How We Are Still Ruled by a King, a Pope, and Caesar.

In John’s gospel, the Sea of Galilee is called “the Sea of Tiberias.”  John uses the official Roman name of this body of water to remind us however subtly that Caesar had claimed possession over all bodies of water in the Roman Empire, and that anyone fishing in those bodies of water was required to pay Caesar for any fish extracted from “his” lake.   

Here we see one of the ways imperialist powers implement their colonial authority over conquered peoples.  By the brute force of their militaries, they simply declare ownership over land and water belonging to others.  In other words, they steal it at gunpoint.  This reduces the people who have always owned and worked the land or the water to subjects, servants, vassals, slaves, and employees.

Recently there was a legal case in my State of New Jersey between a Board of Trustees at the First Presbyterian Church of Newark, and the Presbytery of Newark, the regional body of the Presbyterian Church USA.  The Trustees were claiming independence, saying they were not bound by the rules and standards of the PCUSA that apply to every other Presbyterian Church in the denomination.  The basis for this claim was a “charter” granted by King George II of Great Britain to the church in 1753.  This charter gave the Trustees authority over real estate in America.

Judge Jodi Lee Alper ruled in favor of… the King.  

I’m serious.  

She said this ancient document took precedence over the ecclesiastical polity that the church embraced when it became part of the PCUSA and its predecessor denominations.  

This leads me to ask a more fundamental question: 

“Who gave King George II the right to dispose of land he did not own 

on a continent 3500 miles away across an ocean 

in the first place?”

The answer is: Pope Alexander VI.  

Alexander VI was a member of the infamous Borgia family and is universally regarded as one of the worst, most corrupt and venal Popes in history.  One of the very grievous things perpetrated by Alexander VI is something called “The Doctrine of Discovery.”  This was a papal ruling in 1493 that “gave” lands in the Americas to the King of Spain.  It was later extended to other “Christian” countries.  

This Doctrine of Discovery is the self-serving legal framework upon which the whole enterprise of stealing land from indigenous peoples, and their wholesale slaughter, is based.  It also gave European powers the right to enslave the inhabitants of conquered lands.  Thus if slavery is America’s “original sin,” Alexander VI is the snake. 

Oh, and where did Alexander VI get the idea that might makes right and the strong have absolute rights over the weak?  Maybe he was relying on the example of the ancient Romans who were the heroes of the Renaissance, then in full swing in Italy.  In other words, it all sinks back to the depravity of the same Empire that claimed ownership of the Sea of Galilee and also crucified Jesus.

In 1823, the Doctrine of Discovery was adopted officially by the Supreme Court of the new USA.  Conveniently overlooking the “Christian” part, of course, (the USA nowhere in its founding documents claims to be a Christian nation), they just claimed the same rights for themselves as “successor” to Britain.

To claim to be “successor” to Britain effectively denied that we had any kind of real revolution.  The USA was apparently not something new at all, but merely the “successor” to the King and therefore that was the basis of its own authority and legitimacy, particularly its claim on land in North America.  All the Treaty of Paris did, then, was transfer the deed to some property that the King got from the Pope, to the Continental Congress.  

Therefore, let’s be clear.  The legitimacy of the US government doesn’t come from “the consent of the governed” or “we the people” or any other such sentimental propaganda that we like to tell ourselves.  It comes from a King who got it from a corrupt Pope authorizing the application of brute force by nations claiming the label, “Christian.”

Until the Doctrine of Discovery is annulled, courts will continue to fall back on the foundations of imperialism and colonialism, not to mention racism and slavery, in their decisions.  

This is not just limited to arcane ecclesiastical property disputes like this one in Newark.  But whenever courts rule in favor of owners, capital, money, corporations, and privileged, powerful people, the ultimate rationale undergirding such decisions comes down to the Doctrine of Discovery.  Those who favor a “strict constructionist” approach to the Constitution rest on this foundation.  They are about protecting the rights of property and wealth and those who have it, which mainly still means white men.  Think “Citizens United.”  

