Fall is in the air once again and our familiar autumn rituals are underway. Here in Big Horn County we're busy with harvesting, canning, and getting little ones started in school. Out in Washington D.C. they're planning for our next military strike in the Middle East. It seems like some things never change.
The media has a lot to say about the war weary American public. Yes, we should be a war-exhausted species. We've been going at this for centuries, with little relief. While our justifications and weaponry changes, our propensity for war has remained unabated since ancient times.
In the grotto of the cathedral chapel at Notre Dame University is a relic of a little-known saint from ancient Roman times. Marcellus of Tangier was a Roman Centurion, leading a campaign to stamp out insurrections not far from Syria in the year 289 CE. At that time, Emperor Maximian Herculeus was considered to be a divine entity, a son of god, and Christianity was outlawed. On the occasion of the emperor's birthday, Marcellus rose, clad in his military regalia, to address the gathered crowd. Instead of appropriate words of praise for the emperor, Marcellus astonished everyone present by removing his implements of war—sword, belt, armor and dagger—and laying them before the imperial dais. He declared that as a servant of Jesus Christ he would no longer participate in demonic worship and its associated slaughter of human flesh and blood. This didn't end so well for him, as on October 30, 289 CE, he was beheaded for treason, along with the clerk Cassius who protested the unjust sentence. However, his bold words will again be considered an heroic act of faith and self-sacrifice by those who celebrate this saint's day come October 30.
As time passed, Christianity grew across the Roman Empire and soon became the law of the land. In spite of the message of Christ, war continued in all its forms. Now people could use Christianity as a justification for brutalizing pagans, including Jews and Muslims. Any soldier killed in active duty was guaranteed a spot in heaven. Today, Islamic extremists bent on insurrection against the United States offer the same reward to their suicide bombers.
Marcellus believed that war was demonic—a horror against all of mankind. I think this truth is still with us today. Any war, no matter how well justified or morally righteous, will bring suffering and brutality beyond comprehension.
Syria is symptomatic of a rising epidemic of governmental violence and reciprocal insurrection violence hearkening back to Pax Romana. But today, our technology surpasses all previous advances in power to smash human flesh, bone and blood. The demonic cancer of high tech violence now floods increasingly from our movie screens out to the far corners of plant earth. As the evil dictator Assad escalates his chemical warfare against his own civilians, President Obama wants to respond in kind by sending our own weapons of massive destruction, carried by our new generation of brave warriors, into the carnage.
Whatever happens with Syria (or our next military intervention in the Middle East), I hope we can find the courage to ask ourselves some fundamental questions about war's capacity to heal. Is it possible to use an awesomely superior power to blow up, gas aerosol bomb, break, microwave, or smash human bodies for peace? Can violence be quelled with violence, no matter how superior? After all, peace reigned in Jewish ghettos following massive torture and executions by Nazi SS troops. Brutal dictators across the globe seek peace by killing all who oppose them, down to the last child. This kind of uneasy peace incurs a future cost that is incalculable, as we see time and time again across our planet. Remember Rwanda and the Balkans?
In contrast to the science of warfare, the scientific research into how humans wage peace and win against terrible evil is rising. There are other ways. Obama is not trapped into returning evil for evil, and neither are we in our families. Many of our naïve assumptions about "doing what it takes" are demonstrably idiotic. After all, we've been engaging in rampant warfare for centuries, with all its accompanying horrors. It doesn't seem to solve our fundamental conflicts. I wonder what we could learn from those who found the courage to separate out the demonic from the holy, as did Jesus in ancient Israel, Saint Marcellus in the Western Roman Empire, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in our own time.
Meantime, in our living rooms, most of our children watch cartoons with special blood-and-guts effects raising the ante of adolescent tit-for-tat, pay-back, and giving those bad guys some of their own medicine. Maybe we could heed our Bible, read our history of saints who made the supreme sacrifice, challenge our adolescent mentalities about "there's a jungle out there," and grow up a little.
The following was not included in the column as published September 4, 2013:
First, some comments from Kevin Zeese in Truthout. For the entire article see http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/18673-obama-should-seek-legal-prosecution-not-illegal-war
There is no question that under international law, the allegations of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government do not provide a legal basis for military action by the United States. To put it directly: The United States will be violating international law if it attacks Syria.
