A Case of Lamech vs. Caine

https://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/20/minneapolis_minnesota_ice

One need not agree with all that Democracy Now stands for and certainly figures like Al Sharpton rightfully elicit scorn. We need not align ourselves with Renee Good or even the protesters who stormed a Southern Baptist congregation in protest of its ICE pastor. Nevertheless the reporting is pretty stark and damning when it comes to the character and conduct of ICE. I was particularly struck by the exchanges between ICE agents and an Native America/Indian woman with her nephew - harassed for having darker skin. The sheer terror in the woman's voice is disturbing - she's rightly in distress, fearing the ICE agents will kill her nephew.

These types of organisations are filled with sadists and other people who find pleasure in bullying and terrorizing others. In reality, they are the last people who should be given such authority. They are sick and twisted people - often 'small' people, many of whom have lived on the edge of the law themselves. It's an oft repeated story throughout modern history. People that are themselves marginalised are empowered and then find satisfaction in lording it over others, pushing them around, and grinding the weak into the dust.

Such people are not to be looked up to or emulated. They are not heroes. They are certainly not the type of people that shepherd a Christian congregation. In fact, I question and take issue with any Christians who would to be part of something like this. Your heart is hardened if you can go about this work and not be assailed with gnawing doubt and anguish over the terror you exercise.

But of course the twisted Christian ethics of modern Church leaders have given them an ideological and ethical apparatus for justifying their actions and participation. They are idolaters, exhibiting a divided loyalty in which the idol (the bestial allegiance) wins out and the Christian element to their thinking is subordinated to its service. They are dangerous, deceived, and being deceived and not only should these people be challenged and put out of the Church if necessary, I would find it difficult if not impossible to sit in a congregation with such people and share a communion plate and cup with them. It would be farcical to me.

The ICE agents live by the ethic of Lamech - defy me and I'll kill you. Their guiding ethic is antithetical to New Testament life. But we see this everywhere in the apostasy that is contemporary Evangelicalism. From gun culture, to the embrace of the lawsuit, and the promotion of the military, today's Church in America looks more like the Whore of Babylon than the Bride of Christ. I have to laugh every time I hear Chris Arnzen's show Iron Sharpens Iron. The Reformed Baptist radio bumbler and incompetent receives some of his primary sponsorship from a huckster ambulance chaser who then travels around pretending to promote a Bible he obviously knows nothing of. And his show reflects this same kind of ethical and even doctrinal confusion. There are on occasion some decent and edifying programmes, but much of it is just disinformation, obfuscation, and even at times, outright filth.

Likewise ICE and other such law enforcement agents are defined by their lies - they lie about everything. The leaders in the Trump administration (which seemingly give so many Evangelicals hope because of their Christian testimony) lie with abandon and even great zeal. They live by lies and their fascistic strongman is by every definition a liar, in that it's at the core of his character. It defines him. He literally cannot tell the truth and as such is singled out by the New Testament as the type of person that cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. We are not only to eschew him (if he professes in some capacity to be a Christian) but we should also oppose the instances when he dares to take up the language and concepts of our faith - which he uses (like everyone and everything) for his own gain. His employment of them is blasphemy. Further those professed Christians who have affiliated with him - or rather have sworn fealty to him, need to also be challenged as they have lost their way. Instead of confronting them, the Church celebrates them even as they are on a fast-track to perdition and seemed determined to drag as many as they can with them.

Now that Alex Pretti has been shot and killed, there is even more deceit and double-talk on display. He was defending a woman being assaulted by an ICE agent and was pepper sprayed, tackled, and beat upon. He was armed but never drew his legally registered and permitted gun. But the agents used the fact that he was armed as an excuse to fill him full of bullets - even though one of their number had already removed his gun.

He was foolish to carry a gun in that context and those who live by the sword die by it - as he found out. And yet, he never used it or attempted to use it. He never had a chance. And yet the Trump administration and its media machine are attacking the fact that he was carrying a gun. Is this not ironic? This kind of conduct is something they celebrate in other contexts. If he were Kyle Rittenhouse and shot up the place, he would be championed and earn the right to stand on stage with Right-wing propagandists - like Rittenhouse did with Charlie Kirk. How can they live with their own hypocrisy and deceit? Truly their consciences are seared as are those who defend them and justify their actions. Pretti was a fool and murdered because of it but in no way does the fact that he was carrying a gun justify what was done to him - nor the endless and insufferable lies that have followed in its wake.

