Thursday, November 27, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Love and Suffering
In October, the magazine Presbyterian Today published an article by the well-known theologian Stanley Hauerwas, on the politics embodied by Jesus. You can read it here.
I agree with much of what he was saying, and see much of his words as 'speaking truth to power', or at least 'truth to comfort', to try and shake people out of their complacency. And yet, of late, I have an increasingly hard time with a theology that focuses on sacrifice and suffering.
So I wrote a little response--which got published!--here. (They entitled the letter 'Where is the Love')
I understand that Jesus embodied self-sacrifice. But I truly do believe we must never de-couple that sacrifice from the Love that was core to who he was. Otherwise we start preaching behavior and ethics, as opposed to the liberating Love of God. To preach sacrifice and suffering to those who are already oppressed and abused is to deny them the fullness of life embodied in Christ, in the name of Christianity. It is to validate the oppression and abuse they experience and deny them the 'Yes' God offers to their lives, imposing instead a religiously justified 'No'. What a horror.
I am not saying that there is nothing of sacrifice or suffering Jesus life. What I am saying is that perhaps it is not his suffering alone that should be our model so much as his communion with God, his compassion, his steadfastness, his love and yes, his joy...his own life in sheer palpable overflowing abundance. I know that traditional atonement theories focus on his death as saving us, but as early as the 4th century, Church Fathers such as Athanasius proclaimed that the most important reason for the Incarnation was the defeat of death, through the Resurrection. I know it's hard sometimes to truly believe in the Resurrection, but even with my very limited theological understandings, I think it's unfair exegesis to focus on Jesus' suffering and death as a model of reality and then forego all the other parts of Scripture that focus on the Resurrection and triumph over death as being 'symbolic'. His death can not be considered apart from his resurrection.
I'm not a preacher, and I'm not trying to critique Hauerwas or anyone else. What I am trying to point out is that many people do not know that they are loved. They do not know that they have inherent worth. To insist that Christianity is more about their behavior than about their ontological identity in God is to fail to meet people in their hearts and souls, where their deepest needs and longings exist. It sets up principles instead of relatedness. It brings no healing, no liberation, no life where there was death.
I know Christians are called to 'speak truth to power'. And I know there are far too many of us who are comfortable in our lives and turn a blind eye to the suffering of others. But there are also many who daily suffer under the violence of domestic abuse, the oppression of addiction, the suffering of involuntary poverty. A theology that extols suffering as the 'way of Jesus' without first speaking into these situations, speaking to the inherent worth of these victims, empowering them to get out of the abuse, and yes, even to defend themselves if necessary, is very hard for me to accept. I know Jesus chose to die at the hands of his enemies. But I also believe it was a choice. It was a calling he accepted. That is very different than telling a woman who is attacked on the streets that she should not defend herself--even violently, if absolutely necessary. As my feminist colleagues have pointed out, a dogmatic non-violence can have violence embedded in it--violence against the self. This is a huge question in Christian ethics, and one I don't feel qualified to take on, but I worry that self-sacrifice is far too easy a concept for many people, especially those with incredibly low self-esteem, to grasp. I just don't believe that that these are the places from which God means us to come when acting 'sacrificially'. Without Love as the test of the spirits, how will we know the difference?
I agree with much of what he was saying, and see much of his words as 'speaking truth to power', or at least 'truth to comfort', to try and shake people out of their complacency. And yet, of late, I have an increasingly hard time with a theology that focuses on sacrifice and suffering.
So I wrote a little response--which got published!--here. (They entitled the letter 'Where is the Love')
I understand that Jesus embodied self-sacrifice. But I truly do believe we must never de-couple that sacrifice from the Love that was core to who he was. Otherwise we start preaching behavior and ethics, as opposed to the liberating Love of God. To preach sacrifice and suffering to those who are already oppressed and abused is to deny them the fullness of life embodied in Christ, in the name of Christianity. It is to validate the oppression and abuse they experience and deny them the 'Yes' God offers to their lives, imposing instead a religiously justified 'No'. What a horror.
I am not saying that there is nothing of sacrifice or suffering Jesus life. What I am saying is that perhaps it is not his suffering alone that should be our model so much as his communion with God, his compassion, his steadfastness, his love and yes, his joy...his own life in sheer palpable overflowing abundance. I know that traditional atonement theories focus on his death as saving us, but as early as the 4th century, Church Fathers such as Athanasius proclaimed that the most important reason for the Incarnation was the defeat of death, through the Resurrection. I know it's hard sometimes to truly believe in the Resurrection, but even with my very limited theological understandings, I think it's unfair exegesis to focus on Jesus' suffering and death as a model of reality and then forego all the other parts of Scripture that focus on the Resurrection and triumph over death as being 'symbolic'. His death can not be considered apart from his resurrection.
