JAC Online

Is Militant Language in the Church Appropriate in the 21st Century?
by Jonathan Evans

Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is difficult to associate with crusades, terrorism, rape, the displacement of people and racial conflicts of which the church has been involved. Militant language in the church creates controversy based on history, pluralism and of the globalized awareness of violence. However appropriate, Jesus employed the prophetic language of “the Kingdom of God,” unexpectedly fulfilled the role of Messiah and subverted Roman imperialism. G. K. Chesterton quips, “Whatever else is true, it is emphatically not true that the ideas of Jesus of Nazareth were suitable to His time, but no longer suitable to our time. Exactly how suitable they were to His time is perhaps suggested in the end of His story.”[1] This paper will argue that the costly use of militant language is appropriate if it subverts the subject of violence and recaptures the missional people of God motif.

First, I will argue that the Christian response to violence is one that engages with the atrocities of this world by subverting militant language and symbols for hope and healing. Utilising metaphors subverts language. McFague defines a metaphor as “seeing one thing as something else, pretending ‘this’ is ‘that’ because we do not know how to think or talk about ‘this,’ so we use ‘that’ as a way of saying something about it. Thinking metaphorically means spotting a thread of similarity between two dissimilar objects, events, or whatever, one of which is better known than the other, and using the better-known one as a way of speaking about the lesser known.”[2] It becomes clear then that Jesus and the writers of the New Testament employed subversive tactics as a means of encountering and defining differences between different worlds; subverting Greek philosophy, Israel’s story and Rome’s military dominance.[3] This theme is climaxed in the crucifixion. Jesus’ salvific act is violent in its nature to expose humankind’s maleficence. Flemming Rutledge insists “No other method has ever matched it in terms of public disgust; that was its express purpose.”[4] The apostle Paul would not shy away from preaching about the crucifixion despite public disdain, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18). Therefore, applying metaphorical language provokes a response. Kierkegaard recognized that sanitizing religious language cheapens its meaning and expression:

The Christianity of “Christendom”… takes away from Christianity the offense, the paradox, etc., and instead of that introduces probability, the plainly comprehensible. That is, it transforms Christianity into something entirely different from what it is in the New Testament, yea, into exactly the opposite; and this is the Christianity of “Christendom,” of us men… Yes, in the Christianity of “Christendom” the Cross has become something like a child’s hobby-horse and trumpet. [5]

Ignoring violence and withholding engagement to the misery of humankind is more harmful than association. Anthropologist Victoria Sanford regards the discourse of violence as a way to triumph over trauma, “In a world where emotional pain and its very causes are either denied or blamed on the victims themselves, the mere sharing of pain through memory is a proclamation of identity, a shedding of misplaced culpability. The transformation of a private memory creates a public space, however small, where survivors learn to speak; it breaks down externally imposed understandings and chips away at the power structures imposed through silent negotiation of life-shattering events.”[6] Utilizing subversive language activates a public discourse where victims can triumph over trauma.

Only a church presenting an alternative through committing to nonviolence is qualified to use subversive language. William Booth sought to employ the subversive language and garner attention using British Imperialist military culture of the late 19^th century.[7] Winston accounts of primitive Salvationists’ use of subversive language, “The goal he wrote was to ‘TO ATTRACT ATTENTION. If the people are in the damnation of Hell, and asleep in the danger, awaken them.’ Steeped in this straightforward dictum, Salvationists used the tools of popular culture and advanced industrial capitalism to facilitate religious renewal.”[8] When The Salvation Army “opened fire” in East London and drew violent opposition from The Skeleton Army. The Skeleton Army persecuted the Salvationists, injuring 669 soldiers and martyring Captain Susannah Beaty.[9] An army conquering through death is indeed oxymoronic like the name Salvation Army itself. “This [nonviolent] community of faith is the only way of resisting a world made possible by military violence in which death can only justifiably be described in violent terms. The language of violence is necessary lest such a world become subject to the kind of scrutiny that would render death in military conquest unintelligible. As an alternative, a nonviolent church declares that this unintelligibility is, in fact, central… since it follows a crucified Lord.”[10]

“Without the presence of the church as an alternative community that lives in a new way newly made possible in Christ, the world, in Hauerwas’s words, ‘cannot know that it is the world.’ It cannot know that all along it has been assuming that the world is the full extent of all possibilities unless an alternative possibility exists to challenge that assumption.”[11] Therefore, the use of the military metaphor is not only appropriate but necessary to offer healing and an alternative way of seeing the world with the possibility of peace and hope.

Secondly, militant language enables the Church to recapture its own powerful story and metaphors. Instead, culture has dictated to the church the appropriateness of its own story and metaphors. Hovey argues that the linguistic philosophy of modernity has left us with such an impoverished account of the role of metaphorical language.[12] Indeed, branding, slogans and descriptors void of biblical or historical inferences today inform many expressions in churches.[13] Marva Dawn writes that she is “dismayed that biblical faith is being replaced by something less than faithfulness because of distortions in language.” She aims to “rectify the names” or recover Christian language from culture.[14] Brian Walsh posits that Christians find themselves in exile like the Jews in Babylon. “One of the ways in which they dealt with this problem was by constantly reminding each other of who they really were. In the face of Babylonian stories and myths, Jews told and retold their own stories.”[15] In the New Testament too, Walsh observes the need for Christians to retell their narrative in the face of opposition: “Paul’s attack on the ‘philosophy’ is animated by a similar concern to remember and not forget the story. His most potent weapon against the idolatrous worldview that threatens to take this community’s imagination captive is precisely the retelling and remembering of the community’s founding story.”[16] We ought to retell our story using the militant language, metaphors, symbols and praxis starting in the story of Israel and continuing in the early church to define the people of God. The people of God are still those who are ushering in the kingdom of heaven to earth in the name of Jesus of by the power the Holy Spirit.[17]

