The
American Empire
And The Commonwealth Of God
By Jim Miles
05 October, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Book Review: The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God –
A Political, Economic, Religious Statement. John Cobb, Richard Falk,
David Griffin and Catherine Keller. Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville,
Kentucky, 2006.
Based
solely on the title, this book appeared to be something that could have
some strong revelations on the nature of the American Empire and its
relationship with religion. Having read several books from the religious
right, including the first volume of the “Left Behind” series
(summed up as a compilation of Star Wars, Harlequin Romance, and end
of times theology), I thought this volume might have a more rational
approach than the fear mongering and devilish rhetoric that saturates
the right wing material.
Surprisingly, The American
Empire and the Commonwealth of God is quite full of what for many are
very common sense observations concerning the nature of the empire.
It is not until three-quarters of the way through the volume that religious
issues are addressed, and it is definitely not supportive of the evangelical
end of times demonizing rants against the evil arising in Iraq and Iran.
The four authors (three of whom are professors of theology) have, as
would be expected, very similar viewpoints and understanding of the
empire, and more surprisingly, have a strong similarity stylistically
with their writing such that the reader can hardly tell which author
is writing what without referring to the table of contents. That makes
for a very clear and coherent read overall, with the work divided into
three broad sections: The Nature of the American Empire, Alternatives
to the American Empire, and finally, Religious Reflections.
The book starts with a religious
conviction, that “We oppose the American empire on the basis of
what we believe to be the sacred divinely rooted moral law of the universe”
a statement that needs to be juxtaposed against the “universal
values” so broadly declared by the empire’s leaders. Given
that the “dominant image of the Divine Reality has been easily
used to support empire, this image is profoundly wrong, even idolatrous.”
From that strongly worded contradiction of the evangelical right, its
end of times prophecies, and complicity in the Israeli Zionist project,
the authors settle into a fully secular argument.
Quite straightforwardly the
authors state “the United States has long been working toward
the goal of exercising unchallenged and exploitative control of the
planet,” based on the apologists argument that it is an empire
“dedicated to the spread of democracy.” In counter-argument,
the authors “find nothing in the history of U.S. foreign policy
in general or that of the Bush-Cheney administration in particular to
lend credibility to this conceit.” The replacement of the present
global order, “which is based on violence and other modes of coercion,
with a world based on democratic principles will be a shift of enormous
magnitude,” but that for this shift, “a threefold vision
already exists.”
The first argument presents
ideas against the dual beliefs that the empire is both “accidental”
and “benign”. The main sources of information here are Andrew
J. Bacevich’s American Empire and Chalmers Johnson’s Sorrows
of Empire, both of which highlight the purposeful and harmful direction
the empire has always had. One item that stood out is the significant
amount of money used for the military, estimated at over $760 billion
dollars, which amounts to “not one-fifth of federal spending but
two thirds of it.” This is a much more realistic comparison of
military spending than the artificial comparison to the GDP of which
it comprises about five per cent. The GDP is wealth created in all forms
in a year; the budget reflects how much the government has to spend
yearly on health, education…and the military, a more appropriate
comparison.
“Imperialism in American
Economic Policy” examines the idea that the economy “is
the overall context” of society rather than being only part of
a broader society such that education, government and sometimes religion
are in the service of the economy. Summaries of the economic development
through the post war years follows the now standard reductionist view
of an imperial economy that “largely speaks for the transnational
corporations,” using the standard examples of economic failure
as created by the World Bank, IMF, and WTO. Overall, as with Stiglitz,
Chua, and Johnson, the author notes “to this date, not a single
country has successfully developed on neoliberal principles,”
but to the contrary the successful ones have “taken place on the
principles of national economy.” Finally, the economy, currently
based on deficit financing, and the foreign ownership of U.S. debt,
leads to the simple conclusion, “we are going to be in trouble.”
