The Powers That Be

1. The Powers That Be are visible institutions and invisible spiritual forces.

Everything has a spiritual aspect. Everything is answerable to God.

Beyond people and structures. The Powers That Be are more than just the individuals in charge or the institutions they run. They are complex entities with both an outer, physical form (buildings, laws, personnel) and an inner, spiritual dimension (corporate culture, ethos, collective personality). This spiritual aspect is real, not just a personification.

Spirituality at the core. Every social reality, from corporations like IBM to governments and even families, possesses a unique spirituality. This inner spirit is inextricably linked to the outer form. To change these systems effectively, we must address both their visible structures and their invisible spiritual core.

Divine vocation and fallenness. The spiritual core of an institution also carries its divine vocation – its purpose to serve the common good. When an institution prioritizes its own interests over this purpose, its spirituality becomes pathological or "demonic." Social change involves recalling the institution's "angel" back to its God-given task.

2. Our worldview shapes how we perceive and interact with these Powers.

Understanding worldviews is key to breaking free from the ways the Powers control people's minds.

Unconscious mental structures. Worldviews are the fundamental, often unconscious, structures through which societies understand reality – what is visible, invisible, real, or unreal. They are not just philosophies or myths, but the foundational framework of our thought. Historically, Western society has moved through several dominant worldviews.

Historical worldviews:

• Ancient: Everything earthly has a heavenly counterpart; reality is dual (physical/spiritual).
• Spiritualist: Spirit is good, matter is evil; the world is a prison.
• Materialist: Only matter is real; no spirit, God, or soul.
• Theological: Splits reality into material (science) and spiritual (religion) realms.
• Integral: Everything has an inner (spiritual) and outer (physical) aspect; God is in everything (panentheism).

Choosing our lens. We often carry remnants of multiple worldviews, influencing how we perceive the Powers. The integral worldview, seeing spirit at the core of all things, offers a framework where the biblical understanding of spiritual forces in institutions becomes intelligible and prayer's impact on the material world is rational.

3. The Domination System is an overarching network of fallen Powers.

This overarching network of Powers is what we are calling the Domination System.

A persistent structure. For at least 5,000 years, since the rise of conquest states, an overarching network of Powers has persisted, characterized by unjust relations: economic exploitation, political oppression, racial bias, patriarchy, hierarchy, and violence. This system is not imposed by one group but arises from a struggle for power that entraps everyone.

Entrapment and perpetuation. Individuals and institutions become caught in this system, often feeling powerless against its momentum. Defense against a dominating force often requires adopting its methods, perpetuating the cycle. The system maintains itself through institutionalized violence and passive consent.

Total system. Victims, like those fighting apartheid in South Africa, often have a clearer view of the Domination System as a total network. They recognize that individual Powers conspire, even passively, to maintain the unjust whole, extending globally. This system resists deviations from its values.

4. The Myth of Redemptive Violence is the core religion of the Domination System.

The belief that violence "saves" is so successful because it doesn't seem to be mythic in the least.

Violence as salvation. This ancient myth, mirrored in stories like the Babylonian Enuma Elish and pervasive in modern media (cartoons, movies, news), posits that order is established and maintained through violence. It is the belief that war brings peace and might makes right, functioning as a god demanding absolute obedience.

Psychodynamics and projection. The myth allows individuals to project their own repressed violence onto a villain, vicariously enjoying evil before the hero's violent victory provides catharsis. This prevents self-insight and encourages scapegoating, locating evil outside oneself. It is a simple, primitive depiction of evil.

Nationalism and militarism. The myth is the spirituality of the national security state, making the nation supreme and justifying violence for national interest. It uses religious language to sanction oppression and wealth extraction. This pervasive indoctrination, especially through media, makes violence seem natural and inevitable, hindering the imagination of alternatives.

5. Jesus offers a radical, nonviolent alternative to the Domination System.

He went beyond revolution.

God's domination-free order. Jesus' entire message and life challenged the Domination System of his day. He envisioned and inaugurated a "kingdom of God" or "God's domination-free order," characterized by compassion, communion, and equality, not hierarchy or exploitation.

Comprehensive critique. Jesus' teachings and actions systematically undermined the system's pillars:

• Domination: Rejected titles, hierarchies, and lording power over others, emphasizing service.
• Equity: Challenged wealth accumulation, advocated for the poor, and lived communally.
• Nonviolence: Forbade violent resistance, absorbed violence, and refused military options.
• Women: Consistently violated patriarchal customs, treating women as equals and disciples.
• Purity/Holiness: Rejected separation from "unclean" outcasts, seeing God's holiness as contagious transformation.
• Family: Critiqued the patriarchal family structure, offering a new family based on solidarity in God's will.
• Law/Sacrifice: Challenged oppressive legal interpretations and exposed the sacrificial system's violence.

Beyond reform or revolution. Jesus was not merely reforming the system or replacing one power with another. He attacked its fundamental assumptions and structures, offering a transformative vision where both people and Powers are reconciled to God's purposes.

6. The cross exposes the violence of the Powers and breaks its cycle.

What killed Jesus was not irreligion, but religion itself; not lawlessness, but precisely the Law; not anarchy, but the upholders of order.

Powers' self-exposure. The crucifixion, intended by the Powers to crush Jesus and his message, instead exposed their illegitimacy and violence. By executing an innocent man who embodied true religion and order, the Powers revealed their actions as a crime against God, stripping away their disguise.

