Martyrdom and Acquiesence -- Sightings

Religiously inspired violence -- whether deemed necessary to "protect" one's faith or to expand it, has been with us from perhaps the beginning of time.  Religion has almost always been deeply linked to culture and thus to the basic institutions of society, and that has often led to violence.  The years after the Reformation saw Europe torn apart by wars that at least in part were religiously motivated.  In the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, as Christianity has expanded and Western power has exerted itself, we have seen not only an expansion of the church, but also persecution of Christians -- especially in Muslim dominated lands.  There is a large Chaldean Christian population in South East Michigan, refugees of an ancient Christian community in Iraq, a community that has seen its presence in Iraq shrink markedly in the past 20 years.  Martin Marty raises the question in yesterday's Sightings piece about Christian martyrdom, dealing with the charge that we too often downplay this persecution so as not to face the charge of Islamophobia.  I have my own thoughts on this topic, but I'd like to let Professor Marty offer his thoughts.

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Sightings 1/10/2011

Martyrdom and Acquiescence

- Martin E. Marty

“Iran Targets Christians with a Wave of Arrests,” “Egyptian Copts Mark Christmas Cautiously,” and “Anti-Christian Crimes Downplayed,” were all Friday headlines that set the tone for weekend coverage of bad news. Google some words like “Christian Martyrs” and scroll down from early Christian accounts to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. You will find claims that hundreds of millions of Christians died for their faith in the twentieth century and that several hundred thousand still do each year of the still new twenty-first century. I’ve often questioned the methodology, definition, or mathematics of the tabulators, but when all is done and said, it’s in place to say: “No matter. Even a single death for this cause is one too many.”

The stories are played because there is such terrible news daily, but Chicago Sun-Times columnist Steve Huntley also wrote that these “crimes”--and they are that--are “downplayed.” There is no reason to disagree with his reporting of the crimes, but it is in place to ask what is at issue in the charge that they are “downplayed.” A reader has to ask who is doing the downplaying, for which readership, and for what reason.

Huntley has a mission; look him up and you will see that he is regularly pursuing those he regards as soft on Islam. His charges begin: American media talk too much about Islamophobia, but not enough about “the bloody persecution of Christians in parts of the Muslim world.” That the persecution goes on is unquestionably true. Whether it receives too little media space or time is harder to assess. Huntley continues his mission: merely report an Islamist threat, he complains, and you will be subjected to charges of bigotry. But most pressing on Huntley’s mind is the fact that too much of “Islamist terrorism,” backed by “radical theology,” bad clerics and bad governments is “enabled” also by “too much silence, or worse, acquiescence in the Muslim world.” I think that all these charges by Huntley are grounded, but columns like his prompt further questions which need to be faced.

What is to be the end result of such pleading for “playing up” the stories and their meanings? Should America undertake armed intervention in the “top 10 countries that are most dangerous for Christians to practice their religion in?” (Eight of these are Muslim, according to some assessments). First, America is deeply involved already. Second, should Americans find more ways to protect endangered Christians in Muslim societies? Yes. Exactly how that is to be done is hard to say. Will whatever “we” do be better received if we play up instead of merely play or certainly downplay the crimes? The history of hysteria in wartime suggests that the loss of perspective is costly, and it often issues in atrocity or blunderbuss actions. We obviously need accurate reporting and mature interpretation, and the media at their best can promote both.

On a different track we note that many reports chide Christians in America for “downplaying” or at least for not being sufficiently agitated and counter-aggressive when their brothers and sisters in those eight Islamic nations suffer. In my sightings, I do see and agree that many of them do not put as high a priority on playing up and calling for responses to Islamic (or other) persecutions of Christians. One hears fewer reports of Christian identification with Christian sufferers as Christian than, say, of Jewish identification with and support for beleaguered Jews in distant lands. Yet Christians are urged first to be “working for the good of all” and then, especially, for “those of the family of faith.” The two objects of their concern are not mutually exclusive.

Resources

Farnaz Fassihi and Matt Bradley, "Iran Targets Christians with a Wave of Arrests," Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2011.

Amro Hassan, "Egyptian Christians' Christmas Celebration Clouded by New," Chicago Tribune, January 7, 2011.

Steve Huntley, "Anti-Christian Crimes Downplayed," Chicago Sun-Times, January 7, 2011.

