RELIGION OF CREATION VS. RELIGION OF EMPIRE

     Various attempts have been made to tease out various strands in the books of the Bible. Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918) proposed the Document Theory.   He posited four main documents in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures): J (Jahwist), E (Elohist),  P (Priestly), and D (Deuteronomist): J, a Judean source of about the tenth century B.C.; E a North Israelite source of about the eighth century B.C..; D, the core of Deuteronomy, which is identified with the "book of the law (torah)"; and P, which is variously dated before, during or after the Babylonian exile of the sixth century B.C. I have seen color coded texts of the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures, distinguishing these four strands. This Document Theory had repercussions in all fields of biblical research and influenced the course of biblical criticism to the present day.
     In 2010, Wes Howard-Brook published "Come Out, My People!" (God's Call out of Empire in the Bible and Beyond).  Wes lays out a template for reading the whole bible.  He documents that there are two religions embedded in the biblical text, but they are not Judaism and Christianity, they are a religion of Creation and a religion of Empire. In 2016 Wes published EMPIRE BAPTIZED ( How the Church Embraced What Jesus Rejected 2nd-5th Centuries).
     The recent election of Donald Trump for me has crystallized the clear fact that a significant number of  present day Christians are living the religion of Empire in contrast to the religion of Creation that Jesus lived and proclaimed.
     Look at these statistics:  In a preliminary analysis published on November 9, the Pew Research Center reported that 52% of U.S. Catholics voted for Trump.  But 60 percent of white Catholics voted for Trump. And while only 26% of Latinx Catholics voted for him—67% went for Clinton—the percentage of Latinx voters going for Clinton was an 8% decline over the percentage that went for Obama in 2012. 81% of white evangelicals voted for Trump.  These were important components of the Trump victory.
     The Second reading of the Catholic liturgy for the first Sunday of Advent said:  " But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh." In the National Catholic Reporter, a Catholic summarized why he voted for Trump: "But I still won't vote for candidates who threaten our freedom of religion and seek to expand federal support for abortion abroad and at home."  This I believe is the "pro-life" stance of the U.S. Catholic Bishops.  But I'm afraid that many people who would proclaim "I am pro-life" mean I am against abortion and attacks on freedom of religion. .  For me there is so much more to being pro-life.  Let us see where Donald Trump takes us.