[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Churches v Empire

[Patrick Bond]

An Ecumenical Faith Stance Against Global Empire
For A Liberated Earth Community

Manila, the Philippines, July 13-15, 2006

It is widely and commonly recognized that the global empire is a reality 
of the 21st century that must be reckoned with. There is ongoing debate 
- political, academic and theological - on the nature of this global 
reality and on how to respond to it.

Particularly, faith communities are seeking to discern the signs of the 
times in the context of the global reality in order to take faith 
stances and actions. A number of theological and interfaith discussions, 
as well as academic and political discussions, have taken up this problem.

The 24th General Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches 
(2004), in both its Accra Confession and its Mission report, called for 
a faith stance and action with regard to the global empire. The 9th 
General Assembly of the World Council of Churches (2006) made 
significant reference to the reality of the global empire in its 
deliberations.

In this context there is an acute need to articulate a theological 
stance, which will enhance the ecumenical movement among the faith 
communities as well as meet the challenges of the global empire. In 
ecumenical circles, there is increasing interest in the deepening of 
theological and political discussions on the issue, along with 
cross-fertilizing among the regional and ecumenical discussions. This is 
based on the understanding that the issue of the global empire is not 
only a core theological issue but also a major political question.

In order to support the faith communities in their stance and action, 
the movement needs to catalyze and facilitate an ecumenical process of 
global theological reflection, discussion and debate on the global 
empire among concerned theologians and religious people.

For this reason and as one of the follow-up actions for living out the 
Accra Confession, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches organized a 
consultation on “Theological Analysis and Action on Global Empire Today” 
from 13 to 15 July 2006 in Manila, the Philippines. Seventeen 
theologians from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America participated, 
and two invited theologians from Latin America who could not participate 
physically, sent a valuable paper for the consultation.

The following statement is a result of the theological analysis and 
reflection that took place at the consultation. It is shared with the 
hope that this initiative will undergird and support the ecumenical 
movement throughout the world, advancing discussions among global 
ecumenical organizations as well as regional and local ecumenical movements.

I. Signs of the Times: Empire on the Rise

The most outstanding sign of our times is the suffering and cries of 
human persons and other living beings throughout the world, as their 
victimization proceeds in a systematic and unprecedented manner under 
the global US empire/market regime. At the beginning of the 21st 
century, all living beings in the cosmos are threatened with death and 
destruction. Their groaning echoes throughout the universe and is joined 
by the Spirit’s groaning. As expressed in Romans 8:18-39, the powers and 
principalities of this world - with a comprehensive destructiveness in 
the form of the global empire – are causing creation to groan, in 
bondage, waiting for its liberation.

The brutal atrocities committed in the course of the wars in Afghanistan 
and Iraq have revealed the true nature of the global empire, which has 
taken arbitrary, unilateral military actions against the people of these 
countries. The global empire’s obvious purpose is to expand its 
territorial borders in pursuit of regional hegemony and its control of 
oil as an economic resource, consolidating the interests of the 
neoliberal global market. These wars are also a new form of religious 
crusade, justified through religious language and theological claims.

In the Philippines, where this theological consultation is being held, 
we have heard numerous personal reports about the country’s return to 
murders, abductions, disappearances and incarcerations of political 
dissenters, among them priests and pastors who lived out their faith and 
prophetic ministry. This resurgence of terror mirrors the Martial Law 
years and is currently compounded by the illegitimacy of the current 
government and its unabashed subservience to the dictates of the US 
empire. Those who dare to defy the empire that has enslaved and 
impoverished their people are being viciously suppressed. They form part 
of a worldwide resistance against the neoliberal ideology and imperial 
domination of the United States, which has officially termed the 
Philippines its second front in the war on terror and made it the 
linchpin of its geopolitical project in the Asia-Pacific region. The 
Philippines was the very first overseas colony of the US empire, handed 
over by the fading Spanish empire to the rising US Empire amidst one of 
the bloodiest anti-colonial liberation struggles in history. This 
longest-running liberation movement in Asia continues its struggle, 
unique in its affinity with a mass-based Christian movement that is 
inspired by liberation theology.

Against Cuba, the decades-old US economic embargo has been reinforced in 
an attempt to stop all relationships with that country, including 
contacts with and support for Cuba’s Christian churches and the Cuban 
Council of Churches. Enormous economic, social, political, military and 
ideological pressure continues to be exerted in order to destroy the 
viability of a society that refuses to comply with the dictates of empire.

North Korea’s economy, already weakened by the ravages of neoliberal 
globalization, has been pushed to the brink by the US trade embargo and 
economic sanctions. As a result millions suffer from hunger and 
malnutrition, leading to a scandalously high incidence of child 
mortality and a massive flood of economic refugees.

Refusing to hold bilateral talks or to normalize relations with North 
Korea, the US has demonized the country, naming it part of the “axis of 
evil” in hopes of forcing a regime change. This has only provoked North 
Korea to go nuclear, in turn heightening tensions and fuelling the arms 
race in North East Asia.

