Cultures that Bully Speak Death, Not Life

Cultures that Bully Speak Death,

Not Life

Bullying Kills Personally, Psychologically,

Spiritually, and Culturally.

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

To seek to harm, intimidate, or coerce someone perceived as vulnerable.

Growing up I experienced a number of parental mistakes. One of them was being labelled and belittled. It hurt and affected the image of myself. It did not bring out my potential. It made me feel worthless. My identity was held in the verbal abuse of another. It was unfair and unloving. It made angry to be called names and be told things which were untrue of myself.

I feel the same way today when listening to politicians and preachers lie and condemn their voting base or congregations. I feel we, as a maturing society, are unwise to follow the advice of bullies or to allow bullies to destroy the lives of those they do not love nor care for.

Culturally, it is a sickness which speaks death, not life. It misrepresents and intentionally (if not pathologically) lies in order to build up the speakers of untruth, hate, division, and death.

My response then, as now, is to educate myself about bullying. To identify it immediately. To resist it by talking openly and frequently about it. To seek out life-birthing habits, thoughts, and experiences in life. To build self-confidence through accomplishments and awareness. To befriend those around me who are encouragers, who are honest, and who can naturally love. And to let my life move towards love, loving speech, thoughts and actions, rather than participate or perpetuate in the continuance of any forms of death.

It is hard. It feels unnatural. It is difficult.... and it is a daily task. The psycho-social and emotional wounds are there. Though the scars are healed, and wounds less easily opened, my internal radars are always on the alert, standing high and tall, listening for the deeply unfair  and harmful toxicity flowing from the lips of bullies speaking their daily deathly acts of intimidation, abuse, harassment, thuggery, heckling, mocking, teasing, baiting, taunting, and hate upon the lives of others.

The bully's words and acts are unwanted. Together, let us learn to say, "Stop!" Your assessments are worthless as are your words and actions. "Go Away." When you have something worth listening to then come back... And when you come back, "Learn to speak life, not death." Otherwise, it is our turn to talk, to build, to enliven. Not yours.

Peace and Love,

R.E. Slater

August 14, 2025

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by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

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Quotes to Live By

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Kindness & Empathy

Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. – Plato
There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up – John Holmes
Strong people stand up from themselves. But the strongest people stand up for others. – Unknown
Each of us deserves the freedom to pursue our own version of happiness. No one deserves to be bullied. – Barack Obama
You will never reach higher ground if you are always pushing others down. – Jeffrey Benjamin

Courage & Integrity

Wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it. Right is right even if no one is doing it. – St. Augustine
I would rather be a little nobody, than to be a evil somebody. – Abraham Lincoln
Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right. – Theodore Roosevelt
The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority. – Ralph W. Sockman
True courage is cool and calm. The bravest of men have the least of a brutal, bullying insolence, and in the very time of danger are found the most serene and free. – Lord Shaftesbury
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ‘I will try again tomorrow. – Mary Anne Radmacher
One person can make a difference, and everyone should try. – John F. Kennedy

Self-Worth & Identity

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. – Judy Garland
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. – Eleanor Roosevelt
Don’t you ever let a soul in the world tell you that you can’t be exactly who you are. – Lady Gaga
It is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities – J. K. Rowling
For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. – Albus Dumbledore

Hope & Resilience

Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise again. – Victor Hugo
No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true. – Cinderella
Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else. – Mr. Rogers
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. – Marcus Aurelius

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Types of Bullying

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Three types of bullying

Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things:

• Teasing
• Name-calling
• Inappropriate sexual comments
• Taunting
• Threatening to cause harm

Social or Relational bullying, Involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships:

• Leaving someone out on purpose
• Telling other children not to be friends with someone
• Spreading rumors about someone
• Embarrassing someone in public

Physical bullying involves hurting a person’s body or possessions. It includes:

• Hitting/kicking/pinching
• Spitting
• Tripping/pushing
• Taking or breaking someone’s things
• Making mean or rude hand gestures

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Identifying Bullying

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1. Personal Bullying

Definition:

Bullying on a personal level is the intentional use of power, dominance, or manipulation by an individual to harm, intimidate, or control another person. It often targets someone’s vulnerabilities—appearance, abilities, beliefs, identity, or perceived weaknesses.

Key Traits:

• Direct harm: Name-calling, ridicule, physical aggression, exclusion.