The view of America as approaching
a “Fascist World Order” is argued next with the most “inflammatory”
imperial behaviour being how the “United Nations has been used
and abused in the Palestine-Israel conflict” because “if
the American leadership genuinely wanted to give priority to the challenge
of global terrorism, overcoming the Palestinian ordeal by realizing
the national rights of the Palestinians would be at the very top of
Washington’s policy agenda.” From a religious point of view,
even though it is not argued as such at this point, this is in stark
contrast to the religious right’s view of the necessity of a unified
Eretz Israel over all the lands of Palestine. On further discussion
of the double standards towards nuclear proliferation, the author identifies
the “maddening arrogance” that “evades the awkward
reality that Israel has secretly developed such weapons,” communicating
to others “the harsh degree to which American pretensions …on
the issue of nonproliferation are geopolitically motivated, self-serving,
and abusive with respect to the aspirations of many of the peoples of
the world.”
In Part II, “Alternatives
to the American Empire”, the authors start with an argument concerning
renouncing wars of choice. As a philosophical statement it is strongly
idealistic, with the challenge taking “the form of a radical attack
on the role of violence as the foundation of global security and the
maintenance of the inequality of material conditions.” Underlying
this must be the establishment of “a serious and concerted pedagogy
of peace within our institutions of learning,” otherwise “it
is increasingly difficult to be hopeful about the future.”
While discussing “Global
Democracy”, the authors wisely see that reforming the WTO, the
IMF and the World Bank as recently argued by Stiglitz is not the way
to go. Rather, the “war system” and its sustenance of “anarchy”
will face an “inevitable” collapse, comprising both economic
and ecological disaster, along with the end of the “idolatry of
economic growth.” The solution lies in decentralization, putting
decisions into the hands of smaller communities of peoples, then building
communities of communities. While not mentioning the UN per se, the
descriptions of “moral” NGOs and religions uniting for a
cause lead to my considering how this institution can be revitalized
to play the role it should serve, as a federated global governance institute.
Unfortunately the authors do not postulate any particular institute
or organization to lead this unitary cause.
With their turn towards the
religious side of the question, the authors discuss the “overt
legitimacy” offered to the empire by Christianity, with the “global
hegemony” drawing “its aura of sacrality not only from the
warring apocalyptic extremities it provokes,” but also requiring
“wave after wave of conquest for Christ.” This leads to
the demonizing of the ‘other’, the creation of an ‘axis
of evil’ (following on Reagan’s “evil empire’
of the 1980s). The “potent merger of elitist idealism with conservative
Christian populism has provided the overarching legitimation of our
empire,” justifying and legitimating ultimately the right of preemptive
and preventative war.
As this work is ultimately
designed for arguments concerning a Christian perspective on the empire,
the final discussion on a Social Gospel and Liberation Theology leads
to a profound anti-empirical statement. As the ideals of Jesus were
distinctly anti-imperial vis a vis the Roman conquerors, and it was
initially recognized as such and persecuted before it was pre-empted
by the Roman state, a renewal of this original viewpoint is expressed
very strongly: “Jesus’ teaching of the commonwealth of God…is
the deepest grounds for opposition to the American empire,” as
those who are Christians “are called to fan the sparks of the
message into a flame that can help reverse the headlong plunge of our
nation into the lust for world domination.” Perhaps even more
strongly worded “the combination of economic and, increasingly,
military power to bring the whole world under U.S. control” is
a project “like the Nazi project – as antithetical to Christian
faith.”
I found The American Empire
and the Commonwealth of God very refreshing after reading so much from
the apocalyptic right and seeing and hearing so much of the vanity of
invoking ‘God’ and the name of Jesus while killing, torturing,
terrorizing, and generally subjugating the global population to the
dictates of the American empire. Another strength along this line is
the lack of discussion of ‘just war’ rhetoric that only
justifies and creates apologetics to sanctify war (as supported by Canada’s
‘just warrior’ Michael Ignatieff). While this work relies
on other common secular works that argue against empire, it is a worthwhile
read to understand that Christianity has strong currents opposed to
the imperial project. Hopefully that view, combined with the secular
views against the empire that support their views, will one day prove
successful, both requiring “courage” to “denounce
and work against the American empire.”
Jim Miles is a Canadian educator and a regular contributor/columnist
of opinion pieces and book reviews to Palestine Chronicles. His interest
in this topic stems originally from an environmental perspective, which
encompasses the militarization and economic subjugation of the global
community and its commodification by corporate governance and by the
American government.
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