Under its “defense transformation programme”, the US is now turning 
North East Asia into a major platform for its regional and global 
imperial military operations. The US-Japan alliance has been redefined 
to organize the Japanese self-defence forces under the effective command 
and control of the United States, accelerating Japan’s remilitarization. 
In this process, the domestic political forces that wish to glorify 
Japan’s imperial past are gaining ground, putting the country on a 
collision course with its Asian neighbours who have suffered Japanese 
colonization and aggression. The US bases in Korea are being 
consolidated for “strategic flexibility” to allow pre-emptive attack on 
North Korea and military operations anywhere in the “arc of instability”.

A new militarization is also in process in the European Union (EU). 
European “battle groups” are being developed in order to interfere 
everywhere in the world to secure economic interests, particularly the 
access to natural resources and strategic raw materials, as well as to 
protect “free trade”. This was concretely written into the treaty on a 
new European Constitution. Although the French and Dutch people defeated 
this neoliberal, militaristic constitution, governments are busy trying 
to revive it, as a legal foundation for the building of a sub-empire.

The US is developing new systems of weapons of mass destruction and 
generating high-tech and nuclear weapons. This operation along with 
strategies for cyber warfare and the unrestrained use of nuclear 
weapons, including a nuclear first strike, is seriously eroding and 
imperilling the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime and disregarding the 
fundamental prohibition against nuclear first strikes.

The “war on terror” has led to a series of draconian laws and legally 
sanctioned repressive measures within the United States and in many 
other countries that effectively condone torture, arbitrary detention 
and deprivation of liberty, summary deportations, extraordinary 
rendition and violations of a wide range of other political and civil 
rights. This has effectively undermined both practice and principles of 
the human rights regime and the rule of law. One visible impact of 
empire has been the inviolability of human rights.

The very nature of the imperial project requires access to the world’s 
natural resources of oil, natural gas, minerals, water and forest 
resources. Empire is based on the appropriation of riches from the 
dominated countries for the benefit of the power centre. The empire is 
reaching out to establish unilateral control over natural resources 
around the world, even if this means going to war or destabilising 
legitimately elected governments. Instruments such as the World Bank and 
other international financial mechanisms are being used to “liberalize” 
resource-extraction policies for the absolute benefit of the large 
transnational corporations serving the empire, with minimal benefits to 
the resource-endowed nations.

In countries, such as Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 
Ghana, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines and 
the Sudan, resource extraction is undermining development. Poverty is 
intensified as a result of the privatization policies, which siphon 
profits out of these countries. Human rights are violated as people are 
forcibly removed from their land; working conditions are poor; 
environmental degradation and pollution are aggravated by a lack of 
control or corporate accountability, and many of these situations are 
giving rise to local armed conflicts.

There is a rise in religious fundamentalism within Christianity, Islam, 
Hinduism and other religions. The empire uses religions to justify and 
provide the ideology of war. This religious dimension has led to an 
intensification of violent conflicts fuelled by theological 
justifications and invoking divine purpose.

Western Christianity has been closely related to empire since the Roman 
days and has thus spread throughout the world. It is now being used to 
provide ideological legitimization for today’s empire. Globalized 
Christendom and the “crusades” it embarks upon today are symbiotically 
intertwined with global capital and the power of the global empire. In 
its triumphalistic pursuits, it discounts if not condemns all other 
religious faiths and cultures. The indigenous religions of many 
communities are destroyed and Islam is vilified.

The convergence of Christian religion with Western modernity has 
destroyed the religious and cultural life of peoples and their 
communities throughout the world. The powers and principalities of the 
global market and empire are being baptised by these theological 
distortions of “Christianity”, which promote religious conflicts and 
bigotry globally.

The Christian religion of empire treats others as “gentiles” to be 
conquered, as the “evil empire” to be destroyed or as the “axis of evil” 
to be eradicated from the earth. The empire claims that the “goodness” 
of the empire must overcome these “evils”. Its false messianic spirit is 
imbued with the demonic.

These false claims destroy the integrity of faith(s), and radically 
erode the identity of Christian faith in Jesus Christ. As the spirit of 
empire penetrates souls, the power of global empire possesses the bodies 
of all living beings. Lord of its domain, it builds temples for the 
global market to serve Mammon.

In the name of peace and security, the global empire is exercising 
“omnipotent” power through its military weapons systems of mass 
destruction and its intensive, totalistic warfare. Already, wars such as 
the Crusades, the conquest of the Americas, and the colonial wars 
against the racial and ethnic peoples in Asia and Africa have caused 
massive victimization of peoples. This historical process of systematic, 
massive conquest and destruction of people and the earth has extended 
into modern times. World Wars I and II, the US atomic bombing of the 
Korean and Japanese peoples, the US Cold Wars against the Korean and 
Vietnamese people, and the Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq wars against 
those people and their communities have evolved into total wars of 
omnicide. Current developments by the empire in global militarization 
threaten the total destruction of earth as a living abode. The nature of 
war has been radically transformed into limitless war in time and space 
under the geo-politics of global empire. But the omnipotent power of 
empire can never obtain “total security”. Its absolute power through 
modern military technocracy – omnicidal weapons systems and the claim of 
omnipotent power – constitutes a tyranny over all living beings.

The ravages of the neoliberal market economy, driven by the insatiable 
quest for profits, have led to massive ecological destruction, climate 
change, and the daily extinction of animal, plant and fish species, 
diminishing the earth’s life-giving bio-diversity. The contamination and 
exhaustion of sources of potable water, the pollution of the oceans and 
the destruction of rain forests threaten our habitat and the life of 
Mother Earth.

