The Myth of Redemptive Violence
I found another great editorial at the National Catholic Review. They do a bit of quoting from a Protestant theologian:
The myth of redemptive violence, writes Wink in The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium, “speaks for God; it does not listen for God to speak. It invokes the sovereignty of God as its own; it does not entertain the prophetic possibility of radical judgment by God. It misappropriates the language, symbols and scriptures of Christianity. It does not seek God in order to change; it embraces God in order to prevent change. Its God is not the impartial ruler of all nations but a tribal god worshiped as an idol. Its metaphor is not the journey but the fortress; its symbol is not the cross but the crosshairs of a gun. Its offer is not forgiveness but victory. … It is blasphemous. It is idolatrous.
“And it is immensely popular.”
It is difficult to be the shining city on the hill when so much of our effort and treasury and youth is mired in blood-soaked sand.
The full text is in the extended entry until they ask me to remove it (the article is available for free, currently).
