Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines empire as follows:
(1): a major political unit having a territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority; especially: one having an emperor as chief of state (2): the territory of such a political unit b: something resembling a political empire; especially: an extensive territory or enterprise under single domination or control.
For the purposes of this essay, an empire is "something resembling a political empire," an "enterprise under single domination or control." The definition contains the notion of size, an empire must be large, but this essay will extend the notion of empire to include smaller unites such as a family or a small business, as well as the normal large empires. For this definition, an empire is any unit under "single domination or control" where the entity that controls can be a person, an organization of some form, or a country.
Face to Face considers a number of empires, large and small. There is the small empire that Jack McFarland attempted to carve out for himself and his family. There is Bishop's Robles' empire, consisting of his diocese and its relations with churches in the States, as well as the North American empire, its satellites and its political and financial centers, "Teguc, Washington, and New York." The devil also has an empire. Over against these empires is the Kingdom of God. All these are intertwined and related to each other. Let me begin Jack McFarland's little empire.
The previous essay, Longing, described how all of us cover up our deaths with our lives, and to do this, we set out to establish our place in the world. The purpose of that effort is to obtain what we long for, and further, to shield us from death, where death is understood as a power that, gradually or suddenly, erodes or abolishes life. To that end, we attempt to construct the world around us, or as the Prologue states, Jack McFarland "got married, became an Episcopal priest, had kids, did what others did."
The most decisive step Jack took to secure his life was to marry Deb. Why did he do this? He did this because he loved her, but more than that, he did it to escape the pit. The pit is "life" when death begins to get hold of us. For Jack, it started when he was young, and it grew worse as he got older. By the time he was in graduate school, he was depressed, lonely, alone, and haunted by memories of his family and lost loves.
Then he met Deb, and after he summoned the courage to ask her out, she invited him to her apartment. That first night, she had "taken hold of him and lowered her body onto his, and he'd rolled over on top of her and they'd made love, on and on, lost in an endless sea that crested wave on wave until he couldn't do it anymore." He'd been with her ever since. The reason was clear enough. She was life, and when he was with her, the desolation was banished. He was, for the moment it seemed, secure. But then he began to wonder. Did he really love her, or did he just marry her to get out of the pit.
In the distance he could see Deb at the water's edge, bending over Paul. Maybe he'd hurt himself, or found a shell or something. He wondered why he married her. He married her to get out of his hole. At the time he thought he loved her. But that wasn't it. She'd brought him back to life and saved him from the pit. That's why he'd loved her.
Once married, the empire began to take shape. Jack made the decision to become a priest, but in reality, Deb was the driving force. "She always seemed to know what she wanted, the job, the house, the kids, everything." Little by little they made a life together, "like driving pylons into the pit and building a home above." That was the empire, a little one, but an empire. It gave them security, meaning, and comfort, and for the moment, they had escaped the darkness.
This empire required a justification, an ideology to justify its existence. Justifying ideologies mix lies with truth, and by this mixture, justifies actions that cannot face truth alone. At first, for Jack and Deb, there was no apparent need for justification. They simply came together out of mutual need and loneliness. They got converted to Jesus for much the same reason. Once converted, Jack built a career, and Deb, like many women, was occupied with house and children. Cracks, however, began to appear. As just mentioned, Jack began to wonder why they ever got together in the first place. Jack decided to test the matter. He mentioned to Deb that he was thinking of staying in Honduras. That action would determine whether they really loved each other, or, whether they simply wanted to prop up their lives by maintaining their security. Deb countered by pointing out that it would be bad for the children. There was a terrible fight and Deb won the argument, so to speak, and Jack, even though he didn't know exactly why, refused her logic. He decided to stay anyway, even without her. But the logic was very, very compelling, and many, many little empires are presumably maintained for the sake of the kids. Taking care of children is essential, but that isn't all there is to it. All sorts of people build empires to secure their own ends, and hide their true motives by claiming the children.
The little family empire, however, required more than having a life with Deb. That was only the beginning. After his conversion experience, Jack joined the church and became a priest. At last, he had a career offering him a chance to do some good in an organization with an ideology that gave meaning to life. He was an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Atlanta and his Atlanta bishop had his eye on him. The bishop liked him, thought he had promise, and decided to promote him. In fact, the bishop was setting him up for St. Pete's, one of the finest parishes in the diocese. Before taking that parish, however, the bishop thought a little international experience would be good for Jack. And why was that? Because he was grooming Jack to be a bishop, and bishops represent the universal church. Jack needed to be broadened.