Martin E. Marty's biography, current projects, publications, and contact information can be found at www.illuminos.com.

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Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.



Iran’s Baha’i Minority Suffers Increasing Persecution -- Sightings

If you're like me, most of the Baha'is you know are white Americans who are attracted to its vision of interfaith peace and harmony.  In Iran it is seen as a rejection of Islam and subversive to the nation.  It's not a recognized religion in its homeland and Baha'is have experienced persecution since its earliest days.  That persecution has increased since the Iranian Revolution, but it is being defended by the Iranian state not on religious grounds but state security grounds.  That is, they have been made scape goats for unrest in the country.  Elise Auerbach, an Iran expert for Amnesty International, gives us an important look into this situation, inviting us to stand with this small faith community as it seeks to exist in peace.   

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Sightings 1/6/2011

Iran’s Baha’i Minority Suffers Increasing Persecution

- Elise Auerbach

Seven leaders of Iran’s Baha’i community were sentenced to twenty years in prison by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran last August, a sentence that was reduced to ten years in September. They were convicted on serious but baseless charges including “espionage for Israel,” “insulting religious sanctities” and “propaganda against the system.” They had also been charged with ifsad fil arz or “corruption on earth.” These charges could have resulted in death sentences. The seven leaders were convicted after a trial that failed to adhere to international standards for fair trials.

The Baha’i faith was founded in Iran about 150 years ago. An estimated 300,000 Baha’is still live in Iran; they are Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. Although Baha’is had faced persecution in Iran since the founding of the religion, their treatment grew worse after the Iranian Revolution. Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran, the Baha’i community has faced systematic persecution and harassment. While other minority religions such as Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity are officially recognized (adherents of those religions having been deemed “People of the Book”), the Baha’i religion is not recognized in Iran’s Constitution and Baha’is are denied equal rights to education, employment and advancement in their jobs. Furthermore, they are not allowed to meet or hold religious ceremonies.

Worse forms of persecution have been committed against Iran’s Baha’i: More than 200 Baha’is were killed after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, after which a large number of Baha’is left Iran. The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran was disbanded in 1983 after the government outlawed all Baha’i administrative institutions. Since then the community’s needs have been met by the Yaran, or Friends, who are now responsible for the Baha'i community's religious and administrative affairs.

Although persecution of the Baha’is abated in the 1990s, harassment has increased since President Ahmadinejad’s first election in 2005. According to the Baha'i International Community, there are currently 47 Baha'is in detention throughout Iran.

The Baha'i faith is considered heresy by hard-line clerics since it was founded in the mid-nineteenth century. Because it post-dates Islam, it is viewed as a repudiation of Islam. After the Iranian Revolution a "pure" form of Islamic government was established with the support of conservative clerics, which involved discrimination against adherents of more recently founded religions such as Baha'is. The clerics implemented punishments such as stoning and amputation. This theological "purity" is maintained by clerical hard-liners who are crucial allies of the current government.

The Baha'is are convenient scapegoats—the government points to the Baha'is as fomenting the post-election unrest. The Iranian authorities have also blamed the Baha'is, among other groups, for orchestrating much of the unrest that took place on the Shi’a religious observance of ‘Ashoura on 27 December 2009.

The religiously fraught charge of ifsad fil arz has been specifically used against the Baha'is, but another charge, moharebeh, or enmity against God, has been lodged at more and more people in the past year. It has been used to justify imposition of the death penalty for politically motivated "offenses." Although it should only be used in cases where there is evidence of armed resistance against the government, the charge of moharebeh has been used against ethnic and linguistic minorities who advocate for greater cultural rights or who are otherwise politically active.

The persecution of Iran’s Baha’is—and specifically the harsh sentences imposed on the seven Yaran—has been roundly criticized by prominent figures the world over, including the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. His report of October 14, 2010 noted that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed deep concern over the absence of international observers and the lack of due process in the Baha’i leaders’ trial and that the criminal charges brought against the seven appeared to constitute a violation of the Islamic Republic of Iran's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in particular those of freedom of religion and belief and freedom of expression and association. Despite the international condemnation, the Iranian authorities remain obdurate. In February a high-level delegation, led by Mohammad Javad Larijani, the Secretary-General of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, defended Iran’s human rights record before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Mr. Larijani insisted that no Baha’i is persecuted because of his or her Baha’i faith, but rather because of their engagement in illegal activities—completely evading the issue that perfectly legitimate activities or beliefs are construed as “illegal,” that the evidence for such “illegal” activities is generally non-existent, and that the legal procedures that try and convict people on such charges are woefully inadequate.

Elise Auerbach is the Iran country specialist for Amnesty International USA. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago.

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Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Remembering the Christians of Iraq on Christmas Eve

Yesterday I was visited again by a member of the Iraqi Christian Community -- known variously as Chaldean or Assyrian Christians.  This man has brought me updates on a fairly regular basis and we have prayed together for the Iraqi Christian Community, which is suffering tremendously since the Iraq War began.  Things were never wonderful for this ancient Christian community, whose roots go back to the very earliest days of the church.  But since the war thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled their homeland, their churches, businesses, and homes being burned and bombed. 

While many have fled to America or to neighboring countries such as Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, the hope should not be that they will need to find safety in foreign lands, but that they might find safety and opportunity in their own homeland.  In fact, my friend has shared with me the desire of the Assyrian Christians to have their own homeland within Iraq -- in the region known as the Nineveh Province.  The biggest opponents of this is the Kurdish community in Iraq that wants to bring that region into their own orbit.  The Christian minority has a stronghold in the area around Mosul, which the Kurds want to bring into their own hoped for autonomous region.

For more on the history of Christianity in Iraq see Philip Jenkins'

Lost History of Christianity

The situation is not good, so may we, on this Christmas Eve, remember those who are suffering tremendously for their faith. 

Stand Firm -- A Lectionary Meditation

Isaiah 65:17-25


2 Thessalonians 3:6-13


Luke 21:5-19

Stand Firm

We hear complaints here and there that Christians in the United States face persecution. Usually the complaints center on rules prohibiting crèches or Ten Commandment monuments on civic property, or maybe the inability to have Christian prayers at high school football games. Most of these complaints have to do with loss of power and market share. Rarely, if ever, do Americans face true persecution. That is, their lives are not on the line, in the way that, for instance, the Chaldean Christians of Iraq are facing persecution at this very moment. In the lectionary texts for this week, believers are called upon to stand firm and to keep true to their faith in the midst of difficult circumstances. The passage from Isaiah speaks to post-exilic Jews who are facing difficult prospects for the future, while both the epistle and gospel speak directly to the reality of persecution. Where then does faith fit in this equation?

We start with the message from Isaiah – or more precisely – the third prophetic voice in the book of Isaiah. The Jewish people are living in the midst of ruin and despair. Their city lies in ruins and their Temple is no more. They build homes only to see others move in and farm land to see others eat of it. But a new day is coming; a day of new creation, when the old will be gone and the people will again rejoice and be a delight to God. In that day they will not “labor in vain” or bear children only to see them face calamity. Their days will be long in the land and they will prosper. Indeed, in that day the lion and the lamb will lie down together in peace, for in that day the lion will eat straw like the ox. Don’t give up hope, the prophet says to the people, a new day is coming. Live out the dream – build homes and plant vineyards, because a new day is coming. It is a beautiful vision, one we should grab hold of. It is a message of God’s blessings, for which we may give thanks.

But, even as we seek to live out the vision of God, we must remember that there are forces that would seek to prevent this vision from being implemented. In both the New Testament passages the topic of persecution is front and center. In the passage from 2 Thessalonians, which may or may not be written by Paul we hear encouraging news – the Thessalonians are faithful and loving. They long to see Paul, even as he longs to see them. As they face opposition and persecution, they draw strength from the fortitude that the Thessalonians have shown in the face of their own experiences of opposition. They have stood firm and therefore, Paul can rejoice in this. At the same time, Paul prays day and night for them, hoping to be with them face to face so that he can encourage them in their times of troubles. At the same time, Paul prays that they would increase in their love for one another and be strengthened in holiness, so that in the end, they will blameless before God, when Jesus comes with all the saints. This would seem to be a reminder that even as we stand firm in faith, we would not lose sight of our relationships with another.

If the Thessalonian letter encourages us to stand firm in the face of persecution, even as we are encouraged to increase in love and holiness, the Gospel text reminds us that this call to stand firm may not just be for a season, but be a perennial issue. Don’t be led astray, Jesus tells the disciples if you hear someone come in my name and say “I am he” or “The time is near.” Don’t follow them. If you hear about wars and earthquakes, famines and such, don’t be too concerned, such things will happen. There is this strong appeal to an apocalyptic sense – things are likely to get worse not better, but God will, in God’s time, intervene to bring order to disorder. So don’t be too concerned about what you see and hear – that’s just the way life is.

