progressive christianity part 2

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here is another article (also posted below) that gives some self definition to progressive christianity. notice that it gives as three of the four primary sources white, american and european theological movements. also i would love to be corrected but to the best of my knowledge all of the primary theologians associated with the movements are men, though in the case of the evangelicals certainly not all the activists. i pray that this is a mistake on my part that just shows the depth to which my own theological education has been skewed.

liberation theologies are also seen as a necessary source, but all lumped into one. It is made clear that christianity is to be transformed by these voices, but that transformation is again framed as service to “the least of these”. it seems that progressive christianity is supposed to be the realm of those inheritors of the previously mentioned (white, male dominated) traditions who are now willing to listen to “the previously voiceless people” and take on/co-opt? their insights. missing, at least in this article, is a clear recognition that all of these liberation forms of christianity are critiques of traditional/ white male theology. without that recognition it remains possible for progressive christianity to be focused on white men and congratulate itself on evolving and learning from the majority of the world that has been/ is oppressed by white, christian men.

i would like to see a recognition of the reality that christianity has been a powerfully oppressive force and that many forms of it still are. i feel like the 8 points in the previous post came a bit closer in the recognition of privilege, but did so in a way that centered those people who have privilege to renounce. as i try to imagine a christianity that i would want to claim, it would center the destruction of domination systems “casting down the mighty from their thrones and lifting up the lowly” while recognizing that depending on our personal histories, identities and social locations we all have different roles in that process. different places in the struggle and different ways that we need to cooperate in our own lifting up and casting down.

September 4, 2006
By Dr. Delwin Brown
Dean Emeritus, Pacific School of Religion

Our Progressive Christian Heritage

Progressive Christianity today is not a single party line; it is a family of perspectives and practices that seek to be faithful to Christ. It is diverse because it draws from a variety of Christian expressions rooted in the biblical witness.

Progressive Christianity draws from the witness of evangelical Christians in the middle of the 19th century. These first American evangelicals were on the front lines of the movements to abolish slavery, to give women the right to vote, to mitigate poverty and overcome sharp class divisions. What can we take from their example?

• They understood that their progressive, even revolutionary, stances were required of them as Christians. They were not progressives who also happened to be Christians. They were progressives because they were Christians, in order to be faithful to the gospel.

• Their pursuit of justice was a spiritual discipline. Their efforts were not dependent on the likelihood of success. They were not based on calculations; they sprang from the conviction that Jesus came to overcome socially and culturally created injustices.

• They were united in Christian spirit rather than Christian beliefs. They understood that Christians could disagree on matters of theology and still be united in service to God and neighbor.

Progressive Christianity also draws from the witness of the liberal Christian movement around the turn of the 20th century. The liberals welcomed progress as a gift of God. They supported the advance of the physical sciences and democratic practices. They led in the analysis and critique of structural injustices in society. They were intellectuals and reformers. What should we honor in their example?

• They took seriously the doctrine of the incarnation, the Christian claim that God is in and with this world, so they, too, made their home in the world without reserve.

• They saw sin and salvation to be structural as well as personal. For them, sinful relations had to be addressed through collective action and public policy as well as through personal spiritual discipline.

• They believed that Christian faith requires, not repetition of the past, but the obligation to re-think the meaning of discipleship in each age.

Progressive Christianity learns from the neo-orthodox Christians of the mid-20th century who openly opposed the equation of Christian faith with the political ideology of the Third Reich. They insisted on the distinctiveness of Christian identity. What can we take from them?

• They proclaimed the otherness of the incarnate God. They insisted that God is always with us, but God is never reducible to our cultural practices, our political convictions, even to our religious beliefs.

• They understood the centrality of Christ as the source of Christian identity. The Bible is the primary source for knowing God’s revelation in Christ, but that revelation is Christ, not the Bible. From modern knowledge we have much to learn and nothing to fear, but our best knowledge does not displace the Christ of the biblical witness.

• Being Christian means being something in particular, so the purpose of Christian community is to explore, develop, and sustain Christian identity through preaching, liturgy, and education.

Finally, progressive Christianity must hear and be transformed by the manifold witnesses of the liberation forms of Christian faith that emerged in the last part of the 20th century and continue with force today. These include the voices of the racial/ethnic communities, the feminists and womanists, those who have suffered from colonialism, the poor and other previously voiceless people, and indeed the silent cries of the earth itself! From them, to be authentic, progressive Christianity must learn that:

• God is on the side of the powerless, human and non-human. God loves all equally, but to overcome injustice God joins with those who are its victims. Those who would follow God in Christ are called to serve “the least of these” among us.

• The search for truth must be undertaken in the company of the powerless. Wisdom and virtue is to be found in all people, in all classes, in all races and ethnic groups. But the persistent habit of humanity is to demean and ignore what the “least ones” have to say, their insights into the gospel, their voices as vehicles of judgment and grace.

• Salvation, in the biblical view, is the promise for all dimensions of human life and for all creation. To be sure, salvation is the promise for individuals, too, but as St. Paul insists, salvation is also for “the entire creation”–as unbelievable as it seems, for individuals, communities, and even the earth.

Progressive Christianity draws from each of these traditions in its distinctiveness. But it must share, too, the one belief that adherents of these traditions held in common, namely, their Christian hope. They believed that a radically better day is possible, by God’s grace and through human faithfulness, and so they each sought, in their own ways, to serve its coming.

progressive christianity part 1

i’ve been reading a bit recently about how “progressive
christians” define themselves. partly trying to figure out if i
am one, partly looking for the roots of why the christian social
justice organizations that i hae worked for have been so self
congratulatory in their work and white in their makeup.

the center for progressive christianity has 8 points that they
give as defining progressive christianity.  my first reaction
looking at them is that they are quite close to my approach to
keeping the faith and at the same time are clearly articulated
assuming that progressive christianity is a white/ privileged
movement.

the 8 points:

By calling ourselves progressive,
we mean we are Christians who…
1.Have
found an approach to God through the life and teachings of Jesus.

2.
Recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for
the way to God’s realm, and acknowledge that their ways are true for
them, as our ways are true for us.

3.
Understand the sharing of bread and wine in Jesus’s name to be a
representation of an ancient vision of God’s feast for all peoples

4.Invite
all people to participate in our community and worship life without
insisting that they become like us in order to be acceptable
(including but not limited to):

believers
and agnostics,
conventional Christians and questioning
skeptics,
women and men,
those of all sexual orientations and
gender identities,
those of all races and cultures,
those of
all classes and abilities,
those who hope for a better world and
those who have lost hope

5.
Know that the way we behave toward one another and toward other
people is the fullest expression of what we believe.

6.
Find more grace in the search for understanding than we do in
dogmatic certainty – more value in questioning than in absolutes.

7.
Form ourselves into communities dedicated to equipping one another
for the work we feel called to do: striving for peace and justice
among all people, protecting and restoring the integrity of all God’s
creation, and bringing hope to those Jesus called the least of his
sisters and brothers

8.
Recognize that being followers of Jesus is costly, and entails
selfless love, conscientious resistance to evil, and renunciation of
privilege.

it
is points 4, 7, and 8 that i am thinking of specifically when i say
that these are articulated in a way that assume and centers whiteness
and privilege.

4
talks about inviting all, but without insisting that they will be
like us. whenever there is an us, even if you don’t have to become
like it, that us is the center and others may be invited but they
will always be others. From the work I have done in progressive
christian organizations i would say that the center is: white, upper
middle class to wealthy (possibly downwardly mobile), peace movement
liberal, middle aged, college educated, mainline protestant.

7
progressive christians are the ones who bring hope to the least of
these, not themselves the least of these. i fear that matthew 25 may
have been one of jesus’ most unfortunate teachings at least as i have
seen it play out in the lives of white, liberal christians (an
accusation, but also a confession), who are always serving people who
are less than themselves.

8
centers privilege by centering it’s renunciation. it is true that
everyone is privileged in some ways and oppressed in others,
but centering how you deal with privilege means centering people for
whom privilege is a primary experience of life. means maintaining the
margins and center of the wider culture.  went to the link to the
study guide for this point hoping that it would be expanded in a way
that the resistance to evil took precedence and muted this focus on
the privileged. certainly if a struggle for justice and against evil
was central, could be a sidenote that just received overemphasis here
. unfortunately giving up the idea that we are special becomes the
meaning of this point, which is not even a good definition of privilege.

i do think that a central task for christians is to deal with and let go of christian privilege, but to assume that all christians share a primary experience of privilege in their other identities

i do appreciate how these eight points are very concerned with focusing christian identity in action for justice and the questions and process of questioning instead of acceptance of a set of doctrinal assertions.

day of repentance

Prayers, tears and song mark Episcopal repentance for slavery

By Daphne Mack, October 04, 2008

Click image for detail

[Episcopal News Service] Expressing “profound regret that the Episcopal Church lent the institution of slavery its support and justification based on Scripture,” Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori issued a public apology October 4 for the church’s involvement in the institution of transatlantic slavery.