To act within the rule of law to effectively deter the use of chemical weapons the following should occur:
- The U.S. should present its evidence regarding use of chemical weapons in Syria to the UN Security Council.
- The Security Council should condemn any use of chemical weapons and forbid further use of chemical weapons.
- It should expand the scope of the UN investigation to include the issue of responsibility for attacks, refer the Syrian situation to the International Criminal Court for further investigation and adjudication, and call for convening of a peace conference.
Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida gives a thorough
analysis of the proposed military intervention in Syria: “The only thing you
can be really sure about when you start a war is that you can’t be sure about
anything when you start a war.” He is interviewed at length on September 5,
2013 on Democracy Now. See www.democracynow.org.
Our government has a history of hypocrisy with chemical warfare. Some of the secrets have been pried out of the closet, and millions have suffered around the world, including several deplorable incidents causing unnecessary suffering and death among our enlisted. This WMD, chemical warfare, has been deployed and may still be deployed by our government secretly. From agent orange and phosphorus bombs to sarin and U238, the history is often ignored by our media. Check this site for informative links and evidence: http://www.alternet.org/world/america-and-chemical-warfare?akid=10899.144927.cUsAQi&rd=1&src=newsletter893052&t=5
Pope Francis, addressing the crowd on Sunday (September 1, 2013) in the Vatican City's St. Peter's Square: "Never has the use of violence brought peace in its wake. War begets war, violence begets violence."
For info on the campaign of deception to promote war, check this out:
From the false Tonkin Gulf narrative in 1964 that boosted the Vietnam War to the fabricated
baby-incubators-in-Kuwait tale in 1990 that helped launch the Gulf War to the reports of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction early in this century, countless deaths and unfathomable suffering have resulted from the failure of potential whistleblowers to step forward in a timely and forthright way -- and the failure of journalists to challenge falsehoods in high government places.
Once again, like in the build-up to bombing Baghdad, lots of the rhetoric doesn't add up. But the commercial media is not paying attention. Unlike my Chinese colleagues at XiHua University near Chengdu City in Sichuan, we so easily believe our government when it comes to beating the drums of war.
Here's reporting on a consensus of top military advisors: http://consortiumnews.com/2013/09/06/obama-warned-on-syrian-intel/
Here's TruthOut, an alternative independent resource:
Our troubles with counterinsurgency warfare:
Regent University publication, "Christianity.com", June, 2007:
Telling the stories that matter:
Best detailed account is this story quoted on line From A Treasury of Early Christianity, edited by Anne Fremantle, New York: Viking Press, 1953, pp. 233-236)
The Martyrdom of Saints Marcellus and Cassian
Marcellus was a native of Tingis (now Tangier), and a centurion during the reign of Diocletian. He cast away his arms and declared himself a Christian, for which he was sentenced [in 298] by the governor Fortunatus to be beheaded. At the time of Marcellus's trial Cassian was a shorthand writer in the court. He declared that the sentence of Marcellus was unjust, for which heresy he himself was imprisoned and a little later suffered the same martyrdom.
In the city of Tingis, during the administration of Fortunatus as governor, the time came for the birthday of the Emperor. When all in that place were feasting at banquets and sacrificing, a certain Marcellus, one of the centurions of the Trajan legion, deeming those banquets to be heathen, cast away his soldier's belt in front of the standards of the legion which were then in camp, and testified in a loud voice, saying: "I serve Jesus Christ the Eternal King." He also threw away his vine-switch and arms, and added: "Henceforward I cease to serve your Emperors, and I scorn to worship your gods of wood and stone, which are deaf and dumb idols. If such be the terms of service that men are forced to offer sacrifice to gods and Emperors, behold I cast away my vine-switch and belt, I renounce the standards, and refuse to serve."
The soldiers were dumbfounded at hearing such things; they laid hold on him, and reported the matter to Anastasius Fortunatus the commander of the legion, who ordered him to be thrown into prison. When the feasting was over, he gave orders, sitting in council, that the centurion Marcellus should be brought in. When Marcellus, one of the centurions of Asta, was brought in, Anastasius Fortunatus the governor said: "What did you mean by ungirding yourself in violation of military discipline, and casting away your belt and vineswitch?"
