The Cosmic Conflict and the Future (of America)

1. The Cosmic Conflict and the Future (of America) Loma Linda June 11, 2011

2. Re-acceptances • Re-acceptance of the Church as State • Re-acceptance of extreme economic inequities • Re-acceptance of unaccountable authority • Re-acceptance of the mother

3. Re-acceptance of the Mother • “If you fear the Father, go to the Son. If you fear the Son, go to the Mother.” - Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

4. The Shape of Unaccountable Authority Fraternity (e. g. male only) Patronage Notion of infallibility Imperial legacy: imperator = ‘ruler answerable to none’ Hierarchical structure: authority from above down, not from below up

5. Shape of Church Authority Leo XIII (1878-1903) “And just as the end at which the Church aims is by far the most noble of the ends, so also is her authority the most exalted of all authority, and can in no way be looked upon as inferior to the civil power or in any way subject to it.”

6. Unaccountability as Constitutional Principle objectives can best be attained by action at Community rather than at national level. The Treaty on European Union has established the principle of subsidiarityas a general rule. This principle specifies that in areas that are not within its exclusive powers the Community shall only take action where

7. A New Europe • Principal features: • Economic integration > political integration • (Free) market economy • Surrender of national and local autonomy • Christian ‘super-authority’ Pius XII (1939-1958)

8. Re-acceptance of Unaccountable Authority http://www.aclu.org/accountability/tortureprogram.html • ‘Extraordinary renditions’ • Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, was a victim of the U.S. policy known as "extraordinary rendition." He was detained by U.S. officials in 2002, accused of terrorist links, and handed over to Syrian authorities, who tortured him. Arar is working with the Center for Constitutional Rights to appeal a case against the U.S. government that was dismissed on national security grounds.

9. Re-acceptance of Unaccountable Authority • ‘Enhanced interrogation’ • “Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.” • - Lord Acton

10. In Times ‘Orwellian’ and ‘Kafkaesque’ • George Orwell (1903-1950) Animal Farm, 1984 ‘Newspeak’: blackwhite- The ability to accept whatever "truth" the party puts out, no matter how absurd it may be. Orwell described it as "...loyal willingness to say black is white when party discipline demands this. It also means the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know black is white, and forget that one has ever believed the contrary."

11. In Times ‘Orwellian’ and ‘Kafkaesque’ • Franz Kafka (1883-1924) The Trial, The Castle, America • ‘Kafkaesque’ “a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity: Kafkaesque bureaucracies" "marked by surreal distortion and often a sense of impending danger: Kafkaesque fantasies of the impassive interrogation, the false trial, the confiscated passport ... haunt his innocence" — The New Yorker

12. The Cosmic Conflict and the Future (of America) • The Roman Church has never yielded on its claim to wield unaccountable authority. • The exercise of unaccountable authority is now widely accepted in Europe and in the United States. Cf. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Secrecy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).

13. Common Ground The one thing common to them all…. “The one thing common to them all is the disregard for liberty.” - Lord Acton

14. Victims of Victory • “We easily become ourselves, the sufferers from these methods of deception. For they inculcate in their authors, as well as their intended victims, unlimited cynicism, causing them to lose all realistic understanding of interrelationship, in what they are doing, of ends and means.” • - George F. Kennan, letter to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, March 25, 1997, in Moynihan, Secrecy, 227.

15. Attacked by Evil from Behind “Everyone has become a captive of a fateful illusion that believes itself able to drive out evil by force. In this world where we everywhere marshal force against force, we must learn that force at best may succeed in containing a few manifestations of evil, but it can never conquer or eliminate evil. On the contrary, the force with which we fight evil has mainly the consequence that we ourselves become the victims of evil. As we resort to force against others, evil attacks us from behind and makes us evil ourselves.” Helmut Gollwitzer, PredigtüberOffenbarung Johannes 12:7-12, in Festschriftfür Ernst Fuchs, ed. G. Ebeling et al. (Tübingen: Mohr, 1973), 128.

16. Imperial Theology • “The Church gave unto God the attributes which belonged exclusively to Caesar.” - A. N. Whitehead, Process and Reality, 485.

17. Biblical Framework Question: “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” (Gen 18:17). Answer: ‘No, for I have known him with the result [lema‘an] that he may charge his children...’ (18:19). “Shall I hide from Abraham that which I do [asheranioseh] – not merely on this occasion, but as a regular practice.”

18. Quiz 13. (True or false) Abraham’s dialogue with God over the fate of Sodom shows that the true believer never questions God. T F 14. (True or false) Abraham is remembered as God’s friend because he trusted God without asking any questions. T F