But, the word you need to hear is that when you face persecution – when you get hauled before religious and secular authorities because of my name, take the opportunity to testify. Give your testimony – tell the authorities about your faith – stand firm in the face of persecution. As I read this, I picture Martin Luther, standing before the authorities, both religious and secular, saying to them in those famous words: “Here I stand, I can do no other.” Jesus tells us in this text not to prepare a defense, but to trust him for the words. Let the Spirit move, because in doing so, the testimony will be all the more powerful.

As I read these texts, I hear in them both a vision of God’s future and a warning. God’s future won’t come into existence without a struggle. There are forces that would seek to prevent God’s reign from coming into existence. Like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we may have to follow this path to our deaths, giving witness to the ways of God, knowing that in God’s time God’s realm will break through and there will be a new creation and the lion and the lamb will lie down together in peace.

Reposted from [D]mergent.

The Persecution of Religious Minorities in Iraq -- Sightings

One of the consequences of the Iraqi War has been the dramatic increase of violence toward religious minorities in Iraq. The objects of persecution includes Christians, but they're not the only religious minorities that have been targeted. For many Christians, the days of Saddam were paradise compared to what is being experienced currently.

What many westerners don't realize is that for centuries after the birth of Islam Christians coexisted with their Muslim neighbors, with many Christians serving in positions of power.  The Crusades dampened some of this neighborliness, but didn't completely destroy it.  Interestingly enough, life for religious minorities is more difficult now than it was in the centuries prior.  To get a better sense of what was and why/how it disappeared, one ought to read Philip Jenkins' The Lost History of Christianity.

But, returning to the current state of affairs, Shatha Almutawa, a Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago helps us understand the current context, reminds us that this isn't the way it's always been, and points us to helpful resources.  It is important that we stay up on these developments, because in many ways the American presence has unleashed violence that has affected these groups with great severity.

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Sightings 6/10/10

The Persecution of Religious Minorities in Iraq

-- Shatha Almutawa

About a thousand years ago, a group of Iraqi philosophers in Basra wrote a dialogue between a Muslim in hell and a Muslim in heaven. The Muslim in heaven asked the Muslim in hell what he had done that led him to hell. The Muslim in hell responded that he tried to convert people who did not believe in what he believed, and if they did not agree, he used force against them, killing those who did not yield.

It was the Muslim in hell who waged war against those who didn’t follow his creed, not the Muslim in heaven. The story shows that even a thousand years ago, tolerance and peace were valued by Muslims, even though there were always those who chose violence. The philosophical encyclopedia in which this story appears, Rasa’il Ikhwan Al-Safa, or the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, was read by Muslims, Christians, and Jews not only in Iraq but throughout the medieval Muslim world, valued especially by the Arab-speaking Jews of Muslim Spain.

But the Iraq of the tenth century is not the Iraq of 2010, a country that is overruled by violent militias, where more than 1,200 suicide bombings have taken place since 2003. Despite the tyranny of Saddam Hussein’s rule and the violence following the 2003 US invasion, Iraq still remains a cradle of many religions, but a rather dangerous one. Besides Sunni and Shia Muslims, today’s Iraq boasts at least six denominations of Christianity, a small Jewish population, and several less-known religious groups such as the Yazidis, Shabaks, and Sabean-Mandeans.

After the Coalition Provisional Authority dissolved the Iraqi military and police force in 2003, militias took over the streets of Iraq, persecuting minorities. With the withdrawal of the US military from Iraqi cities last June, violence intensified in some regions, such as the Nineveh province. Suicide bombings targeted Shabaks and Yazidis, whose religion is influenced by Sufism and Christianity and who are considered heretics by some Muslims.

According to a Human Rights Watch report, the Chaldean Archbishop Paulus Faraj Rahho was kidnapped and later killed in Mosul in 2008. A year earlier Friar Ragheed Ganni and three deacons were shot, and Friar Mundhir Al-Dayr of the Protestant Church was killed in 2006.

But it is not only religious leaders who are targeted. Graffiti on walls tells Christians to leave, loudspeakers from cars spout death threats, and individuals are approached on the street or in their homes, asked what their religion is, and then shot if they give the “wrong” answer. Christians have been fleeing Iraq ever since, their numbers decreasing from one million in 2003 to about half a million now.