Patriarchy and empire are inextricability interwoven. Today we see, in 
addition to the complex oppression of women through the ideology and 
practise of imperial patriarchy, the vicious use of rape and violence 
against women as a military tactic of domination in the wars in Kosovo, 
Afghanistan and Iraq, among others. Such brutal military aggression 
against women and girls is one of the signs of a deep and pervasive 
system of domination that extends to all dimensions of human life.

The gender ideology of patriarchy is pivotal in all domination 
hierarchies in human society and in the communities of all living 
beings. These hierarchies are driven by, express and reinforce the 
gender ideology, as well as the racist ideology of global white power 
and the class ideology of transnational corporate elite. Manifested in 
all spheres of life, these ideologies converge and become especially 
visible in the global market and the geopolitics of the global empire.

II. Hope Arising in the Midst of Empire

The people of Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay and Bolivia, as well as 
Argentina and Chile, have chosen governments and opted for economic 
policies in resistance to the US empire. New forms of Latin American 
solidarity are emerging as people rise up to take control of their own 
resources, affirm their identity and pursue policies of economic 
justice, explicitly rejecting the dictates of the global neoliberal 
market economy and US cultural hegemony.

The people of Afghanistan and Iraq, amid rampant violence and the 
intense suffering of innocent citizens are resisting the occupation and 
imperial domination of their land. The Palestinian people continue their 
decades-long resistance against Israeli occupation, unmasking the link 
between the US imperial project of geopolitical control over the 
oil-rich Middle East and the Israeli expansionist project and exclusion 
of the Palestinians.

In Nepal the people’s movement successfully dismantled the empire-backed 
monarchical despot and reclaimed the right to chart their own political 
future. In South Korea there is growing, organized resistance by the 
people against the US bases and the “flexibility” doctrine, and renewed, 
intensified calls for the investigation of US wartime atrocities. In 
Okinawa, the people’s sustained non-violent struggle against US bases 
succeeded in 2005 in forcing the US and the Japanese Government to 
abandon the offshore base.

Around the globe we see a resurgent peace movement and new and growing 
civil society actions for peace and justice. There is an inspiring rise 
in peoples’ resistance everywhere including within the US. The hegemony 
of fear has not quashed the spirit of freedom of the people, who in 
various parts of the world are gaining strength from each other’s 
stories and examples.

If the rise of the global empire is the defining sign of our times, it 
is counter-posed by people’s visions of a civilization of convivial life 
of all living beings. These visions are rooted in people’s experiences 
of suffering and struggle, which contain revitalized wisdom from their 
philosophical, cultural and religious traditions of past and present. 
Buddhist wisdom to overcome greed, Hindu dharma of the cosmos, Confucian 
wisdom of Li/Ki, Taoist wisdom of the Way (Tao), Islamic wisdom of 
justice, and many African, Asian, Native American and Pacific original 
peoples’ cultural and religious wisdom provide reservoirs for the 
foundation of visions of a new civilization.

Such visions will be antithetical to the global empire, to Western 
modernity and to global Christendom. They will open ways to a 
civilizational and cultural “evolution” or “mutation”, in which perhaps 
the vision of Jesus against Pax Romana may be fused and integrated. Such 
movements are signs of hope, rising among the communities of people in 
solidarity with all living beings.

This convergence of visions of life in the midst of suffering and 
struggle by all living beings against the global empire, is a definite 
alternative to the technocratic convergence of science and technology 
backed by the power and greed of the global regime of empire/market.

Empire is now firmly on the ecumenical agenda as a major concern leading 
to discussion, reflection and in some cases action. The ecumenical 
engagement is deepening and widening with increased theological, 
prophetic and spiritual discernment. Specifically, the World Alliance of 
Reformed Churches, the Council for World Mission, the World Student 
Christian Movement, the United Church of Canada, and the World Council 
of Churches have all committed themselves to address the problem of 
empire from various perspectives. The Lutheran World Federation and 
other worldwide organisations have also entered into processes of 
engagement with global economic injustice and hegemony.

Reflecting this widespread concern, ecumenical consultations on empire 
have been held in Africa, Asia, Latin America and also in the USA.

III. Global Empire: Critical Analysis and Reflection

The use of the word “empire” in relation to US power was once 
controversial, more or less restricted to left-wing critiques of US 
hegemony. But now in the mainstream media and political discourse the 
concept of “empire” and “Pax Americana” are mentioned frequently and 
prominently.

Discourse on the Global Empire
Essentially, the use of the term “American empire” or “US empire” is an 
attempt to express the concept that the United States is no longer 
merely an exceptional super, hyper or hegemonic power. The shift in 
terminology from dominance to hegemony to “empire” is significant, above 
all because it highlights the classic concept of direct political 
control by an imperial centre. It is a question of indefinite dominance.

The US is by circumstance and design an emergent global empire, the 
first in the history of the world. In the last decade, the US has 
consolidated its Cold War-era, far-flung military base system into a new 
global imperial system. Driven by a triumphalistic ideology, an 
exaggerated sense of threat and a self-serving military role, this 
juggernaut is tightening its grip on much of the world. Imperial 
domination expands by co-opting and pressurising national, regional and 
international government structures around the world as well as 
interacting with the owners and managers of transnational corporations 
and mass media.

