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penitential chimp Weblog
working out my salvation in fear and trembling
playing in the dark
July 26, 2008
just borrowed playing in the dark by Toni Morrison from Maia. fascinating enough that it will require a reread in the near future. she writes about how american literature has required the backdrop of the unfree and unenlightened other in black people to define and create the free and independent (white) individual.
thinking about how this same structure works in relation to the missionary enterprise and the pure chosen people of the church. how necessary it is to have the heathen and the damned to define the godly and saved and how racially linked they are in white american christianity. I remember growing up with stories of africfan missionaries and the imagination of them spreading the light of the gospel in the darkness of africa, racially loaded terms for sure and I definatly remember them being passed on exactly as such. remembering too the way that judgement was passed on people who made survival decisions outside of middle class morality that was so clearly equated with christianity. morality that allows for damage done to others at a distance where there is no face allowed to those who are hurt for your benefit, but not for more immediate, and less consequential, slights like shoplifting or fudging an application for assistance.
Tagged: christianity, class, race
ave maria
July 24, 2008
Ave Maria, of the third world, full of grace, all you who know pain, know the anxieties and the subhuman condition of your people, the Lord is with you, with all who suffer, who hunger and thirst for justice, who know neither letters nor figures.
Blessed are you among women, the women of the roads and pueblos, of furrowed faces, of brawny muscles, of calloused hands of forlorn eyes, but with hope.
Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Because without him, our life and the struggle for human dignity has no meaning.
Sancta Maria, all of you holy, a thousand time holy, by your lives,by the times you carry water, that you smudge your face at the hearth, trusting and hoping in God. He has made you Mother of Goid.
Pray for us sinners, for it is our fault, in one way or another by our egoism and envy, that you joined with the rest of the women and men of the poor, the third world, suffer misery, totalitarian governments,economic repression,wars and blood and hatred.
Now, so that we change, so that there will be a conversion of heart and of all men and women towards your son, our brother.
And at the hour of our death, so that the Lord have mercy on all who have offended him in our brothers and sisters, in the men and women of a world which is struggling desparately for life.
Amen
This prayer I swiped from Megan Mckenna who swiped it from the oral tradition of South America. I think maybe it shows the beginning of where a proper white theology might start in meeting god in the oppressed and being responsible and judged by god through the oppressed… or is it just more white exoticism? I believe that where i stand before god is where i stand before the oppressed, and I know that not one person oppressed by my privilege asked for the role of being the face of god to me.
Tagged: christianity, prayer, theology
chosenness and judgement
July 24, 2008
I think that part of the core of approaching theology from the perspective of privilege and taking seriously the claims of the various liberation and political theologies that god sides with the oppressed is to learn to look at the powers that be and our connection with them as a people who stand under judgement.
chosenness is a powerful biblical theme and has translated itself into the sickest expressions of genocide and history when it is taken on as a mantle by people already privileged and in power (think slavery, manifest destiny, inquisition). no doubt in the bibllical narratives the chosen are often the poor outcasts and slaves, but even there when they are not you get divine genocidal mania (the conquest narratives and the whole of the book of joshua). when white folks appropriate liberation theologies born in anticolonial struggles and say god is for the poor and so am i so i am with god we jump the necessary recognition that if god is for the poor and we benefit from their exploitation then god is necessarily against us and we stand under judgement.
the question becomes how to repent and defect completely from our privileged identities to side with god and the poor. there can be no questions of charity or somehow “pulling the rest of the world up to join us” we are damned. in racial terms the question for me is how can a blue eyed devil be redeemed. of course oppression is not only racial and it is not only whiteness that is damned all social and identity categories that rest on oppression are damned if god stands with the oppressed.
priveleged folks talk about being allies in the struggle. i think that theologically this is inadequate there is no possibility of reaching out from a damned position (privilege) and joining the people of god. an ally gets to try to be a “good” straight, white, wealthy, western, christian…… but if god is for the oppressed those things don’t exist. can our demons be exorcised? or do we try to be allies and just do damage control?
