anxious about empire

one more rant. really. at least for today.

i really don't buy the idea that the usa is becoming an empire. at least, not in any traditional sense of rome or england. but we do have enormous power--economic, political, cultural. and it disturbs me greatly that our current administration has seemingly gotten away with implementing a foreign policy doctrine of 'preemptive strikes' against those who are deemed to be a threat.

this all goes back to a national security document titled "the national security strategy report of the united states of america." (2002). innovative title. actually, this is simply a required and usually not remarkable report required by congress every year. in 2002, however, the bush administration chose to use this annual report to outline a 'sea-change' in us foreign policy abandoning the concepts of deterrence for a preemptive strategy that includes what took place in iraq: preemptive war.

in a new book, yds professor wes avram and a core of thoughtful authors (including robert bellah and jean bethke elshtain from academic circles and ministers lillian daniel and allen hilton, both involved with our faith as a way of life project) take on this new policy. the trick with this book, anxious about empire: theological essays on the new global realities, was that they gave each author a copy of the nss document and asked them to reflect theologically on the real and potential implications. the volume includes a copy of the nss document in the appendix, so no need to download it if you get the book.

the rant is this. the war in iraq and the preemptive doctrine itself do not by most accounts past the traditional christian thinking about what constitutes a just war. a group of major theologians, miroslav volf included, are starting a movement to speak some truth publicly about this. called appeal to america, it aims to press for truth in this area where so much fog has covered real and deadly actions. politics for christians is never good or bad--just dangerous. that is the gut check for all of us. we matter politically, not because we ought to elect kerry or bush, but because our politics of self-giving, love, peace, and justice flow from God through us to the world we make together. 'christians ought to make use of the earthly peace and defend it and seek the compromise between human wills.' st. augustine

anon, and +peace

Comments

[Dale]

Everything you just described, with which I wholly agree, aptly describes just that: Empire. Believe it. We're living in apocalyptic times (and I don't mean as in "Left Behind", but as in "It's here", and we need to be a COnfesing Church, as Bonhoeffer was pressing his contemporaries to be.

Good piece . I enjoyed it.

Dale
http://theoblogical.org