The Project of Global Empire
Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 there have been 
strong claims based on a new US-dominated power structure, including 
celebrations of a so-called “unipolar moment” and assertions that the US 
is “the indispensable nation”.

The report of the Project for the New American Century, entitled 
Rebuilding America’s Defences: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New 
Century, published in September 2000, says:
“The U.S. is the world’s only superpower, combining pre-eminent military 
power, global technological leadership and the world’s largest economy… 
America’s grand strategy should aim to preserve and extend this 
advantageous position as far into the future as possible”.

The Military Doctrines of the Empire
It is officially claimed that the United States has no rival and is 
militarily dominant around the world. Its goal is not combating rivals 
but maintaining its imperial position and maintaining imperial order. 
Planning for imperial wars is different from planning for conventional 
wars. The maximum amount of force can and should be used as quickly as 
possible for psychological impact, to demonstrate that the empire cannot 
be challenged with impunity. Imperial wars end but imperial garrisons 
must be left in place for decades to ensure order and stability. 
Finally, the imperial strategy focuses on preventing the emergence of 
powerful hostile challengers to the empire, by war if necessary, but by 
imperial assimilation if possible.

The official policy of the USA is called the “transformation of the 
military establishment”. When pressed on the meaning of 
“transformation”, Pentagon officials speak of replacing the 
“threat-based strategy” that long governed US military planning, with 
what they describe as a “capabilities-based approach”. This means that 
the defence department will no longer organize its forces to counter 
specific military threats posed by clearly identifiable enemies, but 
will acquire the capability to defeat any conceivable type of attack 
mounted by any imaginable adversary at any time - from now to the 
distant future. Put differently, it is a mandate for the pursuit of 
permanent military superiority.

The war aims of the USA have been radically changed, according to 
official documents. Wars are fought by the USA not just to defeat the 
enemy but for “regime change” and “occupation” – thus expanding the empire.

The classified Nuclear Posture Review of the US (details of which 
appeared in the media in March 2002, revealing the Pentagon’s ambitious 
nuclear battle plans), redefines the role of nuclear weapons as 
fundamental to US defence policy. It places new emphasis on the utility 
of nuclear weapons in US military doctrine and strategy, and changes the 
very notion of deterrence. “First use” and “first strike” are writ large 
on the nuclear agenda of the US. The readiness of the US to use nuclear 
weapons “in the event of surprising military developments” is ominous in 
the context of the War on Terror with its changing and expanding aims 
and targets.

The constant threat of war, now turned into a veritable state of 
permanent war, the hype about security and the promise of lasting peace 
are often constructed and maintained by the empire for its own survival. 
The defence budget of many countries is controlled or influenced, if not 
dictated, by the empire. The empire claims the right to intervene in any 
country at any time, with no particular enemy in mind. Unconditional 
access to space and to the use of military bases, technologies and 
facilities that the empire has in different countries across the world, 
especially in Korea, Japan and the Philippines, show the extent of its 
military hegemonic power. According to reliable sources of information, 
the Pentagon has military connections or alliances with 130 countries 
around the world and 800 to 1,000 (perhaps more) military bases and 
installations worldwide.

The Ideology of the Empire
The most conspicuous and salient feature of the empire’s approach to 
international affairs is its universalistic and monopolistic claims.

The empire uses “democracy” as an umbrella term for the kind of 
political regime that it would like to see installed all over the world. 
Bringing democracy to countries that do not yet have it is claimed as 
the defining purpose of US foreign policy. For the US, democracies 
abroad are regimes that support or follow its dictates.

According to the National Security Strategy of the USA 200, the United 
States, “sustained by faith in the principle of liberty and the value of 
a free society”, also has “unparalleled responsibilities, obligations 
and opportunities” beyond its borders. It calls for possessing such 
overwhelming military power as to discourage any other power from 
challenging US hegemony or developing weapons of mass destruction. It 
overturns the old doctrine of deterrence and containment. Committing the 
US to a much-expanded understanding of security, it argues that the US 
must reserve the right to act pre-emptively and unilaterally against 
potentially threatening states or organizations. The US claims that it 
uses its power for good and has a selfless purpose. The Strategy also 
reflects the belief that global security and liberal order are based on 
the US – that “indispensable nation” – wielding power as the global empire.

The cultural hegemony of empire, what some call US “soft power” is a 
slow yet sure way of making people accept the role, function and reality 
of the empire as indispensable, normative and ideal. The minds of the 
subjects (most nations, peoples, individuals, institutions, governments) 
of the empire are made to believe and confess that there is no 
alternative (TINA) to the empire. Homogenization of cultures, 
traditions, values, lifestyles and the spread of triumphalistic 
Christianity can be identified as ways of extending the empire in all 
directions in global society. The emergence of religious fundamentalism 
can also be seen as linked to the empire. Technology and the media also 
are turned to its own advantage to perpetuate the values of the global 
empire.