I'm not a preacher, and I'm not trying to critique Hauerwas or anyone else. What I am trying to point out is that many people do not know that they are loved. They do not know that they have inherent worth. To insist that Christianity is more about their behavior than about their ontological identity in God is to fail to meet people in their hearts and souls, where their deepest needs and longings exist. It sets up principles instead of relatedness. It brings no healing, no liberation, no life where there was death.
I know Christians are called to 'speak truth to power'. And I know there are far too many of us who are comfortable in our lives and turn a blind eye to the suffering of others. But there are also many who daily suffer under the violence of domestic abuse, the oppression of addiction, the suffering of involuntary poverty. A theology that extols suffering as the 'way of Jesus' without first speaking into these situations, speaking to the inherent worth of these victims, empowering them to get out of the abuse, and yes, even to defend themselves if necessary, is very hard for me to accept. I know Jesus chose to die at the hands of his enemies. But I also believe it was a choice. It was a calling he accepted. That is very different than telling a woman who is attacked on the streets that she should not defend herself--even violently, if absolutely necessary. As my feminist colleagues have pointed out, a dogmatic non-violence can have violence embedded in it--violence against the self. This is a huge question in Christian ethics, and one I don't feel qualified to take on, but I worry that self-sacrifice is far too easy a concept for many people, especially those with incredibly low self-esteem, to grasp. I just don't believe that that these are the places from which God means us to come when acting 'sacrificially'. Without Love as the test of the spirits, how will we know the difference?
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Random Music Moment
It's Wednesday, and time for a little break. Thanks to my friend "Ufo" for sharing this!
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Bloggers in the Middle East...
..weigh in on the elections. Apparently hope is contagious. Excerpt below:
Esra’a, Bahrain (mideastyouth.com)
I can honestly say that we can finally wave goodbye to the overwhelming anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry that we have suffered with for the past eight years under the Bush administration. We can expect less wars, less corruption, less political abuse. It won’t be perfect, but it will get better. I am so happy and proud of all the Americans who worked extremely hard for Obama, understanding fully well the importance of change in every sense of the word. This moment is not just historical but crucial to us here in the Middle East.
This is a win for all of us, not just America.
This is a win for civil rights and justice.
For all the pessimists out there, allow us to enjoy this moment. If you learned anything from this campaign, you would learn that it starts with hope — not cynicism. And hope is what I have right now, for America and the Middle East.
We can do it, and this time, we can be sure that we can do it together.
I haven’t said this in a really long time, but I am loving America right now.
Esra’a, Bahrain (mideastyouth.com)
I can honestly say that we can finally wave goodbye to the overwhelming anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry that we have suffered with for the past eight years under the Bush administration. We can expect less wars, less corruption, less political abuse. It won’t be perfect, but it will get better. I am so happy and proud of all the Americans who worked extremely hard for Obama, understanding fully well the importance of change in every sense of the word. This moment is not just historical but crucial to us here in the Middle East.
This is a win for all of us, not just America.
This is a win for civil rights and justice.
For all the pessimists out there, allow us to enjoy this moment. If you learned anything from this campaign, you would learn that it starts with hope — not cynicism. And hope is what I have right now, for America and the Middle East.
We can do it, and this time, we can be sure that we can do it together.
I haven’t said this in a really long time, but I am loving America right now.
Friday, November 7, 2008
The View
Not my normal source of political opinion, but these two clips say a lot from different perspectives...(warning: get a tissue)
Shock and Awe
I've been wanting to post some reflections on this election for a few days now, but haven't had any time until now....
When I went to sleep on Monday night, I felt a vague sense of anxiety. I wasn't sure what it was all about, but I dreamt about the elections, and woke up in the middle of the night with this eery sense that I finally understood what Carl Jung meant when he talked about the power of archetypes. Archetypes (as I understand them) are those facets of the 'collective unconscious' that all humans can resonate with, because they exist at a level that goes beyond the personal or even cultural. The 'hero' is an archetype. The 'lover' is another archetype. These are personal symbols. But I would guess that racism is a type of archetype--at the very least oppression is. And democracy (literally the power of the people) is another archetype. Change, and resistance to change, both have deep archetypal senses to them. And archetypes play extremely powerful roles in our subconscious, often directing our behavior in ways we can barely fathom. And so it struck me at 2am, that this election had a lot of archetypes going on. The symbolism underlying this election was, to me, as strong if not stronger than the actual policies at stake. And this made me hugely nervous. Historically, and personally, archetypal shifts generate a lot of upheaval. And the history of non-violent democratic change is still relatively young. When emotions run this deep and broad, humans become capable of their best and worst actions. So yes, I was nervous.
But Tuesday went off gloriously. Not because the candidate I favored won, but because there does not seem to have been any sense of undue complications or aggression. This alone, to me, is a miracle. When the results started to come in, and the networks called it at 11pm, John McCain gave a gracious speech with the powerful words "the people have spoken clearly." With that, he blessed the incoming President.
