Today we venture into the bit of history that demonstrates what can and does happen when Christianity is taken on by the empire. Cornel West says this goes back to the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine and what then became the wedding of the church and the empire.
As the Christian church became increasingly corrupted by the state power, religious rhetoric was often used to justify imperial aims and conceal the prophetic heritage of Christianity... The corruption of a faith fundamentally based on tolerance and compassion by the strong arm of imperial authoritarianism invested Christianity with an insidious schizophrenia with which it has been battling ever since. The terrible merger of church and state has been behind so many of the church's worst violations of Christian love and justice - from the barbaric crusades against Jews and Muslims, to the horrors of the Inquisition and the ugly bigotry against women, people of color, and gays and lesbians.
Though West give a much to simple glimpse at what happened around the time of Constantine, he is making such an important point about how two very different power merged and the power of empire used the power of the message of Jesus to continue to build its base. The cost was the abandonment of what he calls the prophetic legacy of Jesus Christ. It is as though the church gave the name of Jesus over to the state - like in a business merger. The church then becomes a guarded community that exists at the will of the empire. But in addition, it becomes more and more difficult to draw lines as to what is empire and what is church. I can remember when the expression "ugly American" was used to describe U.S. travelers overseas. Well, in the history of empire, we have earned (unfortunately) the description of "ugly Christians." Why? For one thing, the church was so blended with empires as they came and then left the world scene, we did not manage to keep ourselves within that prophetic tradition that is most often contrary to the ways of empire. One of my little forms of protest goes like this. I went to a college whose mascot was a "Crusader." In a day when we are trying to rid athletic teams and colleges from using terms like "Indian" because it put Native American Indians in a bad light, I want to protest the use of Crusaders by Christian institutions. It ties us into an identity that is an embarrassment to the life of the church and may even demand our repentance. Unfortunately, the church becomes a part of the values and exclusive life of the empire and we give the empire our blessing - what an odd predicament in which to find ourselves.
Connection: Some days it is worth our time to practice a little exercise. Try to pick out how often the values of the empire (that's us folks) are made to sound like the values of the Christ...and vice-versa. Then, comes the task to untangle them to see who is leading whom.
Lord God, our history is mingles with the powers of this world and at times it is so difficult to understand what power leads us and guides us. Through all the ages, we ask that you keep our minds on Jesus even as we must turn from the voices that attempt to use our Lord as a tool for the growth of empire. Amen.
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