Jonathan Ebel, an assistant professor in the Department of Religion at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champlain, last night addressed a crowd of Tufts students and faculty about his interpretation of the American military as a type of civil religion, while casting soldiers who betray the soldierly ideal as modern-day Judases.
The event was held at Lincoln Filene Hall and was co-sponsored by the Department of Religion and the American Studies Program.
Ebel gave a prepared speech for the first portion of the talk, adapted from his book "G.I. Messiahs: Soldiers, War, and American Civil Religion," which is slated for publication in about two years. The book will focus on how American civil expressions of religion, especially between the 1920s and 1960s, led to a particularly idolatrous perception of the U.S. military.
"The patterns established in this period continue to shape the ways Americans talk about soldiers," he said. "Salvation is just a combat death away."
Ebel in his lecture focused on three cases where the perceptions of fallen heroes mirror those of Judas, Jesus' disciple who according to canonical gospel betrayed the Messiah and whose actions led to his death.
"My purpose today is to talk of traitors, not heroes," Ebel said.
The idealistic image of the soldier is not easy to uphold, but Americans have very high standards for their enlisted men and women, according to Ebel.
"Wearing the uniform places extraordinary demands on a person," he said. "The reality of their actions … defies simple black and white, good and evil presentation."
Ebel explained that in the extracanonical Gospel of Judas, Judas' betrayal was necessary for Jesus' ascent to heaven, so Judas' actions emphasize just how perfect the Messiah was. He argued that what he calls American G.I. Judas figures are just as important to American military religion as the G.I. Messiah figures are.
"As with the biblical figure of Judas Iscariot, the figure of G.I. Judas is vile but necessary," he said.
Ebel explained that the existence of soldiers who betray the ideal throws those who uphold it into an even brighter light. His first example of this was Oise-Aisne American Cemetery Plot E, an unmarked, hidden grave plot at a French cemetery for American soldiers killed in World War II, which holds soldiers executed for crimes such as rape and murder during the war.
"There are no gleaming white crosses marking the 62 graves in this space," Ebel said. "In death, they were stripped of their names, their rank, their place of birth … this is what military damnation looks like."
The lower-status plot not only emphasizes these soldiers' betrayal but also highlights the messianic status of those buried in the regular plots, Ebel explained.
"Both [the story of Judas and the separated soldiers] say quite clearly, you don't want to end up like this," Ebel said. "The betrayer reveals the messiah."
"I contend that these manifestations of G.I. Judas do important and … beneficial work," he added.
Ebel's other examples of G.I. Judas included the reviled Francis Gary Powers, who chose submission to the Soviets over suicide when he was shot down on a secret U-2 mission in 1960, and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the former presidential candidate and Vietnam veteran who spoke out against U.S. intervention there.
"Powers betrayed the G.I. Messiah … He thought first of himself, not of nation," Ebel said. "Kerry betrayed all honorable soldiers, prolonging their suffering immensely."
Most sections of Ebel's book, including the Kerry chapter, are still works in progress, so the post-lecture question and answer portion served partly as a sounding board for Ebel to hear other opinions and questions about his theories. Although he asserted his confidence in his G.I. Messiah and G.I. Judas theories, Ebel acknowledged that they were not universally applicable constructs.
"It works quite well in these cases," he said. "It does not exhaust the possibilities of either ideal."
The event was organized by Heather Curtis, an assistant professor of religion who teaches Religion, Race and Nation in American History as well as History of Religion in America. Curtis said she recommended that her students attend the event.
Zoe Munoz, a sophomore who attended the lecture, said that she found exploring the connections between religion and secular American institutions, as well as Ebel's acknowledgement of the ambiguity of this subject, useful for her class with Curtis.
"When it comes to war, these things are very fuzzy," she said. "It could have a lot to do with religion and … the construction of a national identity."
Curtis said she knows Ebel from participating in the Young Scholars in American Religion program. She said she felt it would be valuable for students both in her courses and in the general Tufts student body to learn about "the myths that we as Americans ascribe to."
"I wanted to give students the opportunity to hear a prominent scholar … who focuses in American religious history," she said. "All these things I think are very timely subjects … I thought he would be a really relevant speaker."