The bishop, the diocese, and the ascending ladder of advancement forms a second empire, and it is very much like the first. One of its most prominent purposes, a primary purpose of its inhabitants, is to enhance life, keep death a bay, achieve security, and promote one's self-interest. There are always exceptions, and motives are often mixed, but by and large, security and self-interest are the primary engine that keeps the ecclesial wheels turning.
The true nature of this engine could be seen in the empire founded by Bishop Robles. In a sense, his diocese was a mirage. It was funded by money from the States, money dispensed among very poor people who often lacked the bare necessities. To maintain the mirage, the bishop had to spend a lot of time in the States raising money. He was proud of the fact that "he raised more money in the States than any other Latin American bishop." The campesinos participated in these programs because they needed food, clothing, shelter, and antibiotics. The Honduran priests participated because, like Jack, they needed to build a life with a family and gringo money made that possible. Like Jack, each of them "got married, became an Episcopal priest, had kids, did what others did."
This empire required an ideology as well, a justification that obscured its real foundation. As an example of this justification, consider the bishop's response to Jack and Julio's efforts to form a cooperative in Chasnigua to stave off the dislocation and attendant starvation that would occur if the village was razed to the ground. Julio wrote a letter to be distributed to churches in the States to raise money. In that letter he pointed out that, due to the economic system, the people in the States were living off of the hard labor of the Honduran campesino, and in return, North Americans returned virtually nothing. Jack needed the bishop's approval and showed the letter to him. The bishop was not happy. In his words, "We are not economists. We are Christians." He then went on to say,
We must learn these things. These are the hard things. We learn them the hard way. Yes, yes we do. We learn these things in Cuba when we have the revolution there. They said they want the justice but they had no love. Without the love we have nothing there, no justice, nothing. My family has nothing. There is nothing there, Jack."
The ideology that kept the bishop's empire going was love, "Christian" love. It was loving for the bishop to raise money in the States for the impoverished campesino. It was unloving to tell the North American donors that they were profiting from the hard labor of the campesino. Even if that were true, and it was debatable (always debatable, of course), it was unloving to accuse the North American donors of injustice. It was not only discourteous, it wouldn't work. The gringo would not give money if insulted as to his fairness. Rather than a relationship based on justice and truth fulfilled in love, the bishop exemplified a relationship of patron and mendicant. He was mendicant to the gringo and patron to the Hondurans. That was the real relationship, and it wasn't love, although it masqueraded as love. In the words of the bishop, "Without the love we have nothing there, no justice, nothing." It seemed so true. But of course, without justice there is no love.
Empires have gradations, the great and the small within the empire, and the members of an empire are often jockeying, fighting, and scheming to ascend to the top within the hierarchy. Once there, they are admired, and the grounds for this admiration are normally displayed for all to see. The bishop, for example, dressed casually, "blue jeans, deck shoes, and a white embroidered shirt, open at the neck," but he always wore his Episcopal ring, denoting his status. Father Jim dressed the part, the rector of a large parish, a faithful married man, a college graduate with expensive clothes. Once you saw him, you knew he was somebody.
The guy was big, six feet or more. He was wearing a pressed pair of cotton khaki slacks and an expensive Almy clergy shirt with a stiff collar encircling his neck. His class ring was on his right hand, and on his left, a large wedding band. He looked more like a corporate executive than a servant of the crucified. Next to him the students had looked like dirt in their shabby synthetic slacks and cheap shirts.
Everywhere one looks, there are symbols of empire, what people wear, how they adorn their homes, what they drive, who they associate with, where they take eat or take a vacation. These symbols of empire, when properly displayed, identify a person by the empire to which the belong, represented by such things as class, clan, nation, or religious affiliation.
