We invited guest viewpoints on the war in Iraq, in response to the reports of torture and abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. One of you remarked that I had not declared where I stand. This editorial is a declaration, taking its cue from the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, where he sits at the right hand of God, and shall come to judge the living and the dead. For (1 Corinthians) Christ must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
I do not write in judgment, but with compassion for victim and perpetrator, and with a cry for comfort, and for understanding a way forward. What can erase the picture of a 21- year-old woman with a naked man on a leash, or the near cruciform pose of the man with electric wires attached to his body, or that horrific video of the beheading of Mr. Berg?
Here is comfort — that cruelty and suffering do not have the last word, but that there is One who himself has suffered. Before Christ (always known in Revelation, as the “Lamb who was slain”) every knee shall bow and give account. We are not abandoned to what George Will called the pornography of empire. Jesus reigns in power for us — and for all suffering humanity.
When I first saw the pictures that came from Abu Ghraib (a combination of Jerry Springer and “Halloween III”) I was reminded of a newspaper story about an exhibition of lynching memorabilia on view in Atlanta two years ago. Someone has collected the items pertaining to lynching in this nation, not only newspaper accounts, but of all things, postcards. Staring at me from a postcard were cheering onlookers, behind whom swung the hanged man. A few onlookers grinned at the photographer as if to say, “Hey, Mom, aren’t you proud?”
There is nothing new under the sun, spoke the teacher of wisdom. In our world when lawlessness gains control, and people — who love their children and are kind to their elderly parents and sing in church choirs — act out of fear and do unspeakable things, we can only turn with relief and joy to the One who reigns in power, and who will reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
If there is any good to come out of the revelations that good people (up and down the chain of command) do bad things in the defense of freedom, let it be this: Americans are not exceptional. We are, with the entire human race of every creed, color, gender, sexual orientation and of every historical epoch, capable of great good and great evil. America is not great because we are a good nation.
What is exceptional about us is that by some providential, mysterious grace we have — with blood, sweat and many tears — made possible a government based uniquely and primarily on religious freedom. Thus a truly useful prayer, to be raised to heaven’s throne in response to the apparently sanctioned torture of prisoners by our soldiers, is that our form of government will not perish from the earth.
In addition to comfort, the reign of Christ claims our humility and a justifiably holy fear. The rule of Jesus next to God on the throne of heaven reminds all who govern — if they are not blinded by the arrogance of power — that they hold temporal power only by the permission of God. The church has associated Psalm 2 from our earliest days with the risen, reigning Christ. That psalm describes the Davidic dynasty, kings who were God’s agents upon the earth, and further warns all rulers everywhere to be wise and kiss the feet of Yahweh lest they perish in the way. God’s wrath is quickly kindled.
Therefore, those who govern stand warned. From the president to the middle school principal, from the general to the staff sergeant, from the bishop to the diocesan council, from pastors to sessions — all are called to answer for the exercise of power and discipline. Everywhere on earth the cry for humility and fear is sounded. It applies universally. Authority must be exercised over human frailty and excess, which are part of the human condition. Respect is required; tough love does not go out of fashion. Swift punishment must follow in the wake of abuse or torture among us who value the rule of law.
The Ascension reminds us that all who govern are accountable. You don’t tolerate bullies or give them power. That is a necessity when we live in a culture saturated in violence, from video games to “The Sopranos,” and in cities where neighborhoods are abandoned to the control of drug dealers and gangs. The enemy of freedom is not the rule of law and the appropriate use of power. The enemy of freedom is anarchy.
Christ must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. Until then, free peoples will elect those who use power responsibly, in accord with the rule of law, so that universally representative self-government will not perish from this earth.
O. Benjamin Sparks is interim editor of The Outlook and pastor, Second church, Richmond, Va.
