Religious freedom is central to the Epiphany (and condemns the Capitol violence)
A nativity scene. Photo by Chelsea Langston Bombino.
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(OPINION) On Jan. 6, we celebrated Epiphany - the Magi’s revelation of the Christ-child. This year, Epiphany was also the day a group of domestic terrorists invaded the U.S. Capitol.
Epiphany spiritually symbolizes the manifestation of Christ - the Prince of Peace - to the world. And yet peace is not what manifested at the Capitol. Many who violently sieged the Capitol building identified as Christians, distorting the name of Christ on the day we mark His revelation to the Gentiles.
These violent actors were misusing their religious freedom. Any claims of religious freedom to defend acts of violence are inherently flawed. The insurrection at the Capitol marked an assault to our essential civic institutions.
This violence also makes clear that Christian citizens and institutions must live out their religious freedom responsibly. We should be aware, as Christ followers, of how Christian symbols and icons were used to promote distorted and life-denying ideologies and violent acts last week. And these images - of the cross, the ichthys, etc.- will continue to connect, in many Americans’ minds, the Christian faith with the incitement of insurrection.
The Center for Public Justice’s Statement on Capitol violence states: “Many who confess Jesus as Lord have, when it comes to politics, worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. Idolatry and lies have lamentably captivated some who we know as brothers and sisters in Christ.” All Christian citizens ought to prayerfully seek God’s guidance in terms of how they steward their religious freedom in cultivating a truthful and faithful Christian public witness.
Epiphanytide marks the weeks immediately following Epiphany, in many Western Christian traditions. During this time, several holy days are celebrated, including the Baptism of the Lord in the Jordan River and the Feast of the Wedding at Cana. According to the Anglican Church, the season of Epiphanytide varies, due to Easter’s date of celebration shifting on a yearly basis, and “can last anywhere from 40 to 63 days.”
This season of Epiphany, which we are now in, affords us the opportunity to honor Christ’s manifestation and ministry in the world. Epiphanytide invites us to reflect on the role of religious freedom and religious literacy in Christ’s manifestation to the world. This is perhaps even more relevant in light of the Capitol violence last week. I pray that Americans of all faiths and none will have the religious literacy and the spiritual wisdom to discern that the way Christian images and symbols were used by the mob is not reflective of the Gospel, or the vast majority of Americans who claim to follow Christ.
The word epiphany denotes the manifestation of a divine being to humans. This concept of Christ’s manifestation - of sacrificial Love Incarnate - is at the heart of the Christian life. Not just during Epiphanytide, but everyday. Christ-centered ethics manifest the generative potential of love into action. The Capitol violence last week did not represent Christ’s love made manifest. As Tish Warren-Harrison wrote: “The violence wrought by [those] storming the Capitol is anti-epiphany. It is dark and based in untruth.”
Love is embodied through human activities. Love is lived out in distinct human roles in the God-given institutions of which we are a part: spiritual, familial, educational, vocational and civic communities. Love scaffolds responsibility. And, for the Christian, human love is a particular, though incomplete, reflection of God’s love.
The season of epiphany affords Christians the opportunity to reflect on how Chrst was made manifest to the world, one night 2,000 years ago. But we can also consider the social context - the preconditions - in which Love Divine appeared to the Magi. Specifically, without freedom to seek, discern and act upon what individuals believe to be sacred, the Magi would not have been able follow the star to the Christ-child. Both religious freedom and religious literacy were present and needed, at least to some extent, in the Epiphany narrative. Let’s explore this further.
The wise men followed a star to where the Christ-child was staying. The star of Bethlehem itself is not to be worshipped as God. Yet, if one can avoid the trap of venerating creature rather than Creator, this story holds the potential for illumination of an ever-present truth. God is Light. The “Star of wonder” is guiding us “to Thy perfect Light.” It points us, literally and figuratively, to Christ.
This spiritual illumination can only unfold in the context of both religious freedom and spiritual understanding. In “The Epiphany of Love: Toward a Theological Understanding of Christian Action”, Livio Melina writes: “freedom is fundamentally a capacity for love” that reaches its fullest expression when “patiently built and developed in synergy with divine grace.” The Magi had the baseline legal and cultural freedom they needed to actually engage in “Following yonder Star.”
Religious freedom, then, is an implicit and unsung character in the Epiphany narrative. Without religious freedom, the Magi would have lacked the ability to seek spiritual meaning outside of their own religious belief system in the mysterious star. And, without religious freedom, the Magi would not have been able to take the actions necessary to lead them to Christ himself.
The Magi’s distinct encounter with Christ would not have been possible without religious freedom. But it also wouldn’t have been probable without the Magi being literate in other religious traditions. The Magi were most likely learned men possessing an elite, ecclecisal social status. And, according to Charles Strohmer: “Religious historians also agree that the Magi (wise men) were learned in religion, diplomacy, literature, divination, esoteric wisdom, magical practices and the zodiac.”
Strohmer also posits that the Magi served diplomatic functions during antiquity. This ambassadorial role would have required these men to be widely read, fluent in the religious and cultural practices of their political neighbors, including Israel. The Magi were probably following the star that appeared to them for its spiritual, rather than astrological, significance. As Strohmer writes: these men very likely possessed “some collective awareness of a prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, that a “star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel” (Numbers 24:17).”
We are now celebrating the beginning of Epiphanytide as we are still processing the political violence of last week. Let us meditate upon the significant, though undervalued roles of both religious freedom and religious literacy in creating the conditions necessary to bring the Magi to Christ. The Magi practiced their religious freedom and relied upon their religious literacy to bring them to Christ. And the Magi did this against a political landscape of darkness and sin, with Harold scheming to manipulate the Magi to lead him to Christ so he could have the baby killed. The incidents of violence at the Capitol invite us, as citizens, to exercise our own religious liberty and religious literacy winsomely. We must discern how to steward both our spiritual freedom and spiritual knowledge to seek God. This is what the Magi did, in the midst of political and social unrest. And even to the ends of the earth.
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