I have just finished reading a blog post that everyone should read. Hugh Hollowell has managed to capture the deep down unease which so many of us feel when we are truly aware of, and in relationship/conversation with, those whom our society ignores or considers irrelevant. (Here is the link, for those who wish to check it out.)
Though I am in no wise in a class with this inner city minister who runs Love Wins Ministries,I can relate. The sheer ignorance and lack of compassion that I see every day can be daunting. It is, in the end, one of the reasons I left organized religion, and it is one of the reasons I sometimes am almost debilitated by the unbelievable size of the task that lies in front of us if we are to see real change.
I can relate to the worry. Realizing suddenly that an recovering addict (and true friend) has disappeared again on the street and I haven't heard from them for several days, sitting in a council meeting where the (rich white) business owners are allowed by our (now governor elect) mayor and the city board to pass a massively unpopular bill to tell (specifically homeless) people they can't sit on the sidewalk in front of the shelters where they spend their nights and eat their meals, trying to decide how to teach my kids to not just care, but CARE, wondering if my chosen educational track will allow me at some point to create true Change.
I can relate to the sadness and sometimes almost shocking sorrow. When the 4 year old who escaped with her family from the violence in the Congo looks at me with big eyes as I help her mother set up a donated computer and asks "are you going to hurt me?" When I read (on the Internet because it doesn't make the news) of massive public rape and killing of innocent civilians in Guinea and realize that no one I tell that day really even cares, when I read Bishop McLeod Baker Ochola's appeals for peace and reconciliation (to whoever will listen) in Northern Uganda knowing that his wife and daughter are dead because no one in the Western world could be bothered by a dirty war in which tens of thousands have died (His daughter committed suicide after being abducted and gang raped.)
And I can relate at times to the anger. Having a pastor reject my notion that recovering victims of the war in Uganda deserve help ("Aren't they pagans?") or that we should try to help the needy in a nearby city ("don't you go down there?"), seeing the legislative changes that help the underdogs (laws that have been sweated and fought and prayed over) burdened with so many changes, amendments, requirements, and licensing fees that they only benefit well off old ladies on the "good" end of town, reading the manifesto of David Adkisson and realizing that he had allowed the conservative values that I grew up with and loved (the ones that taught me to value family, to value individuals for who they were, to distrust hegemonic authority) become so perverted in his mind that he felt he had to open fire on children during a production of Annie Jr.
But there are rewards as well. Just recognizing that people like Hugh Hollowell exist, watching the documentary of Transcendence Gospel Choir as they worship God in between dual worlds where they don't really fit, knowing that my friend has been clean for over a year, realizing that the 4 year old from Congo (and her big sister, and her new born sister, and her mother, and her father) actually have a chance to live free of fear now, sitting with my (spiritual) brothers and sisters in a living room and singing/worshiping/testifying/loving, listening to a room full of students discuss religion and intolerance and how they can possibly make a difference, seeing a "like" on a really important issue on Facebook, simply knowing that dialogue is happening, a few want to make a difference, a few care. Sometimes, this is enough
The task is not insurmountable, the odds are not too great, our numbers are not too small. In the end I must find comfort in the words of the great (and pretty "progressive" for his time) Apostle Paul: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" - Romans 8:31
Friday, November 19, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
This week I began reading Lift High the Cross by Ann Burlein. Her book, subtitled “Where White Supremacy and the Christian Right Converge,” attempts to use the presumed core beliefs of the Christian Identity movement and James Dobson's Focus on the Family to demonstrate that the supposedly benevolent Christian Right comes from the same roots – and shares many core values with – the White Supremacist movements led by such “ministers” as Christian Identity's Pete Peters.
I must admit that, as I began to read, I started with a deep ambivalence about the core thesis of the book. Though I would stylize myself now more as a “Progressive Libertarian,” I come from a conservative pentecostal family with a history of deep involvement in the Republican party. (My own credentials as a member of the 90's Christian Right are strong. As a child I stood on street corners holding abortion protest signs, and as a young college student I was heavily involved in the movement in Maine to prevent “sexual orientation” being added as a protected class to the state's bill of rights.) Although it is true that I have since moved to a much more politically ambiguous position, I have always seen myself as a very “tolerant” person... even before I began my major in comparative religions and left the world of established religion for the much more open interpretations of life and religion inherent in the “emergence” circles in which I increasingly find myself functioning these days!
However, as I read on, I found myself agreeing that Burlein's main point was justified – if not all of interpretations leading to her conclusion. In fact, as I read her background research on the Christian Identity movement, I found that many of the practices and methodologies inherent in the movement were extremely familiar to me from my Apostolic Pentecostal background and did, in fact, present some of the same issues which led to my separation from organized Apostolic circles. As Burlein elucidated upon the scriptural re-interpretations necessary for Peters' ideas to have legitimacy, the creation of “countermemories” which allow for the revisualizing of Biblical narratives to fit the worldview held by a particular group, and the ways in which Peters sets up an “ideal” version of masculinity and femininity which can never be truly met, I found myself recognizing many of the sources of my own discomfort within the Pentecostal tradition. This was truly brought home when Burlen pointed to the fact that Christian Identity's beliefs in Whites as Israelites were shared by Charles Parnham and that the movement began in San Francisco, birthplace of Pentecostalism!
