(Part 1 of this series looked at the message of the 8th century BCE prophet Amos. Although Amos was from the southern kingdom of Judah, he was called by God to prophesy in the northern kingdom of Israel. He denounced the injustice and idolatry so prevalent in this powerful kingdom and was especially critical of the alliance of king and temple–an idolatrous allegiance to the nation’s greedy and violent agenda instead of obedience to the will of YHWH. In this article we shall briefly survey how that ancient and blasphemous alliance has continued under a rhetoric of God and country. The reality of such arrangements is, in fact, country with God tacked on and coopted to justify and sanctify governments which betray the justice and holiness of God.)
Around 5000 years ago, civilization began a major transformation. The age of kingdoms (and eventually empires) began. Life and wealth depended on agriculture. Land must be cultivated for people to thrive, but farming involved hard work. Individuals and groups discovered that if they could conquer other persons and require them to work the land while these parasites enjoyed the bulk of the harvest, intensive labor on their part was unnecessary. All they needed was power, weapons, and skill in war and oppression. Human society has followed this pattern of civilization for over five millennia. In each of these societies the top 10% of the population has enjoyed obscene wealth and power at the expense of the vast majority with the top 1-2% amassing the most booty from patterns of oppression and injustice.
However, such arrogant and oppressive systems require justification if they are to endure. Peasants have to be convinced that the system is to their benefit, is sanctioned by the gods, and cannot be challenged. So, quickly kings (and later emperors) used religion to prop up their legitimacy and their right to rule and amass obscene amounts of wealth. Religious systems were established which taught that these rulers had been chosen by the gods to rule their subjects. Kings were anointed and crowned by the priests of these deities. To question or challenge the king was to commit both blasphemy and sedition. Temples and priests were allowed to share in the wealth and power of the kingdoms as long as they continued the propaganda on which such systems depended. Kings took on a semidivine nature as they maintained a status quo world which allowed for no deviation or questioning.
The tragedy of kingship continued for thousands of years. Through the Doctrine of Discovery, Spain and Portugal ruthlessly slaughtered the Indigenous populations of the Western Hemisphere as their kings shamelessly expropriated the riches of two continents. Their conquests had the official approval of the Pope. France endured the arrogance and greed of kings like Louis XIV and Louis XIV who drained the French treasury as they pursued disastrous wars and unimaginable extravagance. Peasants starved while their kings claimed to have “the divine right” to rule as they pleased. England justified its empire, upon which the sun was said never to set, in part as “the white man’s burden” to civilize and convert the heathen to a Westernized Christianity. World War I brought about the end of many monarchies in Europe (the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Tsarist Russian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire were among the most prominent victims.) The Tsar of Russia ruled over 1/6th of the entire landmass of the world, and his word was absolute law. There was a proverb among his subjects: “It’s a long way to God, but it’s a very long way to the Tsar.” Such a saying demonstrated the nature of absolute monarchy. For all practical purposes, the Tsar was God in Russia. The Russian Orthodox Church provided the religious underpinnings for the Tsarist regime. Within that church, there was no place for a call to justice, compassion, emancipation, or human rights. The church became the handmaiden of the Tsar, and its leaders were rewarded with their own share of the booty the Tsarist regime stole from the peasants. (The current support of Putin by Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, continues this disgraceful and blasphemous practice.) Much effort and expense were pursued to allow for the religious justification of monarchy. It was a necessary cost to keep the regime well-oiled so that extraction and oppression could continue. It’s no wonder that the Communists rejected Christianity and chose atheism once they came to power.
Other countries throughout history continue a similar pattern. The Caesars of the Roman Empire even claimed divinity for themselves. (The coin mentioned in Luke 20: 19-26 was imprinted with the following propaganda: Tiberius Caesar, Son of the Divine Augustus. Caesar was the son of a god and, thus, divine himself). The Holy Roman Empire lasted from 962-1806 CE based on the myth that its emperor was divinely chosen by God to rule. Kings and queens in Europe were anointed and crowned by prelates of the church signifying that these rulers had been chosen by God Almighty with the implication that to question the king was to question God. To challenge such an arrangement resulted in charges of blasphemy and treason. The official term for this propaganda was “the Divine Right of Kings.” A remnant of this unholy alliance can be found in the coronation of the kings and queens of England. The hymn sung at the anointing of the English monarch begins with these words: “Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon king.” The majestic music is from Handel and is reminiscent of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. The message, however, is political propaganda. Just as God chose Solomon to rule over Israel, so God has chosen Elizabeth II (the last English monarch anointed and crowned) to rule over England. The queen today may be a figurehead in a constitutional monarchy, but her role involves visible demonstrations of a divine affirmation of the British system. Symbols are powerful. In fact, all kingdoms and empires survive through the propaganda and use of symbols. A façade must be maintained because, in truth, the king is as naked as the child in the fairytale recognized. (It’s interesting that only the child who has not been brainwashed by the royal myth can detect the nakedness and absurdity of the strutting king.) In the coronation of kings and queens, the anointing is more important than the crowning. The anointing by a high priest signifies the anointing of the monarch by God Almighty. The word “Christ” means “the Anointed One.” Just as Jesus was anointed by God, so now the monarch is anointed by the same God. Queen Elizabeth’s coronation was the first ever broadcast in full over tv. When the time came for the anointing, the screen went blank. This was a moment too solemn for the hoi polloi to witness. It was a private moment between God and the queen which has profound implications for her kingdom. She had been chosen by God to rule her people.
As citizens of a supposed democracy, we may think we are exempt from the mistake of confusing God with country. We have no anointed kings (although #45 would love to assume such a title). But we do have a system where many of the same dynamics are at work which characterized kingdoms and empires. As Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” (or in this case as rotten). Kings and emperors have been replaced by oligarchs, corporations, and ruthless politicians. Royal trappings and propaganda may have been abandoned, but other forms of propaganda and symbols of allegiance have been created to maintain a system as unjust and oppressive as kingdoms and empires of old. (As in all kingdoms and empires, the top 10% in the US enjoy a disproportionate share of the nation’s wealth.) To maintain this novel kind of empire, new myths, symbols, and forms of propaganda must be created. And since the US ostensibly remains very religious/Christian (with emphasis on ostensibly), ways must be found which can justify the regime by asserting God’s affirmation and sanctification of the powers that be. Part 3 of this series on “Country and God” will examine how the US continues the tragic history of kingdoms and empires.
