History fascinates me. Not so much timelines we learned to create in school, nor memorizing dates, names, battles, et.al. All that mattered but I best liked finding connections between them and how things worked out.
The late Perry Miller, who wrote about New England Puritans, and David McCullough who wrote about Americana from Adams to the Ohio River, are the fine history writers. On film, the go-to name is Ken Burns.
My history Ph.D. dissertation dealt with 1660s England church and state relationships. I took special interest cutthroats known as the Fifth Monarchy Men. They were suppressed and died out by the end of the decade, yet their ideas come back.
The Fifth Monarchy Men were not the first to cherry-pick from the Bible to predict Jesus would return in 1666, set up shop in England and throw piety in foes’ faces, noting the young Savior and his uncle Joseph of Arimathea might have even visited the island.
They were also very anti-Catholic and Church of England. All who disagreed with their doctrine deserved execution.
For a while they contented themselves with preaching and penning pamphlets and preaching, but by 1665 they were frantic to ready the isle for His return.
The FFM London branch decided now was time to take the kingdom by force, i.e. ignite Armageddon. On Epiphany evening Jan. 6, 1666, they stormed into St Paul’s Cathedral and shot up the children’s choral evensong.
Several worshippers were hurt and killed in this holy war terrorist attack before the gunmen escaped into London. Diarist Samuel Pepys reported London was in turmoil for days fearing another outbreak.
Within a week some Fifth Monarchists were cornered by soldiers and killed in a shoot-out; survivors were arrested, quickly tried, and hanged later the same day.
That was the end of the religious terrorists, but not of their ideas to usher in the Apocalypse and Millennial Reign of Saints. They believed that even if a few people died, it was worth it because they were living in the End Times and those wretched sinners would die anyway.
The theme has cropped up a few times in the past, although usually with less violence. Purveyors were often labeled as fringes of traditional Christianity.
The theology exists today. Yes, The End will happen sometime, but we don’t know when. Others claim they know the exact time and place Christ will land when He returns, i.e. they are trying to control the story and the calendar which Jesus warned was a no-no. Several Russian Orthodox clergy tied to the Kremlin suggest it will come “any day now.”
Paul Theil, co-founder of Pay Pal, Palintar and other data-gathering corporations have openly talked about nudging the timetable of the apocalypse and rise of the anti-Christ. What was once the territory of conservative Protestant millennialism debates has moved to the business and international political news sections of reputable newspapers.
Open debate and discussion are always good things. But wedding political theory with theology is why framers of our Constitution separated church and state.
Are proponents of the war with Iran and Israel bombing alleged Hezbollah sites in Lebanon trying to take the Kingdom by force? This wouldn’t be the first time either.
None of this means the church cannot speak out on public issues, but it is not allowed to run secular government. Nor can government compel the church, or any denomination the spiritual bureau of any branch of government, to bend to its demands. When three mid-20th Century dictators tried doing that, it was a fiasco for everyone.
Skepticism can be a good thing. For example, why churches tax-exempt? They do good things (i.e. furnish food, clothes, education plus care and comfort for the most vulnerable citizens).
In return, their leaders can’t endorse any party or politician lest they risk their institutions’ tax-exempt status.
We question schoolchildren having a “holiday” or Christmas tree in their building, which songs can be sung in late December and what a valedictorian can or can’t say in his/her graduation speech. And, of course, we still argue over whether the 10 Commandments can be posted in a public classroom.
Stoppel’s Simple Solutions for Sticky Situation is post the Scout Laws. They provide good moral guidance that parallels the Big 10 without kicking the hornet’s nest.
Though church and state are supposedly separate, but a sliver of the Defense Department budget is to cover the costs of providing chaplains to those in uniform. The padre’s primary job is to offer spiritual and emotional guidance. Or, as my father would say when one of the men in his platoon was fussing too much, “Ah, go tell it to the padre.”
That wasn’t to get the problem child out of his barracks, but point the malcontent to someone who could help him talk through his/her concerns. Like their civilian counterparts, chaplains for the public are forbidden from endorsing a party or politician. Our present war secretary may want to turn this another way.
These are a few reasons why I find this current “excursion” into Iran so troubling. There seems lack of clarity beyond ridding them of nukes and dipping into the nation’s oil reserves.
The U.S. has meddled in Iranian affairs since at least 1953, when Western nations brought about a regime change because they had drilled for oil and pledged to pay for it but wouldn’t open books to Iran’s prime minister. When he suggested maybe something was being hidden, such as “cooking the books,” he was overthrown, and the Shah installed.
That solved one problem and created new ones. The Shah was brutal, corrupt and sitting game when the Iranian Revolution established today’s largely-Muslim theocracy. Old fears of a Muslim conquest dating back to the Crusades were trotted out and restored in its wake.
We used the smokescreen Weapons of Mass Destruction to justify going into Iraq, so why not another this time in Iran seeking all its enriched uranium no one has so far ever seen. We fell for the WMD ruse to the tune of two wars to oust Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and keep that land’s oil flowing our way, why not same with Iran?
As Mark Twain said, “Everyone wants to get to heaven, but no one is in a hurry to do it.” End times will happen when they happen and we have no voice or vote in it. Only God knows, Jesus told his disciples when they asked.
Let’s leave this alone and do the right thing by caring for other people.