Economics of the Empire
The empire has two faces: global militarization and neoliberal 
capitalist globalization. These are interrelated, as economic domination 
and military rule are inextricably joined. The military forces of the 
empire act as the “global cop” to maintain the order and security of the 
global market.

The US has declared in the National Security Strategy of the U.S.A. (NSS 
2002) that it will “use this moment of opportunity”, that is, the war on 
terrorism to bring democracy, development, the free market and free 
trade to every corner of the globe. The economic agenda that will follow 
the flag in the quest of what is called “a better world” is clearly 
spelt out. It is claimed that the concept of “free trade” arose as a 
moral principle even before it became a pillar of economics. It is 
further claimed that “the twenty-first century will be an era of great 
promise. Globalization – the process of accelerating economic, 
technological, cultural and political integration – is bringing citizens 
from all continents together. A growing number of nations around the 
world have embraced American core values of democratic governance, free 
market economics and respect for fundamental human rights”.

The implication is clear. There is an integral relationship between 
American-style free market economics and American security in the world. 
Globalization and imperial security go together. Global capitalism and 
enforced militarily (if necessary) are integral to empire building. 
Having achieved a “pre-eminence not enjoyed by even the greatest empires 
of the past”, the US is focused on using its power globally, through 
both military and market intervention. America’s War on Terror or “war 
for freedom” is at one with the expansionary goals of the market - open 
invasion in some places, open markets everywhere.

Global Sovereignty of the Empire
The “National Defense Strategy 2005” states that the most important 
strategic objectives of national security are to defend the US from 
direct attack and then to secure strategic access and retain “global 
freedom of action”.

There is virtual rejection of international law and multilateral 
institutions and mechanisms. The Defense Strategy document states, “Our 
strength as a nation state will continue to be challenged by those who 
employ a strategy of the weak using international forums, judicial 
processes and terrorism”. Here international forums, judicial processes 
and terrorism are equated. Proponents of international law are equated 
with terrorists.

It is officially claimed that Washington would not be reluctant to send 
its forces into other states that, in its opinion, “do not exercise 
their sovereignty responsibly” or “use the principle of sovereignty as a 
shield behind which they claim to be free to engage in activities that 
pose enormous threats to their citizens, or the rest of the 
international community.

The strategy of preventive war (pre-emption) is closely bound up with 
the new vitality of the “hegemonic international law nihilism” that is 
exhibited by the present US administration. It is rooted in the idea 
that only the USA will be entitled to global sovereignty in the future 
world order. This notion of global sovereignty means that the USA will 
lay down international rules (for example, through the formation of 
alliances or blocs), determine what constitutes a crisis (a state of 
emergency), distinguish between friend and foe and make the resulting 
decision on the use of force. Only the USA is competent to use force 
anywhere in the world. This is one of the pillars of the new grand 
strategy, which is exemplified above all else by the concept of an 
exclusive right to preventive military intervention all over the world. 
Commitments to international alliances, and in particular to the United 
Nations, are rejected as constituting a restriction of the freedom of 
the US to act. By military might the global empire wants to assert 
global sovereignty and maintain global freedom of action.

IV. Theology in the Face of Empire

We offer here, first, a distinctive theological approach to empire, and 
second, certain key theological affirmations and rejections that need to 
be lifted up in this time of global empire.

Theological Approach
Our theological approach begins with the Galilean Jesus, who lived at 
the historic crossroads of empires and cultures. He bore witness to a 
gospel of life as the critique of all forms of domination at work in 
empire, and set into history a power for building new communities in the 
face of empires. The main lines of a theology of the Galilean Jesus can 
be set forth below in five sections: treating (a) The Witness of the 
Hebrew Scriptures against Empire, (b) The New Testament Witness to the 
Galilean Jesus, (c) The Crucifixion of Jesus, (d) The Resurrection, and 
(e) A New Heaven and New Earth.

a) The Witness of the Hebrew Scriptures against Empire - The prophet 
Isaiah stands in a long line of stubborn resistance to imperial 
domination, calling all nations into the “shalom” that renews all 
humanity and creation. This long line of resistance includes remembrance 
of liberation from the Egyptian empire, rejection of human kingship, 
prophetic critique of militarization and empire, and the Sabbath/Jubilee 
pronouncements rejecting economic slavery.

b) The New Testament Witness to the Galilean Jesus - The Jesus of 
Galilee lived out a gospel of the “reign of God” amid and against the 
Pax Romana, the imperial domination of his day. Against imperial 
domination he brought new life, healing souls and bodies wounded by 
empire, proclaiming and building peace on earth, anticipating the 
restoration of all creation. To follow Jesus means many things but it 
surely means nothing less than resisting empire and creating new 
communities of life amidst it.

c) The Crucifixion of Jesus - Jesus’ life and ministry under Pax Romana 
led to his crucifixion. Jesus’ suffering bears witness to how often 
imperial execution (along with harassment, abusive ridicule, and 
torture) is imposed upon those who resist the politics and culture of 
empire. The empire’s decision to kill Jesus reveals that the struggle 
against empire is a life-and-death matter, that Jesus’ gospel of life is 
in fundamental conflict with the death-dealing ways of empire.