And then it began to sink in for me. I realised the world had just shifted cataclysmically. I'm still trying to understand why. I'm not sure I ever will. I know it has to do with the breaking of the bondage of racism on this country. I know it has to do with the tears of joy and heads held higher that my African and African-American friends have experienced. I think it has to do with the children across the world who see in Obama some resonance to their own multi-culturalism and embrace of a global identity over simply national identity. I suspect it has to do with the hopes many of us have for wisdom and maturity and reality to be reinstated at the highest levels of leadership in this country. But whatever it is, it resonated around the world. It showed how much people other countries still want to look to America to lead and inspire. And how the world held it's breath while waiting to see what America would do.
The fact that we as a country created this movement for change, and did it non-violently, speaks volumes louder of the power of freedom and democracy than any 'shock and awe' tactic we would ever be able to contrive.
And while it's true that most people I know supported Obama, I have seen those who supported McCain share equally in the joy that is watching a country deal a death blow to the chains that bound it, for we are not more free than our brothers and sisters are bound. Their liberation is our own liberation.
This election doesn't just give hope for the overturning of deeply entrenched racism, but of the overall ability of America, as a democratic system, to wrestle, struggle and grapple with its call to 'mend its every flaw'. There is still bondage, but we have seen how change can happen, and in the past few days I have seen, heard and felt hope break into the dreams of blacks, whites, males, females, Christians, Muslims, adults and children. For this I am truly grateful, and to be an American at this time, I am truly glad.
When I went to sleep on Monday night, I felt a vague sense of anxiety. I wasn't sure what it was all about, but I dreamt about the elections, and woke up in the middle of the night with this eery sense that I finally understood what Carl Jung meant when he talked about the power of archetypes. Archetypes (as I understand them) are those facets of the 'collective unconscious' that all humans can resonate with, because they exist at a level that goes beyond the personal or even cultural. The 'hero' is an archetype. The 'lover' is another archetype. These are personal symbols. But I would guess that racism is a type of archetype--at the very least oppression is. And democracy (literally the power of the people) is another archetype. Change, and resistance to change, both have deep archetypal senses to them. And archetypes play extremely powerful roles in our subconscious, often directing our behavior in ways we can barely fathom. And so it struck me at 2am, that this election had a lot of archetypes going on. The symbolism underlying this election was, to me, as strong if not stronger than the actual policies at stake. And this made me hugely nervous. Historically, and personally, archetypal shifts generate a lot of upheaval. And the history of non-violent democratic change is still relatively young. When emotions run this deep and broad, humans become capable of their best and worst actions. So yes, I was nervous.
But Tuesday went off gloriously. Not because the candidate I favored won, but because there does not seem to have been any sense of undue complications or aggression. This alone, to me, is a miracle. When the results started to come in, and the networks called it at 11pm, John McCain gave a gracious speech with the powerful words "the people have spoken clearly." With that, he blessed the incoming President.
And then it began to sink in for me. I realised the world had just shifted cataclysmically. I'm still trying to understand why. I'm not sure I ever will. I know it has to do with the breaking of the bondage of racism on this country. I know it has to do with the tears of joy and heads held higher that my African and African-American friends have experienced. I think it has to do with the children across the world who see in Obama some resonance to their own multi-culturalism and embrace of a global identity over simply national identity. I suspect it has to do with the hopes many of us have for wisdom and maturity and reality to be reinstated at the highest levels of leadership in this country. But whatever it is, it resonated around the world. It showed how much people other countries still want to look to America to lead and inspire. And how the world held it's breath while waiting to see what America would do.
The fact that we as a country created this movement for change, and did it non-violently, speaks volumes louder of the power of freedom and democracy than any 'shock and awe' tactic we would ever be able to contrive.
And while it's true that most people I know supported Obama, I have seen those who supported McCain share equally in the joy that is watching a country deal a death blow to the chains that bound it, for we are not more free than our brothers and sisters are bound. Their liberation is our own liberation.
This election doesn't just give hope for the overturning of deeply entrenched racism, but of the overall ability of America, as a democratic system, to wrestle, struggle and grapple with its call to 'mend its every flaw'. There is still bondage, but we have seen how change can happen, and in the past few days I have seen, heard and felt hope break into the dreams of blacks, whites, males, females, Christians, Muslims, adults and children. For this I am truly grateful, and to be an American at this time, I am truly glad.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
You Can Vote However You Like
I first saw this on Andrew Sullivan's blog, and it was later aired on the evening news. It was put together by a middle school debate team. These kids did a smashing job, and what a reminder that whatever our differences may be politically, in the United States of America, we still get to vote however we like. It reminds me that not everyone else, and not everywhere else, has that same right. So on this final day of campaigning in what feels like the most intense Presidential campaign ever, a sense of gratitude arises to all those throughout the centuries, and in our modern world, who have done what they could to guarantee us this amazing, blessed, freedom that I--most of the time at least--take completely for granted. Thank you.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