Tagged: christianity
liberation theology
January 21, 2008
I was first exposed to liberation theology in high school. From that time I devoured latin american theologians for a while and have followed with phases of reading feminist, womanist, queer etc political theologies. These writers and their thoughts have helped to make life seem meaningful to me and to push me forward in having a life of political concern and involvement (meaning attempting to engage the world for justice, not electoral politics).
Throughout I have had what I am beginning to consider a very immoral and shallow relationship with the theology though. It is easy to agree that god is on the side of the oppressed and then decide that you also will take that side. To say that you oppose the oppressive powers that be and even do work that opposes government policy or other institutions. What is missing is a strong recognition that the powers that oppress are most often me. I think that it is irresponsible for me as a white western man…… to appropriate other peoples struggles for liberation and not deeply delve into how my identity is tied to oppression. Theology from the margins is beautiful, but what of a theology from the center that denies the right of the center to exist and honestly takes responsibility for where it comes from.
We need a clear end to the idea that the center is as it should be and we will just bring others in, bring them up to our level. The challenge is to discover an approach to our spiritual lives that focuses on the destruction (not ignorance or denial) of the categories that center us. It will never be enough to be a good man, a progressive christian, an unprejudiced white, an accepting heterosexual. I want to learn how to be not.
I know that in some senses I can’t just drop an identity, say from now on I am no longer_____________, but if first I can learn not to act the oppressive identity that would be a step. Maybe when my masculinity and sexuality are always in question when white people begin to refer to me as self hating…. Maybe I’ll be able to glimpse what is next. And thus my penance.
I’m not looking to create guilt to feel bad about life. I am looking for real ways to change how I act in the world at each level of interaction from how I walk into a room to who I read, towhat social movements I align myself with and how. I’m hoping the journey will be exciting.
(my) original sin(s)
January 21, 2008
I don’t remember anymore how long ago it was that I threw out the idea of “original sin” as being morally offensive. The idea that anyone is responsible for another’s failings or wrongdoings just couldn’t sit as a part of a rational ethical system for me.
Now I am convinced that there is a place for the concept in my personal theology. I still have enough of my evangelical upbringing at heart to believe that theology/ religion is a personal affair and a personal relationship. In my life there are sins of my ancestors that I feel I am culpable for (whiteness, maleness, heterosexuality, middle classness and christianity to name a few). Yes I believe that they are sins/crimes against humanity. Each of these identities describes a set of behaviors and ways of being in the world that is built on the assumption of greater value in life than others who don’t fit the category. To steal from the biblical story of the “fall” the desire to be like god in relation to another, or even more the assumption in action that I am. It is fair in my mind that the guilt of these crimes is inherited because I have fully accepted and adapted to my own use the ways of being in the world they describe.
This blog is an attempt to work out my salvation in fear and trembling and find a theory and practice of repentance. I hope that it will also lead to connection with others who are attempting a similar journey and/or will provide critique to help me clarify. Yes I want your help. I’m not looking to feel guikty or sorry for myself I expect the trip to be at least as exciting as it is hard and more than worthwhile.
To say I am responsible is not to let god off the hook. I think it is only right that the divinity/divinities be held criminally responsible for the ways their followers relate in the world. It is way to easy an answer to say that perpetrated by christians are bad interpretations. If something serves a purpose often enough you have to stop just saying it’s misused and begin to examine whether it is a tool designed for exactly that purpose.
- christian supremacy (17)
- christianity (4)
- classism (5)
- conquest (10)
- gaza (1)
- heterosexism (5)
- lense of privilege (3)
- patriarchy (6)
- race (3)
- reparations (1)
- spiritual exercises (1)
- theology (15)
- Uncategorized (24)
- white christianity (2)
- white privilege (1)
- white supremacy (21)
- white theology (16)
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