The third major empire found in Face to Face is the empire centered in the United States of America. Evidence of the pervasive presence of the North American empire in Honduras is found throughout the text. For example, the bishop once sent Jack to pick up some tires shipped into Palmarola, the principle U.S. army base in Honduras. Jack had "been surprised by the size of the operation, buildings all over the place, planes, equipment, troops, enough for a good-sized war. They weren't taking any chances after Nicaragua." Or again, on his first trip to Chasnigua, Jack and Jose passed some orange groves. "Whose fields?" he'd asked. Jos? had replied, "They belong to a U.S. corporation, padre. They have fields all over Honduras." On the side of the mountain overlooking San Pedro, there was a huge Coca-Cola sign which, at night, blinked on and off in the darkness. Everywhere one looked, there were signs of the U.S. presence, economic, political, and military. That is empire, and at one point in the novel, the professor confronted Fr. Jim with the obvious fact that the U.S. had consistently exploited and dominated Latin America.
For over a century people from your country have come here to make money. All of them promised a better life through investment, but it never happened. What you did do was to invade our countries, one after another, to protect your investments. Never once has your country invaded for the sake of the oppressed.
Fr. Jim was not perturbed by the professor's "rantings." He had a ready answer. He assumed that the professor was promoting socialism. Here is an exchange between Fr. Jim and the professor, beginning with Fr. Jim.
"No one said capitalism is perfect. It's just that the alternatives are worse."
"What is the alternative?"
"Some kind of socialism I suppose, or Communism," he said, smiling like a man with all the cards.
"Is that the only alternative?"
"The only one I know of."
Fr. Jim made an assumption. He assumed the only alternatives were socialism or capitalism. It did not occur to him that there was another possibility, that the Lord Jesus also has a Kingdom and that entering his Kingdom might require a sacrifice on Fr. Jim's part. To avoid that possibility, Fr. Jim posited two and only two possibilities, either capitalism or socialism, and in his mind, capitalism was superior to socialism. It may well be true, although, in fact, the notion of pure capitalism is a myth. The capitalists are constantly and relentlessly using their immense wealth and resultant political power to bend political and economic conditions to their liking. Like good socialists, they exercise social control over the political and economic spheres. But that is not the point. Fr. Jim's argument for capitalism was not really a political argument although it appeared as one. His argument was an ideological argument, designed to hide from God, a God who might ask him to do something for the impoverished campesino, something more demanding than an occasional mission trip and a bit of funding. Fr. Jim was typical. Ideological arguments such as capitalism versus socialism enable individuals, businesses, and governments, to promote their own interests. By and large, that is why governments and individuals engage in the socialist versus capitalist debate, and that is exactly what Fr. Jim was doing. He was in Honduras to further his little empire. His church would look good, and he would look good, if his church had a overseas social program. What better outreach than to minister to the poverty-stricken Hondurans? His heart belonged to his empire, and not just his own, but that of the United States as well. When Miguel began to describe how the communists were taking over Nicaragua, Fr. Jim was entranced. It was "a gold mine he could not resist" because it justified the North American empire. The professor would have none of this. He knew it was a sham and it broke his heart. He also knew that there were other alternatives in addition to capitalism and socialism, that is, the Kingdom of the crucified Christ. Here are his words, addressed to Fr. Jim.
"No," replied the professor softly. "It is not a matter of degree. You are in no pain. I am in pain day and night. You are rich. I am poor. You live in the States. I live here. You believe in Capitalism. I believe in the crucified Christ. Some day he will ask for my life. He will never ask for yours. You do not see him, nor do you hear him."
The professor stopped, then went on. "You did not listen this morning," he said, his voice low, sorrowful. "You did not see the people of Chasnigua. We had an ideological discussion. You offered us your god. Your god is money. We don't need money. We need acts of love here. We are doomed here. We are starving here. Our souls are starving before God."
Suddenly he stopped. He stared at them. He looked upward, his face open, terrified. Suddenly he cried out, his voice roaring in anguish.
"Oh my God, my God," he cried, "how long will you abandon us? How long must we suffer this outrage, and your little ones perish before you?"
The students appeared stunned. Jack looked at Fr. Jim. He had a strange look on his face, shock, embarrassment, incomprehension. The professor turned toward Fr. Jim, his face contorted in sorrow.
"Yes," he whispered, "it never, never changes. They hide, they always hide behind their lies. But we're hiding from one thing and one thing only--there is no love without sacrifice. The result," he paused, his face stricken, his voice trembling with rage and grief, "is death."
