Reprinted from Gift of Grace, newsletter of the House of Grace Catholic Worker Community, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 1998.

These words from the Israelite prophetic tradition refer to the nation of Assyria, a superpower that held imperial sway over the Middle East around the eighth and seventh centuries BCE. According to historians, the Assyrians were the first nation to practice widescale state terrorism. Their ancient version of realpolitik included mass deportations of populations and sophisticated technologies of genocide and torture.

Thousands of years later, in the same region of the world, the latest imperial games are being played out with no more benign results. The United States wields its tools of global domination--war, sanctions--with brutal impact on civilians. Meanwhile, local petty despot Saddam Hussein pursues his own militaristic ends, feeding the deadly cycle of violence.

The centuries come and go, but the harsh script of history seems ever the same: concentrations of power, systems of domination and militarism, undeserved suffering of innocent people under the heels of geopolitical violence. The forms of oppression change; the lamentations of the victims resound with anguishing familiarity.

Another part of the script also remains the same: the God of heaven rages against injustice, violence, and oppression. God's prophets speak out on behalf of the victims and denounce the arrogance of human power.

The Bible is unflinchingly honest about human history. At the heart of the scriptural story-and part of its power as divine revelation--is a relentless expose of the evil that mars our societies, the incessant militarism and cruelty of governments and nation states intoxicated with power. In theologian Walter Wink's provocative phrase, the Bible reveals to us the Domination System, which stands in stark contrast to God's intention for creation and humanity. That Domination System takes different forms through history--Pharaoh's Egypt, Assyria, the Pax Romana, the U.S.-run New World order--but its elements and its consequences are pretty much the same. Dying Iraqi children are only the latest victims.

WHAT ARE GOD'S PEOPLE to do--in 750 BCE or today? How do we respond faithfully to evil in history?

Clearly, we cannot accept evil, or idly stand by. We cannot indulge in our own private pieties while ignoring human suffering. The Bible, however, does not proscribe specific forms of political "activism." People of biblical faith opt for varying responses. For instance, in trying to ease the suffering of the Iraqi people, some Christians wield the basic tools of democracy by lobbying congressional legislators to change policy. Some engage in relationship-building by visiting Iraq, in defiance of the sanctions. Others are called to more prophetic expressions of political resistance, including the current hunger fast. Are these means effective? Are they faithful?

At least part of the answer lies in a fundamental arc of the biblical story. That story begins in the desert. The Israelite community, liberated from oppression in Egypt, was invited by Yahweh to enter into a covenant which outlined a communal and societal way of life that was just, egalitarian, and humane. The goal of the covenant was shalom: right relationship with God, with each other, and with the created order. The Israelites were to be a holy people--a people "set apart" (the Hebrew root for holy). They were to be a light to the nations, not chosen because of their superiority but chosen to be a living witness to God's will for all humanity and all creation. Their practice of shalom was meant to draw all people to God's vision of shalom.

But the allure of the Domination System was too great, and, as the biblical story unfolds, the Israelites opted for monarchy--to be "like the other nations" (1 Samuel 8). And, like the other nations, God's people abandoned their unique vocation to dabble in their own forms of militarism, stratified economies, and power politics. Their unfaithfulness, as the prophets loudly warned, resulted in disaster.

This same struggle is the backdrop of the Gospel story. Jesus likewise called people into a new community of disciples who would manifest in their communal practice the reign of God: a life of reconciliation, economic sharing, non-hierarchy and non-domination, mercy and compassion-the ancient vision of shalom.

Jesus' ministry was hardly new: it was rooted in the ancient covenantal tradition. Like the calling of the Israelites at Sinai, the followers of the Way of Jesus would live in radical contrast to the Domination System. They would be light, salt, and leaven, resisting the world's evil and offering a radical, hopeful, salvific, alternative.

WHAT DOES THIS biblical story mean for us? It certainly does not mean sectarian withdrawal from the world. It does tell us that our life together as people of faith is an essential element of any social and political witness. Underlying our political activism, the witness of Scripture challenges us to engage in committed communal practices of covenant. In the very midst of a world groaning in endless injustice and violence, we must carve out "liberated zones," claimed for the reign of God, where our daily practice, however imperfect and incomplete, is an expression of shalom. Through our efforts of covenant, we must incarnate a way of life and a value system in which all those who are hungry--including our enemies--are fed; in which all conflicts are resolved not by might but by reconciliation; in which servanthood replaces domination. We must build communities where mercy, hospitality, and nonviolence are the norm.

The Gospel vision of "activism" is not simply an expression of a political ideology but of a holistic way of life, prayerfully rooted in God's will and character. Jesus' followers undermined the empire by building subversive communities, house churches, and cell groups that defied social codes and lived according to the revolutionary values of the "Pax Christi" instead of the "Pax Romana. " We, too, must find ways to undermine the "Pax Americana."

In our struggle against global violence and injustice, we must envision and create covenantal communities in modern America. The Catholic Worker movement offers one model, as do many other intentional Christian communities. Most of our churches and denominations, unfortunately, are so thoroughly modeled on social-cultural forms of power and institution that they are more of an obstacle to us--but in some rare cases a church community can genuinely incarnate God's reign. Fortunately, an increasing number of Christians in this society recognize the biblical call to covenant and community and are seeking new ways to live faithfully, prophetically, and counter-culturally.

We may not be able to feed all the Iraqi children affected by sanctions. We will undoubtedly feel the anguish of God's prophets at oppression and dehumanization. But we can, with God's Spirit and with each other, live differently and give flesh-and-blood witness to a more sane and just world. And, as Jesus constantly reminded us, the seemingly infinitesimal efforts to live out the reign of God bear a great fruit, beyond our knowing.