Not By Power, Not By Might: A Christ-Centered Response to Christo-Fascism
Resisting the Spirit of Domination and Death, Part 4
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Last week I looked at Satan in the Gospels and what he symbolized for the earliest Christian communities. I realize not everybody will have read that article before this one, so I'm going to offer somewhat of an overview. However, I do recommend you read that article before this one. A precursor to that article was my exploration of the sin of Sodom, so you might be interested in reading that, as well.
Satan today
Many today can easily say they don't believe in a being named “Satan”. I am one of those. But, even though I don't believe that Satan exists, I do see evil in this world. So, in that sense, Satan is very real.
Satan is a mythological depiction of the principle of evil in the Gospels. He is a symbol of a way of being in this world—the Way of Domination and Death.
I believe the Gospels were written for the earlier Christian communities as manuals for discernment. They were not just about discerning the movement of the spirit of Christ, but also the movement of the spirit of Satan. The stories empowered people to learn not just how to accept Christ, but also how to reject Satan in their daily walk.
This dual desire to accept Christ and reject Satan, is often incorporated into baptismal liturgies even today. Sometimes, the ritual includes renunciations asked of the baptized. Here's one possible set found in the Book of Common Worship for the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The minister: Trusting in the gracious Mercy of God, do you turn from the ways of sin and renounce evil and its power in the world? (emphasis mine)
The baptized: I do.
The minister: Who is your Lord and Savior?
The baptized: Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.
The minister: Will you be Christ's faithful disciple, obeying his word and showing his love? (emphasis mine)
The baptized: I will, with God’s help.
This dual movement away from Satan and toward Christ has been part of the Christian tradition and codified in our most sacred rituals for nearly 2,000 years.
Well, in theory anyway…
When I look at the embodied commitments of Christo-fascism, it is as if those renunciations have been flipped. Today we hear Christo-fascists promote ideologies and theologies that are the very opposite of what Christ taught.
Empathy is a sin. Yes, empathy, that which is foundational to loving your neighbor.
Charity is wasteful. During a time in which people struggle to make ends meet, they want to take away needed help, even to the point of taking away free school lunches for children.
Worship of Trump. Yes, it's worship. Donald Trump, the racist, misogynist, convicted rapist, American king of misinformation and lies, and likely sociopath who has made it completely clear through his behavior that he really only cares about himself has earned the nickname “Orange Jesus” for a reason.
If we just look at the stated goals of Christo-fascism (which is manifest most fully in Christian nationalism) we see a lust for the power necessary to dominate, marginalize, and even eliminate others. In other words, it openly asserts that it has chosen the Way of Domination and Death as its way of being in the world. And, according to the authors of the Gospels, the Prince of the Way of Dominance and Death is none other than the Prince of Darkness himself, Satan.
Demonic possession today
Just as I don't believe that a being named Satan exists, I also don't believe that beings known as demons exist. Demons are a mythological way of talking about how otherwise good people can be overcome (or “possessed”) by an energy that would make them do things they normally would not. In the past I've talked about “team spirit” as a good example of this. Another way to think about this might be the emergence of an “egregore” (or a “thought form”).
But the important part of demon possession for me is the way it separates the person from the evil. The person who is possessed is not evil in themselves but a victim of a dominating evil spirit—victim of an ideology that has enslaved their hearts and minds and is making their bodies do its bidding.
I realize that progressives today cringe when they hear conservatives say, “love the sinner, hate the sin”. But, I think the conservatives are on to something. We need to separate the behavior from the person, because the person is far more complex than just that behavior that we see in front of us.
The person's potential as a human being—their True Self, if you will—lies hidden behind a dark veil. And even though that True Self is hard for us to see, that's the person we need to focus on when interacting with others.
The Christian mission
And this is where the Christian mission comes in.
Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
—Luke 9:1–2
In the Gospels, healing and exorcisms are linked together. And I think there’s a very real reason for this that goes straight to the heart of the human condition.
You see, we all carry wounds deep inside that affect how we experience our reality. How we experience reality feeds into everything we say and do. And here’s the thing…
We all have our own inner demons. They lurk in the shadows of our personalities. Some of them haunt us unawares. Others, we are very aware of. Many, we are aware of, but afraid to admit to them. And, too often, our demons run our lives.