Fr. Jim was hiding. He was pretending he could help the Hondurans without sacrifice, real sacrifice. His justification was the same ideology that concealed the true nature of the US empire in Honduras and throughout Latin America. To my mind, Capitalism and US military might in Honduras was better than the Russian Empire, and in this sinful world we often have to choose between greater and lesser evils in the political and economic spheres. But that is not the end of the story. There are other alternatives, the one chosen by the Professor who sought to rescue Sonia for the sake of the Kingdom. As will be described in the next essay, it is possible to choose the Kingdom of God as manifested in acts of love, and this is precisely what Fr. Jim did not want to face.
Fr. Jike belonged to two empires simultaneously, his church and his country, and he loved them both. These two, church and state, usually exist in mutual dependence. The church justifies the state, including its crimes, and in return, the state protects and promotes the church. This has been true throughout Latin America's history, and it is true in the United States. Fr. Jim was an example of this. He justified the North American empire, and like the false prophets of old, he enjoyed the perks this empire had lavished upon him from his youth. His expensive Almy clergy shirt, his class ring, his khaki slacks were symbols of this. As a patron of the empire, Fr. Jim belonged to an elite, an elite that also included the US military, academic, political and economic elite. He was not at the top of the elite, but he did benefit. The elite form a network of social and economic relationships of interlocking empires justified by networks of religious, political, and economic ideologies. The result of this is always death, and this death is all around us. There is the death of the unborn, the death of the young, the death of marriages, the death of hopes and dreams, the death of millions in wars great and small, and then, in the end, the reality of final death.
The devil also has an empire. According to Scripture, he is the "prince of this world" (John12:31, 14:30, 16:11). He is the power that dominates and controls empires great and small. He extends his empire by offering empire to those who follow him. This is clearly seen in the temptations of Jesus. The devil offered Jesus food and the kingdoms of this world. He offers food, housing, clothing, security, prestige, satisfaction of all kinds, and power. He even offers the security of God's providential care for those who seek empire, as if God would send his angels to catch us up lest we dash our foot against against a stone (Mt. 4:6). From the time Jack McFarland was a child, he accepted the offer. When he grew up, he "got married, became an Episcopal priest, had kids, did what others did." By this process, he entered into a hidden pact with the devil. He acquired an empire. It may have been a small empire, but it made sure he was properly fed, clothed, and housed, and it gave him the satisfaction of a profitable return on his efforts.
Just as the devil creates private empires, he also creates corporate empires. For example, the history of the United States can be seen as the formation of empire, beginning with a revolution against the British empire. Once that revolution was successful, the empire expanded rapidly, furthered by bloody conquest, annexation, purchase, and the formation of an economic system that exploited the world's resources while creating vast concentrations of wealth. That is what the United States was doing in Honduras, maintaining empire. This fact about the American Empire is often hidden from the members of the empire. Many of them believe that America's blessings are the result of her Christian faith, or her being favored by God. There is some truth in this, honest, hard-working people who work together are often blessed. But it is also an ideology, obscuring the fact that the empire, then as now, was founded by force with the objective of securing and exploiting territory and using others in the process. For example, the African slaves and the America Indians presented no real threat to the people who enslaved them or conquered their territories. The Mexicans didn't really pose a threat, but major portions of their territory were annexed after a brief war. Including Texas, they lost over two-thirds of their empire. The native Hawaiians posed no threat to the United States, yet their territory was conquered and absorbed. Other recent examples of imperial actions could be cited, such as actions against the Vietnamese or the Nicaraguans, or the Dominicans, or the recent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan to secure mid-East and Central Asian oil. These recent examples are so muddied by ideological justifications and real or imagined dangers that most people cannot discern the marks of empire. The history, the initial rebellion, the killing of the Indians, the enslavement of Africans, the defeat of the Mexicans and the Hawaiians, however, characterize the North American empire in its beginning, and it is certain, that once born, the wolf will always be hungry. As was said of David, after he killed Uriah the Hittite, "the sword will never depart from your house" (II Samuel 12:10).
The decisive revelation of the true nature of empire, whether North American or any other, was the crucifixion of Jesus, seen biblically as the devil's work, as well as the work of the Romans, the Jewish elite, and the mob. Inflamed by the Jewish authorities, the mob cornered Pilate with the words, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar" (John 19:12). At that point, Pilate had him crucified because he knew his life and the life of the empire depended upon ruthlessly eliminating all real or imaged kings. That is empire, and that is why the US and other countries go to war, to protect their "national interest."
