“Where the empire lies, people suffer”[1]

By REV. DR. OFELIA ORTEGA SUÁREZ

Published in Cornerstone
Issue 59, Winter 2010/2011

“Vocation as Empire”

In September/November 2000, I had the opportunity to participate in the Campbell Seminar with the theme “Mission as Hope in Action” at Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia.

Even before the World Trade Center towers were destroyed by terrorist forces on September 11, 2001, we observed dangers in the convergence of political hegemony, military superiority, economic near-monopoly and an ideology of exceptionalism. What we called the “vocation of empire” has produced a political-economic-military-ideological force in the world that seemingly can proceed almost unchallenged with impunity to have its way in the world.

Walter Brueggemann, the leader of the seminar, affirms that “this political-military conviction [in the perfect hegemony of the United States which lies beyond challenge] is powerfully linked to the unanticipated globalization of the economy.”[2]

This “vocation as empire” reaches all levels of social relations, creating a “civilization of inequality” in a world where the poles are marked by poverty and wealth with signs of irreversible vocation.

The Crisis of Life Today: Characteristics and Experiences
of the “Civilization of Inequality”

In the 2003 South-South Forum held in Buenos Aires, we witnessed the untold sufferings caused by an economic crisis where indebtedness becomes the main way of bleeding the Southern economies and the main instrument of economical and political power of the North over the South. We were shocked to hear that twenty-five years ago Argentina´s population of 22 million people had only 2 million living in poverty, while today 21 million are poor out of a population of 37 million. In addition, the middle class, which represented 50% of the population in the past, has diminished dramatically, with only 30% of the population holding steady jobs. The number of poor people has advanced much faster than the population growth, and the people of Argentina, as in other parts of the world, have been led by an illusion.

It is obvious that we are undergoing a new phase of capitalism that uses all the different forms of power and affects every aspect of life. The capitalist system of production has become a financial system. Its far-reaching and all-embracing strategy has also changed and the global financial market is its empire and its God. The empire is a global financial empire that rests on military, political, and ideological power that has an impact on the survival of the periphery countries. The market empire and military forces oppress at the social, political, economic, ecological and spiritual level, generating a crisis for all peoples and all countries in the world.

The Latin American churches represented at the Forum spoke about the way in which economic globalization has provoked the debt crisis, marginalization, insecurity, economic inequality, unemployment and the destruction of the environment. The lie that the free market was the solution to all economic and social problems has been unmasked. In its place neo-liberal economic policies have resulted in economic crises, especially for the middle class and the poor.

The threats posed by economic globalization in the Caribbean reflect what is happening in the rest of the world, although its problems are even more dramatic due to the small population and the fragile nature of the islands’ economies and ecosystems. Economic globalization has promoted loss of jobs and extreme poverty, an unprecedented growth of crime and violence, ecologic degradation and the spread of HIV/AIDS. All this has degraded life.

An Alternative Vision for a Community of Life

The system tells us: “there is no alternative.” Nevertheless, Jesus “was offering and instilling hope in the seemingly hopeless situation of a people languishing under foreign domination and its effects. To people in this despair over their poverty and hunger, Jesus declares, ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted’ (Matthew 5:4). To people who are anxious about where the next meal will come from and how they can clothe themselves, Jesus declares that subsistence needs will take care of themselves (in mutual sharing?) if they single-mindedly pursue the Kingdom (Matthew 6:31-33).”[3] Jesus helped the poor and hungry multitudes, guiding them to share what they had at hand and building this way that we call “the economy of the Grace of God” (Mark 6:35 and 8:1). The early Church challenged the system of private property and emphasized the necessity to share all possible resources so that there were “no poor among them” (Acts 4:34), allowing it to witness the full life in God, that is to say, the resurrection.

There are local and regional alternatives today that can be implemented and supported by churches and congregations. A new ecumenical vision for a community of life in justice and peace is being born in our day.

The values of respect to the human being, to its life in all dimensions, and to the life of nature question the system and require us to exercise resistance to intervene or transform it.[4] We have to actively work toward concrete and feasible alternatives to the neo-liberal pattern of economic integration that service the great transnational corporations.

We are called to be nonconformist and transformative communities, because life is not possible unless we address the roots of injustice. We are called to meet ourselves to be transformed by the renewing of our minds from the dominating and egoistic imperial mindset, thus doing the will of God that is fulfilled in love (AGAPE), solidarity (Romans 13:10) and grace (Isaiah 55). Communities are transformed by God’s living grace and practice, by an economy of solidarity and sharing. Even though we as churches are entangled and complicit in the very system we are called to change, we are called to create spaces for and become agents of transformation.[5]

Prayer: God in your grace, help us to obey your call to be agents of transformation.

Notes:

1 Nestor Míguez, “El Imperio y después. Sostener la esperanza bíblica en medio de la opresión” en Los Pueblos Confrontan al Imperio, Ribla, No. 48 Quito, Ecuador, 2004, page 5.

2 Walter Brueggemann, “Communities of Hope” midst Engines for Despair in “Hope for the World: Mission in a Global Context” edited by Walter Brueggemann, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, U.S, 2001, page 152.

3 Richard A. Horsley, “Jesus, and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder,” Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2003, page 109.

4 Hinkelammert, Franz I; Mora M. Henry, Coordinación Social del Trabajo, Mercado y Reproducción de la Vida Humana, DEI, San José, Costa Rica, 2001, pages 327-331.

5 From the Ágape Document of The World Council of Churches.

Rev. Dr. Ofelia Ortega Suárez was the first Presbyterian woman to be ordained in Cuba. She is president of the World Council of Churches for Latin America and the Caribbean, a professor of Theological Ethics at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Matanzas, Cuba, director of the Christian Institute of Gender Studies, and a member of the Peace for Life Continuation Committee.

The text is an abridged version of “Where the Empire Lies, People Suffer, They Are Exploited, and Life Becomes Death”, a theological reflection prepared by the Rev. Dr. Ortega for the United Church of Canada, published in Living Faithfully in the Midst of Empire: Report to the 39th General Council 2006.

Cornerstone is a quarterly publication of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem.