Dominionism and its Bestial Theologians

https://billmuehlenberg.com/2023/01/17/douglas-macarthur-christianity-and-japan/

All I can say is 'wow'.

The way that Bill Muehlenberg manages to distort both history and Scripture is nothing short of remarkable.

Let's work through this piece by starting with some of his initial questions.

Can an occupying force turn around a nation in a few short years and recast it into a welcome member of the international community?

Japan's re-entry into the international community was based on a couple of realities. First, there was its economic prowess which finally came to serious prominence by the 1970's, a generation after the war. And its place was further granted by the fact that it was tacitly understood to be a satrapy of the US Empire – cemented by the Anpo Security Treaty in 1960.

Alongside South Korea and Australia, Japan remains an essential component of America's substantial East Asian-Pacific Empire. The US relationship with nations like the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan has been more complicated but Japan has remained solidly under the control of the US – and is basically still occupied even if the official terms have changed. If all of this is taken into consideration, the question Muehlenberg asks is rendered more or less moot.

And can the changes be welcomed by most of the people?

Welcomed is kind of a subjective term. Given the devastation within Japan and the complete collapse of their society and social order, I'm not sure they had much choice. I think in places like Germany, Japan, and South Korea after being bombed to near oblivion by the Americans and their allies – most people were pretty happy for the fighting to stop, to have food to eat, and work. Japan has a vibrant culture and it largely transformed its cultural drive, its warrior ethic and code into the realm of business and yet as recent events indicate, there have always been elements within Japanese society that have resented this course and wish to see Japan reassume a global role. Like Germany, countries with economies this large find it humiliating to be subjugated by an imperial power, and limited in terms of their potential when they are not able to project their power.

Yes, Japan had certainly engaged in some terrible crimes and atrocities and Muehlenberg seems amazed that their character could be transformed. And yes, Douglas MacArthur was the man to do it – or so we're told.

Japan was certainly guilty of horrific war crimes and brutality, except it must be remembered the worst atrocities of the Asian War were committed by the United States when it firebombed Japanese cities and then dropped two atomic bombs. These remain (America's lying narratives be damned) the greatest single war crimes in history. The United States was not (and is not) in a position of moral standing to instruct Japan about anything. Just two generations earlier, the US had all but encouraged Japan to expand on to the Asian mainland but then Wilson and his successors reversed course and began the process of making Japan an enemy.

During that same period, the US committed atrocities in the Philippines as it invaded the archipelago unprovoked in an attempt to steal it away from Spanish rule. Washington deceived the local resistance, used them, and then when local leaders like Aguinaldo realized they had been duped and decided to fight back, the United States unleashed a campaign of terror and torture, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths. The fact that some of these moves were given a Christian veneer makes them all the more abominable.

Douglas MacArthur is presented as a moral figure and yet one wouldn't have to look very hard to find people who would question not only the man's ethics but his aptitude. His career was marked by insubordination and his ego and the lies it generated seemed to provide cover for his many (and sometimes glaring) mistakes and miscalculations. From his bandit-like conduct in Mexico, to his reckless and misguided violence directed at the so-called Bonus Army, MacArthur's pattern of megalomaniacal and sociopathic behaviour is well established. It would take too long to speak of his record in the World Wars but his insubordination in Korea is well known as was his desire to use dozens of nuclear bombs on China. In other words the man was something of an unhinged maniac and not a few of his peers in the general officer corps knew it. More could be said about his domestic political alliances and even his tepid and feckless flirtations with politics. And even more could be said about his personal (and by some estimations less than patriotic) machinations with regard to the Philippines. MacArthur's behaviour was at times somewhat reminiscent of Joseph Conrad's Kurtz, in his self-deification and the pursuit of his own self-serving policies. He was an adulterer and a showman. One thing I can say with certainty – the man was not a Christian.

His calls for Bibles and missionaries must therefore be met with the utmost cynicism. Like Muhlenberg, his understanding of Christianity was corrupt and jaded and inseparable from Western culture. The actual vital revealed religion of the New Testament was foreign to him and in fact antithetical to all the man stood for.

The truth of the matter is that FDR's ridiculous demands for unconditional surrender prolonged the war and Truman's utilisation of the atomic bomb was completely unnecessary. The Japanese wanted assurances regarding the status of their emperor and for all the Americans did – the memory of what Japan was and the pride associated with it has not died. Right-wing governments are evoking this memory by visiting the Yasukuni Shrine – a move which generates both angst and anger in neighbouring states like China and the Koreas. The US has actually encouraged this turn toward re-militarization and it's sad to witness as Japan seems almost determined to repeat it's nineteenth century course (sans the Meiji Restoration) – a pathway that led to militarism and expansionism. As long as their energies are directed against Beijing, the policymakers in Washington are content.

And while MacArthur's moves were in keeping with the anti-communist ethos (and phobia) of the time, the country was never changed and remains one of the most difficult and impenetrable mission fields in the world. The 'impact' Muehlenberg speaks of is revealed to be fiction and his praise of this man leaves one puzzled as to Muehlenberg's own understanding of New Testament Christianity.

The legacy of MacArthur and Japan's relationship with the US was one of deception, massive war, and atrocity. To somehow weave all of this into some kind of moral and even Christian message and to pick Douglas MacArthur (of all people!) as a praiseworthy representative of this episode is truly sickening.

I'm glad that Muehlenberg understands that things like homosexuality are wrong – the same can be said about many Muslims, but his understanding of Christianity is bankrupt and just as corrupt, dangerous, and subversive to the message of the New Testament as is theological liberalism. While his comment threads are filled with praise of his 'ministry' the truth is he's deceiving people into equating Right-wing worldliness with Christian thinking and ethics and in the end he's merely a mouthpiece for these political elements – elements which are just as Bestial as Imperial Japan ever was. As such, he's is akin to a corrupt court historian or chaplain – a Bestial theologian, that gives cover, and strengthens the hands of those that commit evil. Beware of men like this. This cannot be stressed enough. He is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

See also:

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2021/03/upside-down-thinking.html