Over and over again, I keep returning to my childhood. This is silly of course but bear with me. I keep remembering the television show Kung Fu from the 1970's and while the show at times promotes Buddhist thought, in general I'm struck by how 'Christian' Caine's ethics are at times. As a Shaolin monk he will use violence to only to disarm or to protect others. This isn't exactly the same as New Testament non-resistance but a lot closer to it than the Lamech-ethic of Constantinian Christendom. The violence is not glamourised or celebrated and this must be contrasted with how American Christians view their own cultural heroes, American history, and even the Old West. The half-Chinese Caine is often treated cruelly by a culture that is ostensibly Christian. Some might think the show an exaggeration but they would be wrong and obviously are unfamiliar with the history and the Chinese experience in 19th century America.

In one episode, the boy Caine (in one of the flashback segments) is given a task to deliver an ancient and valuable scroll to another monastery. He is tricked along the way by a thief who pretends to be his friend. The man steals the scroll and Caine is forced to return to his monastery in shame. The thief is captured by the authorities who would executed him on the evidence of Caine's testimony. Caine is put on the spot. If he admits the man stole from him, he will die - or he must lie in order to save his life. It's a real dilemma and Caine's solution is (I'm sad to report) one of the most Christian and Christ-like moments on television that I've ever seen. His solution is simple - 'Spare his life and take mine'. If the state demands a life for the sake of justice, Caine is willing to die rather than testify against a man (who it must be remembered stole from him and humiliated him) and play a part in his death. Caine will not lie but he will not enable the murder of another human being. And he's willing to put his beliefs on the line. I believe Master Po is quite moved by this though the response is subtle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wLY1sNaCwg (skip to 1:25)

How foreign this is to American Christianity which in its apostasy delights in death and the tokens of power. When they proclaim to be pro-life and pro-family, laugh at them in their faces, for they are ridiculous and should be made to feel as such. They need to be shamed and their absurd claims exposed. They know nothing of the kind of Christian life being taught in the New Testament and their actions and alliances demonstrate this over and over again. The Christian Right is neither pro-life or pro-family and increasingly it would be more apt to describe it as Anti-Christian.

Caine's solution (by the way) is the answer to gun culture and the many false dilemma-arguments upon which it rests. More could be said about how manhood has also been confused with this culture and how in reality the courage exhibited by Caine is not only masculine but Christian. 

I will not say it's easy - not for a moment. And every day we are faced with ethical dilemmas and entanglements, but nothing is so sickening as to hear some Southern Baptist leader wax eloquent about Christian citizenship and duty or to hear a Confessional Presbyterian break down the particulars of the duty of magistrates and how Christians should support this or that legislation. I'm always struck by how proud they are to have mastered the intricacies of these arguments and the way they can quote their confessions or some previous declaration made by Scottish Covenanter. It's absurd, laughable, and tragic. They have no idea of how wretched and unfaithful their traditions actually are.

How many churches will be praying for law enforcement or even ICE by name? I understand the Babylon-nations will guard their borders, but Christians owe allegiance to no nation and so this is not our fight. The reasons for immigration are complicated and often the result of the empire's policies. They help to create the chaos and instability that drives the poor in these nations to desperation and migration to a country where they can find work but are at the same time despised. It's pretty sick and I don't care what laws the state may issue - as a Christian I will certainly give aid to such people as they are desperate and in need. Most of the borders of today's nations are the result of theft and murder. The powers that be are ordained by God but let's not kid ourselves about what these powers actually are and what they represent. They serve a purpose but their symbols, let alone the lines they draw on maps are far from sacrosanct. And they will change again at some point. Count on it.

We have other duties and obligations that are gospel-related and this means we do not support those who take up arms against the state (not that there's really been much of that at all as of late, apart from the Far Right) but neither do we support the state as it pursues a course of deceit, theft, kidnapping, torture, and even murder.