How Empire Ends

And their empire crumbled 'til all that was left

were some stones the workmen found.

-Sting, All This Time

In Star Wars, the Galactic Empire evaporates in a decisive moment, when Vader throws Palpatine into the core of the second Death Star and then Han Solo blasts the core with a photon torpedo.  Ewoks dance and (in the much maligned CGI enhanced version) we see the galaxy far, far away celebrate having the yoke of evil removed from their shoulders.  In real life though, empires don't actually end in a moment, they fade, they crumble, they wane like a moon that has passed full.

Given my abnormal interest in Church history, I am tangentially familiar with the rise and fall of numerous empires.  The Old Testament shows us some good ones: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and of course Rome.  Rome is inexorably connected with my main area of expertise: Christianity.  It was under Roman occupation that Jesus lived, and it was at Roman hands that he died, and it was the Roman Empire that persecuted and then later adopted the faith.  I have read significant portions of Edward Gibbon's Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (though I admit not even close to all of it), in which he actually traces the source of the demise of the empire to Christianity "eroding traditional values." Sounds weird doesn't it?  But to a society that was built around the idea of many gods, and an emperor who was considered a god, the challenge of a monotheistic faith was certainly a significant chink in the defenses.  I find myself thinking a lot about Rome as I read the daily news, I think about the mad emperors Caligula and Nero, I think about the barbarian hordes, the Vandals and the Huns, I think about the senate, corrupt, scheming and fixated on holding power, sometimes locked in detente or open hostility with the Imperial authority.

In the end, it was some of Rome's greatest strengths rather than their inherent weaknesses, that led to failure.  Any empire must exist as an idea in the minds of its subjects, whether it is the shining civilization of Greece under Alexander, or the mighty Pax Romana, or the Great and Glorious British Empire, or the Star Spangled Freedom of the United States.  Rome had learned how to evangelize the barbarians with their idea. In the expansion of the Empire, Rome did not try to blot out the sun, rather they assimilated cultures and people, they adopted new gods and new ways of honoring those gods. They understood that their civilization would benefit from people who became citizens rather than just always being hordes that must be kept under the boot heel of military authority.  Even as imposing as Roman legions were, no empire built on sheer force can abide for very long, you must win hearts and minds and you must turn barbarians into citizens.  You will never do that if you try to kill their gods, it is a much better idea to adopt them.  

Jesus himself reflects the wisdom (from the inverse perspective) of this policy when he is questioned about paying taxes (always a sore spot in any Empire), "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and render unto God that which is God's). Don't spend your energy bashing your head against an immovable object. The Christian church, when it grows and lives and breathes is good at living this truth as well.  When we make room for more people, for different ideas and ways of following Christ in the world we are a rising tide and a growing light.  When we shrink back from things that make us nervous we become a cold and shrunken shadow of ourselves.

G.K. Chesterton deals at length with the repeated flows and ebbs of the church in his book The Everlasting Man, he says that in his study of history he sees at least five or six times in its history that the church has died.  Fortunately, he says, "we serve a God who has managed to find his way out of the grave."  Worldly Empires, however, don't generally work that way.  Once Rome declined it never came back, once Britain began to cede it's grip on the new world and the trade routes, there was no climbing back up that mountain.  Neither one of those empires have vanished into the sands of history.  You can still go to Rome and see the remnants of the empire, you can visit the Vatican and see what the Church looked like when it was inseparable from the Empire, you can still find Hadrian's wall at what used to be the edge of the Empire.  The British flag still flies in various corners of the world, reminding us of the last great colonial power, but the Monarchy is now just a figurehead, the real power has moved to the democratic power of the people.

We should not be so foolish as to think that our Empire will last forever though.  Especially if we give up on the ideas that exist at a deeper level than our empire.  We are founded on "self evident truths," many of which we seem all too ready to give up on for various reasons.  For seventy years, since the end of WWII the United States has been a leader in the world, we have demonstrated the difficult path of diversity, equality and opportunity; we have struggled for justice.  In our growing years we succeeded in our high minded pursuit sometimes and we failed sometimes, but we always tried.  What I see now is that we have decided not to try.  We have decided to accept self interest above community.  We have decided to live in fear of others instead of allowing new ways and new hope into our nation.

Those living in hopeless, violent and impoverished places used to look to the idea of America as a dream, now they increasingly see us as a selfish, oppressive and closed nightmare.  We have lost our idea, we have abandoned our values, and as much as I hate to say it the brand of Christianity that is most visible is far too Imperial and imperious, and it may actually be playing a part in destroying the values that hold us together.  I'm not worried about the Church, because resurrection is our thing.  It doesn't work that way for empires though.