Rule By Criminals: When Dissidents Become Enemies Of The State

 America had its color-coded system of racial segregation and warmongering called out for what it was, blatant discrimination and profiteering, by Martin Luther King Jr. And then there was Jesus Christ, an itinerant preacher and revolutionary activist, who not only died challenging the police state of his day-namely, the Roman Empire-but provided a blueprint for civil disobedience that would be followed by those, religious and otherwise, who came after him.

Much like the American Empire today, the Roman Empire of Jesus' day had all of the characteristics of a police state: secrecy, surveillance, a widespread police presence, a citizenry treated like suspects with little recourse against the police state, perpetual wars, a military empire, martial law, and political retribution against those who dared to challenge the power of the state.

For all the accolades poured out upon Jesus, little is said about the harsh realities of the police state in which he lived and its similarities to modern-day America, and yet they are striking.

The Roman Empire used its military forces to maintain the "Peace," thereby establishing a police state that reached into all aspects of a citizen's life.

Much like the Roman Empire, the American Empire has exhibited zero tolerance for dissidents such as Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning who exposed the police state's seedy underbelly.

Jesus was presented to Pontius Pilate "As a disturber of the political peace," a leader of a rebellion, a political threat, and most gravely-a claimant to kingship, a "King of the revolutionary type." After Jesus is formally condemned by Pilate, he is sentenced to death by crucifixion, "The Roman means of executing criminals convicted of high treason." The purpose of crucifixion was not so much to kill the criminal, as it was an immensely public statement intended to visually warn all those who would challenge the power of the Roman Empire.

Any reflection on Jesus' life and death within a police state must take into account several factors: Jesus spoke out strongly against such things as empires, controlling people, state violence and power politics.

https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/rule_by_criminals_when_dissidents_become_enemies_of_the_state