" 'God has thrown down the rulers from their thrones,' [Mary] continues boldly. This statement is one of the most explosive declarations in the Bible. God does not support any political ruler, any emperor, any king, any president, any prime minister, any general, any secretary of state, any judge, any dictator, any senator, any congressional representative, any principality, any power. God does not condone or bless or even look the other way in the face of domination. God does not just overlook domination. God takes direct, provocative, radical, revolutionary action. God throws these rulers down from their high position of authority and domination over the poor and oppressed. . . . .

"But what does Mary's shocking statement mean for the rulers and the mighty of the United States of America? Martin Luther King, Jr. called our country 'the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.' We can expand that, sadly, to name our country as the greatest practitioner of violence in the history of the world. We are the only ones to use nuclear weapons in war thus far. Our bombs killed over 150,000 human beings in two flashes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The innocent life lost is horrifying. The United States ships billions of dollars worth of arms and weapons of mass destruction to over ninety countries each year. It fights in every war in every country; hoards oil and other natural resources all over the planet; finances dictatorships in countries like El Salvador and Guatemala; and trains soldiers at U.S. military schools around the world. Since 1983, the United States has spent over ninety-five billion dollars on missile shield programs to control outer space, which many politicians agree will never work. The United States maintains a global system that helps keep two billion people around the world in poverty, hunger, and misery. Since World War II, we have spent nineteen trillion dollars on war. Fifty percent of every U.S. tax dollar goes to the big business of killing other human beings, while less than fifteen percent pays for development aid for the world's poor.

"The Gospel of Luke teaches that God does not tolerate such domination. God will not sit idly by as we decimate entire peoples, whether through bombing raids, nuclear explosions, economic sanctions, or the consumerism and globalization that leads to mass starvation. God has thrown down the mighty from their thrones in the past, according to Mary, and will do so again. We can conclude that God will throw down the mighty in the United States."

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