• Indirect harm: Spreading rumors, undermining reputations, subtle exclusion.

• Goal: Diminish self-worth and silence dissent or individuality.

Impact:

Erodes confidence, fosters isolation, and disrupts a person’s ability to live authentically.

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2. Psychological Bullying

Definition:

A sustained pattern of mental and emotional manipulation designed to create self-doubt, dependence, and fear in the victim. It operates on the inner life—thoughts, emotions, and perceptions—rather than overt physical acts.

Key Traits:

• Gaslighting (making someone doubt their own reality).

• Withholding affection or approval to control behavior.

• Creating a sense of helplessness or inevitability of the abuse.

• Constant criticism disguised as “concern” or “help.”

Impact:

Internalizes shame, damages self-trust, and may cause anxiety, depression, or long-term trauma.

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3. Spiritual Bullying

Definition:

The misuse of spiritual or religious authority to coerce, control, or shame individuals into conformity, obedience, or silence. It replaces authentic faith and love with fear, judgment, and control.

Key Traits:

• Declaring divine disapproval for nonconformity.

• Using sacred texts as weapons rather than as sources of life.

• Elevating leaders’ authority above communal discernment.

• Equating questioning with rebellion against God.

Impact:

Severs the person’s sense of divine love, distorts their image of God, and stifles spiritual growth.

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4. Cultural Bullying

Definition:

When societal systems, traditions, or norms perpetuate power imbalances, marginalization, or harm against certain groups. This form of bullying is systemic, embedded in cultural narratives, and normalized through collective behavior.

Key Traits:

• Institutionalized discrimination (racism, sexism, classism, ableism, homophobia).

• Media stereotyping and public shaming of targeted groups.

• Erasure of cultural histories or suppression of languages and customs.

• Penalizing dissent or whistleblowing.

Impact:

Silences cultural voices, enforces social hierarchies, and normalizes injustice as “tradition” or “common sense.”

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Core Thread Across All Forms

Cultures that bully—whether on the personal, psychological, spiritual, or cultural level—speak death, not life by:

• Suppressing the voice and agency of others.

• Replacing dignity with shame.

• Trading empathy for dominance.

• Breaking relational trust.

In contrast, life-giving cultures speak life by:

• Valuing the image of God (or inherent worth) in every person.

• Encouraging diverse voices and perspectives.

• Practicing restorative justice and compassionate truth-telling.

• Promoting mutual flourishing over dominance.

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Why all forms of bullying are anti-life and why relational, life-giving cultures are essential for human and cosmic flourishing.

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Process-Theological Framework

1. Bullying as Anti-Process

In Whiteheadian process thought, life is an unfolding web of relationships where each moment (actual occasion) builds upon the possibilities offered by God and others. Bullying distorts this dynamic by:

• Reducing possibilities instead of expanding them.

• Replacing creative advance with stagnation or regression.

• Disrupting mutual becoming by silencing or injuring another’s voice.

Bullying is not merely moral failure - it is metaphysical sabotage, choking the flow of novelty and mutual enrichment.

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2. Life-Giving Cultures as Co-Creators

Process theology views humanity as co-creators with God in the ongoing shaping of the world. Life-giving cultures:

• Amplifies the divine lure toward beauty, truth, and goodness.

• Increases the range of potential futures for individuals and communities.

• Fosters reciprocity - each member contributes to, and receives from, communal well-being.

In this view, a culture that speaks life is a culture that cooperates with God’s creative aim.

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3. Why Bullying Speaks Death

Biblically and theologically, death in process terms is not only physical cessation but the cutting off of potential, the destruction of relational wholeness. Bullying does this by:

• Stunting growth—psychological, spiritual, and social.

• Turning relational networks into systems of dominance.

• Filling the shared world with fear rather than trust.

In process theology, such "deathly" acts do not align with God's divine lure but with  personal, relational, and cultural disintegration, making them inherently anti-life.

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4. The Divine Counter-Movement

In process thought, God is the ever-present lure toward richer possibilities, even in the wake of harm. Against the cultures that bully, God’s call is:

• To restore broken relations through healing dialogue and justice.

• To create safe spaces for vulnerable voices to flourish.

• To turn wounds into new sources of compassion, widening the community’s capacity for empathy.

This is not “forgive and forget” but redeem and transform—a continual process of co-authoring better futures.

