I highly recommend a talk on authoritarianism and Jesus by Dr. Brian McLaren, Dean of the core faculty of the Center for Action and Contemplation. It’s the clearest presentation I’ve found on the central dynamics of authoritarianism.
Authoritarianism concentrates power in one person, party, or ideology using four techniques:
- increasing the fear of the threat and taking action, such as redefining the meaning of citizenship or changing the requirements to vote in elections or upending trade relationships;
- social division based on loyalty to the regime (if you don’t join us, you’re on the side of the enemy; if you do join us, there’ll be prizes like pardons or bitcoins);
- distortion of or distraction from the truth – the goal is to confuse you with a flood of misinformation so you end up not trusting anyone and feeling helpless;
- suppression of dissent – when the courts rule against the leader, the leader and his loyalists attack judges as biased and dangerous seeking to delegitimize the judiciary.
I would add a fifth: dehumanizing others by dismissing their needs and rights.
Elon Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, ”referring to the sentiment as a “bug” in our system.
When one of her constituents asked her about the devastating impact Trump’s budget would have on everyday people—how millions would lose their healthcare, how many might suffer or die, Iowa’s Sen. Joni Ernst shrugged and said: “Well, we’re all going to die.”
Dr. Cornell West:
“When you view cruelty as strategy and empathy for others as an enemy, that’s not a morally desirable way of being in the world.”
Dr. McLaren goes on to contrast Jesus’ teachings and actions with the techniques of authoritarianism. But first, the context. Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, when Caesar Augustus was emperor of Rome – a quintessential authoritarian culture. He had a significant religious experience in which he understood who he was and what he was called to do: gather a band of followers, instill his vision in them, and live in the kingdom of God, an alternative social structure that he proclaimed was a hand, within reach. That way brought him into conflict with the kingdoms of the world.
In her essential book The Dream of God, Verna Dozier declares that
Jesus did not come to bring a new religion…[he offers] human beings a new possibility for participating in the dream of God, and the Christian church is missing the mark…when it decided to worship Jesus instead of following him…discipleship, not worship is what Jesus called for…Worship is setting Jesus on a pedestal…following him is doing what he did…having that clear-eyed vision of whom we serve. (pp. 97-99)
It is from this vantage point that McLaren’s descriptions of Jesus’ ministry in the midst of the authoritarian regimes of his day make sense. Jesus calls his followers to rethink everything, trying to draw them out of their conscious minds which were shaped by the authoritarian structures. He speaks in parables, an indirect way of speaking the truth. He takes them out into the countryside to teach and feed and heal them. Authoritarians take life, starve people by restricting trade, which makes them afraid. They publicly crucify their enemies. Jesus tells them they cannot serve two masters; authoritarianism is nearly always closely related to money.
Instead of thinking about how to live out the Kingdom of God in an authoritarian system, Jesus calls us to consider how to live into the Kingdom. A few possibilities:
- Recognize that most fear is a reaction, not a response; an intentional response is to face your fear, having it instead of it having you; of what am I afraid? Is it true, or am I being manipulated by media onslaught?
We must never be surprised by evil or paralyzed by despair, no matter how bad it gets. (Cornell West) - Renew and maintain your oneness with creation – Jesus began with a 40-day wilderness quest, and often went out away from others very early to pray.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas,, language, even the phrase “each other” doesn’t make any sense.
– Rumi (1207-1273)
- Decide not to label others as enemies. Cornell West again: As a Christian, I pray for brother Trump andhis precious family! …we all must renounce any language and acts of hatred and violence against anyone, including Black People, Immigrants, Palestinians, Jews, Muslims, and others!
- Speak the truth. One example. Yale Divinity School Dean Greg Sterling spoke out with moral clarity:
Whether a person is American or from another country, whether they live next door or half a world away, whether they are our best friend or a complete stranger, Christianity compels its followers to care for them and to help them. Today, this core Christian value is under threat not from foreign enemies but from our own government, which has proudly proclaimed that the US Agency for International Development is going into the “wood chipper” (MSNBC interview)
The Administration is right that USAID needed reform. But American aid overall still saved about one life
every 10 seconds, based on estimates by the Center for Global Development. An “impact counter” developed by an economist estimates that about 300,000 people have died so far from the reductions in American assistance, two-thirds of them children. The death toll is said to be rising at a rate of 103 per hour. Administration officials have denied the reality of dying children, which not only insults the memory of children starving to death in Sudan and Yemen and Afghanistan; it also insults the intelligence of Americans. (Nicholas Kristof, NY Times).
McLaren believes that the authoritarian strain of US history runs deep and wonders, how did we become the kind of country that unleashes this anti-democratic dynamic? One reason: research reveals that 30-33% of the population tests as authoritarian personalities: under stress, they feel more comfortable if there’s a powerful leader who’ll solve problems at any cost.
McLaren’s presentation is a free podcast hosted by Fr. John Dear, the founder of The Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus. It is well worth seeing. Email me, and I will send you a link.