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Send Judah First: A
Pentecostal Perspective on Peace Editor’s Note: For the background to this letter, read the accompanying sidebar. November 12, 2002 The Honorable George W. Bush To President Bush, In a national dialogue over the prospect of war with Iraq, the voices of secular ideology have dominated. The undersigned of this letter believe now is the time for a Spirit-filled and prophetic Christian voice for peace. Mr. President, you have determined that the only way to bring peace is through war. The notion of waging war -- even acting preemptively -- to bring peace is not new, nor is it a proven remedy to eradicate those manifest forces of evil that plague our world. Christians have debated the right or wrong of the U.S. striking Iraq, and opening the door to what surely will escalate into a much larger battle against forces. We humbly ask you to consider our ideological view -- entitled, “Send Judah First: a Pentecostal Perspective on Peace.” We speak first and foremost as Christians, not experts in military strategy, political theory or international diplomacy. However, we are not naive about the functions of those areas of secular society, but we claim that even the secular society operates within sacred space -- God's good creation of the whole inhabited Earth. Moreover, we say this is a "Pentecostal Perspective," to indicate that we place primacy on the present activity of God in the Earth through God's Spirit. The Spirit of God is what enlivens our faith, transforms our mentalities, enables, empowers and equips us to live our lives out of a new set of realities. Indeed, we no longer give into fear, but rather, we are enabled to love unconditionally, empowered to be agents of change, and equipped to exercise self-restraint, particularly in the use of force or violence of any means to bring about the peace and justice, which the world seeks. We humbly propose American Christians, the President included, radically rethink the rules and tools of engagement with powers of darkness, whether they are individual, societal or military weapons of mass destruction. In essence, we challenge them to be filled with the Spirit of God. "Send Judah First" is an expression used in Spirit-filled churches to suggest by praising God, we can defeat evil as manifested in Saddam Hussein. There are many biblical examples that could be appealed to, but here is just one that is popular in Pentecostal and Charismatic churches: They rose early in the morning, and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the LORD your God and you will be established; believe in his prophets." When he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the LORD and praise him in holy splendor. As they went before the army, saying, "Give thanks to the LORD, for his steadfast love endures forever." As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the Ammonites, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. II Chronicles 20:20-22 (NRSV) In this popular story of the Old Testament, the portion of the former ancient nation of Israel in the South, known as Judah, faced enemies on all sides. Overwhelmed and afraid, the leader of the nation, King Jehoshaphat sought God and asked for His help. In the end, God Himself promises to fight for the nation, and they praise God (speak well, compliment, exalt God) and sing. They go out, but they send their praisers and singers first. Judah can be translated as 'praise.' In the war debate between liberal and conservative Christians, Evangelicals have dominated the ideological battlefield, and in fact are the people to whom Bush actively seeks to cater. A Sept. 28th Washington Post article quoted Richard Cizik as saying, “In this instance, the president has articulated a faith much like our own.” Cizik is vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals. The article goes on to say, “That faith includes a stated belief in Jesus Christ and the existence of “evil” in the form of people like Hussein, Cizik said.” The article also quoted Richard Land, a leader on public policy issues for the Southern Baptist Convention, as calling religious leaders who oppose Bush “well-intentioned and naive.” Land was quoted further as saying, “My educated surmisal is that the president and intelligence community believe Saddam is much closer than we know he is to getting these weapons. Time is on Saddam's side, not ours. I'd rather be safe than sorry,” Land said. Noticeably absent from the article are comments from Pentecostal and Charismatic church leaders, for it is in fact our branch of Christianity that is the fastest growing, both in the U.S. and around the world. And it is on this issue of war that we believe clear distinctions and tensions between progressive Pentecostals and socially and theologically conservative Evangelicals should be contrasted for the purpose of articulating a prophetic and Spirit-filled voice for peace. Mr. President, we are sure Land would consider our warfare theology of praise naive certainly, and probably not even well intentioned. Land, Cizik, and other Evangelicals often do not believe in the felt, tactile presence of God, known in the person of the Holy Spirit, and typically do not believe that modern phenomena such as “speaking-in-tongues” or prophecy or faith-healing are legitimate expressions of miraculous gifts described in New Testament scriptures. Such a wooden, non-experiential, and fundamentalist faith often supports the status quo politically. But consider that many leading historians of antiquity believe that it was the spread of Christianity (often fueled by religious experience), which ultimately led to the downfall of the Roman Empire. While Western civilization is often the celebrated rediscovery of Greco-Roman antiquity, it can hardly be considered paradoxical, that much of what is rationalist-Enlightenment thought, rooted from ancient philosophical foundations, was defeated by the phenomenological and experiential forces of a living God mediated through a new community of believers in Jesus Christ. These were believers that often emphasized the immediate presence and activity of God through the Holy Spirit, even as one after another was killed, murdered, slaughtered, and martyred for their faith. In modern times, many African-American Christians actually waged war against slavery, then de facto segregation, lynching and state-supported oppression through praise. Leaders, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and many other preachers, led marches against the enemy with prayer and singing. Thousands went to jail on their knees, not in defeat, but in prayer. Thousands faced dogs, water cannons, and dodged real bullets through praising God. In a wonderful book, Protest and Praise: Sacred Music of Black Religion, Dr. Jon Michael Spencer portrays an experiential faith in action, where people are empowered to engage their enemies without fear, but nor do they fight on the terms of evil. I ask that when I am present I need not show boldness by daring to oppose those who think we are acting according to human standards. Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have a divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ. We are ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. II Corinthians 10:2-6 (NRSV) It is no surprise that some church leaders would be ready to make educated surmisals of being safe than sorry, when one is not being prompted by the Spirit, but rather by spy intelligence and military war doctrine, rather than the doctrines of God. It is also clear, and unfortunate, that those who would question American political leadership would be called un-Patriotic, and even un-Christian, as if Jesus is the patron savior of the U.S. alone. A prophetic voice challenges a nation and goes against conventional thinking, rooted in the ways of the secular institutional superstructures. And yet, should Christians provide unwavering support of war with Iraq, if those with training and experience in war doubt the mission will be effective? In a Reuters article from Oct. 10, retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, said that military conflict rarely accomplishes the goals politicians intended. “If we look at this (attacking Iraq) as the beginning of a chain of events that means that we intend to do this through violent action, we're on the wrong course,” he is quoted as saying in the article. What's more, Zinni, who has served both President Clinton and President Bush, listed several priorities ahead of war with Iraq: putting Middle East peace talks back on track, ensuring that Iran continues to move toward reform, helping Afghanistan and other central Asian states, patching up relations with Arab states and reopening dialogue with the people of the region. One wonders if those other goals may be achieved if Christians are complicit with a "might means right" doctrine, while our own scriptures suggest that God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the mighty? We agree with the priorities of construction and creation, rather than destruction through war. We also believe the humanizing power of God's love leads us to engage even our enemies, with our hopes not in men, but in God's ability to transform persons and institutions. Only through dialogue, mutual investment and self-sacrifice, can we demonstrate our Christian love, binding us together only as we work for peace. This is the true effect of praise, for the writer of the letter to the Hebrews reminds us not only to, “... continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that confess his name,” but he adds, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” Self-righteous engagement, based on narrow interests, will only create new regimes that may no longer threaten the United States, but are often the worst enemy of the nation's own people. Regime change must begin in us. A regime or religion of words from our lips, but not works from our hands says believe Jesus for who we say He is, but not the miraculous works of our hands done through God's empowering Spirit. American Christians must demonstrate our commitment to a region, where American interests have often resulted in abandoning nations the point that we no longer identified their struggle as our own. Christians that believe in the primacy of the Holy Spirit have long been convinced that by mediating metaphysical reality, through prayer and praise, Christians can in fact affect the material world, and provide jobs, health, good relationships, mortgages and cars. The power of the Spirit engages us to help shape our own personal world into a place of God's destiny. The supporters of this letter challenge each American Christian, and the whole church to now extend the privatization of the praise ethic to the world of foreign affairs and social conflict in both word and deed. In the early years of Pentecostalism, many American leaders were opposed to World War I and were pacifist. The drive that the outpouring of the Spirit should be viewed as the agent of ushering in a new reality through Jesus Christ made Pentecostals unwilling to be complicit with the politics and warmongering of their day, no matter how justifiable. But alas, waiting for manifestations of that eschatological social re-organization made Pentecostals doubt their experience would soon bode major social change, and they retrenched in denominations based largely on race, class, and dogma. By the second World War, many were trying to preserve their own existence, rather than trusting in the ways of the Holy Spirit to eradicate evil, which is no less present in the world now than then. Well, if it is true that God does not give us a Spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control, we, the undersigned, challenge all Christians, including you Mr. President, to re-orient their thinking to trust that "Sending Judah First" may in fact be the only way for Christians to truly say they trust God to deliver them in the face of imminent attacks of a grave nature and to work for peace even in the face of grotesque evil. In the Spirit of truth, Marlon Millner Ruth Lewis Bentley, Ph.D Dr. Robert Franklin Rev. James Brooks, Ph.D Dr. James Brooks Ministries Inc. Garland J. Owensby Paul Alexander, Ph.D Antipas Harris Superintendent Herbert R.Davis, M.Div Rev. Craig Scandrett-Leatherman Rev. Don diXon Williams Dr. Lynda Jordan Rev. Herbert Daughtry Rev. C. Christopher Smith Bishop James I. Clark, Jr. Rev. Dr. Roswith Gerloff Dr. Albert G. Miller Superintendent Cornelius E. Anderson, Jr. Dr. Karen Kossie-Cherrnyshev Rev. Estrelda Alexander Michael McBride Rev. Oscar Dace Dawn L. Henson William Paul Franks Daniel Ramirez David Michel, S.T.M Mark Jennings Rev. Mark Johnson Dr. David Daniels Elizabeth Dermody Leonard, Ph.D John R.M. Wilson Katy Attanasi Luc Caltrider Rev. James Richardson, Jr., M.Div. Rev. Delman Coates, Ph.D Candidate Tonia Dermody Collinske, MA Josef Sorett Rev. Robert Benson III Bryan Dahms Bishop Charles H. Ellis III Richard G. Foss Randall Jones, Jr. Dr. Anthea Butler Rev. Jason Clark
ninetyandnine.com © 2003, Marlon Millner --------- |
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