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5. Cultural Transformation as a Processual Mandate

Cultures can repent - not in the punitive sense, but in the processual sense of reorienting their trajectory. To move from death-speaking to life-speaking cultures:

• Name the harm in personal, psychological, spiritual, and cultural dimensions.

• Refuse to normalize dominance as tradition or necessity.

• Enact restorative practices that expand, rather than constrict, communal possibilities.

• Embed empathy in structures—education, governance, religion—so that care is systemic, not accidental.

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Conclusion

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In process theology, bullying is a rejection of the divine invitation toward beauty, relationality, and mutual becoming. Life-giving cultures accept that invitation, choosing to speak words and create structures that enhance possibility for all.

To speak life is to participate in God’s ongoing creation, where the aim is not control but co-flourishing, not silencing but amplifying, not death but ever-deepening life.

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Addendum

Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying

Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggressively dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) that an imbalance of physical or social power exists or is currently present. This perceived presence of physical or social imbalance is what distinguishes the behavior from being interpreted or perceived as bullying from instead being interpreted or perceived as conflict. Bullying is a subcategory of aggressive behavior characterized by hostile intent, the goal (whether consciously or subconsciously) of addressing or attempting to "fix" the imbalance of power, as well as repetition over a period of time.

Bullying can be performed individually or by a group, typically referred to as mobbing, in which the bully may have one or more followers who are willing to assist the primary bully or who reinforce the bully's behavior by providing positive feedback such as laughing. Bullying in school and in the workplace is also referred to as "peer abuse". Robert W. Fuller has analyzed bullying in the context of rankism. The Swedish-Norwegian researcher Dan Olweus stated that bullying occurs when a person is "exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons", and that negative actions occur "when a person intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical contact, through words or in other ways". Individual bullying is usually characterized by a person using coercive, intimidating, or hurtful words or comments, exerting threatening or intimidating behavior, or using harmful physical force in order to gain power over another person.

A bullying culture can develop in any context in which humans regularly interact with one another. This may include settings such as within a school, family, or the workplace, the home, and within neighborhoods. When bullying occurs in college and university settings, the practice is known as ragging in certain countries, especially those of the Indian subcontinent. The main platform for bullying in contemporary culture involves the use of social media websites. In a 2012 study of male adolescent American football players, "the strongest predictor [of bullying] was the perception of whether the most influential male in a player's life would approve of the bullying behavior." A study by The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health medical journal in 2019 showed a relationship between social media use by adolescent girls and an increase in their exposure to bullying.

Bullying may be defined in many different ways. In the United Kingdom, there is no legal definition of the term "bullying", while some states in the United States currently have laws specifically against it. Bullying is divided into four basic types of abuse: psychological (sometimes referred to as "emotional" or "relational"), verbal, physical, and cyber (or "electronic"), though an encounter can fall into more than one of these categories.

Behaviors used to assert such domination may include physical assault or coercion, verbal harassment, or the use of threats, and such acts may be directed repeatedly toward particular targets. Rationalizations of such behavior sometimes include differences of social class, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, appearance, behavior, body language, personality, reputation, lineage, strength, size, or ability.

Process Theology's Counterpoint to Evangelical Christian Militancy, Part 2

click to enlarge for clarity

Process Theology's Counterpoint

to Evangelical Christian Militancy

Part 2

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

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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

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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.

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1. The Biblical and Theological Roots of Process Theology

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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2. 19th Century: Process's Mission is Ministry, not Conquest

• 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.

• Why Process is Preferred: It resists all forms of cultural imperialism while continually focusing on relational expansions of love.

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3. Early 20th Century: War is seen as Tragedy, not Sacrament

• Process Alternative: A Process Christianity or process-based Gospel honors sacrifice when it protects life and dignity, but never sacralizes killing.

• Why Preferred: A Process Gospel maintains theological integrity by refusing to equate nationalism and empire wars as God’s work.

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4. WWII and the Cold War: Process Rejects Demonization

• 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.

• 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.

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5. Civil Rights and Vietnam: Processual Justice is Peacemaking

• 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.

• Why Preferred: Processual Ethical Action holds peace and justice equally together, thus avoiding the evangelical split between “order” and “prophecy.”

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6. Late 20th Century: Pluralistic & Intersectional Cultures without War

• 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.