Within Face to Face, there are moments where the devil's empire becomes palpably visible. At one point, Sa?l Lanza picked up a paper and, on the front page, saw a picture of Gorbachev with Reagan. He had been so steeped in anti-communist ideology that the appearance of Regan and Gorbachev together could only mean one thing, the United States was now in league with the devil. The fact that Gorbachev had a mark on his head was the conclusive bit of evidence, fulfilling the prophecy of the book of Revelation. Gorbachev had been wounded and then healed by Satan himself. In an instant, Sa?l knew the end was near.
"There's the mark. That's where the devil healed him. The paper says they are planning world peace, but that is a lie. The devil, he's always a liar."
The people looked at the picture, spellbound, horrified. A chill passed over Jack's body. He was thinking of Sonia, that raw capital would rule the world. It was crazy, but he couldn't shake the feeling that it was real, all of it.
Sa?l laughed, he giggled. He knew the devil's tricks. It was in the Bible, every bit of it. Suddenly, he changed, his voice terrible, dreadful.
"Now the devil rules the world. He has sent the beast and the beast has deceived the President of the United States. Now he will come and mark your forehead and your hand with the mark of the beast. If you receive the mark, you will belong to the devil. The Word of God is sure."
One might wonder if an obscure, uneducated campesino living in the hills of Honduras would really have anything definitive to share on the devil and current empires. In terms of truth, however, Sa?l had a distinct advantage over those who profit from empire and thereby exonerate them. No one owned him. He received virtually no benefit from either the Soviet or the North American empire. He was at the very bottom of a vast hierarchy of vested interests. All his life he had seen his people exploited by the patron, and he knew the patron was exploited by those above him. He, like many people, instinctively feared the Soviet Empire communist ideology, and it was this fear that blinded him to the ultimate reality of the North American empire. He thought he was living in the lesser of two evils. In many respects, he was. Most sensible people would chose the North American empire over the Soviet one. Once he saw Gorbachev and Reagan together, he knew at once that the two evils were one, that the exploitation, the forced removals, the constant injustices, the grinding toil, and the relentless poverty of life in the North American empire was the work of the devil. And he was right. He saw the true nature of the North American system because he was situated where it could be seen, at the bottom, where the system grinds the poor into the ground.
He wasn't alone in these perceptions. Sonia understood the system and so did the professor. She hated it and she fought against it. But her war was a war of desperation. At bottom, she had absolutely no hope, none at all. Her Marxist beliefs were a palliative, hiding a tortured soul desperate to find a way of escape. In the end, it came down to God. God, all along, God was behind it all, and her crisis, the death of her brother and the endless suffering of her people, was a crisis of faith. She was convinced that God was against her, or to put it another way, that the devil, in truth, ruled the world.
"Yes," she cried, "but God hates me. I know it. He hates the poor and weak. He only rewards the strong. I see it every day. Everyday he walks the streets of San Pedro. He is happy now. Raw capital will rule the world. But where is your God, Jack, where is he?"
"My God is the God of love," Jack exclaimed, "he's only known by the pure in heart. That's why I've never seen him."
"And Chasnigua? Humberto will level it if I leave him. He told me so. He plays with me, Jack, plays with me."
"Never again, Sonia," he cried. "Never again." The words boiled out like fire. "Let God destroy the world if he wants. But never, never, prostitute yourself again, never."
"Okay, Jack," she cried, "I will do it." Suddenly she was gone, turning and walking away.
This gets down to the fundamental issue: does God or the devil, in the end, rule the world. Or to put it another way, which empire is the strongest, the Kingdom of God created by Christ upon the cross by resurrection, or the empire of the devil? Scripture is clear on this. The Kingdom of Christ is stronger for Christ conquered the devil, but even so, the devil rules the world until Christ comes again. Nevertheless, his power is limited by the authority of Christ, for as Jesus states in Matthew 28:18, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Or Paul will say that the devil may tempt us, but "God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (1Co 10:13). Whatever happens, we belong to God, to the risen Lord Jesus, and as the ending of Face to Face makes clear, he will conquer in the end.
The next essay will describe the "empire" that belongs to God. It is called the Kingdom of God. Suffice it to say, the way forward can already be seen. It entails following Christ, and as the professor once said, "We must be willing to give up false loves."
The Rev. Robert J. Sanders, Ph.D.
