theology of american foreign policy and greenland's icy mountains and reginald heber and president bush and deliver from error's chain

Ever since Governnor John Withrop of the Massachusetts Bay Company uttered the famous lines on the Arabela before the colonists landed in Boston in 1630 to the effect that this noble experiment would be a "city on a hill" that the eyes of all the world would witness, America has been concerned with its "mission" in the world. Not until the mid 20th century, however, did the interventionists have a consistent upper hand over the isolationists in American foreign policy. Now, with the dawning of the 21st century and the Iraq War, America's interventionist philosophy has risen to new heights. It is now our mission to "bring democracy" to the world, casting down tyrants and delivering people who long for our steady and strong liberating hand.

The Missionary Connection

As I was thinking of President Bush's characterization of people all over the world (but in Iraq especially) as yearning for democracy and freedom which we will so graciously provide, I couldn't get out of my head the words of probably the most famous 19th century song of Christian missions. Though not many know the song today, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains" provided the clarion call for generations of missionaries to take the Gospel of Christ to the far reaches of the world. Authored by Bishop Reginald Heber of Calcutta around 1820, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains" embodies themes which, when secularized, have become a staple of present-day American foreign policy.

The Hymn

Space only permits consideration of the first and third verses. Imagine yourself in a congregation of 19th century evangelicals who have heard the stirring world to send out missionaries to the ends of the earth to make disciples of Jesus Christ. You sing:

1. "From Greenland's icy mountains, from Indian's coral strand;/ Where Afric's sunny fountains roll down their golden sand:/ From many an ancient river, from many a palmy plain,/ They call us to deliver their land from error's chain."

3. "Shall we, whose souls are lighted with wisdom from on high,/ Shall we to men benighted the lamp of life deny?/ Salvation! O salvation! The joyful sound proclaim,/ Till earth's remotest nation has heard Messiah's Name."

Greenland and Iraq

At least three lines call for comment. First is the idea that the people who live in far off lands not only desire our presence but yearn for the deliverance that we can bring. In the context of Heber's hymn this meant their desire for spiritual liberation, but if we secularize things, can't we hear in the President's characterization of the way the Iraqis would greet the American liberators an echo of Heber's hymn? We would be greeted with open arms and welcomed as liberators in Baghdad, he assured us. I am sure that there were some that felt that way about the American troops in April 2003, but I would dare say that in January 2005 those numbers are much smaller. Yet, we, like Heber, need to characterize the Iraqis as longing for us to deliver them from "error's chain." Otherwise we may have no "mission.

Second, there is the assumption that we are the ones with the truth. We are the ones whose souls have been "lighted" not so much by the "Gospel of Jesus Christ," though many Americans would say this was true, but with the "wisdom" of democracy. We can be the bold bearers of this "truth" to the far-off realms because it is "truth" for which they long. Seen in this light, it is actually gracious of us to bring the message of democracy to those in far-off lands, since it is a gift bestowed on us. Can we also hear echoes of this in President Bush's justifications?

Finally, the people are characterized as "benighted" in stanza 3. "Shall we to men benighted the lamp of light deny?" Isn't that the way we have been taught to think of Arab peoples? Certainly we are not taught that they are subhuman (only Saddam may belong in that category), but they are certainly portrayed as simple victims of a tyrant, as rather benighted clingers to a system of government that is outmoded and retrograde.

Conclusion

In order truly to understand the Presidential rhetoric of our day, we must not just look for the obvious references to evangelical thought or blatant Christian themes. It is more powerful to examine the structure of the President's thinking and speech, for by so doing we see that it is firmly rooted in a view of the world that would have warmed the heart of the late Bishop of Calcutta and the most exclusivist missionaries of the 19th century.