This is also why voting rights are not absolute in this country and are in fact routinely and systematically abridged and suppressed by governments when they perceive it to be in their interest to do so.  Indeed, the Constitution is explicitly designed to mitigate against the will of the people because it was feared that a majority might someday want to overthrow slavery.  Hence we still have slavery-protective institutions like the US Senate, the Second Amendment, and the Electoral College.  

But look: America was never the Pope’s to give away.  Which means that the only real revolution we could ever have in this country would be to overthrow the Doctrine of Discovery and find a new foundation for our common life, one free of the imperialism and colonialism that currently and fatally infects our polity today. 

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The Most Important Verse in the Bible.

When I was in seminary I recall learning in Old Testament class — probably from Dr. Bernard Anderson — that the oldest verse in the Bible, the verse that everything else likely sprang from, the seed of the whole Judeo-Christian tradition, the most lucid, potent, and fruitful memory that has forever characterized our faith, is Exodus 15:21.  Here it is:

And Miriam sang to them:

‘Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;

horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.’

Here we hear the voice of Miriam, Moses’ sister, singing in triumph after the miraculous deliverance of the people at the Red Sea.  It is the song of the band of liberated slaves at the moment when their freedom was guaranteed by the destruction of Pharaoh’s pursuing army.  It may be argued that the whole Bible is a commentary on that verse.  

What this means is that the entire Biblical story and tradition is essentially and originally about liberation, a movement from death and darkness to life and light.  It is written from the perspective of downtrodden people who have experienced a miraculous emancipation at God’s hand.  The Bible is at its core the story of a group of freed slaves; the whole Bible comes from this experience.

The Bible, in other words, is only correctly understood from this perspective.  It is about the movement from bondage to freedom.  It is good news to the poor, the sick, the disinherited, the disenfranchised, the outcast, the excluded, the oppressed, and the destitute, and can only be interpreted from their perspective.  It is about hope to the hopeless, and gratitude for God’s miraculous deliverance.

It is also about the destruction of evil.  Pharaoh’s army represents all oppressive and unjust and violent systems that perpetrate inequity, exploitation, bigotry, and tyranny.  The liberation of the people necessarily involves the defeat of a dominating inhuman power.  

The Lord Jesus recognizes this as well.  He deliberately chooses Passover, the holiday that remembers the Exodus liberation event, as the time for his own death and resurrection.  In many parts of Christianity, what we call Easter is referred to as Pascha, Passover, making the connection explicit.  It is when we remember the Lord’s passion and resurrection that we read the Exodus stories again.  

  

Exodus 15:21 is also the song of a woman.  Christians know that at the most important and seminal places in Scripture, it is the women who first get it.  And they seem mainly to be named Mary: Jesus’ mother sings the hymn called the Magnificat, expressing her faith in the One she will bear, witnessing to the Incarnation in explicit political and economic terms.  Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus in advance for his burial, anticipating his giving his life for the life of the world on the cross, the primary witness to his passion.  Mary Magdalene is the first to meet and proclaim the risen Jesus, becoming the Apostle to the Apostles.  

It is the song of an Israelite, a member of a minority group which had been relegated to slavery and oppressed on the basis of race.  As they were originally migrants from Canaan, this aspect of being foreigners in Egypt also comes into play here.

What Exodus 15:21 shows us is that the Bible is essentially geared towards the interests of marginalized, excluded, suffering, and victimized people.  And it cannot be authentically pressed into service in the interests of rulers and privileged, wealthy people.  It cannot be used to legitimate the power of the powerful, or to oppress the weak, poor, or sick.  To use the Bible to advocate for or defend imperialism, colonialism, slavery, racism, the subjugation of women, economic or ecological injustice, the exclusion of refugees and migrants, or any kind of social pecking order is go contradict not only it’s heart at Exodus 15:21, but the entire flavor and tenor of the rest of it, culminating with the ministry of Jesus Christ.  Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection constitute the final fulfillment of Exodus 15:21, and of the entire Hebrew Scriptures.  

The church needs periodically, regularly, and frequently to place itself at the edge of the sea with Miriam, and at the empty tomb with Mary Magdalene, and realize again the deliverance to which it is called to bear witness.  The powers that would hold us in crippling and lethal bondage have been vanquished.  The new life has come!

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