She went on to state that “after slavery was formally abolished, [the church] continued for at least a century to support de jure and de facto segregation and discrimination.”

The historic gesture of remorse drew hundreds of Episcopalians, both black and white, to St. Thomas African Episcopal Church in Philadelphia October 3-4 for the Day of Repentance — a two-day solemn observance which included presentations that examined racism in the past, present, and future. Jefferts Schori’s complete homily is here.

“It is an immense honor and joy for St. Thomas to host this two-day solemn observance and most fitting that it is being held here at the nation’s first black Episcopal church,” said the Rev. Martini Shaw, rector of St. Thomas.

St. Thomas, founded in 1792 by the Rev. Absalom Jones, a former slave, is the oldest African American Episcopal Church in the United States and the first black church in Philadelphia. Jones was the first person of African ancestry to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church. He and Richard Allen, the nation’s first African-American Methodist preacher, changed history when they initiated a walkout from St. George’s Methodist Church after blacks were denied full membership.

Bonnie Anderson, president of the Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies (the national legislative house that includes clergy and lay members), was in attendance for both days and said, “This is an amazing day that has been long in coming.”

However she emphasized that although “this is a great start to a new beginning,” no one should view it as being over. Understanding that the “work is hard” and can be emotional she stressed that “it must continue” for the betterment of the Episcopal Church.

“Our coming together shows that this is not an Episcopal problem, nor a Christian problem, but a human problem,” explained the Rev. Jayne Oasin, program officer for Anti-Racism and Gender Equality for the Episcopal Church. “We are saying that we have marginalized and oppressed others, and have not regarded every one as God’s equal creation but we’re not going to be that way anymore.”

Seventeen bishops participated in the event which welcomed the following ecumenical partners: Baptists, Catholics, Presbyterians, Unitarian Universalist and Christian Methodist.

Bob Brundige, of St. Elizabeth Church in Ridgewood, New Jersey said he felt strongly that an “apology” was not enough and what was missing from this event was some form of reparations which he felt was owed to African-Americans by the Episcopal Church for its involvement in and support of slavery and segregation. He suggested the creation of scholarships for black students to attend seminary and/or college as one type of reparation.

Karen Hardwick of the Diocese of Washington said that the question of reparations is “the hard part. It’s virtually impossible to measure injustice and the damages that flow from slavery,” she said.

Bishop Eugene Sutton, the first African American bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, called it “an emotional day.”

“It’s part of a year of turning the clock forward in Maryland and continuing the work of fighting intolerance,” he said.

Sutton, a descendant of slaves, was referring to the stain on a diocese that was first led by Thomas John Claggett, the first bishop consecrated on American soil, who owned slaves while serving as the rector of St. James’ Parish in Ann Arundel County.

Through tears Loretto VanGrasstek, 72, of Church of the Ascension in Stillwater, Minnesota, said, “I cried from the moment I sat down to the last song we sang.”

Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, VanGrasstek of Creole and Choctaw descent, said, “It’s overwhelming to hear white people admit the things I’d only heard my grandmother speak of.”

Loretto’s husband Skye said when his wife recalls the memories of her great grandmother Josephine Starks, a former slave who lived to be 113 years old, she remembers brushing her hair and asking where the “ridges” she felt on her back came from and the answer would always be that “master beat her” sometimes “cause she had done something wrong and sometimes cause he just felt like it.”

At the other end of the spectrum is Skye who discovered four years ago that his great, great, great uncle was a slave trader in the Caribbean in the early 1800s.

Skye said despite the commonality of Loretto’s family “living with the brutality of the Ku Klux Klan and his living under Nazi brutality in Amsterdam during World War II” he is “taking care of Loretto so everything just comes around.”

In this year marking the 200th anniversary of the abolishment of slavery, John Vanderstar, Executive Council member and author of the 2006 General Convention resolution A123, which called for the occasion, said that “the church needs to confront its past in order to change its future.”

Resolution A123 declared that the institution of slavery in the United States and “anywhere else in the world” was and is a sin, and mandated that the church acknowledge and express regret for its support of slavery and for supporting “de jure and de facto segregation and discrimination” for years after slavery’s abolition. The resolution also asked the Presiding Bishop to call for a “Day of Repentance and Reconciliation” and to organize a service.

C. David Williams, president of the Union of Black Episcopalians, who Jefferts Schori also referred to in her homily, described the day as “sublime.”

“It [the day] was offered to God from hearts and minds of black and white people who had need for this apology and received it,” he said. “But we have a long way to go in making the apology real and I’m pledging myself to it.”

The Episcopal Church will now join other denominations and the Church of England, which in 2006 voted to acknowledge its complicity in the global slave trade.

‘Springboard for future action’
The gathering began October 3 with three presentations entitled “Revisiting the Past”, “Taking Action in the Present” and “Charting a Course for the Future.” Presenters included the Rev. Dr. Harold Lewis, rector, Calvary Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh, and author of “Yet With a Steady Beat” the foundational book about African Americans and the Episcopal Church; Bishop Chip Marble, assisting bishop in the Diocese of North Carolina; Dr. Anita George, chairperson of the Executive Council Anti-Racism Committee; and Byron Rushing, member of the Massachusetts State Legislature.

In his address “Bend our Pride to thy Control: The Need of the Church to Repent for the Sin of Slavery and its Aftermath” Lewis described slavery as “that odious institution” that has been a virulent cancer that has “metastasized through the bloodstream of our society.”

“The church early on could have assumed the role of that of physician, placing herself in a position to ‘heal the sin-sick soul’ of the society to which she ministered, assuring its people that there is indeed a balm in Gilead,” he explained. “Instead, she allowed herself to be infected along with her patient, rendering herself unable to be of any assistance.”

Marble and George acted as moderators while the dioceses of Delaware, Maryland, Atlanta, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina and South East Florida reported on the current work toward racial healing happening in their dioceses.

Nearly all mentioned using the documentary film, “Traces of the Trade,” by independent filmmaker Katrina Browne as an educational tool. The movie tells the story of Browne’s New England ancestors, the DeWolfs, the most-active slave-trading family in the United States and prominent Episcopalians from Rhode Island.

Browne said Jefferts Schori’s mention of her film in the homily “was an honor.”

“What has been striking about the power of the film is how it seems to resonate with people’s truth,” she said.

In speaking on the future, Rushing told those present that “the course for a future of awareness of the foundation of slavery to our society winds through remorse.” He said that remorse, as opposed to apology, “requires truth today and tomorrow mark the public announcement of this winding course.”

“Nothing is being accomplished by us today except beginning,” he explained.

Ed Rodman, professor of Pastoral Theology and Urban Ministry at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, summed up all three topics of discussion and said “vision only comes when you learn your history.”

“What would make me most proud is if people draw from this event and use it as a springboard for future action,” said Oasin.

She said a DVD will be available in a month but programs of the gathering will be distributed to dioceses in the coming weeks.

– Daphne Mack is a correspondent for Episcopal Life Media. She is based in New York City.

» Respond to this article

churches evicted

This is an email I just recieved from the Boarding School Healing Project that I thought worth sharing.

Update from Kevin Annett and The International Human Rights Tribunal
into Genocide in Canada
Oct. 05, 2008 – Squamish Nation Territory Greetings from the
ancestral land of Chief Kiapilano and his people!

This morning, groups of residential school survivors will be posting and
distributing notices at all of the main downtown churches in
“Vancouver”, declaring to the officials and members of the Catholic,
Anglican and United churches that they are illegally trespassing on
Squamish Nation land and are now subject to arrest and imprisonment
under both Squamish and British Columbia law. (see statement at right)

This bold act is a sign of the times, of how far some survivors have
evolved in their campaign to win justice from the churches that murdered
50,000 innocent children.

“It’s time for the churches that killed our people to get off our land”
hereditary Squamish Chief Kiapilano declared last March, when he
formally evicted the “Gang of Three” (Catholic, Anglican, United)
churches from his territory, which encompasses all of Vancouver, the
north shore and Whistler, the site of the 2010 Olympics.