What could be causing this violence? Surely there are many factors, including a lack of transparency on the part of the Iraqi government that allows vigilante crimes to take place without consequence; corruption in the same government; as well as abject poverty and a lack of jobs, causing young, unemployed men to be lured by extremists.

With a new government forming in Iraq, new leaders must take steps to protect religious minorities. In addition to addressing the circumstances above, they can stop printing religious affiliation on identity cards, disarm militias, investigate the murders and kidnappings of religious minorities, and do more to bring perpetrators to justice, for the safety and dignity of all citizens.

References:

Human Rights Watch. “On Vulnerable Ground: Violence Against Minority Community in Nineveh Province’s Disputed Territories.” November 10, 2009. 

http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/11/10/vulnerable-ground

Robert Fisk. “The Cult of the Suicide Bomber.” The Independent. 14 March 2008.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-cult-of-the-suicide-bomber-795649.html

Debbie Elliott and Corey Flintoff. “Report Reveals Corruption in Iraqi Government.” NPR. September 1, 2007.  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14117853

David Corn. “Secret Report: Corruption is ‘Norm’ Within Iraqi Government.” The Nation. August 30, 2007.  http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames/228339

“Iraq Corruption ‘Costs Billions.’” BBC News. November 9, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6131290.stm

“Iraq: Civilians Under Fire.” Amnesty International. 2010.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE14/002/2010/en/c9dc5d8d-95fa-46e4-8671-cd9b99d0378c/mde140022010en.pdf

Shatha Almutawa is Iraq Country Specialist for Amnesty International USA. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago Divinity School, where she studies Muslim and Jewish intellectual history.

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This month's Religion and Culture Web Forum features a chapter from literary critic Amy Hungerford's forthcoming volume Postmodern Belief: American Literature and Religion Since 1960 (Princeton University Press, August, 2010). In "The Literary Practice of Belief," Hungerford focuses upon two contemporary literary examples--the novels of Marilynne Robinson and the Left Behind series--in order "to engage (and revise) the current emphasis on practice over belief in our understanding of religion." With invited responses from Thomas J. Ferraro (Duke University), Amy Frykholm (The Christian Century), Constance Furey (Indiana University), Jeffrey J. Kripal (Rice University), Caleb J. D. Maskell (Princeton University), Edward Mendelson (Columbia University), Richard A. Rosengarten (University of Chicago Divinity School), and Glenn W. Shuck (Williams College). 

 http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/webforum/index.shtml

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Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Martyrdom -- Sightings

How often do we, here in the West, think of ourselves as being persecuted for our faith?  Whether it's being disinvited from the National Day of Prayer or an absence from the Supreme Court, there is a sense of being put upon.  But are we really?  Martin Marty, in reflection upon the text from John 15, reminds us of those who truly do face persecution. 

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Sightings 5/17/10

Martyrdom

-- Martin E. Marty

Almost always Sightings takes off from a current text or image lifted from news and opinion sources. This week our “current” text is 1900 years old. It happened that Sunday I was to engage in a moonlighting vocation, namely preaching a sermon, something I’ve enjoyed doing for sixty-two years. To some, this activity in a sanctuary may seem to occur in a polar-opposite locale from the “Public Religion” sites that we ordinarily visit. However, sanctuary acts are to relate to the public, and public acts have or can have anchors in community and personal life. Those of us who are called to preach on Lectionary – ecumenically-chosen biblical – texts often have to take their chances. This week the seasonal text was from John 15:20-27, read as farewell words of Jesus to disciples. Preachers everywhere are in trouble almost right off. Jesus: “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” While I have preached among the poor and suffering, few were persecuted. More often the words fall on the ears of comfortable, middle-class persons, or in the academies, people with pensions, good names, often tenure, honorary degrees, “Good Citizen” awards. Now what? “They” did persecute Jesus back then, and he promised like treatment for his followers. Here the contortions begin.

Contemporaries in comfortable worlds go hunting for persecutees, and often even place themselves in the mirrors, as being the hunted. These days the whole concept of being persecuted gets trivialized. Forbid “National Day of Prayer” people from receiving demanded public space and time, and you will hear moans and whines: “They are persecuting us!” Tell that to the people who are tortured and condemned for their religious, in this case Christian, commitments and witness. Maybe some who cry “Persecution!” do so not for political reasons, as they seek to be empowered in their weakness and humility. Better to punt and scoot past the verse I quoted to other really rich and promising words in the “Farewell Discourse.” But, then, is there something to the point for moderns as they hear these words from a gospel?

