Related References
Constitutional Democratic Governance - Whitehead's Processual Approach, Part 5
Constitutional Democratic Governance - Connolly and Process, Part 4
Constitutional Democratic Governance - 5 Dissenting Political Voices, Part 3
Constitutional Democratic Governance vs Maga-Trumpism's NeoLiberal Rule, Part 2
Constitutional Democratic Governance vs Maga-Trumpism's NeoLiberal Rule, Part 1
Renewal: From Holy War to Holy Relationship
Process Theology begins with a fundamentally different picture of God: not the supreme commander wielding coercive power, but the relational presence who works persuasively within all creation toward beauty, justice, and love.
From this starting point, the church’s mission, worship, and ethics are reimagined. Militaristic metaphors are not “erased” but reframed so they cannot be weaponized against others. The “battle” becomes the struggle against alienation, injustice, and despair - not against human beings or cultures.
What follows is an era-by-era counter-history showing how Process Theology diverges from militarized evangelicalism, why it diverges, and why it offers a healthier Christian foundation.
1. The Biblical and Theological Roots of Process Theology
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Process Reading: A Process Christianity sees warrior passages as narratival histories of their time, not templates for divine action. Whereas the ancient's imagined God’s power as weaponized, process does not. Today's Christian imagination sees God's power as persuasive, never coercive; as loving, never wrathful.
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The Enemy is Redefined: The Process Christian enemy is always the alienation and injustice of people of difference. It can never be justified, sanctified, blessed, nor condoned.
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Why the Process Perspective is Preferred: Process Christianity teaches against divine violence which historically has legitimized human violence. Rather, it centers Jesus' Mission in the Sermon on the Mount.
2. 19th Century: Process's Mission is Ministry, not Conquest
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Process Alternative: Mission as co-creating mutual transformation; the gospel of Jesus is the conversation of love, healing, and reconciliation; it teaches that God has always been lovingly active in all cultures through all times.
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Why Process is Preferred: It resists all forms of cultural imperialism while continually focusing on relational expansions of love.
3. Early 20th Century: War is seen as Tragedy, not Sacrament
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Process Alternative: A Process Christianity or process-based Gospel honors sacrifice when it protects life and dignity, but never sacralizes killing.
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Why Preferred: A Process Gospel maintains theological integrity by refusing to equate nationalism and empire wars as God’s work.
4. WWII and the Cold War: Process Rejects Demonization
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Process Alternative: Process Christianity sees evil as systemic - not embodied in nations but embodied in those who speak evil and lead by demonizing others.
The Christian apocalypse: Envisions the hope of Revelation as a processual unveiling of renewal to love and redeem all nations. But it does not endorse and any time any form of annihilation or hope of divine terror, judgment or wrath.
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Why Preferred: Process always seeks reconciliation within political conflict that loving, respectful, kind, and helping ethics are experienced on all sides without judgment or harm.
5. Civil Rights and Vietnam: Processual Justice is Peacemaking
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Process Alternative: Process Life seeks full solidarity with liberation movements, whether feminist, LGBTQ+, racial, religious, etc; Processual Christian victory is defined as the dismantling of oppression, injustice, and inequality, and not in defeating people.
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Why Preferred: Processual Ethical Action holds peace and justice equally together, thus avoiding the evangelical split between “order” and “prophecy.”
6. Late 20th Century: Pluralistic & Intersectional Cultures without War
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Process Alternative: Process engages with moral issues through empathy and civic dialogue, not battle language and actions. It seeks to heal and help. To co-create solidarity, cooperation, communication, and community.
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Why Preferred: Process seeks to preserve the public square as a shared commons area rather than as a competing battlefield of Whites Only.
7. 21st Century: Process Transcends Partisanship
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Process Alternative: God’s reign is never equated with any political or religious movement of injust or inequity. Process regards the "ins and outs" of a political system as one systemic society needing divine healing, repentance, reform, and redemption.
Process does not condon the false evangelical rally (2015?) on the Washington D.C. Mall purporting to pray for America, rather than repenting of its nationalism, nor of the harm and discrimination borne in its heart. Actions which have birthed un-Constitutional and un-democratic Triumism supported by empire-driven Maga-ism.
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Why Preferred: True processual actions will sustain and deepen civic dialogue and shared civic life - even in the deepest of disagreements.
Why Process Theology Is the Healthier Foundation
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Resists Co-optation: Refuses the coercive power model that invites political hijacking.
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Centers Relational Ethics: Frames morality as transforming relationships, not defeating opponents.
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Holds Justice and Peace Together: Keeps both as inseparable dimensions of love.
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Global Compatibility: Works across cultures without assuming superiority.
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Future-Oriented: Focused on co-creative participation in God’s unfolding work, not defending an imagined past.
Conclusion: From Marching Armies to Healing Communities
From the imperial hymnody of the 19th century to the holy war politics of MAGA Christianity, militarized evangelicalism has repeatedly fused the gospel with conquest - first externally, then internally.
Process Theology offers a fundamentally different vision:
- The Christian God as the redeeming lure toward life - not the warrior god of armies;
- The Christian mission as a mission of healing relationship - not of conquest; and,
- Christian victory as measured in healthy reconciliation - not domination and dominionism.
In an age where the church’s moral witness has often been compromised by political captivity, this alternative is not a luxury - it is survival.
To embody the gospel in the 21st century, Christians must exchange the drumbeat of war for the patient work of repair, trading battle cries for invitations, and replacing the banner of conquest with the table of fellowship.
This is the doctrine and ministry, hope and activity, resolve and commitment found in a Process-based Christianity. A Christianity that guides the Christian faith towards healthy, redemptive faith and keeps it from it's imperialistic and dragonian calls to hate and divide, kill and oppress.
R.E. Slater & ChatGPT
August 12, 2025
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