Chief Kiapilano commented yesterday,

“We’re tired of waiting for the churches to be held accountable for all
their crimes, because they never will be unless we do it. So I’ve
declared the convening of traditional Squamish courts of justice in
which we’ll put on trial the heads of these churches and known offenders
at residential schools.

“The trials start immediately. We will be issuing arrest warrants
against the church officials. I am calling on other hereditary chiefs
will do the same thing on their territories: evict the murderers from
your land and bring them to trial!”

Chief Kiapilano is not acting alone. More than two dozen groups are now
working across “Canada” in conjunction with Chief Kiapilano and our
International Human Rights Tribunal, which has arisen as an alternative
to the phoney, toothless, government-run “Truth and Reconciliation
Commission” (TRC) into residential schools. (The TRC has no power to
subpoena, prohibits people from naming names or even describing a
wrongdoing at a residential school, will not conduct any criminal
investigation, and was set up by the very churches that ran the
schools!).

Our Tribunal has been recognized by a host of indigenous groups in
Guatemala, the Philippines, Mexico and Europe, some of whom will be
sending international observers to our forums and investigations over
the next year, especially as we begin to unearth the forensic evidence
in mass graves near former Indian residential schools.

In a nutshell, the direction of our campaign now has three main foci:

1. Create a counter-Tribunal to the government’s “TRC” that will hold
alternative hearings to the TRC forums, and will publish a “Counter
Report” to the TRC’s anticipated whitewash of residential school crimes.
(At our forums, we will encourage people to name names, and provide
evidence of all the crimes that went on in the schools).

2. Identify and repatriate the buried remains of the children who died
in all the Indian residential schools.

3. Evict the Catholic, Anglican and United Church from all indigenous
territories across Canada, reclaim their buildings, and establish in
them aboriginal courts of justice where known offenders and the
fiduciary head officers of these churches, the RCMP and the government
of Canada will be tried and sentenced for crimes against humanity,
including murder.

If this sounds like a tall order, know that actions are already
happening in many territories to bring about this sovereignty and direct
justice. (We can’t say where and how, quite yet, for security reasons,
but if you write or call me I will put you in touch with organizers in
your area, who will tell you more!)

Our strength lies on the ground, in our communities, among the survivors
and their families who know that they have been used and abandoned by
the whorish “Assembly of First Nations” (AFN) and other puppet native
politicians, who serve the government and the churches first and last.

It’s among these survivors that I have been travelling, speaking, and
organizing throughout 2008, in five separate tours across Canada and the
USA. I’ve also been to Europe, where we are rallying forces to support
our International Tribunal, and bring charges against Canada and its
churches at the UN and other bodies.

It’s because of this grassroots movement that the government caved in
last year, and began admitting that thousands of children died in the
residential schools. We have forced the feds and the churches to the
wall, and they are doing their best now to bury their guilt (with help
from the AFN) and worm their way out of any responsibility for the mass
murder that Steven Harper admitted to publicly in his “apology” last
June 11 in Parliament.

It’s up to us to prevent them from getting away with the biggest crime
in Canadian, and world, history.

Someone asked me today is I was going to vote in the Canadian election,
or speak up at all candidates’ meetings about the Canadian Holocaust.

I replied by saying,

“Why would I vote for the system that is murdering my friends every
day?”

(Yesterday, I met Harry Wilson, an Alberni residential school survivor,
who told me that three of his family have overdosed and died after
receiving their paltry “compensation” for years of torture in the
Alberni United Church school).

The murder goes on. But one of our best weapons is our film UNREPENTANT,
which has been seen by nearly a million people worldwide, and tells the
story of planned genocide in Canada. Please arrange a screening of it in
your community and use it to rally people to our movement. (see
www.hiddenfromhisto ry.org <http://www.hiddenfr omhistory. org/zxs> for
details of how to order and download it).

From mid October to mid November, I’ll be conducting my sixth tour of
Canada and the USA to prepare for our spring campaign. I will be
speaking and showing UNREPENTANT in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec
and the Maritimes, New York, the mid west, and California. If I can
raise the funds, I will also be speaking in Italy, Spain and Germany -
look out, Mr. Pope!

If you live in these areas, please contact me and I’ll let you know more
about my venues.