The experience of exorcism from our demons is the experience of deep healing. It’s true for me. It’s true for you. It’s true for everyone around us.
Like the Apostles in the Gospel passage above, all Christians are called to become the hands and feet of Christ bringing healing into the world. We are bearers of Grace—a healing power that liberates us from our worst selves and transforms us into who we were meant to be.
To unleash Grace into the world—to bring healing and exorcise demons—is nothing less than to participate in the overthrow of Satan and his reign.
From stark contrast to lots of grey
Much of the Gospels, especially the parts that include Satan, are very black-and-white. This contrasting imagery of good versus evil really spoke to me while I was going through my fundamentalist phase. In fact, it was the very structure of the Gospels themselves that contributed to the creation of my personal myth. They are all about light versus darkness, good versus evil, Jesus versus Satan.
On the one hand, it was good that their simplicity could speak to me with where I was at the time. On the other, unfortunately that kind of black-and-white imagery tends to fuel that fundamentalist worldview.
So, now I need to emphasize something extremely important…
The Gospels were written in a way that intentionally turned up the contrast.
I don't for one minute believe the authors of the Gospels and their communities did not understand the extent to which life was colored in shades of gray. In fact, a quick dip into the letters of the Christian Testament reveals how gray things were for them.
So when I'm talking about Satan in the Gospels, I'm talking about a literary figure that was written into the story for the purpose of contrast. It is not as though any single person or group of people should ever be identified with Satan or demons. Quite the contrary.
The stories of Satan and his demons are stories about the struggles of those early Christians. They were not just social or communal struggles. They were also deeply personal struggles.
Surrounded by the Way of Domination and Death, the Gospels attempted to stimulate insight into the questions that they carried within themselves, questions such as…
At what point should I pick up a sword and strike back at Rome?
How much wealth is it okay for me to have?
Does being a Christian require me to abandon my position of influence in society?
The Gospel writers offered their answers to such questions through their narratives. But life is too complicated for simplistic stories to put such questions to bed once and for all. And that's why I say the Gospels are “how-to manuals for discernment”.
They are stories meant to sensitize us to spiritual movement by helping us to ask better questions and recognize patterns. As such, they give us the basics to start with. But they only give us the basics, which is the reason for the stark contrast.
We are actually meant to move beyond those starkly contrasting basics as we strengthen our intuition through lived experience in the world. And that’s how we move from a black-and-white worldview to one filled with shades of gray.
When it comes to dealing with social and community issues, it’s important to read the Gospel narratives as something like a fractal: The same patterns run all the way through. This struggle between light and dark permeates the whole universe, the nations we live in, our home communities, our families, and right down into our very selves.
This is how the Gospels sensitize us to the struggle within ourselves between the light and the dark. Because whether we like to admit it or not…
There's a little bit of Satan in all of us
Let's step back for a moment and look at the human condition.
Human beings are wired to survive. We learn through experience what is safe and what is unsafe.
Pain is one of the ways that our body signals to us that things are unsafe. The experience of pain leads to fear of other potentially painful things, things that are threats to our wellbeing.
Fear of threats leads to anger—a defensive emotion directed toward threats.
Domination and violence fueled by anger are the way we defeat threats to secure our safety.
So the dark pattern is this…
Pain begets fear begets anger begets violence and domination.
It all begins with pain.
It all begins with the wounds that we have accumulated through our lives. Those wounds have taught us how important it is to live defensively. They are why we build walls to protect ourselves from others.
These wounds are the barbed wire wrapped around our very souls that prevent us from emerging into who we were truly meant to be.
Truth be told, ensnared by our wounds we are all possessed at least somewhat by those demons that force us to walk in the Way of Domination and Death. And in order for us to experience liberation, we need to experience deep healing.
Deep healing isn't about getting rid of our wounds and getting rid of the pain they cause. It's about reconciling with them. It's about learning to love those parts of ourselves that we don't normally like. It's about learning how to show compassion toward ourselves as human beings.
It is only after we experience this deep healing and the transformation that comes with it that we can truly understand what Divine Justice is. Only then can we know the why of Justice, the significance of Compassion, the power of Grace.
Justice unto reconciliation
Too often, I hear progressive sisters and brothers calling Christians to stand up for Justice. And, they're not wrong. All Christians are called to stand for justice.
