I mentioned James Carroll’s Constantine’s Sword book in the comments of Chris’ post God of War. I felt the need to post this in hopes that people will actually pick it up and read it. Yes, it is big. Yes, it is long. But for the love of all that is holy people, our faith has been hijacked by something that is violent and politically driven… read something! Read something that makes you research, makes you dig to understand, stretches you, challenges you.
However, for those of you less inclined to work through 756 pages, here is a preview of the movie now out in selected locations and coming to DVD in September.
-mike
July 30, 2008 at 7:49 am
The film looks good, and the book is something I will read.
Despite my views on individuals making the decision to join the military, I recognize with alarm the marriage of military and religious power. However, it is prophesied in the Bible.
I think the problem is broader than military might being endorsed by the institutional church. The church has whored after political power–which cannot stand in this fallen world of evil without a military–since before Constantine. He is simply the historical flash-point of joining the message of Christ to military conquest.
However, in calling the institution to accountability over its message and practice, I think we have to be careful. Many people cannot see, nor at this moment in history, embrace Christian life outside of the institution; yet they are part of the Bride of Christ as their faith is in Him. They are redeemed brother and sisters. Heaping condemnation on their actions only accomplishes fulfilling what we are taught NOT to do in various places in the NT.
We will not stop the march of the religious High Church into bed with the power-mongers of the earth. We can position ourselves to receive in love all those who wake to the call and choose to follow God out from it. All those currently inside, who may be there at God’s calling for purposes known only to Him or who are there as part of their journey into maturity, will hear the call to leave when it is in His timing. Likewise, those whose work is done in political and military realms (who may be there at God’s calling for purposes known only to Him or who are there as part of their journey into maturity, will hear His voice that it is time to leave as He ordains.
We have our eyes opened to the futility of fallen man’s attempt to raise himself up into a high tower against God, which has incorporated even the institutional “Church” that bears His name. Yet, we must beware that in our zeal to speak light over the truths of the institutional church, we fail the Truth of Jesus to love our brother and sisters.
It will require wisdom revealed only as we know and practice simple church life: Jesus is the Head, and we submit to the fellowship of love in which He willing shares His mind with us.
July 30, 2008 at 7:54 am
oops…failed to edit a mixture of parenthesis and comma. Wish this program had a preview option to protect my pride!
Oh…I need to get over that.
July 30, 2008 at 9:30 am
ded,
I always love your comments.
You said, “Despite my views on individuals making the decision to join the military, I recognize with alarm the marriage of military and religious power.”
This is exactly what Chris and I were talking about last night.
You said, “Many people cannot see, nor at this moment in history, embrace Christian life outside of the institution; yet they are part of the Bride of Christ as their faith is in Him.”
While Chirs was flabbergasted by his friend’s decision, the ‘God of War’ post was about the institution, not individuals. I think you will see in our other posts, that the institution is the issue for us.
You say, “We can position ourselves to receive in love all those who wake to the call and choose to follow God out from it.”
I agree.
You say, “…who may be there at God’s calling for purposes known only to Him or who are there as part of their journey into maturity…”
I have no problem with that, what I have a problem with is the institution propagating the idea that continued milktoast will nourish people for the journey into maturity.
I have taken a lot of flack (read: good-natured elbowing) for using Matrix quotes when the movie came out and I was teaching high school sunday school. I think however, I will allude to Morpheus to further explain my position. Replace Matrix with the words institutionalized church.
Morpheus: “The Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.”
“What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.”
“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it. …if you are not one of us, you are one of them.”
“There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”
Ok, so maybe calling the people within the church our enemy is a bit much but… To other Americans and westerners, no, the people inside the church are not the ememy. But to countless others who have been put into forced labor for our cheap products, our diamonds, our oil, our…way of life, we are the enemy because we condone their suffering and slavery.
We can condone it overtly with flag-waving and patriotic songs in church, or we can do it covertly by continuing to buy, buy, buy and not changing our lifestyle.
I understand the whole ‘purposes known only to him’, but the church has perverted that purpose and we are merely calling out the perversion so those people can continue the journey.
-mike
July 30, 2008 at 10:39 am
Agreed.
Consumerism is at the root of why men who love darkness rejoice in “milk-toast.” The milk-toast allows them to lust for things “righteously.”
James 5
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The NAS Strong’s Version
James 5
5:1
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.
5:2
Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten.
5:3
Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure !
5:4
Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
5:5
You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
5:6
You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.
It is a small refusal to join the roller-coaster of American marketing strategy, but nonetheless: grow/buy locally; refuse diamonds; buy fair-trade when you must have something, i.e. coffee (I really like coffee and we buy it through a Mennonite group that deals directly with the farmer, who does not work for an American corporation; conserve and reduce–not for the environment, though that is an added benefit–but to slow the demand for all products and reduce the every higher pressure of inflation on the less fortunate.
Further, reducing one’s expenditures allows more money to be used helping others.
August 18, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I am currently on my second reading of the book in question and am finding it now, as I did three years ago, very engaging and thought provoking. With the exception of his more pacifistic thoughts, I find myself wantintg to shout out in affirmation at some points, while I chuckle in dark irony at others.
An awesome read!
August 19, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Randy,
Have you caught the movie/documentary yet?
-mike