PERFECT SOLDIERS

How Corporate and Military Exploitation Work Hand In Hand To Exploit The Poor.

THE PARABLE OF THE UNMERCIFUL NATION

By James Douglass

Transposing Jesus' Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Matt. 18:23-35) into our time, produces the following reading:

Compare the Kingdom of God to a financial lord who wished to settle accounts with his debtor nations. When he began reckoning, they brought to him one who was the President of a Nation that owed him three trillion dollars - the United States. And as the nation could not pay, the lord ordered that austerity measures be adopted by its government. Hencefort all government services were to be cancelled, millions of employees were to be dismissed, and all health, welfare, and social security payments were to be suspended until the United States could pay their debt. Every available resource was to go toward mounting debt-service payments.

So the President of the United States fell on his knees before the financial lord, imploring him, "Lord, have patience with us, and we will pay you everything." And out of pity for him and his people, the lord of that president released him and forgave him the debt.

But that same president, as he went out, came upon the president of a small African country that owed the United States 100 million dollars. Seizing him by the lapel, he said, "Pay what you owe." So, his fellow president fell to his knees and besought him, "Have patience with us and we will pay you everything." But he refused and his economic advisors forced austerity measures on the African country, whose people died of malnutrition whilie their own resources were used to service the debt.

When the presidents of the other debtor nations saw what had taken place, because of their great distress they were moved to solidarity. And they went and reported to their financial lord all that had happened and their resolve to stand together: "We shall not pay our foreign debt with the hunger of our people."

Then the lord summoed the president of the United States and said to him, "You stupid man. I forgave you and your people all that debt because you besought me; and should not you have had mercy on your fellow president, as I had mercy on you? Look what you have done now! Those nations are in solidarity, and all of us who have held them in debit will be ruined!"

And in anger the lord delivered him and his nation to austerity measures and a great depression, and  both the president and the lord then fell from wealth and power.

The world's largest debtor nation is not Brazil, or Africa. Nor is it any of the other third world countries whose people are being starved by the austerity measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund.

The greatest debtor in history is the militarily most powerful nation in history - the United States of America.

These two characteristics: military might and trillion-dollar debt, go hand-in-hand. It is not accident that during its two trillion dollar military buildup of the 1980's, the US added a corresponding two trillion dollars to its federal debt.

[From the book, "The Nonviolent Coming of God" by James Douglass; page 106-106]

Almighty God Action Figure

Because your kids are never too young to learn God wants to smite you.

When one raises an eyebrow at the interpretation of the violent passages in the Old Testament, many will label you a heretic. Yet, I hope this depiction of "God Almighty" puts a pit in our stomach.

However, as the Peace Pastor comments, this is a "Sick. Twisted. Unbiblical. Repulsive. Completely American Protestant expression of how to 'reach' our kids for 'Christ.'"

New marketing ploy for Evangelical America: Appeal to our hankering for military-grade weapons and "a commitment to make someone bleed." Paint God as that.

And let's not even get into the fact that "God Almighty" is depicted as a white man.

So, do we chalk this up to: A clever joke, or another example of Fashioning God in Our Image?

[As the saying goes: "God created man in his own image. And man, being a gentleman...  returned the favor."]

To which are we more likely prone in America?

To quote Keith Giles' new prophetically written post, "America is an Empire, and like all Empires, America rules by death and fear and the sword. All while pretending she is for freedom and truth and democracy." Read the rest of America, Not Beautiful here, and then make up your mind on your own.

In the mean time, Benjamin Corey (of Formally Fundie) responds to "God Almighty" Action Figure with this reminder of who God is:

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger, abounding in love.

 He will not always accuse,

nor will he harbor his anger forever;

 he does not treat us as our sins deserve

or repay us according to our iniquities.”

-Psalm 103

Can a Christian Be a Soldier?

"A soldier of the civil authority must be taught not to kill men and to refuse to do so if he is commanded, and to refuse to take an oath. If he is unwilling to comply, he must be rejected for baptism. A military commander or civic magistrate must resign or be rejected. If a believer seeks to become a soldier, he must be rejected, for he has despised God."
—Hippolytus of Rome