A conversation

So i am involved in what i think is an interesting conversation on the blog Holy Digression

Under this sign conquer

Is it any wonder that (white, western) christianity has developed an imperial dominating identity when one of the defining moments of it’s history was the the emperor Constantine’s vision of the cross with the command to conquer under this sign.

White culture has since consistently claimed it’s inheritance of the roman civilization and of christian identity.Missionaries have gone out to conquer the world for christ arm in arm with armies who would conquer for the various white empires.

When christianity became the imperial religion it also began it’s series of ecumenical councils to explicitly define doctrinal purity, purity being a value of dominant classes who feel the need to mark the boundaries of who can claim the privileges of belonging.

I am curious in the future to research more about this shift to dominance and the various doctrinal decisions and who they were used to exclude. Particularly the council of chalcedon in 451 that cut off a variety of churches on the edge of the empire from the rest.

some definitions

God is both that power/personality beyond ourselves that we rely on for the strength to struggle for moral liberation*, and the ultimate authority that we reference as the basis for all the oppressive hierarchies we create.

 

Christianity is both the tradition that keeps alive the story of the man jesus and his followers as  a connection to the liberatory power of god, and the system of institutions and doctrines that provides primary cover for white, western domination.

 

Truth is the integrity in relation to information and experience that allows us to move through life with consistency and dignity, and the lie of objectivity that we use to silence others who challenge our dominance.

 

Tradition is the connection that keeps stories, knowledge and wisdom of our forerunners alive in the world, and the fossilized patterns that we use to prohibit ourselves and others from experimenting and living.

 

Church is a community for enabling deep connection with others and god, and is the body that indoctrinates for and polices for proper adherence to supremacy.

 

In each of these cases and I think likely many others I would like to cling to the first half of the definition, but feel that for those of us with racial and other privilege we cannot honestly do that unless we acknowledge, take responsibility for and repent of the second half. I believe this to be real work that I am searching for the practice for. It is hard enough to see and admit, because blindness and denial are central to supremacy thinking, but to repent and create entirely new ways of relating is where we fall on the grace of god.

 

Whiteness is a lie used to create the dominant group of a racial caste system.

 

Maleness is a lie used to create the dominant group of a binary gender caste system.

 

Heterosexuality is a lie used to create the dominant group of a sexual caste system.

 

Each of these lies is necessary to create the cast system it dominates, and each is irredeemable like the caste systems themselves. The challenge is to destroy these falsehoods and others used to create dominance, but not without first taking responsibility for how we perpatrate them.