Imperialist crusades: 21st-century style

In the 11th century and lasting into the 13th, the papacy launched a series of at least eight military campaigns we now refer to as the Crusades, or Holy Wars. They were an imperialistic call to arms for Christians to retake Jerusalem, which was at the time under Muslim rule.

Spiritual rewards for participation were implied, and other incentives offered, to dull the extra taxation demanded to fund the campaigns. Over time, the “crusades” morphed to become massacres of not only Muslims but also Jews and Christian dissidents — in other words, any enemies of the papacy. If today’s news sounds like déjà vu all over again, it probably should.

The stories keep repeating themselves in many forms. We now know that two 20th century world wars, global in scope, were caused by imperialistic ambitions, changes in the balance of international powers and corresponding arms races. The first was attributed to the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne by a Bosnian Serb, a kind of “regime change” initiative. The second resulted from rising tensions between Allied and Axis powers, triggered by the rise of European fascism and Japanese militarism. The human toll of both was unimaginable.

In the First World War, 15 to 22 million people, including soldiers and civilians, were killed and another 23 million were wounded. These numbers do not account for those otherwise affected — victims of chemical warfare whose compromised health shortened their lives; of the subsequent Spanish flu epidemic amplified by the displacement of peoples; others who died from other diseases caused by war conditions; and those who were malnourished or starved. Nor do they account for the ongoing trauma and resentments passed on intergenerationally to this day.

The death toll of the Second World War was 60 to 75 million people. That war saw numerous massacres, rampant starvation and disease, and a mass genocide of Jews and marginalized peoples. Ostensibly, chemical weapons were illegal but atomic bombs were not, and the U.S. used two such bombs to destroy two Japanese cities, killing 150 to 246 thousand people, mostly civilians, and including an estimated 38,000 children. Many others died of acute radiation poisoning for years after the nuclear bombings.

Both wars were imperialistic crusades, much like current U.S. President Donald Trump’s promises to solve America’s problems once and for all, making America great again.

Now, in the 21st century, Trump and his “secretary of war,” Pete Hegseth, are on a continuous warpath domestically and internationally, saving the world from itself. Hegseth sees himself as Trump’s crusader.

Hegseth has the crusaders’ slogan, Deus vult (Latin for “God wills it”), proudly tattooed on his bicep and a Jerusalem cross tattoo on his chest. He, with Trump’s endorsement, acts accordingly, and their mantra of peace through war rings as hollow as it ever did.

The joint attack by the U.S. and Israel on Iran has freed no one and engaged Israel in another never-ending war in Lebanon. The “regime changes” in Venezuela and Iran have changed virtually nothing for their people. These crusades bear a close resemblance to Putin’s, supported by his church, in Ukraine. The results are inevitably wanton bloodshed, mostly of innocents, including children, and wholesale destruction of infrastructure and the environment with no end in sight.

As things stand, Trump’s whole second term has been a series of imperialistic crusades ostensibly supported by his version of Christian justification. It has been a continuous “holy war” on people of colour, immigrants, gender-diverse citizens, women, other religions and Christians-not-like-them, as well as on truth, civility, even the environment. Instead of the papacy, the Supreme Court, Congress, the Senate and billionaire opportunists have given legitimacy and support to these modern-day crusaders.

In fact, Pope Leo XIV is deemed to be on the wrong side of these wars. U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance has even suggested that the Pope needs to study the Bible more. The self-righteousness, entitlement, delusion and deceit seem to know no bounds, and anyone who dares to protest or disagree becomes a valid target.

As in 1095, when the First Crusade was proclaimed to make Christianity great again and restore it to its rightful place, the MAGA crusades are doomed to fail as they must.

Why? Because these crusades are a perversion of religion — they further besmirch the fragile reputation of Christianity. They demean humanity — the possibility of diverse people living in harmony in a shared world. In the West, they distort democracy, a system which, as an ideal, invites everyone to participate as equals in the affairs of their countries and relationships with the rest of the world.

Enough crusades already!

John R. Wiens is dean emeritus at the faculty of education, University of Manitoba.