God's Imperialism: Mark Twain and the Religious War between Imperialists and Anti-Imperialists

Abstract

New Perspectives on “The War-Prayer” Essays on “The War-Prayer” God’s Imperialism: Mark Twain and the Religious War Between Imperialists and Anti-Imperialists Edward J. BLUM By the time Mark Twain crafted “The War-Prayer,” he had long opposed American cultural and military imperialism. Particularly, he fumed at the notion that the Christian God was an imperialist. Twain berated church leaders for endorsing militancy and po- litical leaders for employing religious language. In “To The Person Sitting in Darkness,” published in 1901, Twain attacked Protestant missionaries for their violence against native peoples and efforts at economic exploitation. “Christendom has been playing it badly of late years,” Twain lamented, “and must certainly suffer by it, in my opinion.” Then in “The War-Prayer,” written four years later yet unpublished at the time, Twain once again turned his “weapons of satire” against religiously legitimated imperialism. The parody could have taken place at any white Protestant church: Christians singing the praises of war; military men believing their murderous crusades holy; and the American  ag invok- ing mystical feelings. Twain’s interruption of this familiar scene with an “aged strang- er”—who seemed a ghost, a demon, and an angel all in one—was ominous. The “ghastly” stranger spoke of a prayer that the congregants felt, but never spoke—that in Americans’ prayers for victory, they were secretly praying for others’ defeat; in their supplications for protection of their sons, they were asking God for the deaths of others. The silent prayers approached God as a murderer and a nationalist. And this God, Twain implied, could not be the God of the Bible. 1 With “The War-Prayer,” Twain paid homage to one of the most neglected elements of the War of 1898 and the struggle between imperialists and anti-imperialists: that all play- ers framed their arguments with religious rhetoric. Both sides invoked God; both sides invoked biblical scriptures. In the process, a host of church leaders, politicians, and writers demonstrated that ideas about the sacred were a central feature of the rise of the American empire. With his passionate anti-imperialist writings, epitomized by “The War-Prayer,” Twain signied on the importance of religion in American culture and sought to turn its power to the side of peace and universal fellowship. Sadly, he and the other anti-imperial- ists were defeated by a jingoistic wave that associated American national interests with God, an association that has yet to be severed. 2 When the War of 1898 began, the majority of white American Protestants rallied to the cause. One Methodist minister announced, “[O]ur cause will be just, and Methodism