What does the Cross have to do with the Crown? / A.J. Hendry

With indigenous leaders across the world calling on the Crown to apologize and atone for the sins of their ancestors, there are those who ask what business the church has standing alongside the Crown?

What does the Cross have to do with the Crown?

Billion-dollar, gold plated, blood dripping, down…

The Crown.

This powerful symbol of colonial might.

We remember you.

I mean, how could we forget?

You’re always here, ever present before us, your image baked into our living memory, imprinted upon us.

Reminding us – always – of who you are, of what you’ve done.

And this coronation is just another a reminder, of your role in this world, of our role in relation to you. A reminder of your power, your history, your place amongst us.

It is estimated that the King alone is worth roughly 1.8billion The crown pays no tax, and to top it off, they receive welfare annually from the taxpayer by means of the Sovereign Grant. Last year’s welfare payment came in at about 86.3million pounds. Political commentators in the UK anticipate that small 86-million-dollar donation from the taxpayer will only go up (in fact the way the legislation works, it can only go up, there’s a nice little clause in there that means that the benefit payments the Windsor’s receive can only go up, not down – they call it the Golden Ratchet).

That wealth doesn’t come from hard work or merit, it wasn’t generated by some brilliant mind that invented some once unthinkable tech and then cornered the market, no, you can put to bed all the myths normally used to defend the wealth and privilege of the powerful, this isn’t some “pull-your-self-up-by-your-britches-story”. The wealth that this family enjoy, the privilege and power they hold, it comes directly from their ancestor’s history of colonization. This wealth so carelessly flaunted in front us at the King’s recent coronation, has been extracted from indigenous peoples around the world. It is the result of murder, rape, and theft. A living reminder of Sins still unatoned.

In light of this it’s crazy to me, that in a time of global suffering, with people struggling to survive, with the cost of living – of living, that term alone just does my head in – getting so high, with children living on our streets, with our elders dying without adequate care, with our families struggling to etch some small space in this capitalist hell hole we’ve created, that the people paid for this million dollar exercise in mental colonization.

And where is the Church during this public colonization of our consciousness?

Joining the Indigenous peoples of the world in calling the Crown to account?

Standing with the poor and marginalized, demanding Justice, for the Crown to release the people from the financial burden their Government has placed upon them?

No.

Right there, next to this archaic symbol of colonial might, stands the Church.

Calling on the people to swear allegiance, to bow, accepting, endorsing, shouting Long Live the King!

Again, I ask you, what business does the Church have acting as cup bearer to Rome?

The Saviour we Christians say we follow came not to rule but serve. He too was offered the power and might of the nations. Out in the desert, there at the beginning of his public work, the one we call The Devil came to him. Bow, said he, bow before me and I will give you Power over the nations of the world! This must have been a tempting proposition. Jesus was a poor indigenous man, whose people had suffered countless oppressive and colonizing tyrants in living memory. The current of which wore the heavy and oppressive boot of Rome. How great would it have been to have such power. To be able to free his people. To be able to change his circumstances. And yet Jesus refused. His Kingdom, The Divine’s Kingdom, was not of this world. It was not of power, of might, but of Love, of sacrifice, of service.

Jesus left the desert and served the poor, healed the sick, stood up for the marginalized, and pronounced that the Divine’s rule over this world had begun.

And it cost him his life.

He was killed, murdered by the state, his body broken and crushed.

He died, not because he stood with the state, but because he stood against it.

So, when that is our whakapapa, what is the Church doing endorsing and accepting this institution?

The Crown is the living representation of Sins still unatoned across the globe. Colonization is not behind us, indigenous peoples around the world still suffer because of what this institution did. If the Church has anything to say to the Crown, it is to stand with the people and name this clearly and unequivocally. To call on the Crown to repent, to sell what it has, to use its privilege and position to call for the returning of stolen land and to make right the Sins of their ancestors. It is to join the people in demanding the Crown release them of the financial burdens they have placed upon them, and instead to redistribute their wealth for the betterment of the poor.

Obviously, the church of England is an Anglican institution, but I do not lay this critique solely at the feet of my Anglican brothers and sisters (and I of course acknowledge that there are diverse perspectives regarding the church and crown within the domination itself). The Coronation only highlights for me how uncritical many Western Christians as a whole are when it comes to issues of wealth and power. I have heard Catholics and Protestants alike defend the Crown and celebrate its association with the Christian faith. Uncritically supporting this state institution, in a not to dissimilar manner to which many American Christian’s bow before the Flag, uncritically accepting the myth of American exceptionalism.

It speaks to me of a deeper issue at the heart of Western Christianity.

A blindness to issues of class, wealth and power, and a failure to truly account for the manner in which our faith has been used, and continues to be used, to uphold the status quo and deny justice to the poor and structurally marginalized.

For those of us who proport to follow the indigenous, colonized, Christ, this man who did not simply stand with the Poor, but literally become One of them, we have some questions to ask ourselves.

Who do we truly serve?

The state?

The powerful?

The rich?

Or the people? Those who are poor? Those who have been marginalized. Those who continue to suffer and struggle due to the sins of those with power?

There is no middle ground here.

No third way.

We either serve and uphold the status quo, or we cross the line and stand with Christ on the margins.

The question is, where do we stand?

#LoveIsTheWay

A.J. Hendry is a Laidlaw College graduate, and a Youth Development Worker and housing advocate, working in the Youth Housing and Homelessness space. He leads a service supporting rangatahi experiencing homelessness and is also an advocate working collectively to end youth homelessness in Aotearoa. He is also the curator and creator of When Lambs Are Silent.