Super-powered Jesus -Dec 19, 2005

By Will Braun

I’ll put this one in the I'm-a-Christian-but-not-that-kind-of-Christian category. A group in the US state of Maryland is selling God-fearing Americans a gold-fringed "Christian Flag of the United States of America" for 50 God-trusting dollars.

The flag features an eagle carrying a blood-stained cross, which represents "the American Christian taking the gospel around the world"; 50 stars around the border, which represent "US Christians banding together to protect [their] right to preach the gospel"; and some apocalyptic punch: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world….and then shall the end come" (Matthew 24:14).

The flag wavers, led by flag designer Marcia Thompson Eldreth, pull up short of declaring Washington the capital of
heaven itself but, nonetheless, offer a stiff dose of right wing religiosity.

As a Canadian, I asked Eldreth about the manifestly American nature of her rendering of Christianity. She wrote back: "I suppose God called for this flag as He has a grand purpose for our nation in His plan for the nations." Then, to my bewilderment, she wrote: "If there were an American mission set up in Canada, the flag would depict that mission there...the American Christian at work."

While most Canadians would balk at such displays of religio-nationalism, the big reverend to the south is at our national back door. A religious right in Canada is a growing possibility. The recent appearance of Rev. Tristan Emmanuel in major Canadian news outlets is one example of religious moralism trying to finagle its way into the House of Commons where morals get turned into cold, hard legislation. Emmanuel is founder of the Equipping Christians for the Public Square Centre. Other groups of some reach include Focus on the Family Canada, Christian Coalition International Canada, a range of "pro marriage" groups and a troupe of US televangelists who beam the gospel according to Bush into Canadian households.

Canada's Conservative Party ­ currently running neck and neck with the incumbent Liberals in the federal election campaign ­ has some religion in its shadows but so far has not attempted to invoke God's endorsement of its platform. This is not quite what Rev. Emmanuel is trying to do either but he is taking partisan politics to the pulpit, and encouraging
good Christians to elect a "pro-marriage, pro-family, pro-life parliament."

This is not a clean case of Canada spawning its own religious right. It's more like a wannabe US religious right stuck in the God-less north. In 2003 Emmanuel organized a "Canadians for Bush" rally in defence of the Iraq invasion. Major media also reported the flow of money from the US religious right to Canadian anti-gay groups. Canada's religious social conservatives align more closely with the US Republicans than the Canadian Conservatives.

That brings us back to Eldreth’s telling artefact of religio-America, and her notion of an "American mission set up in Canada." The flag wavers’ site is an ideological cocktail of staunch moralism, US expansionism and neo-colonial pride. Their press release leads with: "On battlefields of old, armies would march into battle with the flag of the nation for which they were fighting. It was carried at the head of the fire line." As the old church hymn goes, "Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war." And God emerges as de facto Commander-in-Chief.

Elsewhere on the group's site is reference to the first permanent settlers on US soil; noble prayer warriors who erected an oak cross and dedicated their new land to "the propagation of the gospel." The east coast location of that inaugural settlement is now home to Pat Robertson’s religio-political broadcasting empire, which featured the flag on TV. From settlers to televangelists; the lineage of manifest destiny continues.

The US religious right, with its President in tow, is one of the grandest displays of religious aggression in history. It’s rallying cry is a simple "God Bless America." I’m all for divine good vibes toward my southerly neighbours, but as a presidential benediction those three words have become potent political shorthand for vitriolic good vs. evil policy. As God's self-appointed ambassadors show up on the international stage in fatigues and unilateralist pinstripes, the notion
of "the fear of God" takes on new meaning.

How then ought Canada to deal with the super-powered religion on its southern flank? In the US, some progressive Christians seem determined to out-muscle the fundamentalist political machine and plop God on a Democratic donkey. Jim Wallis, author of the best-selling God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, is an important counter-weight to the religious right. Though his mantra ­ "God is not a Republican. Or a Democrat" ­ seems to reject a Democratic God, he used a recent New York Times op-ed to advise the Democrats on how to harness faith for votes. He says American Christians (and God) care not only about the hot button religious issues of abortion and same-sex marriage but also about poverty and matters of social justice. Wallis makes a good point, but would his path cause the spiritual realm to be increasingly soured with partisanship and the political realm increasingly soured with "God-is-on-our-side" certitude, only played out on both sides instead of one?

Canada can do better than respond to Rev. Emmanuel and company with a savvy, scrappy religious left capable of hoisting a born-again leftward-leaner to power. We can insist that God ­whether or not you believe in him or her ­ doesn’t belong in Parliamentary bickering, speech writers’ conniving or backroom strategy sessions. Hopefully a presence of humble compassion is in all people at all times, but religious language that makes God the cheerleader of a politicised agenda is hardly humble and, seemingly, seldom compassionate.

I suggest not so much the blurry notion of "separation of Church and State" but a higher calling for organized spirituality. Church and state will always relate in some way as long as both are part of society. But organized spirituality should serve as an antidote (humble and compassionate) to the corrosive power games of politics, not as a
co-opted player in them. It should give voice to the voiceless, and nurture groups able to see the common good ahead of their own. It should address elected leaders with a voice distinctly its own (well above partisanship), arising from its experience in the world not from a desire to get its player to the front of the political queue. Examples of constructive church involvement in politicised issues here in Canada include churches offering sanctuary to endangered refugee claimants, public inquiries convened by church bodies when governments refuse public process (as an interchurch coalition did in relation to hydroelectric projects and indigenous rights) and faith-based research and advocacy groups that span the gap between disadvantaged peoples and decision-makers (such as Citizens for Public Justice or the Kairos coalition).

With scant reference to religion in the current campaign, and no trace of faith on the Conservative Party website, Rev. Emmanuel is not likely to be holding the reins in Ottawa any time soon. However, we still have to contend with an expansionist-minded religious powerhouse to the south, and Canadian counterparts welcoming them at the border. The possibility of a Christian flag being planted in Canadian political territory remains. The best response may be a rich spiritual commons that is not fixated on the House of Commons; a spiritual commons where power is shared at the bottom not pursued at the top, and where there is no need to stake territory.

Will Braun is editor of the new Geez magazine, "an offering of "holy mischief in an age of fast faith." He is a Mennonite living in Winnipeg, Canada