Where Are Christian Uprisings In The West?

By Dallas Darling
Courtesy Of "World News Network"


"...in a situation of empire Christ becomes part of the system to such a degree that little or no room exists for the pursuit of alternative realities of Christ. Empire displays strong tendencies to domesticate Christ and anything else that poses a challenge to its powers." -Joerg Rieger

As democratic and revolutionary uprisings sweep across the Arab world, many of them led by Muslims and Islamic religious leaders protesting Western neo-liberal policies and ideologies, one has to wonder why there are no Christian uprisings in the West. Perhaps it would be very beneficial for Westernized and secular oriented Christians to observe and learn, especially since their own civilizations and institutions have already collapsed. They have also appeared either powerless, in some cases culpable, in the face of their own governments committing innumerable military campaigns and unspeakable atrocities.

For many Muslims, Prophet Mohammad led an exemplary life that did not distinguish between spiritual and earthly realms. Neither did he encourage one to escape or withdraw from harsh political and economic realities. In applying the will of Allah to daily living, including civil and economic matters, and with a sincere faith that one's private life cannot be disconnected from the public realm, it is little wonder that massive protests are occurring throughout predominantly Muslim nations. Many are mirroring Prophet Mohammad's communal-oriented ethics and his sense of accountability, something sorely lacking in the West.

Furthermore, Muslims believe each individual is responsible for their own actions, actions which affect a greater communal good such as the family, mosque, community, state, and nation. Some Muslims also reject a market oriented driven economy based on the mass consumption of commercial images and an extremely individualistic concept of "self." For many, the written word of the Quran is still thought to be sacred and is the standard for most literature and modes of thinking. Other Muslims still forbid the depiction of living beings, based on the idea that only Allah can create life.

Unlike the West, many Islamic cultures also have an abiding and noble sense of guilt, shame, and honor, including a deep respect for the Holy. Therefore, many Muslims have rejected self-centered Western ideologies propagated by industries of deceit and disinformation, including those that have commercialized faith and dehumanized life. With a sense of community and with reading and critical thinking skills, specifically in regards to the "other" and "Holy Other," both of which are necessary for democracy and democratic institutions to thrive, it appears massive demonstrations will reoccur (including a place for martyrdom which also seems absent of Western Christianity).

Simultaneously, whereas Al-Qaeda directly attacked the Western Powers and their campaigns of cultural terrorism, often disguised as modernity and globalization, millions of Muslims are rising up indirectly against the West by resisting their own Western-backed governments and trained and funded armies. They are practicing the religion and politics of resistance to prevent a systematic dismantling of time-honored civil, religious and human rights. They are protesting the commercialization of time, history, information, conscience, thinking, and belief. They are challenging the privatization of resources, cultures, public spaces, social medias, and yes, even life itself.

This should be very disturbing and convicting for Westernized Christians, especially since the Gospels reveals Jesus' life was also dedicated to prophetically confronting and dismantling various political, economic and military modes of imperial domination. For those who are either still addicted too, or recovering addicts from, Western imperialism and global militarism, watching millions of Muslims protesting in the streets against their governments and armies should serve as an inspiration, specifically since Jesus was one of the most revolutionary and politically religious leaders in history.

Having been born in, and having lived within a militant and all-encompassing empire, Jesus was very familiar with market driven economies, multinational businesses, and propagated images of the emperor. Not only was he born homeless when his parents were forced to register for an increase in imperial taxes, but Jesus became a refugee when King Herod suspected him as another messianic pretender. Stories of redistributing food supplies to thousands of people, when food was scarce due to commercialized farms and exploitation, and rejecting Caesar's image on coins, resonated with tens of thousands of Judean peasants who had been subjugated under Roman rule and militarism.

Along with protesting and leading massive demonstrations against these sinful institutions, Jesus proclaimed and lived an alternative political, religious and economic reality. It was a new reality, the Kingdom of God, that rejected self-destructive tendencies brought on by Rome's globalization and instead, offered the people salvation, or to become re-humanized again. In this new kingdom, people would live directly under God and abide by a new set of principles, namely, service, mercy, forgiveness, love, and reconciliation. It would also transform Rome's imposed and fatal realities through organizing communities, non-violent direct action campaigns, prophetic condemnations, and disruptive protests.

Still, Jesus directly experienced how empires and their collaborators ruthlessly and brutally crush demonstrations and revolts. When Jesus started to exorcize the dehumanizing effects of Rome's globalization and its demonic institutions, like greed, hatred, self-absorption, pre-emptive wars, military occupations, and a disregard for the Holy in oneself and in others, and when he led a massive protest of peasants that appeared to have the potential of overturning religious and state institutions; Jesus was arrested. He was then tried for being a threat and for being a political and economic rebel who wanted to overturn Rome's dominant imperial order.

Like millions of Muslims protesting throughout the Arab world today, the Early Church understood these important intellectual, emotional, psychological, spiritual, cultural, and religious truths. Not only are empires and globalization morally and spiritually wrong, but they promote and militarily enforce top-down control. They despise and crush any alternative purpose and community. This is why Church, or ekklesia, contains the ancient notion of an assembly of free and politically and economically active and engaged citizens, something that is also missing from the minds of Westernized Christians. It is also the reason that some Romans accused the Early Church of "turning the world upside down."

After converting to Christianity, often resembling the United States Empire, it was common to hear the phrase: "You can become so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good." This meant if one spent all of their time attending church and reading the scriptures and praying at the expense of actively and universally loving one's neighbour, one's Christian witness became ineffective and meaningless. Similarly, can one become so worldly and Westernized-in the sense of internalizing an ideologically strict separation of church and empire, or of always shopping at malls and consuming and watching television-to the extent that they completely disconnect their faith and actions from the public sphere and therefore, become neither heavenly minded nor of earthly good?

In "Christ And Empire, From Paul to Postcolonial Times," Joerg Rieger writes about the problem of Christologies in the West, specifically as it relates to empire. He believes: "...in a situation of empire Christ becomes part of the system to such a degree that little or no room exists for the pursuit of alternative realities of Christ. Empire displays strong tendencies to domesticate Christ and anything else that poses a challenge to its powers." Now that millions of Muslims are showing the world that the Prophet Mohammad and Islam cannot be domesticated or subjugated by empires, when will millions of Christians in the West reveal that Jesus and Christianity can no longer be domesticated and subjugated by empires too?

Dallas Darling (darling@wn.com)

(Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John's Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.worldnews.com. You can read more of Dallas' writings at www.beverlydarling.com and wn.com//dallasdarling.)