Patriotic Theology: Sowing Confusion

https://tifwe.org/remembering-those-who-gave-the-greatest-sacrifice/

This was a Memorial Day-related article but it's just as appropriate for the 4th of July and indeed this whole 'Patriotic' period that seems to afflict the Church in the United States.

Gehrlein is proud to have been in the Army and is still deeply involved in its life. He immediately confuses the redemptive-historical and typological history of Old Testament Israel (which pointed to Christ) with the wars and conduct of the American Empire. Unlike Israel, America's wars and its prophets, priests, and kings, are not connected to the coming Christ and wrapped up in a composite picture of redemption and judgment. And need it be said that America is not in covenant with God?

No, America is like Babylon, Persia, Rome, and the other bestial empires. Some are better and worse than others but all engage in deceit, theft, and murder. That's what empires do. That's what they're built on.

And so Gehrlein is clearly confused and all the more when he tortuously tries to connect his market economic ideals (which are not Christian either) with this 'wall building' of Nehemiah - and the United States and its military. It is literally a toxic stew.

To be blunt, it looks like he just wanted to include his favourite things and so found some bizarre way to try and tie them all together. But in doing so he manipulates history, and worse twists Scripture and sows confusion with regard to the Kingdom of Heaven and the ethics its citizens are called to. These ethics are wholly incompatible with military membership and the dictates and assumptions of market capitalism. Gehrlein has confused the sword and mammon with Zion's call to take up the cross. The Zion he would build always results in the same thing - a counterfeit. He belongs to a group Paul refers to as those are deceiving and being deceived - a group that he earlier referred to as having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.

Gehrlein quotes Proverbs and the idea of being prudent even while trusting in God (as not to tempt him) but then turns it upside down by equating this with the sick conduct and twisted mental manipulation of drill sergeants. Does he think their attempts at brainwashing through humiliation and reconstitution to be godliness? God help him if he does. He then (blasphemously) assumes that American victories (in wars based on lies and butchery) are somehow blessed by the Lord.

If he thinks Old Covenant Israel was an institution following the flow-chart dictates of modern managerial thinking - all I can say is, God pity him. Truly.

He thanks God for the work of the military - an imperial organisation that commits mass murder, and rests on threat, intimidation, and exploitation.

I know it well for as a lost person I was an idolater that became a stormtrooper in America's legions and I was part of the death machine. I'm ashamed of it. God rescued me from it and opened eyes. I've never looked back and I marvel at those who still wallow in that filth and the wicked culture of the US military - and think it to be commensurate with godliness and the Christian life. Some even think it augments it. Think again.
It is inconceivable to imagine leaders in the Early Church speaking this way about Rome and its legions. Only when the Church sold out to the vision of Constantine and his fraudulent recasting of Christianity did the theology and sentiment expressed by Gehrlein become viable. New Testament teachings about wealth, power, and violence were not only left behind but repudiated and replaced by the Beast-ethics of Rome. As Gehrlein testifies, they are alive and well. Constantine's false Christianity that blesses slaughter and strengthens the hands of those that do evil is still with us. God deliver us (the Church) from this plague.

The American soldiers who died in its wars did not die for 'our' freedom. This is especially true of those who are citizens of Zion - Christians baptised into Christ. They did not die for us. 'We' have nothing to do with them and their deeds. As most Evangelicals are wont to do, Gehrlein confuses the issue with his syncretistic use of pronouns.

But they didn't die for the freedom of Americans either. They died to secure business interests, natural resources, geopolitical advantage, and cheap prices. They died for lies - the Maine, the Lusitania, Pearl Harbor, the 38th Parallel, the Gulf of Tonkin, incubator babies, and WMD. These are just some of the lies and misrepresentations used to justify entry into wars. The wars themselves were lies from start to finish. The soldiers did not sacrifice. They were sacrificed. They died for nothing and sometimes worse than nothing. They died as criminals and invaders. They were killed by the people they were killing - people trying to defend their own homes, families, and villages. In other words they chose to live by the sword and they died by it. There's nothing to celebrate. Christian families should be filled with regret and in many cases shame.

They did not die that we might be free. Ho Chi Minh was not coming to take away our freedom. Saddam Hussein wasn't going to try and stop me from going to church. Most of the world can worship freely. There are exceptions, but America is not unique. Don't believe the lies.

Do not celebrate Memorial Day nor the lies of July 4th. If you do so, you celebrate and sanction sin. And it's even worse when Christians try to sanctify these events and weave them together with Scripture creating myths and false narratives. Beware of this evil and idolatrous leaven.