Our Tribunal needs your support, and financial help. We depend
completely on you for our work. If you can contribute anything to the
cost of my travel and the production of our film and books, please
donate through the pay pal on my website (www.hiddenfromhist ory.org) or
send a cheque made out to Lori O’Rorke to:

Lori O’Rorke
260 Kennedy St.
Nanaimo, B.C. Canada V9R 2H8

(We also have a direct bank deposit system which you can use – please
ask about it).

This is a crucial time – please help us make a stand for the living and
the dead.

I hope to see many of you soon. Please reply!

Sincerely,

Kevin Annett – Eagle Strong Voice www.hiddenfromhisto ry.org
pager: 1-888-265-1007 (pager in Canada)
email: hiddenfromhistory@ yahoo.ca or kevin_annett@ hotmail.com
<http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/FirstPeopl esNews/post? postID=EkXeecTI9 Vn2\
GH8Ia718iF2yHDvtMrM J7agG8Y-RacNHYO- 26h9D0QFtCVYWz8p glA1r8SY8dj_ z88DeVaZF\
uVvK> Notice of Illegal Trespass

You are Trespassing on Squamish Nation Land , claimed by hereditary
Squamish Chief Kiapilano in a writ duly filed in the Supreme Court of
British Columbia on March 4, 2008. (Docket S036483)

Under the Trespass Law of the Province of British Columbia , you may go
to jail or be fined if you enter this building.

The Catholic, Anglican and United Church of Canada were legally evicted
by Chief Kiapilano from his territory in what is called Vancouver
because of their refusal to return the remains of the children who died
in their Indian residential schools.

This legal Trespass Notice is in immediate effect.

You have been duly warned.

Siem Kiapilano

Squamish Nation

Lawful Owner of these Premises.

October 5, 2008

www.hiddenfromhisto ry.org/LinkClick .aspx?link= 82&tabid= 36
<http://www.hiddenfr omhistory. org/LinkClick. aspx?link= 82&tabid= 36>
—– Teresa Anahuy
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/FirstPeopl esNews
<http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/FirstPeopl esNews>

episcopalians and reparations

this october the episcopal church is to have a service celebrating a day of repentance for it’s role in trans-atlantic slavery. looking to see if the apology will have concrete action for reparations or just words. every diocese has been instructed by a resolution to research it’s history of how it supported and benefited materially from slavery and racism.

hoping that Byron Rushing’s quote, in this article, “”This weekend is not a one shot deal,” said Rushing. “It is the beginning of finding ways for the Episcopal Church to address the issue of slavery both from its theological aspects in that it is a sin, and was a sin, and from its political and economic aspects as part of the formation of what we know as the United States of America because you can not define America without a discussion of slavery in the invention of America.” bears out.

playing in the dark

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.

ave maria

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.

chosenness and judgement

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?

god of the oppressed and accompaniment work

just finished rereading God of the Oppressed by James Cone. I wish that his chapter on violence and non-violence had been required reading in the trainings for the organization that I used to work for. I did international human rights accompaniment. that is when foreigners mostly white and western drop into low intensity war zones with the idea that their presence will deter violence. the problems with the theory are… well huge. I still dream that there is some possible good in an international presence if that “international” isn’t just another code word for white, but then folks like the ones I worked with would need to rethink their tactics (which mostly are being visible and flashing your white face and/or western passport about while telling oppressed people to be non-violent and morally pure in the face of their oppression) would have to be thrown out and reworked.

when asked about violence Cone’s answer was “who’s violence?” pointing out that the whole racial system (which is necessary for the tactics of the type of accompaniers I worked with) is the violence of white people. he contends that god stands with the oppressed against the oppressor and that the distinction between violence and nonviolence is irrelevant because everyone is violent.

full quiver

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-wicker/full-quiver-theology_b_111239.html

From the Huffington Post an article about a rather clear modern version of christian white supremacy (and overt patriarchy).

I was just doing a few minutes on google.

Al Mohler’s blog has articles in the same month about the problem of the falling birthrate in europe ( and how this spiritual problem will advantage countries like India with higher birth rates and more young peopleas the “population bomb will reshape the world map”) and the “nazi” eugenics of technology to ensure that an embryo does not inherit the breast cancer gene. Is he again worried that those who can afford this technology will be the white european elite? The second article imo raises some interesting and important questions about choosing what life is valuable, but I don’t trust the context at all (stem cell=baby, unimplanted embryo=baby, etc)