Jesus calls himself “the Good Shepherd.” He contrasts that witness with a hired man, “A hired man… whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.”
Institutional christianity is the hired man in the story above. It is unfortunately hired by the military who is the wolf. Institutional christianity does worse than leave and run away. It stays and corrals the sheep so that they are forever farmed and fed on by the military. The U.S. military is the subject of West Point Professor of Law Tim Bakken’s book, The Cost of Loyalty. Bakken uses the analogy of military members as wolves and sheep; wolves being the superior officers who make sheep of subordinates, beginning as recruits. Bakken criticizes superior officers for prizing unquestioned faith from lower ranks over and against the military’s core values. But faith in the military is the military’s core value. It is Bakken’s core value. Bakken wants “civilians” to have faith in the military. He wants, “civilians,” to question that faith but so as to ultimately strengthen it in the military. Bakken also wants, “civilians,” to control the military. But Bakken keeps proving the military controls “civilians,” by routinely calling human beings, “civilians.” We are not civilians. We are human beings. We live free of the military and its wolves who farm and feed on “civilians.” “Civilians” defines people who, like the author, exists in reference to the military and are faithful to it, to its supremacy, hostility, and violence. Civilians may question who should be supreme, or hostile, or violent, but civilians do not question faith in the military being supreme, hostile, and violent. It is not, as Bakken writes, that Militarism is “almost like a religion.” Militarism is a religion. Militarism is THE religion; the cult, creed, and code of our lives. It is a worship cult of supremacy; rank over recruit, wealthy over poor, whites over people of color, men over women. The cult explains why the GOP desire dictators like the former wealthy white supremacist president and desire dictates like the suppression of voters, immigrants, and free speech. Militarism is the holy creed of justified hostility; unlivable wages, racism, and sexual assault. The creed explains why the GOP like the wealthy, racist, rapist former president and too many like him. Militarism as THE religion explains the sacred code of sanctified violence; the 2nd amendment, police brutality, and war against soldiers and civilians in market places in Iraq and spas in Atlanta GA and grocery stores in Bolder CO and army bases in Fort Detrick MD and homes in Rock Hill SC and Fed Exes in Indianapolis and… and… and every place else. We are all trained for faith in THE military religion and its core values – its cult of supremacy, its creed of hostility, its code of violence – as soldiers and as civilians. Our training happens across a military culture that subjects us all to varying types and degrees of boot camp. As boot camp trains civilians to be unquestioning soldier subordinates, parenting can do the same, as can teaching, coaching, the priesthood, business bosses, policing, and more. We are trained, in degree, as soldiers, to obey the orders of superior officers. It is foolish to believe that subordinates trained in unquestioning obedience will become questioning. For soldiers to question superior officers is to be guilty of insubordination. Hence, as subordination is drilled into all soldiers, so too it is drilled into all “civilians.” The author cannot rationally propose “civilians” question the military since it is the military’s job to make all “civilians” unquestioning. Nor can he rationally propose “civilians” control the military as an institution, since it is the military’s job to control all civilian institutions, including christianity as an institution. Christianity became an institution diverting people away from Jesus when it adopted Militarism’s cult of supremacy in priests, which Jesus was not; Militarism’s creed of justified abuse of Jesus on the cross, which Jesus never justified, and Militarism’s code of salvific violence by its soldiers murdering Jesus, who never witnessed violence saves us. It explains why white men, poor from theft of a living wage, who call themselves Christian, are more willing to subordinate themselves to dictators, pay dearly for a deadly 2nd amendment, and kill themselves – evident in most gun death victims being poor white men who put a gun to their mouth. How sad to be sheep farmed and fed on by the military. How foolish to be a civilian when we could be peacemakers.
“I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me.” (Jesus of Nazareth)
Prayer: Spirit, keep us wise.
Question: How do I live as a good and wise shepherd with those foolish about the military?
April 25, 2021 Gospel John 10:11-18 Fourth Sunday of Easter