What Empire Taught Me About God
Reflection
As we reflect on imperialism, empire, and domination together, I think it's important we understand what we are talking about. A textbook definition cannot encompass everything. However, without naming a perfect one, it is possible to understand how systematized oppression operates in our own lives. A definition of Empire I've developed is, "a multifaceted set of physical, mental, spiritual, and psycological conditions that coerce the individual to labor for the extreme wealth accumulation of the few, and death for the many. Empire redirects the lifeforce energy of both the personal and communal toward its maintenance." In Jewish tradition, there are many names for God that can be translated to, living waters, pool of blessing, I am what I am, breath of life. Here the word God stands in for what can be upheld as sacred and worthy of pouring into. Empire taught me that certain bodies, personalities, places, and systems of knowledge were worth more or less when compared to whiteness. We need to survive in a capitalistic system, so money is more important than living. Self-reflection is only as important as its ability to boost you on the next rung on the employment ladder, or not at all. In this view, the web of creation or Divine force that surrounds us all, if it exists, is most certainly male, heterosexual, and European.
Poem
From the Resting Beside Living Waters (2026) Collection, by LJ Williams
Jesus is on the Mainline
“Jesus is on the mainline, just call him up and tell him what you want” were the lyrics of a song that we sang often. The imagery was startling, gratifying, terrifying. God could be reached at any time. As a child I imagined that God must be really busy fielding quests, a long black phone line twisting up to heaven. A busy, gruff God at a desk responding on the phone would be,
He,
obviously, drawn puffy and wispy like clouds. If by a miracle I made it through, he would tell me that what I had called for is too small, and that I should not hold up the line.
Religious/Historical Grounding
The 19th century expansionist concept of Manifest Destiny is at the heart of the founding of the United States, which is approaching 250 years of existence, (and how much longer)? It was a widely held belief that American settlers had the right from God, to expand the country's borders indefintely. It is carved out of the destruction of Indigenous lifeways through the numerous wars waged in what became known as "Indian Country". Manifest Destiny was grounded in the Christian "Doctrine of Discovery", coined in a 1823 U.S. Supreme Court case. The Doctrine sprung 15th century Papal Bulls. These Vatican legal statements formed the 15th century religious and legal framework for enslavement and land theft of any non Christians encountered by colonial powers, arguing that Europeans were superior. In 2023, the Vatican issused its first apology for these Papal Bulls stating that, these documents did not reflect the humanity of Indigenous people1 but did not retract, or rescend them. This framework was how the Six Grandfathers2, an ancient Lakota sacred site in the heart of the Black Hills, became known as Mount Rushmore, bearing the faces of several US Presidents; a monument to Indigenous conquest. Whose God was this?
A Time for Reflection
What part of my life is orgainzed around domination rather than relationship?
What have you learned to hold sacred that Empire reduced in value?
Next, Empire and the Body.
Sources
1.Vatican formally rejects “doctrine of Discovery” after Indigenous calls | PBS news. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/vatican-formally-rejects-doctrine-of-discovery-after-indigenous-calls.
2.Mount Rushmore National Memorial Cultural Landscape (U.S. National Park Service). https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/mount-rushmore-national-memorial-501080.htm.