But the purpose of Justice is never to conquer one's enemies. That would be to proclaim the Way of Christ with one's lips, yet herald the Way of Domination and Death with one's deeds (which sounds an awful lot like Christo-fascism to me).
Quite the contrary, Divine Justice is always about reconciliation. It is about reestablishing loving relationships between others. It is about helping people to learn how to love one another in the first place.
And this I think is the secret to bringing about Divine Justice in society…
We can only truly become agents of Divine Reconciliation inasmuch as we have experienced that reconciliation within ourselves.
In other words, we can only learn how to love others inasmuch as we are able to love ourselves.
When we experience this deep healing that leads us to reconcile with who we are as human beings, we cut away the barbed wire that holds our souls back. We experience liberation unto New Life. And inasmuch as we experience this deep healing and reconciliation, we can become who we were truly meant to be.
Before we can become agents of Justice in this world who walk in the Way of Christ, we must first experience the deep healing that exorcises those demons who would make us their own.
Inasmuch as that happens, though, everything changes.
The exercise of boundaries
And this brings us to the big question that I believe the earliest church also faced, the big question that the Gospels addressed in their own way: If we cannot dominate others to bring about Justice, then how, pray tell, are we supposed to make that happen?
I've discovered that one of the hardest things for conservatives to understand is the difference between “oppression” and “healthy boundaries”. Indeed, they are not the same. Here's the best way I have found to explain that difference….
Everybody has a God-given kingdom, which is their life. You are allowed to run your kingdom however you want. Do with it what you will. It’s your kingdom.
Meanwhile, other people are allowed to run their God-given kingdoms—they're allowed to live their lives—however they want.
Every kingdom has boundaries that establish the kingdom’s uniqueness, yet brings it into relationship with others where they touch.
One kingdom is not allowed to transgress another kingdom's boundaries. In other words, no one is allowed to tell you how to live your life. That's the same as invading your God-given kingdom and taking a part of it for themselves. That is a form of oppression.
Likewise, you are not allowed to tell someone else how to run their life. Again, a transgression of boundaries. An invasion of their God-given kingdom.
On top of that, others are not allowed to live their lives in ways that actively threaten your well-being. That again is a transgression of boundaries.
Likewise, you are not allowed to live your life in a way that threatens the well-being of those around you. Again, transgression.
Maintaining healthy boundaries is key to understanding Divine Justice. When we maintain and enforce boundaries, we maintain and protect the integrity of one's God-given Kingdom.
Transgression, invasion, and conquest
But what happens when someone transgresses your boundaries in a way that you cannot stop. They are stronger than you. It feels like there’s nothing you can do to protect yourself. What if you face an irresistible invasion?
This is where we can lean into part of Luke's message. Maybe there are times when economic, political, or religious power can be used in the service of Divine Justice. I think it's appropriate in those times for those with power to exercise power not to dominate a transgressor, but rather to reestablish and maintain boundaries.
When I think of divine Justice, I think of a relatively simple idea:
“You don't get to treat other people like that.”
This idea doesn't say anything about how one lives their own life. It simply means that they aren't allowed to ruin other people's lives.
That's the difference between maintaining boundaries and oppression.
Facing the deeper darkness of Christo-fascism
And this brings us back to the struggle with Christo-fascism. I believe that no other movement more embodies the Way of Domination and Death in America today. The ideology (or the “spirit”, or “egregore”) of Christo-fascism is evil.
But here’s the thing about all that I have been saying…
This isn’t really just about Christo-fascism. I believe that any ideology (or theology) whose stated purpose is to acquire power to dominate, marginalize, and even eliminate others is just downright evil.
But note what I did there. I’m talking about the ideology. I’m not talking about the people who embody it. I’m not talking about human beings. Those human beings who are enthralled by the ideology are far more complex and should never be reduced to simply being the hands and feet of evil.
They are operating out of their own pain, fear, and anger. We all know what that’s like. We’ve all been there, done that. And, if we’re being honest, we find ourselves operating from that darkness far more often than we like to admit.
Christo-fascists are no less human than we are. They are no less good than we are. They are no more evil than we are. Rather…
Christo-fascists are just as human as we are.
Do we really want to condemn others for just being human?
Do we really want to turn “being human” into an unforgivable cosmic crime?