All of this is, of course, separate from the actual racism, sexism, and genderism inherent in Apostolic circles. As a member of several churches, I had had my share of uncomfortable experiences in this department. When my childhood pastor justified the current state of Blacks in the South by using the “Ham/Canaan” narrative, when another pastor described his curly hair as being from some “ooga booga” in his blood line, when it was suggested in front of visitors who I brought to church that the “homosexual problem” could be solved by putting all of the “male gays” on one island and all of the lesbians on another, or when my wife was labeled as rebellious for asking doctrinal questions which were perfectly legitimate for myself to ask, I found myself repeatedly justifying these actions as local cultural foibles which were not representative of the actual doctrinal narratives of the overall “church” to which we belonged. However, the fear of the “other” inherent in these discourses has never made sense to me. In many ways, my search as an “Emergent Apostolic” has been to hold to the good in the socio/religious culture that is my heritage while somehow freeing myself and my family from the sexist, racist, and bigoted views which make up so much of the current dialogue.
In this, I find myself sympathizing with Dr. Dobson who – though tarred with much the same brush by Burlein – is attempting in his own way to create this sort of dynamic on a larger scale. As the culture has changed, Dobson has attempted (with sometimes more and sometimes less success) to find ways to articulate his strong cultural and religious beliefs in a way that makes sense in our post (or perhaps post-post?) modern world. While I don't agree with the ways in which his viewpoints contribute to the hegemonic power structures in our society, I do find many of his articulations useful. If nothing else, they shed light on the very struggles which I and my wife struggle with on a daily basis...
More on this later, but feel free to comment!
Cheers!
JS
I must admit that, as I began to read, I started with a deep ambivalence about the core thesis of the book. Though I would stylize myself now more as a “Progressive Libertarian,” I come from a conservative pentecostal family with a history of deep involvement in the Republican party. (My own credentials as a member of the 90's Christian Right are strong. As a child I stood on street corners holding abortion protest signs, and as a young college student I was heavily involved in the movement in Maine to prevent “sexual orientation” being added as a protected class to the state's bill of rights.) Although it is true that I have since moved to a much more politically ambiguous position, I have always seen myself as a very “tolerant” person... even before I began my major in comparative religions and left the world of established religion for the much more open interpretations of life and religion inherent in the “emergence” circles in which I increasingly find myself functioning these days!
However, as I read on, I found myself agreeing that Burlein's main point was justified – if not all of interpretations leading to her conclusion. In fact, as I read her background research on the Christian Identity movement, I found that many of the practices and methodologies inherent in the movement were extremely familiar to me from my Apostolic Pentecostal background and did, in fact, present some of the same issues which led to my separation from organized Apostolic circles. As Burlein elucidated upon the scriptural re-interpretations necessary for Peters' ideas to have legitimacy, the creation of “countermemories” which allow for the revisualizing of Biblical narratives to fit the worldview held by a particular group, and the ways in which Peters sets up an “ideal” version of masculinity and femininity which can never be truly met, I found myself recognizing many of the sources of my own discomfort within the Pentecostal tradition. This was truly brought home when Burlen pointed to the fact that Christian Identity's beliefs in Whites as Israelites were shared by Charles Parnham and that the movement began in San Francisco, birthplace of Pentecostalism!
All of this is, of course, separate from the actual racism, sexism, and genderism inherent in Apostolic circles. As a member of several churches, I had had my share of uncomfortable experiences in this department. When my childhood pastor justified the current state of Blacks in the South by using the “Ham/Canaan” narrative, when another pastor described his curly hair as being from some “ooga booga” in his blood line, when it was suggested in front of visitors who I brought to church that the “homosexual problem” could be solved by putting all of the “male gays” on one island and all of the lesbians on another, or when my wife was labeled as rebellious for asking doctrinal questions which were perfectly legitimate for myself to ask, I found myself repeatedly justifying these actions as local cultural foibles which were not representative of the actual doctrinal narratives of the overall “church” to which we belonged. However, the fear of the “other” inherent in these discourses has never made sense to me. In many ways, my search as an “Emergent Apostolic” has been to hold to the good in the socio/religious culture that is my heritage while somehow freeing myself and my family from the sexist, racist, and bigoted views which make up so much of the current dialogue.
In this, I find myself sympathizing with Dr. Dobson who – though tarred with much the same brush by Burlein – is attempting in his own way to create this sort of dynamic on a larger scale. As the culture has changed, Dobson has attempted (with sometimes more and sometimes less success) to find ways to articulate his strong cultural and religious beliefs in a way that makes sense in our post (or perhaps post-post?) modern world. While I don't agree with the ways in which his viewpoints contribute to the hegemonic power structures in our society, I do find many of his articulations useful. If nothing else, they shed light on the very struggles which I and my wife struggle with on a daily basis...
More on this later, but feel free to comment!
Cheers!
JS
Welcome!
This is a blog I started mostly to hash out ideas and thoughts that I am struggling with, discussing with others, or hold dear. Feel free to read, browse, or bypass, but please recognize that I may disagree with myself, contradict myself, or entirely change my viewpoint on any or all of the concepts embodied in whichever posts you may or may not have read in the past.
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