d) The Resurrection - Empire did not have the final word. Jesus’ 
embodiment of life, love and justice under empire, and his resurrection 
by God overcoming the power of empire’s death-dealing ways, empowered 
new communities of life. This “body of Christ” as a community of the 
Spirit is risen and present among us through the collective body of 
movements and communities – surviving, resisting and flourishing amid 
domination.

e) A New Heaven and New Earth - Reading the book of the Revelation of 
John, through the eyes of the sufferers of empire, we understand the 
“fall of Babylon” as judgement on all empires of history and as the 
promise of the New Heaven/New Earth. Empowered by the power of the 
resurrected Christ in history, we labour for life in inter-religious 
solidarity:
- with struggles against empire rising from diverse faith communities 
world-wide,
- with movements rising to break the bonds of class, caste and other 
social structures of exploitation,
- with coalitions rising within the US and worldwide to end the 
domination of the US empire – its wars and destruction of world peace,
- with visions of indigenous peoples rising to restore respect for the 
earth,
- with persons rising to break down the patriarchal powers of empire in 
order to form a gender-just community of women and men,
- with the people rising to resist racism against communities of colour 
in every continent,
- with the new consciousness rising to free peoples everywhere from 
ensnaring consumerism,
- with the work and dreaming rising from peoples everywhere who 
experiment with new economies and new politics to challenge the ever-new 
faces and manifestations of global empire.

Theological Affirmations and Rejections
In the face of the present crisis created by US global empire today, we 
reach for new understandings of the gospel message. In the spirit of the 
Galilean Jesus who took on Pax Romana, we find it necessary to lift our 
voice against some prominent features of the current Pax Americana:

1. Concerning Absolute Power
The US global empire today, with a spirit of divine pretension, lays 
claim to absolute power. In so doing it becomes a force that contravenes 
the gospel of life revealed in the Galilean Jesus.

We reject US claims to unlimited sovereignty, as seen in its National 
Security Strategy, its violation of international law with impunity and 
its unbridled unilateralism.

2. Concerning Imposed Messianic Agendas
The US global empire, with its messianic spirit, its sense of a sacred 
destiny (“manifest destiny”) to save and liberate the world from evil, 
usurps the saving role of God in the resurrected Christ. The power of 
the resurrected Christ is not given through any one nation’s drive to 
power over others; it is given, instead, through a confluence of visions 
and new communities born from many peoples and nations working together 
toward justice, peace, democracy, dignity and the integrity of all 
creation.

We reject therefore the theocratic and “Christocratic” aims of many 
leaders in Washington, DC and throughout the US, who seek to build 
political dominion in the name of Christ and who support or tolerate Pax 
Americana’s imposition of a new Christendom globally.

3. Concerning Imperial Justifications of War
The US global empire claims a right to kill and destroy, assuming that 
Pax Americana is the final arbitrator of justness and goodness. There is 
a god-like pretension in the empire’s posing as righteous dispenser of 
freedom for all other peoples. We covenant to continue the urgent task 
of theologically exploring the themes of war and peace, of church and 
state in the context of empire.

We reject the empire’s use of theological and biblical language to 
justify its wars and other exploitative and oppressive designs. We 
reject the kind of apocalyptic messianism among Christians that misuses 
the Book of Revelation and the book of Daniel to justify its imperial 
violence and destruction of “others”.

The new visions for ecumenical strategies and practices, which are 
offered in the next section, select key themes and dimensions of this 
theology to give more concrete guidance to the witness of the church 
amid global empire today.

V. A New Ecumenical Vision: The Peace of Jesus

We affirm another world is possible! This enables us to search for a 
collective vision of a community of life in justice and peace. The peace 
of Jesus is not the peace of empire. A new ecumenical vision for a 
community of life in justice and peace is being born in our day.

New Visions for Peace
In making our contribution to new visions of community of life in 
justice and peace we recognize that it is grounded in the struggles of 
the people who are resisting neoliberal globalization and the empire in 
multi-dimensional, multi-cultural, multi-faith, interdependent and 
interdisciplinary ways.

Through peace movements around the world, various visions of a peaceful 
world are taking shape. The beginning of the 21st century saw the 
emergence of an international civil society consciousness, informed by 
disillusionment with the current neoliberal economic globalization and 
empire, and searching for an alternative community of life in justice 
and peace.

Social movements are important sources for new visions. The World Social 
Forum (WSF) has become the symbol of this rising international civil 
society consciousness that seeks to create space for all individuals and 
organizations seeking and working for justice and peace for life. A new 
vision of community of life in justice and peace is already growing on a 
worldwide scale, with initiatives for a “social economy in solidarity”.

Cultural and religious heritage: Cultural visions include, for example, 
Ubuntu within the African culture, which reflects a definition of 
personhood that finds its meaning within the context of a common 
humanity, sharing in God-given life, dignity, interdependence and a 
common future. In Asia, major religions have long been reservoirs of 
wisdom and vision for a world of peace and justice. These are harnessing 
and nurturing a new cultural and religious heritage of peace.

Neoliberal economic globalization and its military promotion and 
protection can only be countered by the convergence of visions. A 
fragmented vision is inadequate to resist and replace this order with an 
alternative.

This vision must be inclusive of political dimensions with regard to 
democracy. Democracy is not the market but the people’s democracy, which 
is participatory - with the right of people to decide their own future 
and to enjoy fundamental political, social, economic and cultural rights 
as well as the right to life.