I certainly hope not.
The hard choice on this day
Christo-fascists have chosen to treat us as enemies rather than beloved neighbors. They have chosen to inflict harm upon ourselves and those around us. They make us afraid. They make us angry.
How then shall we respond?
First, we must reject the Way of Domination and Death as our response. We must not see them as our enemies deserving our wrath. When evil repays evil, only evil wins.
Second, we must commit ourselves to the Way of Christ. When Christ hung on the cross and forgave those who were killing him, he did so because he identified with them. Identification is the condition for compassion. So, we too must commit to identifying with our own would be oppressors. We must choose to see them as they truly are: human beings just like ourselves. Misguided as they are, they are still our sisters and brothers in the fullness of our human family.
As followers of the Fully Human One, it is our responsibility to champion humanity, to protect and maintain the dignity of all human beings. Even though Christo-fascists choose to treat us as enemies rather than beloved neighbors. Even though they inflict harm and pain upon us and those around us. Even though they make us afraid. Even though they make us angry. Amidst all of this, we must refuse to dehumanize them.
And when others dehumanize them, it is our task—our calling—to speak up for them in order to rehumanize them. Rather than participating in cursing them, we are called to participate in blessing them by advocating for their humanity, to redignify them even as they strip us of our own dignity.
I know this may sound like sheer folly to many. I get that. And, maybe it is.
But we, as Christians, are uniquely called to proclaim the Gospel:
God is Love.
All people are children of God.
Those who treat us as enemies are no less beloved children of God.
Including the Christo-fascists who threaten us today.
Establishing and maintaining boundaries
Just because we advocate for the dignity of Christo-fascists as human beings, it does not mean that we condone their behavior.
If the bully on the playground is running around pushing over the littler children, what is the playground supervisor to do? Of course the playground supervisor is going to step in, exercise their power, and stop the behavior for the sake of the littler children.
That is an example of reestablishing and maintaining boundaries.
I believe it is appropriate to exercise power to establish and maintain boundaries to stop dominating behavior and prevent harm to others. This is a simple matter of protecting people from being turned into prey.
This is where we speak truth to power.
This is where we…
Expose the Way of Domination and Death that would hide in the shadows by bringing the behavior into the light for all to see.
Join our voices with others in protest.
Support those most vocal to amplify their voices.
Vote when we get the chance.
Boycott businesses that financially support Christo-fascism.
Donate to organizations dedicated to stopping the rise of Christo-fascism.
Continuously rehumanize those whom Christo-fascists try to dehumanize.
I realize that no single person can do all the things that need doing. And if this whole scene feels overwhelming to you, that’s okay. You don’t need to do it all yourself. As an individual, all you need to do is your small part, whatever you discern that to be.
Remember, you are not just an individual. You are a member of a much, much larger body. When individuals come together and form a community, our energy amplifies and we become more than the sum of our parts.
It might not feel like it at times, but we have some leverage. Together, we can resist the darkness. Admittedly, we may have to get creative. But, we do have options.
Just remember, the exercise of any power we may have cannot be used aggressively to dominate others. That would be to succumb to the temptation to walk the Way of Domination and Death rather than walk in the Way of Christ, which is the Way of Grace and Mercy.
The last thing we want to do is become the very thing we are called to stand against.
Resist
So, my friends, hearken to the Call of Christ, the one who is the Light in the Darnkess, and resist.
Resist the darkness within and around you.
Resist in your own way.
But, resist nonetheless.
And let the light of your faith shine.
Let the whole world see the Way you embody.
Let everyone hear the Gospel you proclaim.
Let our truth be known.
God is Love. And, God is eternally for all.
Peace, Bo
www.evolvingchristianfaith.net
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Credits
Thanks to DALL-E for the cover art
This is a great article! Thanks for sharing your ideas. I like your comparison of demon possession to how ideas infect people and that makes sense to me - you can see how that plays out especially in radical views. But my question is how do we exorcise these demons? People are so sure of their viewpoints it seems pointless to argue with logic. Is it just being a loving presence in their lives - listening without judging? I wondered if you had any more concrete suggestions on that part. Thanks again!
Well thought. We must love humanity while also being willing to be that supervisor on the playground that reminds the bully of common boundaries, that allow peace among all