• Why Preferred: Process seeks to preserve the public square as a shared commons area rather than as a competing battlefield of Whites Only.

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7. 21st Century: Process Transcends Partisanship

• 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.

• Why Preferred: True processual actions will sustain and deepen civic dialogue and shared civic life - even in the deepest of disagreements.

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Why Process Theology Is the Healthier Foundation

1. Resists Co-optation: Refuses the coercive power model that invites political hijacking.

2. Centers Relational Ethics: Frames morality as transforming relationships, not defeating opponents.

3. Holds Justice and Peace Together: Keeps both as inseparable dimensions of love.

4. Global Compatibility: Works across cultures without assuming superiority.

5. Future-Oriented: Focused on co-creative participation in God’s unfolding work, not defending an imagined past.

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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

Christian Militaristic Imagery & it's Influence on the Christian Faith, Part 1

Christian Militaristic Imagery

& it's Influence on the Christian Faith

Part 1

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT 5

"Onward, Christian Soldiers" is a 19th-century English hymn. The words were written by Sabine Baring-Gould in 1865, and the music was composed by Arthur Sullivan in 1871. Sullivan named the tune "St Gertrude," after the wife of his friend Ernest Clay Ker Seymer, at whose country home he composed the tune. The Salvation Army adopted the hymn as its favoured processional. The piece became Sullivan's most popular hymn. The hymn's theme is taken from references in the New Testament to the Christian being a soldier for Christ, for example II Timothy 2:3 (KJV): "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

Introduction

Christianity is often imagined as a faith of peace and reconciliation, but much of its musical and textual tradition in the 19th and 20th centuries contains strong militaristic imagery - "armor," "soldier," "battle," "victory," "armies," "conquest." While this language can be traced to biblical metaphors (e.g., Paul’s “armor of God” in Ephesians 6), its prominence in modern hymnody and church life was deeply influenced by nationalism, imperial expansion, and the wars of the modern era.

From the 1800s through the late 1900s, Christian worship in the English-speaking world leaned hard on military metaphors. Yet, these terms were not invented in modernity - they echo biblical imagery such as Yahweh as warrior in Exodus 15 - the "armor of God" in Ephesians 6 - and Revelation’s apocalypticism. In the church these images became supercharged with empire imagery - nationalism, mass war, and by extension, missionary expansion.

Biblical hymns and favorite verses became carriers of civic religion - where the nation’s cause and God’s cause blurred. Some communities heard "spiritual struggle" while others heard "a green light for earthly violence".

By the century’s end, pacifist traditions, liberation voices, and process-oriented theologians began to push the usage of military language from the Christian lexicon and to re-center the Sermon on the Mount in it's place.

This project traces how, and why, worship language prefers marching to strong militaristic metaphors in its cultural struggles and "warfare" upon the societies it finds itself within.

1. Biblical and Theological Roots -->

                                    Militaristic Metaphor -->

                                                    Re-literalization of the Christian Faith

• Hebrew Bible - Yahweh as "Warrior" (Exodus 15); Conquest narratives in Joshua; the Royal Warrior psalms resonating in King David (Psalm 144). These bible texts formed Israel’s memory of deliverance under threat. Not a standing license for conquest but they seeded their faith vocabulary with divine power.

• New Testament - Further elucidated the biblical text's shift towards metaphorical combat: Ephesians 6 frames armor of God (Eph 6.10-17) as truth, righteousness, gospel, faith, salvation. In Tim 2.3-4, the faithful remnant of Christ is a good soldier.

• In later centuries the church re-literalized its bible to fit nationalistic or imperial goals. From once stressing the church's spiritual struggle against flesh and blood and other-worldly principalities, to now actively committing warfare upon society itself in authoritarian struggles against national constitutions constructed for pluralistic societies.

• Early Christian communities - often held pacifist stances. Martyrdom was understood as a Christian witness and testimony to Christ. But, in the church's more recent eras Christian witness is understood as supporting civil counter-violence.

• Across history - especially after Constantine, martial metaphors sometimes slid toward the literal sanction of church-state power. But in modernity, that cultural slide now re-appears as churches blending biblical "warfare" with national military goals.

• The idea of separating "church from state" is no longer in vogue. Rather, the church wishes to become the replacement for empire and imperial power. 