Democracy is a balanced system of governance, led by rules and 
institutions for the management of public common goods and services, and 
to which end global, democratic public institutions and political bodies 
must be restructured or created. It is based on a universal ethic of 
responsibility and solidarity in which the interdependence of humanity, 
the biosphere and societies is reflected in responsibility and social 
contract. Democratic governance, as a process, leads from domination to 
autonomy in solidarity. In this sense the state can regain legitimacy 
through responsibility, transparency and participation of peoples, 
recognition of the existence of the public common good and promotion of 
responsible public social expenditure. As such, democratic governance 
helps to define rules for the economy and gives a social framework to 
the market.

Global democratic institutions cannot be limited to interstate relations 
but reflect international civil society participation. The converging 
multitudes of peoples’ movements and visions, not the global empire, 
give rise to the democracy the world needs. As people marching in the 
streets worldwide have chanted, “This is what democracy looks like!”

As a Christian faith community, our vision is informed by our reading of 
the Bible. Biblical witness to the peace of Jesus against empire 
provides a key toward reaching the full wisdom of God and the creative 
inspiration of the Spirit.

Values of a Peace Vision
This vision may be manifested in values of respect for the human being, 
for life in all its dimensions and for the life of nature. These are the 
values of mutual recognition among human beings, including the 
recognition of the natural origin of all, and the recognition by human 
beings of the rest of nature external to them. Its principle is - No one 
can live, if the other cannot live.

These values challenge the imperial system and on their behalf we are 
called to resist, to intervene and to transform that system. The common 
good is the process in which these values confront the empire.

These values are not justified for calculable advantages in terms of 
utility or of personal interest. Nevertheless, they are the basic values 
of humanity, without which human life is destroyed, in the most 
elementary sense of the word.

We are called to be nonconformist and transformative communities, 
because life is not possible unless we undertake transformation that 
addresses the roots of injustice.

We search for new community and a new world of peace against empire; 
therefore we live out peace and justice as a committed/faith community 
of peace and life:
- with critical analysis,
- with repentance and confession of our complicity,
- with theological clarification and Bible study,
- with peace pedagogy,
- with resistance, joining in the resistance of people against empire,
- with work to build peace in the world from the local to the global,
- with partnerships of solidarity.

Realizing the New Visions
A process of recognition, education and confession regarding economic 
injustice and ecological destruction (processus confessionis) has led to 
the Accra Confession (2004) rejecting global neoliberal capitalism and 
starting a covenanting process for justice in the economy and the earth. 
In this context the Confession as well as the Mission report of the 
Accra General Council identified the global empire of the USA as the 
violent system pressing through and protecting the mechanisms and 
structures of capital accumulation at the cost of people’s lives and 
communities at all levels. It is necessary to continue the process of 
recognition, learning and confessing, addressing the interaction of 
empire and global capitalism.

How can congregations, churches, ecumenical groups and the ecumenical 
movement be engaged in this process concretely? Some examples of 
reflections and processes already have been launched.

Stories of Ecumenical Witness:
 Ecumenical Movement in the Philippines
Ecumenical Movement in the Philippines
Since 2002 US President Bush named the Philippines as the second front 
of the war on terror. The ecumenical movement in the Philippines, 
discerning the grave signs of the times, has taken an unambiguous 
position against the war on terror, understanding its nexus with 
globalization. The National Council of Churches (NCCP), together with 
the World Council of Churches and Christian Conference of Asia, convened 
the International Conference on Terrorism in a Globalized World in 
September 2002. In the Manila covenant, for the first time in the global 
ecumenical community, the empire was named as the logic behind these 
seemingly unconnected forces of destruction.

Peace for Life, a new South-South and North-South solidarity network of 
peace advocates, was created on the mandate of the Manila covenant. Its 
purpose is to be a global, faith-based movement for peace and justice 
engaged in building people’s solidarity and in mobilizing resistance to 
the war on terror and destructive forces of corporate globalization. At 
its inaugural forum in Davao City, Philippines, in December 2004, on the 
theme “Christian-Muslim Solidarity in the Era of Empire”, it moved ahead 
further to define its character within the frame of interfaith 
solidarity. Peace for Life organized an interfaith delegation of 
Christian and Muslim leaders and activists from different parts of the 
world to join the international group of protesters against 
globalization during the 12th WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong, in 
December 2005.
The NCCP has been very active in mobilising the ecumenical community to 
confront the overt state tyranny that has been fuelled and funded by the 
Bush war on terror. Particularly, the United Church of Christ in the 
Philippines, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente and the United Methodist 
Church in the Philippines have been outstanding in their witness and 
activism against injustices. The Council’s mission of solidarity with 
the landless victims of Hacienda Luisita (small-scale mining communities 
being evicted by multinational mining interests – victims of 
environmental destruction and the empire’s greed for strategic 
resources) has strengthened the faith and prophetic witness of church 
workers. With the support of Peace for Life, the NCCP initiated the 
WCC-convened Pastoral Ecumenical Delegation Visit to the Philippines in 
June 2005 to call on the international community to hear the cries of 
the voiceless. Together with the activist Moro-Christian People’s 
Alliance, it also convened an international solidarity gathering in 2005.
Active participation of the Philippine ecumenical community in social 
concerns dates back to the dismal days of Martial Law in the 1970s. 
Christian leaders and activists have continued to be an integral part of 
the struggle for peace with justice. The resilience and continuos 
accompaniment of the suffering people’s movement for liberation even 
when faced with ongoing persecution and murder (unprecedented in its 
brutality) is a significant source of strength and resistance.
 The United Church of Canada (UCC) study: “Living Faithfully in the 
Midst of Empire”
The United Church of Canada (UCC) has completed a study titled “Living 
Faithfully in the midst of Empire”. This project builds on previous 
work, study and actions that have focused on deepening the understanding 
of neoliberal economic globalization and unlimited market capitalism as 
roots of poverty and ecological destruction. The study also makes 
linkages to the ecumenical processes of the Accra Confession (WARC) and 
AGAPE (WCC’s programme to develop alternative visions to globalization).

