A Good God Goes to War: Who do we know?

I have come to the end of this little series with what was for me the beginning, appropriate that you are experiencing this in a different order from me. The idea for this series began as I thought about the themes in the season 6 episode A Good Man Goes to War where the Doctor enlists all of his allies to recover his friend and traveling companion Amy. He forms an army, an army that doesn’t attack, an army whose entire mission is to win the day without violence. And the episode deliberately tells us this, the greatest victory of the Doctor is to rescue his friend Amy without coming in “guns blazing” to attack the enemy. The idea of the Doctor intervening, without violence, in situations that we often think require violence has been the theme of this series. The Doctor’s commitment to avoiding bloodshed is what has made him a great analogue for how we view God. And it is easy to accept an evil army has arrayed against him ready to destroy him. We can readily picture forces bent on nothing but evil opposing the Good Man who stands in their way, often alone and always unarmed. This is the depiction of the forces of evil arrayed against Jesus in Revelation 19, the kings of this earth want war and violence but Jesus only speaks and the gains the victory. If this episode were that simple I doubt it would be memorable to me or make, at least what I think, is a fitting conclusion for this series.

What makes this episode so special for me is the character Lorna Bucket, a young woman who has once had a brief encounter with the Doctor and who has dedicated her life to meeting him again. To accomplish her desire she enlists in the army that is formed to resist and destroy the Doctor. This logic might seem strange, if you want to meet the Doctor and even befriend him why join with the people who want to destroy him? She provides an answer to this saying, “How else do you meet a great warrior?” She is met with the response, “He’s not a warrior.” to which she responds, “Then why is he called The Doctor?” The viewer is left in the dark about this comment until later in the episode where it is revealed that across the universe the term “doctor” is used for a healer and wise man because of the the Doctor, except on Lorna’s homeworld where the term means “mighty warrior”. It is this moment that made me hit the pause button and begin to think about humanity’s conceptions of God. In yesterday’s post (here) I referenced a scene where people who want to kill the Doctor run in fear simply because of his legacy. They are given information about the number of death he has caused and they assume her is a violent man who should be feared and so run in terror. But we the viewer who see the Doctor’s character know that even his anger is kept in check and that the violence he participates in originate in the hatred and violence of others. The Doctor is not cruel and violent, his anger is always justified and measured, he seeks to show mercy and not take vengeance often forgiving what those around him see as unforgivable. This goes so far that when the Doctor has the opportunity to wipe out his most hated enemy (the Daleks) before they have harmed anyone he recognizes that would not be just or merciful to them and so allows them to live.

While we the viewers know the Doctor’s character in Lorna we see how most clearly how a person can misunderstand his character and perceive him as something other than he is. Even more curious is the fact that Lorna is drawn to him without embracing the violence she believes is intrinsic to him, she is depicted as a caring, loving person who wants to save others. This is the paradox of the show and it is where art imitates life. So many have a brief encounter with the God of the Bible and from that brief encounter coupled with a social narrative draw the conclusion that God is strangely violent, vengeful and angry. For many, like the army that forms to destroy the Doctor, this causes them to hate, fear, or dismiss God as a violent monster. Some, like Lorna, might have a personal encounter that leads them to a strange relationship where they expect God to be angry and violent but reflect God’s true nature never noticing the paradox. The whole time God’s friends, like the Doctor’s companions, see that God is drawn to violence out of love for humanity, but tries to avoid violence even when the threat of being killed is high (in this episode the Doctor walks unarmed into the middle of the army that is supposed to kill him). .

The character of Lorna helps me to see that we often take one small snapshot of God’s activity and then attempt to build out God’s persona from there, instead of allowing God’s self-revealed character to be our starting point and then attempting to find that character in the stories we hear and tell. As I have said throughout this series, such an approach is not without it’s own pitfalls and tensions, it is not always easy to understand God’s response to and participation in violence, no matter how we articulate it. However, the alternative is often to believe and provide for others a false picture of God’s character. Almost half of Americans who believe in God believe that God is angry, critical,, and judgmental, is this the character that God reveals to Moses in Exodus 34? Of course not, it is our perception of God based on the stories we tell and if we continue to tell those stories we will continue to view God in these ways. Some will, no doubt, argue, “but they are true stories”. Yes they are but just like the list of those whose cause of death is “the Doctor” or the being a “mighty warrior” they are true stories told from the wrong perspective. The stories of God being angry, violent, harsh, and judgmental are often stories told from our own characters rooted in these conditions or in fear of them. We tell stories based on our own experience and if we are angry, violent, or critical or live in fear of these we can expect to see these traits projected onto the God we worship. The difficulty is these are basic traits of humanity and so they are hard to distance ourselves from. Instead we must look at the passages about God’s anger, or violence through the lens of God’s character which desires peace and mercy. I find when I do this I begin to grieve that God is involved in our mess and I become more commuted to peace in my own life and working for peace in the world. The more deeply I am committed to understanding God’s activity in the world through God’s own self-disclosed character, the more my own character is changed to imitate God’s.