2. 19th Century: Empire, Mission & Evangelical Expansion

• Socio-historical backdrop: Victorian British imperial expansion. America's westward push against indigenous tribes and European colonial power. Reciprocating post-Napolenonic European colonial expansion across the New World.

• Socio-missionary movements: Westernized assimilation framed as the evangelization of pagans to "conquer the world for Christ." The accepted Christian language for faith-advance used terms like marching, banners, victory; useful, and quite natural, for promoting Christian imperial culture.

• Hymnbook headliners

  • Onward Christian Soldiers. Written by Sabine Baring-Gould (1865). Originally for a children’s Whitsuntide procession. Quickly became a global anthem of confident Christendom.

  • Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus. By George Duffield Jr. (1858). Written after the death of revivalist preacher, Dudley Tyng. Recasts steadfast discipleship as soldierly courage.

  • The Son of God Goes Forth to War. By Reginald Heber (1812). Martyrs are represented as the church’s true soldiers . Bespeaks literal soldierly valor.

  • Occurring earlier, but influential in 19th c. circulation: Soldiers of Christ Arise. By Charles Wesley (1742). Recital of Ephesians 6 and widely reprinted globally.

• Favorite verses in pulpits and mission rallies

  • 2 Timothy 2.3-4. Endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ.

  • Psalm 144.1. Blessed be the Lord my strength who trains my hands for war. Often abstracted from its royal-psalm context.

  • Revelation 19.11-16. Apocalyptic imagery visualizing Jesus Christ on a white warhorse. The imagery gives to the church assurance of history’s final victory over evil when aligning with it's efforts to Christianized civilization. It sees itself as ushering in the Age of the Kingdom as opposed to Christ heavenly work of the same.

• Muscular Christianity - Set in bloody, cruel, and oppressive Victorian imagery , the church imagines itself in bodily vigor, manliness, and moral crusades, against society-at-large much like the Crusades of yesteryear. Adding to the illusion are Church parades, church uniforms and dress, and hymns normalized martial tone in consecrated religion.

3. Early 20th Century: Wars & Sacralized Sacrifice

World War I & II Influence:

Hymns and sermons became overtly patriotic, tying Christ’s cause to national war aims.

• World War I Influence: Churches framed the war as a moral trial; sacrifice on the battlefield was likened to Christ’s sacrifice.

• Hymns in Uniform: Onward, Christian Soldiers, Fight the Good Fight, Lead On, O King Eternal — sung at troop send-offs and memorials.

• Evangelical Role: Billy Sunday preached enlistment as Christian duty. Evangelical hymnals of the period leaned heavily on “battle” themes, reinforcing the war effort.

Cold War Militarism:

• Evangelicals in the U.S. adopted a "spiritual warfare" rhetoric against communism.

• Popular verses such as found in Ephesians 6:11–12 ("Put on the whole armor of God") were used to frame ideological struggle as holy war.

Civil Rights Era and Vietnam War:

• Hymns like "Battle Hymn of the Republic" - originally an abolitionist song, were repurposed for diverse political causes.

• "Victory in Jesus" (1939) became popular in revivalist circles, combining personal salvation with triumphant conquest language.

4. World War II & Cold War Civil Religion Matures as Vocabularies Harden

• Between wars - patriotic services became fixtures - with flags near pulpits - national hymns were sung alongside sacred ones.

• World War II intensified the identification of Axis powers with "evil" and Allied cause with "freedom." Preachers drew on apocalyptic texts to frame a cosmic struggle using patriotic services and flags in sanctuaries.

• Evangelical Role: Billy Graham’s "crusades" framed evangelism within Cold War opposition to "godless communism." Evangelical schools and camps reinforced “armor of God” training for children.

• Hymns and favorites

  • "Battle Hymn of the Republic" surged in public liturgies in a fusion of judgment & justice accompanied by a marching cadence fit for mass mobilization.

  • "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" functioned as a language of resilience against imagined invasion by the world into church culture.

• Ambiguities

  • Some German churches colluded with nationalism - others resisted. The same repertoire could buttress state violence or shelter dissent - showing how context steers interpretation.

5. The Cold War: Anti-Communism & the Rise of Spiritual Warfare

• The 1940s and 50s United States and Allies used their conflict with communism to cast it as a moral and theological war. "Freedom under God" became a civil religious creed.