The strength of the UCC’s engagement in the study of empire lies in its 
strong engagement with partner voices and experiences through stories, 
theological reflection and social analysis. The study contributes to a 
deeper awareness of empire as a system of global domination and a threat 
to life and creation, and shows that the present time is critical for 
discernment of the Gospel. The call to confession acknowledges the 
church’s complicity in empire and challenges the church to responsive 
transformation based on justice. Critical elements of this work include 
institutional support and commitment to seeking justice and resisting 
evil, availability of human and financial resources, ability to work 
ecumenically wherever possible, and commitment to a partnership model 
that takes local and global partners’ voices and participation seriously.

The challenges that lie ahead include the development of education for 
justice resources for use by congregations in their reflection and 
action on empire, continuing the process of grounding the work 
theologically at all levels, challenging churches to live out more fully 
the transformative change it has called for in the report with respect 
to social, economic and environmental justice and continuing to live out 
the church’s commitments to gender and racial justice in all its 
responses to the challenges of empire.

In this regard, we have been encouraged to note many newly emergent 
examples of action in resistance against the domination of the global 
empire and for the building of an alternative world. To mention a few, 
there are the growing democratic consciousness among peoples of Latin 
American nations, the strong citizens’ movements against US military 
bases in Korea and Japan, efforts to address US policies within the 
United States and efforts for alternatives to neoliberal globalization 
in Germany. Also emerging are theological movements and mission 
movements for justice, such as in South Africa and in ecumenical 
organizations, including the Council for World Mission.

VI. A Call to Struggle Against the Empire

The global empire, with its unprecedented reach, represents a massive 
threat to life. In the face of this pervasive and death-dealing reality 
of worldwide hegemony, we are inspired and empowered by Jesus of Galilee 
to resist empire and to renew communities of life. This new reality has 
economic, political, social, cultural, religious and spiritual 
dimensions. It presents life and death challenges for Christians, as the 
empire uses religion to justify its domination and violence, and makes 
claims that belong to God alone.

We ask all churches whose missions and peoples have historically been 
involved in empire building to seriously scrutinize - in partnership 
with the victims of their imperial past - their structure, teaching, 
liturgy, funding agencies and policies as well as their political 
allegiances, in order to repent and reshape their life in all aspects in 
the spirit of the anti-imperial biblical heritage.

We call upon WARC member churches, congregations and organizations to 
engage in processes like these, to make connections with social 
movements and other faith communities in order to resist imperial and 
capitalist structures in their particular contexts and build up 
communities of peace for life.

We also ask the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World 
Federation, the World Student Christian Federation and other ecumenical 
organizations to join in these processes, as they did following the WARC 
decision at the 23rd General Council in 1997 - embarking on a processus 
confessionis related to global economic injustice and ecological 
degradation.

Throughout the consultation, participants raised the question of how to 
address the linkage of US and Israel imperialism in the context of the 
oil-rich Middle East, where it misuses the Bible in a fundamentalist 
manner and most violently oppresses the Palestinian people. We ask WARC 
to take up this issue and develop responses in cooperation with other 
ecumenical organizations.

We acknowledge the disastrous consequences of the domination by empire 
around the world. Participants of the consultation were particularly 
attentive to the dramatic situations in the Philippines and in 
Palestine. We call on WARC to take up these concerns and develop 
courageous responses in cooperation with other ecumenical organizations.



List of Participants


Rev. James Buys, South Africa
Prof. Kim Yong-Bock, Korea
Dr. Ninan Koshy, India
Prof. Ulrich Duchrow, Germany
Rev. Chris Ferguson, Canada/Jerusalem
Bishop Erme Camba, the Philippines
Prof. Mark L. Taylor, U.S.A.
Ms. Carmencita Karagdag, the Philippines
Dr. Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar, India
Rev. Cheryl Dibeela, Botswana
Mr. Muto Ichiyo, Japan
Sr. Mary John Mananzan, the Philippines
Ms. Omega Bula, Canada
Dr. Keum Jooseop, CWM staff, UK/Korea
Rev. Dr. Karen Bloomquist, LWF staff, Switzerland/U.S.A.
Prof. Park Seong-Won, WARC staff, Switzerland/Korea
Rev. Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth, WARC staff, Switzerland/Guyana






SWP Manila Declaration FINAL EDITION
15 08 06