Scapegoating mechanism revealed. Jesus' death, unlike other sacrificial acts, fully exposed the scapegoating mechanism – the use of violence against a victim to maintain social tranquility. The Gospels, written from the victims' perspective, denounce this as a miscarriage of justice, revealing God's identification with the sacrificed, not the sacrificers.

Dying to the Powers. Freedom from the Powers comes not through violent conquest but through "dying" to their control and the internalized social conventions they impose. This means dying to racism, greed, false patriotism, and the ego's identification with the Domination System. The cross is the model for absorbing violence without perpetuating it.

7. Jesus' "Third Way" is assertive, nonviolent resistance, not passive submission.

Jesus is not telling us to submit to evil, but to refuse to oppose it on its own terms.

Beyond flight or fight. Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5:38-41 ("turn the other cheek," "go the second mile") is often misinterpreted as passive nonresistance. However, the Greek term antistenai means to resist violently. Jesus is advocating a "third way" that is neither cowardly submission nor violent retaliation.

Assertive defiance:

• Turning the other cheek: A backhand was an insult to an inferior. Turning the cheek makes a backhand impossible and forces the aggressor to strike with a fist (equal-to-equal combat), asserting the victim's dignity and equality.
• Stripping naked: Giving the undergarment as well as the outer robe (collateral) meant stripping naked in court. This shamed the creditor and the system, exposing their cruelty and reclaiming the debtor's dignity.
• Going the second mile: Roman soldiers could impress civilians for one mile. Going a second mile was an infraction, seizing the initiative from the soldier and putting them in an unpredictable situation.

Empowering the oppressed. These are not rules but creative examples for the oppressed to regain initiative, assert humanity, and expose injustice without violence. They use humor and surprise to disrupt the oppressor's expectations and challenge the system from within, even before structural change occurs.

8. Practical nonviolence requires courage, creativity, and strategic action.

Nonviolence is not a way of avoiding personal sacrifice.

Developed strategy. While nonviolence has ancient roots, its development into a strategic movement is relatively recent (Gandhi, King). It is often dismissed as impractical, yet recent history shows its astonishing effectiveness, even against brutal regimes (Eastern Europe, South Africa).

Principles for struggle:

• Congruity of means and ends: Violent means tend to produce violent ends; nonviolent means aim for peaceful transformation.
• Respect for the rule of law: Civil disobedience, while breaking unjust laws, respects the principle of law by accepting consequences, distinguishing it from lawlessness.

Beyond passivity. Nonviolence is not passive; it is active, courageous, and seeks out conflict to expose injustice. It requires a willingness to suffer and be killed, absorbing violence rather than inflicting it. It transforms anger into resolute love.

Training and preparation. Effective nonviolence requires training and preparation, moving from occasional acts to sustained movements. It is a practical, achievable approach for people of all ages, aiming not just for victory but for the transformation of all parties involved.

9. Loving enemies is essential for personal and systemic transformation.

We are to regard the enemy as beloved of God every bit as much as we.

God's all-inclusive love. Jesus commands us to love our enemies because God does, sending sun and rain on everyone regardless of righteousness. This challenges the idea of a God who favors some and rejects others, exposing social hierarchies as human constructs defying God's nature.

Common evil and the shadow. Our solidarity with enemies lies in our common human fallenness. Acknowledging our own inner "shadow" (our capacity for evil) makes us more compassionate towards the shadow in others. Perfectionism, by forcing us to repress our flaws, prevents us from loving enemies because we need them as targets for projection.

The enemy as gift. Enemies can be a "gift" by mirroring aspects of ourselves (projections) that we cannot see otherwise. Confronting these projections through prayer and self-reflection is necessary for our own wholeness and individuation. This dependence on enemies for self-discovery provides a deeper reason to love them.

Transformation, not just defeat. Loving enemies is a pastoral task, aiming to help them recover their humanity, which may have been lost in the act of oppression. It also helps the oppressed avoid demonizing their enemies and becoming dehumanized themselves. This love opens the possibility for miracles of transformation in both individuals and systems.

10. Prayer is a vital spiritual engagement with the Powers, enabling miracles.

History belongs to intercessors who believe the future into being.

Inner battlefield. Prayer is not just a private act but the crucial inner engagement where the Powers' spell is broken and freedom is reclaimed. Without prayer, activism risks becoming self-justifying or simply mirroring counter-Powers, leading to burnout and dehumanization.

Worldview and possibility. Our worldview profoundly impacts our ability to pray effectively. Materialism makes prayer seem impossible, while the integral worldview, seeing spirit in everything, makes intercessory prayer a rational response in a universe open to transformation.

Co-creation and defiance. Intercessory prayer is spiritual defiance of the fated future, visualizing and calling into being God's promised alternative. It is an act of co-creation, where human prayer creates a space for God to act without violating freedom. God's ability to intervene is limited by the freedom of both people and institutions (the Powers).

War of attrition and expectation. Prayer in the face of the Powers is a spiritual war of attrition. Unanswered prayers are not necessarily due to lack of faith or God's refusal, but the Powers' resistance. Despite delays and apparent impotence, prayer is essential because it is heard and ultimately contributes to the inevitable, though often miraculous, triumph of God's will over the Domination System.

Last updated: June 7, 2025