• Evangelical subculture popularized "spiritual warfare" language - drawing on Ephesians 6, Revelation, and it's language of cosmic dualism pitting God against the powers of evil. Para-church groups used military language of ranks, discipline, and warlike campaign metaphors.

• Favorite verses and songs

  • Ephesians 6 appeared on posters, tracts, and youth curricula.

  • Revivalist and gospel songs like "Victory in Jesus" (1939) fusing it with personal salvation for an overall triumphant-martial affect.

  • Patriotic hymns like "God of Our Fathers" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee" lived inside Sunday services on civic holidays - cementing church - nation linkage.

6. The Civil Rights Era: Vietnam & Counter-Liturgies of Love & Peace

• The 1960s cracked the consensus. Civil Rights leaders often sang "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as an abolitionist-justice anthem - re-directing "divine glory" towards Black civil liberation - and not at war.

• Tensions: Civil Rights leaders repurposed Battle Hymn of the Republic for justice; peace churches and mainline hymnals softened or removed battle imagery.

• Evangelical Role: White evangelicalism often avoided or opposed Civil Rights, prioritizing “order” over prophetic justice. Many evangelicals supported the Vietnam War, equating antiwar protest with unpatriotic rebellion.

• Vietnam provoked liturgical self-critique in mainline churches so that hymnals were reduced or rephrased in the use of martial language.

• Peace-forward songs entered congregational life

  • "Let There Be Peace on Earth" (1955). A simple, universalist statement orientated toward peace-loving communities.

  • "They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love" (1966) Grounded Christianity identity in love, not conquest.

  • "Make Me a Channel of Your Peace" (A Prayer of St. Francis) was reset in Catholic circles and widely sung across inter-denominations.

• Pacifist traditions such as found in the Mennonite, Quaker, and Brethren, churches offered robust counter-liturgies that emphasized The Beatitudes, loving one's enemy, and emphasizing ministries of reconciliation.

7. Late 20th Century: Moral Majority & Culture Wars

Contemporary praise music diversified the sound but kept some martial tropes - mighty warrior, the army of God, an enemy’s camp. Charismatic deliverance language sometimes mirrored warfare idioms.

Shift to Domestic Enemies: Evangelicals and the Religious Right declared a “war” on secularism, feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, and abortion.

Language and Music: “Army of God” motifs in youth rallies, Promise Keepers, Christian media; “enemy” increasingly identified as fellow citizens with differing values.

Editorial pushback grew:

• Several denominational hymnals either dropped "Onward - Christian Soldiers" or footnoted its metaphorical intent.
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• Text changes proliferated, swapping soldiers for people or pilgrims and replacing battle with journey or struggle.

National liturgies around Memorial Day, Independence Day, Remembrance Sunday, kept the civil-religious militaristic thread alive - even within otherwise peace-leaning congregations.

8. 21st Century: Enter MAGA Christianity

• Holy War Politics: MAGA rallies use "armor of God" branding, apocalyptic rhetoric, and worship-like atmospheres for partisan mobilization.

• Internal Enemies: Political opponents, immigrants, and dissenting Christians labeled as threats to the nation’s divine destiny.

• January 6 as Case Study: Shofars, "Jesus Saves" banners, and prayer on the Senate floor alongside violent insurrection.

• Evangelical Role: A large bloc of white evangelicalism now openly fuses faith with nationalist identity, sanctifying political conflict as God’s work.

9. Theological Appraisals: What Militarized Worship Does to People

• Potential goods - when handled as metaphor

  • Names real conflict with evil, injustice, addiction, even despair.

  • Encourages courage - perseverance - communal solidarity.

• Recurrent harms - when metaphor fuses with state or tribe

  • Confuses the church’s mission with national goals - baptizing violence as vocation.

  • Moves towards legitimizing domination, victory, and humiliation of enemies, rather than seek reconciliation, healing repair, or love of enemy.

  • Marginalizes the Sermon on the Mount re sentiment "the ends justify means."

• Constructive correctives

  • Girardian readings warn that sacred violence hides scapegoating.

  • Liberational, feminist, postcolonial, and process theologies insist that divine action is persuasive, relational, noncoercive, and that Christian formation should habituate peacemaking, truth telling, and repair.

10. Text, Tune & Translation: How Editors Re-Arm the Bible

• Common edits in late 20th century hymnals

  • “Lead On - O King Eternal” - lines about “holy warfare” retuned to “holy calling” or “holy mission.”

