“My Motivation to Get Out the Vote”
An EcoFaith Recovery story by Janet Parker
September 12, 2024
When I went to Central Europe this summer on a Danube River cruise, I thought I was just accompanying my wife, Robyn, her mom, Regina, and our friend Danielle on a bucket list adventure for Regina. We traveled to Budapest, Vienna, Nuremberg, Prague and a few small towns in Austria and Germany. It had never occurred to me that I would be taking a deep dive into the bloody history of European Christendom simply by visiting these countries, which, it turns out, were central to the Holy Roman Empire and its thousand-year domination system. But I hadn’t reckoned on the power of art and architecture to bring the past to life in both vibrant and frightening ways. All you have to do is walk into virtually any castle, abbey or cathedral to experience a full frontal assault of the anti-semitism, the anti-Islamic sentiment, and the fusion of the cross and sword in European Christian culture…if you have the eyes to see.
Take this example of a statue that we saw on the Charles Bridge, a famous 14th century bridge in Prague.
When I looked at this statue closely, I was shocked. On top are figures representing two saints—St. Vincent Ferrer and St. Prokop. Three figures strain to bear up the weight of the Christian heroes on the pedestal, who have clearly subjugated them. One figure represents a weeping demon.
A second figure represents Muslims and reads, in Latin, “8,000 Muslims to the Catholic faith.
And the third figure depicts a Jewish man and reads, in Latin, “25,000 Jews to Christ.”
These last two figures represent the forcible conversion and conquest of Jews and Muslims. Every day, millions of residents and tourists admire statues like this throughout Central Europe.
Being a Protestant in the US, I had never appreciated before just how much of the iconography of historical Christian art and architecture in Europe represents, glorifies and memorializes violence—either violence done in the name of Christ to others, or violence suffered in the name of Christ by those deemed martyrs and saints. By the end of the trip, I began to feel physically and psychically sickened by it all. And I realized, perhaps for the first time, the full extent to which the religion built around the beautiful, God-soaked, love-incarnate Jesus became in large part a velvet mask offering sacred cover to the brute lust for political power.
That’s not to say that authentic Christian devotion and faithfulness to the spirit of Jesus completely disappeared. But the corruption of the faith of Jesus to serve imperial power hit me square in the face…again and again and again. And it was particularly sobering given that we started our trip in Viktor Orban’s Hungary, the poster child for the MAGA movement’s white Christian nationalist fantasies. And so I have some thoughts as I consider the moment we find ourselves in as we approach the 2024 election.
Democracy, inclusion of minorities, gender-equality, and separation of religious and state power are NOT the steady-state experience of humans throughout history. Excluding tribal and hunter-gatherer cultures, it may be that the values and aspirations of Trump and his acolytes are more the rule than the exception in recorded human history. If that’s the case, then small-d democratic culture, pluralistic societies and progressive values would be the aberration not the norm. And that’s terrifying. But it’s important to recognize this possibility because it helps me punch through my wishful denial that something like Nazi Germany or Putin’s Russia could happen here. Some people really do prefer strongmen. Looking at Putin’s Russia and Orban’s Hungary, it’s possible that a shotgun marriage between church and state really could happen here. So where does that leave us?
Last week, Scott said that while we may believe that the arc of the universe bends toward justice, that only happens when we all help bend it. For nearly 250 years, this country has been engaged in a deeply flawed, one-step-forward two-steps-back experiment with democracy based on the consent of the governed, protection from the tyranny of the majority, and separation of church and state. Thanks to over two centuries of persistent democratic struggle, we have inherited a massive project of trying to bend the arc of the universe toward justice. It’s fragile and we have no guarantee that it will last. But I do believe that healthy democracies are our world’s best hope of fostering a just society and a livable planet.
Our trip to Europe forced me to see the possibility that the past could be prologue to a future none of us want. And that’s why I’m redoubling my efforts to get out the vote to save our democracy this fall. It may take 100 more years, but I want to make MAGA the aberration and leave Christendom—the marriage of cross and sword—on the relic heap of history. I want to apply my weight to that bendable arc and keep it moving in the right direction.