FATHER FRANK’S RANTS - God of Destruction

Rant Number 450 26 July 2011

The Viking is a Christian. Yes, Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass slayer. Let us not pretend. He chose baptism in his teens. Never mind he belongs to a sub-Christian sect, the ultra-liberal Lutheran Church of Norway. A Christian is what he proclaims to be. Not the kind of Christian Abraham would welcome into his bosom, no. Still, he chose the Cross as symbol. Moral revulsion at the fellow’s massacre is not enough. The dark side of God confronts us. Destruction also is part of the Divine. Never mind how culturally unpalatable - it is the truth.

Consider Hinduism. Its highest holy triad is that of Brahman the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer. Shiva is the dancing god. He is Nataraja, the Lord of the Dance. One of his symbols is a skull. With the ending of the last, dark age of the cosmos, the Kali-Yuga, Shiva presides over the destruction of the whole universe – mankind included.

Judaism looks simpler. There is only One, Creator God – what a relief! But wait, the Creator is also the Destroyer. In Genesis, chapter 6, men have grown so wicked that God decrees: ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created’. And he does. With the Flood almost the whole of humanity is drowned. Upsetting but...God did it once. He could do it again. Dura lex sed lex.

The New Testament enthrones love as the supreme principle. Yet, the Book of Revelation pulls no punches. War breaks out in Heaven. Michael and his angels fight with the dragon and prevail. Oceans of blood engulf the world. And so on.

Islam has 99 names of God. Amongst them are: al-Mumit, the Destroyer or the death bringer; al-Muntaqim, the Avenger; al-Daar, the Harmer. Add the key eschatological concept of al-Mahdi. Yes, he comes to bring justice and relieve oppression. But Muslims don’t claim al-Mahdi’s battles will be pacific. The Mahdi is no Quaker. He will destroy, as well as build.

Don’t get me wrong. Viking Breivik is not God’s agent. Nor is he quite mad. Yes, he behaved like a berserker. The ancient Nordic warriors who fought with savage frenzy. But his frenzy was planned, controlled. A cold and methodical slaughter. He acted like a Viking. The race of wild, barbarous marauders who raided Britain for centuries. They plundered, raped and slaughtered. Oh, the patron saint of Norway is St Olaf. (Known in England as St Olave.) Feast day this Friday, July 29. Spread Christianity through his kingdom but a Viking is still a Viking. He used force to convert and his rule was hard and cruel – like a Viking.

It took me hours to plough through the Viking’s manifesto online. Written in good English but prolix. Prima facie, an intelligent mind is at work. Breivik’s arguments are obsessive but not irrational. Not even wholly wrong. Even liberal luminaries like Tony Blair and Sir Trevor Phillips have criticised multiculturalism, the Viking’s bête (tres, tres) noire. And it is not racists alone who worry about immigration. Lunacy obtrudes, however, when he boasts of ‘Knights Templars’, the Justiciars, issuing death sentences for treason and all that droll nonsense. Look at the photograph showing him in Freemason’s regalia. Huh! Why does he not roll up his trouser leg? What a joke! This is someone who has played computer games a bit too long. An adolescent mind, shut in its own fantasy world. Mind you, there must be millions like him. They do not, however, coldly execute 76 people.

There is the rub. ‘Thou shalt do no murder’. The Fifth Commandment. Thus God spoke to Moses from Sinai. The Messiah reaffirmed that eternal law. And he allowed himself to be martyred, rather than to kill. It a kernel of Christian ethics. The direct, deliberate killing of the innocent is murder. Hateful to Christ and contrary to his will. The Viking, despite the lucidity of his manifesto, has not grasped that timeless truth. He has broken the most basic moral law. Wicked and corrupt man, thou hast sinned!

Extraordinary how in his detestation of Islam the Viking has actually copied those violent Islamists who have massacred the innocent. Maybe there is truth in the saying that fanatical haters often end up resembling those whom they hate...

The Viking calls himself a Christian. All ‘cultural Christians’ are welcome into his Knights Templars, he writes. Funny, though, it turns out even an atheist can be a Christian and a Knight, according to him! But the Knights Templars were ardent believers in God and Christ. Their military and religious Order was founded to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land. The idea that someone could arrogate to himself the title of Knight and be an atheist would have been anathema to them. Truth is, the Viking raves.

Breivik’s moral enormity, his way of drawing attention to his cause, reminds me of Yukio Mishima. The famous Japanese writer who committed suicide in 1970. Mishima wanted to restore to the Emperor his powers. Bring Japan back to his military glories. He harangued army cadets, expecting acclaim. Instead, they mocked and jeered him. Mishima’s gory self-destruction, by disembowelling and beheading, was meant to elevate him to national martyrdom. But the Japanese people shunned his call. Mishima’s sacrifice was in vain.

The Viking, unlike Mishima, sacrificed the innocent. And he is no novelist. Just a mediocre pamphlet scribbler. What reactions his action will engender? Norwegians now abhor him but there must be some who agree with his ideas, if not his methods. Certainly, the Far Right is being targeted right now. Loathsome left-wing rags like the Guardian and the Independent are having a field day, spotting fascists under the bed everywhere. In doing so, they will also hugely glamorise the Viking’s views. Tricky.

I have just been interviewed on Iran State TV. Could not resist a speculation there is more to the Viking than it meets the eye. Secret services perhaps? But my lips are sealed.

God of Destruction. The dark side of the Divine. ‘You make light and create darkness’ says the Prophet Isaiah. But what is lawful to God is not lawful to man. If God decided to make an end of mankind he could do it any time. Indeed, the Revelation of St John, in its coded, enigmatic way, spells out the world’s destiny. But the final, apocalyptic battle is God’s, not man’s. Certainly not the task of a dull, petty bourgeois, Freemason assassin. No superman he. Just less than a man.