Short Takes on History: The Sword in the Bible - Warrior Ethos in Church History
The Christian church began with a mission to spread the gospel message. Since the early church, Christians have spread that good news across the entire planet. However, their means often contradicted their mission, as these missionaries of the Lord often carried a Bible in one hand and a weapon in the other.
The aggressively militant proselytizers left little real choice: convert or perish. History tells a tale of worshipful bloodbaths, of streets paved with blood at the feet of God’s warriors. First encounters with Christian invaders detail just how brutal these believers could be, as European Protestant explorers, businessman, and settlers committed virtual genocide pursuing riches and the savages’ salvation. From Spanish conquistadors in America to British sailors in Polynesia, they persecuted and executed native populations in the name of God and gold.[1]
The American Church proved no different. Deeply isolationist and racist, Puritans pursued wealth, especially acquiring land, as a tenant of their faith, stealing it from the New England region natives. Encounter after encounter details the European-origin Protestant settlers and invaders brutality in the name of faith and wealth. Many religious-based outreach organizations sought to bring culture and religion to North America’s savages, with the United States government happily helping them.
The American church’s vicious warrior culture did not limit itself to the untamed, wild savages. Their torturous treatment targeted anyone different from the predominately white congregations, as in the case of the African slaves. The Southern Baptists split off from their northern brethren for numerous reasons, chattel slavery standing atop that list.[2] This southern branch supported keeping the brutal system that allowed aggressively angry white men to whip, rape, and otherwise terrorize the helpless Africans they claimed to view paternally.
Even soldiers found themselves leaning on their faith in battle. Civil War accounts detail soldiers relying on their faith to keep them going in the fight, and not just to survive it. They asked God to give them strength and luck in killing as many of their foes as they could in a coming battle.[3]
This warrior ethos touched every aspect of the church’s mission, even as missionaries and preachers spoke of peace and unity. Some decried the white Christians’ love of the sword. Noah Worcester, the Massachusetts Peace Society founder, penned a series of letters speaking out against the church’s hypocritical use of war and faith. Adopting the voice of a Polynesian observer visiting the United States, Worcester spoke of the Americans’ similarity to the “warlike appearance” of British explorers that came to the Ryukyu Islands, calling them “men-killers.”[4] The warrior Christians appalled the Polynesians, who were “wholly ignorant of war and fighting” having been taught to love one another and to live in peace with their neighbors. The veracity of the claims to Polynesian innocence notwithstanding, Worcester’s letters describe the church as dominated by the warrior culture in violation of their faith.[5]
That culture continued into the 20th century. Fundamentalists and Evangelicals, divided by theological issues, each adopted confrontational approaches to their citizen’s duty.[6] That legacy remains strong today. Instead of swords, Christians carry guns; instead of helmets, red hats. Like their spiritual ancestors who tore down native pyramids to build opulent cathedrals, Christians today erect monument-like structures, naming them in support of openly confrontational white men proud of their will to fight.[7]
It seems easy for Christians to forget history and basic tenants of their own faith.
“If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people” (Romans 12:18, New American Standard Bible)
Notes
[1] For discussion on American atrocities committed against Native Americans, see Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought - the Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford University Press, 2009) and Richard White, The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age 1865-1896 (Oxford University Press, 2019).
[2] R. Albert Jr. Mohler. Report on Slavery and Racism in the History of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, December 2018.
[3] For discussion on Civil War soldiers’ faith in battle, see James McPherson, The Illustrated Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford University Press, 2003) and J.D. Dickey, Rising in Flames: Sherman’s March and the Fight for a New Nation (Simon and Shuster, 2018).
[4] Ching, Lillian, Stephen Thurston, and Joseph Ames. Letters of Lillian Ching, a native of the island of Loo Choo, to his brethren upon that island, while a resident in the United States : in which is shown, the inconcistency [sic] of all wars and fightings [sic] with the principles and spirit of the Christian religion : to which is added the apology of Stephen Thurston, a minister of the Congregational society, in Prospect, Maine, to Joseph Ames, an officer of the militia, who had been instrumental in procuring for him, the commission of Chaplain, showing that the duties of a Christian minister, are entirely incompatible with all warlike principles and practices. Portland: Author Shirley, 1838. Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926 (accessed November 12, 2022). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CY0111002998/SABN?U=vic_liberty&sid=bookmark-SABN&xid=77a695a2&pg=7.
[5] For discussion on Ryukyu islander military history, see Olof G. Lidin, Tanegashima: The Arrival of Europe in Japan (Taylor & Francis, 2002) and Rainer Daehnhardt, The Bewitched Gun: The Introduction of the Firearm in the Far East by the Portuguese; Espingarda Feiticeira: A Introducao Da Arma De Fogo Pelos Portugueses No Extremo-Oriente (Texto Editora, 1994).
[6] God in America, season 1, episode 6, “Of God and Caesar,” directed by David Belton, aired October 13, 2010, on PBS, https://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/view/.
[7] Walter Krickeberg. Las Antiguas Culturas Mexicanas. Economic Culture Fund, 1964, 109.
Bibliography
Ching, Lillian, Stephen Thurston, and Joseph Ames. Letters of Lillian Ching, a native of the island of Loo Choo, to his brethren upon that island, while a resident in the United States: in which is shown, the inconcistency [sic] of all wars and fightings [sic] with the principles and spirit of the Christian religion : to which is added the apology of Stephen Thurston, a minister of the Congregational society, in Prospect, Maine, to Joseph Ames, an officer of the militia, who had been instrumental in procuring for him, the commission of Chaplain, showing that the duties of a Christian minister, are entirely incompatible with all warlike principles and practices. Portland: Author Shirley, 1838. Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926 (accessed November 12, 2022). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CY0111002998/SABN?u=vic_liberty&sid=bookmark-SABN&xid=77a695a2&pg=7.
Daehnhardt, Rainer. The Bewitched Gun: The Introduction of the Firearm in the Far East by the Portuguese; Espingarda Feiticeira: A Introducao Da Arma De Fogo Pelos Portugueses No Extremo-Oriente. Texto Editora, 1994.
Dickey, J. D. Rising in Flames: Sherman’s March and the Fight for a New Nation. Simon and Schuster, 2018.
God in America, season 1, episode 6, “Of God and Caesar,” directed by David Belton, aired October 13, 2010, on PBS, https://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/view/.
Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought - the Transformation of America, 1815-1848. Oxford University Press, 2009.
Krickeberg, Walter. Las antiguas culturas mexicanas. Economic Culture Fund, 1964.
Lidin, Olof G. Tanegashima: The Arrival of Europe in Japan. Taylor & Francis, 2002.
McPherson, James M. 2003. The Illustrated Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford U.K.; New York: Oxford University Press.
Mohler, R. Albert Jr. Report on Slavery and Racism in the History of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, December 2018.