God’s people share their story in the canon of the Old Testament. It is obvious when one reads Deuteronomy that there is a militant motif of the people of God. Yahweh assured Israel he would “fight against their enemies,” “drive out their enemies” and “give them victory” (Deut 7:22; 11:23; 20). This however, must be understood in Israel’s predicated call to bless the nations, (Gen 18:18) whose land they would inhabit. The hyperbolic mandate[18] was Yahweh’s judgment against Canaan’s idolatry (Deut 9: 4 -5), and to purge the land of pagan worship (Deut 7:5). Purgation of idolatry was to be accomplished to keep Israel faithful to Yahweh otherwise they too would be subject to military conquest (Deut 30:15 – 20). We observe Yahweh mobilizing his people for mission: the glory and justice of Yahweh to be a light to the nations (Isa 49:6).[19]

The New Testament writers continue the story of Yahweh and his people recapitulated on a crucified Messiah who had vindicated his people and commissioned them in reconciliation by means of the gospel.[20] God’s new forces play a pivotal role in the conquest of the world. Luke Timothy Johnson summarizes the militant people motif:

They help reconcile the world to God (Rom 11:15; 2 Cor 5:19) and anticipate the whole world’s rebirth into freedom (Rom 8:20-22). The Christian community is a place where God’s purpose for the world is revealed (Eph 3:9-10)… Indeed, the community participates already in a victory over the world (1 John 5:4-5)… This victory will come to complete accomplishment (Rev 11:15)…The experience led to a fundamental release from the cosmic forces… Christians were no longer subject to these “powers and principalities… When Christians spoke of salvation, they meant not only something that would happen but something that had in some way already happened to them.[21]

The Church of the New Testament is poised for battle. The figure of a soldier is the most frequent image for a Christian in the world.[22] Weber notes that enlistment into the Roman army was called the sacramentum, or military oath. The Church utilized sacramentum to signify the decisive act of becoming a soldier of Christ in baptismal vows.[23] The Christian vowed absolute obedience to Jesus and committed to participate in Christ’s victory for the whole world. The early Church, therefore, was something like an army, committed to the Kingdom of God and to the mission for its realisation. However, rather than “fight with carnal weapons,” (2 Cor 10:4), Jesus’ followers lay down their lives (Mark 8:34; John 15:13) and fight with love (Rom 12:21), because love never fails (1 Cor 13:8). Indeed, the Jesus movement is a force to be reckoned with (Matt 11:12); it subverts the kingdoms of the world through the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18), utilising the prophetic language, “the Kingdom of heaven.” Onward Christian Soldiers is a triumphal hymn from the late nineteenth century. One verse from the hymn emphasizes the church’s continuing militant story though other Kingdoms have passed:

What the saints established that I hold for true

What the saints believed that believe I too.

Long as earth endureth men that faith will hold-

Kingdoms, nations empires, in destruction rolled.[24]

Today the Church requires faithfulness to Israel’s story as a new people in mission to the ends of the earth.

In conclusion, it may be difficult and require creativity to express God’s missional church using military language and symbols, but it is possible. Much like the anti-war protesters in their 1960s military garb, subverted with flowers and peace symbols, the church today can contemporise and speak to a globalized culture about another kingdom. The appropriate use of the militant church metaphor is in subverting ideas of power and embodying the story of God’s people. Rather than disengaging with matters of power and violence or let a motif fall to the wayside, the church is in a position to cleverly utilise powerful images, symbols and praxis. Considerations must also be made in how to communicate to a sensitive and sceptical church and culture. Indeed even using metaphors subversively may be misunderstood and we may meet persecution to the powers of the world. It is then by being a marginalized “force” that we can further demonstrate the power of God, confident that we are sharing in the sufferings of Jesus and that we will later share in his glory.

Bibliography

Alexander, T. D. From Paradise to the Promised Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch. 2^nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002.

Chesterton, G. K. The Everlasting Man. San Fransisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1993.

Cox, Harvey. God’s Revolution and Man’s Responsibility. Valley Forge, PA: The Judson Press, 1965.

Dawn, Marva. Talking the Walk: Letting Christian Language Live Again. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2005.

Godawa, Brian. Word Pictures: Knowing God Through Story and Imagination. Downer’s Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2009.

Hovey, Craig R. Speak Thus: Christian Language In Church and World. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2008.

Hughes, R. Kent. John: That You May Believe. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999.

Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation. rev. ed. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1999.

Kierkegaard, Soren. Attack Upon Christendom. Translated by Walter Lowrie. Boston, MA: The Beacon Press, 1959.

Osbeck, Kenneth W. 101 Hymn Stories. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1979.

Provan, Iain, V. Philips Long and Tremper Longman. A Biblical History of Israel. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003.

Rutledge, Flemming. The Undoing of Death. Grand Rapids, MI: William Eerdman’s Publishing Co., 2005.

Sanford, Victoria. Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003.

Twitchell, James B. Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004.

Walsh, Brian J. Subversive Christianity: Imagining God in a Dangerous Time. Bristol, UK: Regius Press, 1992.

Walsh, Brian J. and Sylvia C. Keesmaat. Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004.

Weber, Hans-Ruedi. Salty Christians. New York, NY: Seabury Press, 1963.

Winston, Diane. Red Hot and Righteous: The Urban Religion of The Salvation Army. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 1999.

Wright, N. T. The New Testament and the People of God. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1992.

________. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. New York, NY: HarperOne, 2008.