Marcellus answered: "On the twenty-first of July, in presence of the standards of your legion, when you celebrated the festival of the Emperor, I made answer openly and in a loud voice that I was a Christian and that I could not serve under this allegiance, but only under the allegiance of Jesus Christ the Son of God the Father Almighty."
Anastasius Fortunatus the governor said, "I cannot pass over your rash conduct, and therefore I will report this matter to the Emperors and Caesar. You yourself shall be referred unhurt to my lord, Aurelius Agricolan, Deputy for the Prefects of the Guard." [The shorthand writer who took down the official proceedings was Caecilius.]
On the 30th of October at Tingis, Marcellus, one of the centurions of Asta, having been brought into court, it was officially reported: "Fortunatus the governor has referred Marcellus, a centurion, to your authority. There is in court a letter dealing with his case, which at your command I will read."
Agricolan said: "Let it be read."
The official report was as follows: "From Fortunatus to you, my lord, and so forth. This soldier, having cast away his soldier's belt, and having testified that he was a Christian, spoke in the presence of all the people many blasphemous things against the gods and against Caesar. We have therefore sent him on to you, that you may order such action to be taken as your Eminence may ordain in regard to the same."
After the letter had been read, Agricolan said: "Did you say these things as appear in the official report of the governor?"
Marcellus answered: "I did."
Agricolan said: "Did you hold the rank of a centurion of the first class?"
Marcellus answered: "I did."
Agricolan said: "What madness possessed you to cast away the signs of your allegiance, and to speak as you did?"
Marcellus answered: "There is no madness in those who fear the Lord."
Agricolan said: "Did you make each of these speeches contained in the official report of the governor?"
Marcellus answered: "I did."
Agricolan said: "Did you cast away your arms?"
Marcellus answered: "I did. For it was not right for a Christian, who serves the Lord Christ, to serve the cares of the world."
Agricolan said: "The acts of Marcellus are such as must be visited with disciplinary punishment." And he pronounced sentence as follows: "Marcellus, who held the rank of centurion of the first class, having admitted that he has degraded himself by openly throwing off his allegiance, and having besides put on record, as appears in the official report of the governor, other insane expressions, it is our pleasure that he be put to death by the sword."
When he was being led to execution, he said to Agricolan: "May God bless thee! For so ought a martyr to depart out of this world."
And when he had said these words he was beheaded, dying for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is glorious for ever and ever. Amen.
When Aurelius Agricolan was acting as deputy for the Prefects of the Praetorian Guard, at the time when he was preparing to hear the case of the holy martyr Marcellus, the blessed Cassian was a shorthand writer under the orders of his staff. So when Marcellus, one of the centurions of Asta, was brought into court at Tingis on the 30th of October, Aurelius Agricolan by his power as judge strove with many threats to seduce him from perseverance in his confession. But the blessed Marcellus by the power of his constancy, so that all henceforward considered him his judge's judge, proclaimed that he was the soldier of Christ, and could not serve the cares of the world, while Aurelius Agricolan on the other hand poured forth words full of fury. Cassian was taking down these statements, but, when he saw Aurelius Agricolan, beaten by the devotion of so great a martyr, pronounce sentence of death, he vowed with an imprecation he would go no farther, and threw on the ground his pen and note book. So, amid the astonishment of the staff and the laughter of Marcellus, Aurelius Agricolan trembling leapt from the bench and demanded why he had thrown down his note books with an oath. Blessed Cassian answered that Agricolan had dictated an unjust sentence. To avoid further contradiction, Agricolan ordered him to be at once removed and cast into prison.
Now the blessed martyr Marcellus had laughed because, having knowledge of the future through the Holy Spirit, he rejoiced that Cassian would be his companion in martyrdom. On that very day, amid the eager expectation of the city, blessed Marcellus obtained his desire. After no long interval, namely, on the 3rd of December, the worshipful Cassian was brought into the same court in which Marcellus had been tried, and by almost the same replies, the same statement as holy Marcellus had made, merited to obtain the victory of martyrdom, through the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belong honour and glory, excellency and power for ever and ever. Amen.
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David Graber
Hardin, MT 59034
graberdb@gmail.com