Here is where contemporary relevance does come in. Monitoring newspapers, newsletters, magazines, print-outs, and media stories and images, as we are called to do, has us finding horror stories each week from around the world. How many? It is hard to know, given the dispersal of two billion Christians in two hundred lands, many of them suffering in silence, unnoticed, as embarrassments to their enemies, or too insignificant to be counted up. Yet we get clues, however they are gained and however widely they vary. My favorite guess, or reckoning, appears in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Volume 34, No. 1 of which appeared in January.

The count? “Average Christian Martyrs Per Year,” 178,000 right now, 210,000 projected for 2025. Of course, as I read such figures annually and occasionally ponder explanations about how computers help bring up such figures – how can anyone know? – I indulge in the hermeneutics of suspicion. What are the motives of the calculators, friends of martyrs, and statisticians? Just as quickly as such questions come to mind, one does well to postpone dealing with them and instead to think about what even one such death means, what one harassed and stalked community suffers, what motivation it should develop for people of good will in statecraft, non-governmental organizations, and religious communities of all sorts, to change circumstances, to bring the number down. 210,000 in 2025? That text from John 17 still haunts.

Martin E. Marty's biography, current projects, publications, and contact information can be found at http://www.illuminos.com/.



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On April 6, 2010 Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, spoke at the University of Chicago Divinity School in an event sponsored by the university’s Theology Workshop. This month’s Religion and Culture Web Forum brings audio from Land’s discussion, titled “Christians, Public Policy, and Church and State Separation,” and offers reflections on the event in an introduction by David Newheiser, Ph.D. student and coordinator of the Theology Workshop at the University of Chicago. http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/webforum/index.shtm

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Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Ultimate Allegiance -- A Sermon

Acts 5:27-32

When I was a child, we began every school day with the Pledge of Allegiance. In doing this we declared our love and support for our nation. I doubt if I really understood the implications of my pledge; it was just something I said every morning as school began. Only later, when I got older, did I begin to understand what it means to give my allegiance to my country. I also learned that not everyone agreed on what allegiance means. Do I, for instance, have to love it or leave it, as the old bumper sticker suggests? Do I have to agree with everything our government does in order to be a loyal citizen?

With these questions about loyalty and allegiance circling in our minds, Christians face another question – is allegiance to the nation the ultimate allegiance? Or, does our allegiance to God trump our allegiance to family, to community, to nation? As we think on these questions, consider for a moment those who risked their lives in the 1930s and 1940s to hide their Jewish neighbors or smuggle them to safety in defiance of German law. Or consider the people who participated in the Underground Railroad, shuttling escaped slaves north to Canada, and in doing so, broke the Fugitive Slave Law. These folks believed that there was a higher law than that of the nation. So, to whom do we owe ultimate allegiance?

1. THE POWER OF EASTER

As we meet this morning on the far side of Easter, we hear the story of the choices that faced the earliest Christians. From the earliest days of the church, Christians have had to choose between their allegiance to God and their allegiance to culture and nation. In every age and culture, leaders have appealed to patriotism, nationalism, and loyalty to the fatherland or to the clan. And yes, this is true even here in this country, where we hear demagogues stir up crowds with the words: “Let’s take back our country.”

The Easter story reminds us that our loyalties go beyond family, clan, or nation. Whatever our national allegiances might be, we are first of all citizens of God’s kingdom, who acclaim Jesus, the one who has risen from the dead, as “Leader and Savior.” We are here today, because of the resurrection. It is the risen Christ who breathes the Spirit upon the disciples and commissions them to share the word of forgiveness (Jn 20:22-23). It is also the risen Christ who commissions the church to carry the message of God’s grace to the ends of the earth – once the Spirit empowers them (Acts 1:8).

This morning we move directly into the post-Easter world. Acts 5 describes a jail break of epic proportions, but, the jail breakers didn’t flee very far. No, they went right back to the Temple and began to preach, knowing that they would likely face arrest again. So, now they stand before the authorities, having to answer the question: to whom do you owe your allegiance?

