My friend, a pastor and a professor, Allan Bevere, keeps up with the political stuff better than I do, and this post is one worth citing in whole. Allan calls into question the prominence of empire language when Bush was President and the near absence of such empire talk under Obama.
Is “empire” code language for anti-conservative politics?
I know I am not the only one who has noticed that all the Christians comparing the USA to the Roman Empire during the reign of George W. Bush are strangely silent now that we are under the emperorship of Barack Obama. And yet, how much of President Obama’s foreign policy looks virtually the same as his predecessor.
Policy on Afghanistan– virtually the same
Policy on Iraq– virtually the same
Support for warrantless wiretapping– the same
Support for many of the provisions of the Patriot Act– virtually the same
Support for military tribunals– virtually the same (The civilian trial scheduled for NY will most certainly revert back to a military court.)
Asserting executive privilege in order to keep lots of information secret– the same
So, where are all those Christians, who for eight years were using the New Testament to critique Caesar George as a modern-like dictator? I do not deny that such a comparison was not completely false, but I only insist that such critiques be applied consistently.
I guess consistency is not to be preferred when it is your emperor residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
As I have said in previous posts, people trot out the sorry cliche of “speaking truth to power” only when their people are not in power.
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