifice. Jesus is a leader, as we are leaders, leading others toward a witness of life.
Prayer: Jesus, give us courage to take up the challenge to change Militarism.
Question: How do I see the military’s deadly tyranny and how do I help lead people away toward a life giving witness?
March 4, 2018 Gospel John 2:13-25 Third Sunday of Lent