2. A QUESTION OF LOYALTY

From the day of Pentecost until the time of Constantine, being a Christian was dangerous if you lived in the Roman Empire. To be a Christian was considered an act of treason, and thus arrest and even martyrdom was common. And, why was being a Christian considered an act of treason? Being a Christian was deemed an act of treason, because the Romans didn't believe in the separation of church and state. If you were a loyal Roman, you proved it by offering sacrifices to the emperor, who was proclaimed the divine Lord of the empire. Now, this was a problem for Christians, because they had only one Lord, and that was Christ. So when they refused to sacrifice and give their ultimate allegiance to the emperor, the government had no choice but to suppress them.

The Romans tried to suppress the Christians by crucifying them, beheading them, burning them at the stake, or throwing them into the arena to face wild beasts and gladiators. They hoped that these violent acts would be a deterrent, but history suggests that this persecution didn’t work. History is full of stories about people such as Polycarp and Ignatius of Antioch, who gave up their lives for their faith. But it wasn't just men who faced martyrdom – there were also many women counted among the martyrs.

Consider the story of Perpetua. She was a new mother, but she refused to deny her faith, even if that denial would save her life, and allow her to be with her baby. Perpetua wasn't even a full member of the church when she was martyred. She was still preparing herself for baptism, when she gave birth to her child in prison, and watched as her pagan father took the baby away from her. The father hoped Perpetua would give up this crazy idea and come home, and care for her baby. But, she refused and the authorities sent her into the arena to face a wild bull. She was severely wounded, but she wouldn’t give in. The account of her martyrdom is simply amazing.

Perpetua was tossed first and fell on her back, She sat up, and being more concerned with her sense of modesty than with her pain, covered her thighs with her gown which had been torn down one side. Then finding her hair-clip which had fallen out, she pinned back her loose hair thinking it not proper for a martyr to suffer with disheveled hair; it might seem that she was mourning in her hour of triumph.  ["The Martyrdom of Perpetua," in Amy Oden, ed., In Her Words, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), 35-37].

When the bull failed to kill her, a gladiator's sword finished the job. But that happened only when she guided the sword to her own throat. As the writer records: "Perhaps it was that so great a woman, feared as she was by the unclean spirit, could not have been slain had she herself not willed it."

Another woman named Crispina, was beheaded during the reign of Diocletian. At her trial, the judge tried to get her to sacrifice, but she refused, even when the judge threatened to have her beheaded. Crispina replied, "I should thank my God, if I obtained this. I should be very happy to lose my head for the sake of my God. For I refuse to sacrifice to these ridiculous deaf and dumb statues" [Oden, In Her Words, pp. 45-46]. This call to embrace death as an act of loyalty is summed up in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s famous phrase: "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." It was sixty-five years ago this past Friday that Bonhoeffer’s choice to defy the leaders of his own nation, led to his martyrdom.

The stories of Perpetua, Crispina, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, all give an answer to the question: To whom do I owe my allegiance? If we come back to Acts 5, we hear Peter give his answer to this question. When the chief priest and the members of the Sanhedrin demanded that Peter and the church submit to their authority and stop preaching about Jesus, Peter answered for the church: "We must obey God rather than human authority." When asked: To whom do you owe your allegiance? Peter replied, I owe my allegiance to the one whom God exalted to his "right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him" (5:31-32).

3. OUR ALLEGIANCE

The Jehovah's Witnesses are often ridiculed and condemned because they refuse to pledge their allegiance to the flag. Many people see them as unpatriotic, but they might be on to something. They refuse to say the pledge for the same reason early Christians refused to sacrifice to the Roman emperor. They believe that the flag is an idol and a symbol of a rival claimant to their allegiance. They have asked and answered the question: How can you pledge allegiance to a nation, when you have pledged your allegiance to God? I might not agree totally with their solution, but there is truth in their question.

Although I’m proud to be a citizen of the United States and have no desire to live anywhere else – though Canada doesn’t seem such a bad place to live -- my allegiance to nation must come second to my allegiance to God and to Christ’s church, which extends far beyond national borders.

Peter is asking us the question: To whom do you owe your allegiance? Can we say with Peter, and with all due respect to the laws of this country: "[I] must obey God rather than human authority." Am I willing to count myself among those early Christians who left the council and "rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name?"

Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pastor, Central Woodward Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Troy, Michigan
2nd Sunday of Easter
April 11, 2010