  • “Onward - Christian Soldiers” - omitted in some books - or reframed with notes about spiritual - not physical - conflict.

  • “Stand Up - Stand Up for Jesus” - softened terms like “ye soldiers of the cross” in some editions to broader discipleship language.

• New classics are reoriented towards peace, justice, and community repair

  • “For Everyone Born - a Place at the Table” - inclusive ethics over conquest.

  • Global song - Taizé chants - Iona Community hymns - that center lament - healing - and pilgrimage more than battle.

• A Scriptural reframing in lectionaries and preaching

  • Emphasis on Isaiah 2 - Micah 4 - Matthew 5 - Romans 12 - 2 Corinthians 5 (ministry of reconciliation) - to pull the center of gravity from conquest to communion.

11. Cultural Mechanics: Why Martial Metaphors Remain

• March music captivates people. The meters and cadences of martial songs produce mass solidarity and resolve.

• The visual spectacle of flags, uniforms, and processions create a sense of emotional identity and belonging.

• The simplicity of binary framing, of "us versus them," is cognitively regenerative... that is, it is easily mapped onto the human psyche and easily relevant to spiritual growth if communities are not vigilant.

• Print capitalism and mass media including cheap hymnals, motivating radio crusades, even emotionally moving television services, can easily spread a shared militarized repertoire at scale across the gospel of Christ affecting church beliefs and doctrines.

12. Research Project: Review, Code & Compare

• Corpus - assemble hymnals from 1800s to 2000s across denominations - plus major revival songbooks - praise compilations - and liturgical books.

• Tagging - annotate lyrics for military lexemes (battle - soldier - victory - conquer - armor - enemy - sword - banner) versus peace lexemes (peace - shalom - reconcile - heal - mercy - justice - repair).

• Timeline - map frequency trends against historical events - wars - imperial milestones - civil rights - and denominational statements.

• Scripture usage - compile sermon collections - tract literature - evangelistic manuals - and curricula - then count verse usage - especially Ephesians 6 - 2 Timothy 2 - Psalm 144 - Revelation 19 - Isaiah 2 - Matthew 5.

• Case studies - a British parish - an American mainline church - an American evangelical megachurch - a Mennonite congregation - to show how context redirects the same texts.

• Outcome - a comparative matrix that reveals not only shifts in words - but shifts in affections - practices - and communal ethics.

13. Constructive Proposals: De-militarizing Church Language

Without Flattening Zeal and Courage

• Keep moral seriousness - swap weapons for virtues - courage - fidelity - patience - truthfulness - solidarity.

• Retrain the “enemy” concept - target systems of harm - not persons - and always hold open the door for enemy conversion.

• Rebalance the canon - pair every Ephesians 6 reading with Matthew 5 - every Revelation vision with the Lamb’s nonviolent witness.

• Lament and healing - normalize songs of grief - confession - and communal repair so worship is not only triumphal.

• Embodied practices - peacemaking liturgies - foot washing - reconciliation testimonies - community organizing blessings - to give courage a non-military shape.

Conclusion: What We Have Learned & Where to Take It

Across two centuries, militarized language in Christian worship rose with the idea of Western empire. It then hardened in both civic and spiritual warfare, maturing under the combined auspices of civil+religion.

From this grew a chorus of alternative Christian denouncement and critique urging peacemaking traditions and theologies centered on relational, persuasive, divine action of God. The biblical mustard seed of re-statement likewise used metaphorical language to inspire its Christian ideals: using metaphors of armor as virtues, victory as love’s perseverance, the conquering Lamb as the One who suffers love.

And yet, modernity repeatedly re-literalized the metaphors to infect and bind church affections to national power.

Presently, the remaining remnant of the church's task is not to purge courage - but to redirect it towards proper targets. A de-militarized worship still names evil, still calls for resolve, still charges people to risk comfort, status, and even safety for the good of neighbor and enemy alike.

However, the non-martial church simply just stops all references and training of Christians from warlike endeavor to calls to action to love, to healing, to reconciliation. These are the real Christian victories and not nationalized power, cruelty, nor oppression of one's fellow man.

Gospel Love and Reconciliation re-centers the strange and difficult, violent grammar of the bible, and of the Cross, where power becomes service, where enemies become neighbors, and where the church’s march is a pilgrimage of healing, redeeming, repair.