(The Nationalist, 26 January 2007)
In the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, there’s a suit of armour belonging to Boris Godunov, Czar of Russia from 1598 to 1605. It was specially made for him of 9,000 steel links of chain mail. Each link is stamped, God is with us. When Boris went into battle, he wanted a reminder that God was on his side.
In World War I, German soldiers had a belt-buckle embossed with the words, Gott mit uns – God is with us. They also wanted God on their side. And down through history warring Christian nations have commonly prayed to the one true God for victory.
In June 1967, when Israel and the Arabs went to war, the (Muslim) Grand Mufti of Cairo declared it a jihad, a holy war. And when Iraq and Iran fought in the 1980’s, the Iranians sent waves of boys running through mine-fields towards the Iraqi lines. The boys were promised paradise, and given “the key of heaven” in their pocket – a plastic key made in Hong Kong.
But God is not a puppet on anyone’s string, dancing to their tune.
We don’t have to look so far away for examples of the same mind-set. Ninety years ago, in Northern Ireland, people signed up to what was called Ulster’s Solemn League and Covenant. They invoked biblical imagery to appropriate God, to co-opt him to their political agenda. Recently, I saw the letterhead of the Free Presbyterian Church; below the heading were the words, Christ for Ulster (not Ulster for Christ). There’s a world of difference between saying, ‘I’m for Christ’ and, ‘Christ is for me’.
In his Christmas sermon in 2003, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, said, ‘religious faith has too often been the language of the powerful, the excuse for oppression, the alibi for atrocity. It has appeared as… intolerant of difference… a campaigning, aggressive force for uniformity, a self-defensive and often corrupt set of institutions indifferent to basic human welfare.’ Religion has indeed often been the occasion, the excuse, or even the cause of war, providing the motivational fuel of hatred, becoming a means of manipulation, a control system.
We don’t solve problems by working within the mental framework that created them. If we want the future to be different from the past, we have to do things differently from the past. Those who don’t learn the lessons of history repeat the mistakes of history.
One day Jesus spoke to the people in the synagogue in Nazareth. The gospel says, ‘He won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips’. (Luke 4.22) But then he blew it, by reminding them that God was there for all people, not just for them. He pointed to two instances from their tradition where a man and a woman, both gentiles (that is, non-Jews) were blessed by God, when Jews, God’s chosen people, were not. There was a quick change of mood: ‘When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff…’ Why? Because if you tangle with people’s sense of their identity, they may kill you for it.
There is one God of all people, not separate tribal or religious gods. And we owe that one God allegiance above every other claim.