The Empire Has No Clothes

Easter, America, and the Crossroads Before Us

Apr 15, 2025

white and blue robot toys — Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash

Last Sunday, at Spiritual Living Center of Atlanta, I spoke about the moment we are living through — a moment of extraordinary danger, and extraordinary opportunity.

Palm Sunday occurs against a backdrop of extraordinary tension politically and socially. And Palm Sunday only occurs because of a deep inward conviction that this tension must finally be faced. I keep waiting to see if we, in the United States of America and in the world more broadly have reached that critical turning point moment.

We are living in strange and dangerous times. If you are not concerned, you are not paying attention. We are in a time when the world feels both painfully divided and strangely familiar, as if history is looping back on itself. I said then, and I’ll say again now: the danger we are facing isn’t just political. It’s spiritual.

It’s easy to look at the news and believe we’re just watching politics as usual, or another partisan fight, or another swing of the cultural pendulum. But what we are living through is much deeper than that.

Beneath the headlines, beyond the outrage cycles, there is a spiritual struggle unfolding — the same ancient struggle that’s been with humanity from the beginning. A struggle between fear and love. Between control and freedom.

Between the consciousness of Empire and the consciousness of Truth.

Weather Aware

It’s tempting to rise above it all and in a New Thought / Buddhist kind of way remind ourselves that we are the clear blue sky (the IAM) and everything else is just the storms rolling through. Of course, at the deepest level this is true. Yet what is also true is that to be human is to be “weather aware” as they say often here in the south.

To be weather aware, you make preparations to protect your home and loved ones, you check in on your neighbors before and after the storm. One may indeed choose to meditate through the storm, focusing on the blue sky above the clouds, but ones successful capacity to do so its largely dependent on the privileges of shelter and access to resources.

And when the sky finally clears, you don’t step out into the rubble and say, “See? I told you! The blue sky was always there.” You roll up your sleeves, you walk into the streets with compassion and humility, and you begin the sacred work of repair and restoration.

Darker Skies Ahead

As we move toward Easter, I’m struck by how relevant the story of Jesus’ crucifixion remains. The Easter story is not just about resurrection — it’s about the confrontation between spiritual truth and worldly power. It’s about the way Empire always responds to those who dare to declare their inherent divinity, their sacred worth, and their oneness with all Life.

Jesus lived under the Roman Empire, a system built on military force, economic exploitation, and a carefully crafted myth of peace through power. The Empire promised security, but only for those who conformed. It promised prosperity, but only for those who served its agenda. It promised order, but only at the cost of justice. It loathed diversity and expected conformity.

Does that sound familiar?

America is Empire.

It is a nation that promises freedom but delivers hierarchy.

It is a nation that promises equality, but maintains its systems of control.

It is a nation that offers prosperity to the few, while demanding silent sacrifice from the many.

It is a nation that parades exceptionalism but demands sameness.

It is a nation where Diversity, equity and inclusion is punished, and blind obedience is rewarded and expected.

We see the machinery of Empire at work in every corner of modern life:

In the militarization of local police, where weapons designed for foreign war are now aimed at American streets.
In the systematic suppression of voting rights for the poor, the marginalized, and the young.
In an economy where billion-dollar profits coexist with hunger, homelessness, and medical bankruptcy.
And most recently — and most pointedly — in the unlawful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Kilmar may not be a U.S. citizen, but he is a person — and the U.S. Constitution makes no distinction on that point. It says,

“No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

Those words don’t bend for citizenship status. They don’t shrink based on your country of origin. They don’t apply only to the favored or the documented. Due process is not a privilege of citizenship — it is a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human being.

And yet Kilmar, a longtime resident of Maryland, a father a husband, was deported. Unlawfully. Stripped of his legal protections, taken from the life he built, and sent to El Salvador — where he remains imprisoned today.

A man erased by the machinery of Empire not for any crime, but for being convenient to remove. Erased by clerical error and dismissed by a willful disregard of his basic humanity.

There’s a reason that due process is tied to basic humanity in the consitution.

Capturing a person (any person) against their will without due process is kidnapping. Transporting a person (any person) against their will without due process is human trafficking. Holding a person (any person) against their will without due process, in a prison without access to judicial recourse - is called a concentration camp!

This is the true face of modern Empire:

It is not always violent in the way Rome was, but it is no less brutal.

It is not always honest in its oppression, but it is no less systematic.

It is not always visible, but it is no less real.

And here’s the hard truth: what happens next is up to us.

Will we allow this to be just another story buried under the news cycle?

Will we accept the myth that “the system works” even when it plainly does not?

Will we look away, or will we look closer? Closer into the consciousness that lies at the heart of it all.

The Easter story is the ultimate confrontation between the world as it is and the world as it could be. Jesus stood unflinching before the Empire, knowing full well the cost.

Easter is not about what Jesus did after the crucifixion of the innocent - its about what we will do.

What will we choose? Does something “yet live” inside of us that can triumph over the death of all that we’ve known?

Join me this Sunday as we go deeper and find out.

Same story, new chapter. You don’t want to miss it.

Rev. David Alexander D.D. is the spiritual director of the of Spiritual Living Center of Atlanta, author of Freedom from Discord: The Promise of New Thought Liberation Theology and Recovery from the Lie of Whiteness.

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