Bye Fuller Bye Bye...

Last quarter at Fuller! After this quarter I am officially finished with my theological studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. I have stated, "As soon as I am done with Fuller, I can finally start studying." Being forced to study certain disciplines at Fuller has been difficult, since it involved pretending to be concerned about issues which I am not concerned. I think Seminary spreads people too thin, since it is completely impossible to study everything, so why not focus and study a certain discipline. This is considered a "concentration." I am convinced though that merely studying does not change behavior, nor does it make anyone more loving. Also, merely seeking God does not allow people, outside of study to be able to engage culture contextually, because they won't know how various traditions have engaged the culture in the past; learning, then acting accordingly. Merely following culture could develop into a civil religion, where we simply reiterate the Christendom model.

Kelly Brown Douglas, a marvelous female African American theologian has written in her book, "What's Faith got to do with it?" Black Bodies/Christian Souls that our Platonized Christian traditions have caused our faith to demonize the black body. Separating the "flesh from the Spirit" can cause us to believe that our human flesh is evil, which is not what Paul meant in Romans. She has contended that this Platonic thought influenced Christendom and is therefore a damaging force in Christianity, because if the cross is the dominant paradigm of our faith, then if the cross should be demonstrated by societal power, it could become a part of this civil religion. We could then use the cross as justification to sacrifice that which we have demonized, which is usually found in "the other". Kelly Brown Douglas also points to Augustine as the one theologian most influentail in developing Platonized Christianity into a Christian dogma, through the Nicene/Chalcedonian confessions. She points to the fact that why is the life of Jesus not discussed in the Nicene Creed? Her answer is that Jesus' life doesn't matter in Platonized Christianity, because "the cross" had become to dominant symbol of promoting power of other people.

I too continually struggle against my own projection onto "the other", because it is easier to project our anger, frustration, and insecurities onto other people, whom we consider lower than us, than to deal with them, face the reality in our life, and in turn as Miroslav Volf says in Exclusion and Embrace, "understand God's truth inside the reality of our life." I think that this is a beautiful statement because reality is "frickin' difficult sometimes!" We must face that we have objectified people, not treated other human beings as a subject, meaning that they think, feel, and desire to be treated as human beings and that I continually place my own desires for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" (or property) above my understanding that "the earth is the Lord's and everything in it." (Psalm 24:1 and I Corinthians 10:26) Of course I am speaking out of my own experience, but I use the term "we."

In one of my classes today I referenced racism in regards to societal factors which do not allow the poor to participate in activities which cost a lot of money, therefore many of the poor are relegated to activities which incorporate much more communal living. I was told that I was "wrong" on three different points in regard to economics. I embrace being wrong and it being pointed out, because I said, "Finally, someone cares enough to say that I am wrong or that I bring up a good point."
I can't pretend I didn't chuckle a bit though, because in Scripture I see those who exclude others, especially as a result of wealth being one day "shut out" themselves from the eschatological kingdom. We need to start looking at the activities in our lives to see if our daily activities reflect communal living or not. If they don't, then we should start to question whether our benefits are from God, or part of my human greed. If I am participating in communal activities, even if they are small, this is a great start towards the inclusiveness of the kingdom. If my activities simply reflect greater cultures obsession with wealth, I should reflect upon this so that it does not draw me away from the eschatological kingdom in the here and now. (N.T. Wright)

The Bottom Billion

Does God think differently than we do? This is of course a simple question. LOL. I am reading a book entitled The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier in which it details that 1/6 of the population of the world lives in "extreme poverty", which is below $1.00 a day. Extreme poverty is something which plagues our world, because the reality is that "it kills". The people who live in extreme poverty will die. In the 1800's, pre-industrial revolution, much of the world, especially Europe lived in extreme poverty. The growth since the 1800's until now has increased in the developed nations, at least in the U.S. Twenty-five fold. From 1820 to 1998, the U.S. economy grew at a rate of 1.7 percent per year with per-capita income rising from $1200.00 per person to $30,000 per person. African nations did grow, but only about .7 percent per year. (Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty) The two fastest growing economies in the world today are China and India, not the U.S., so this does mean that certain nations can grow their economies that were previously poor, also note that China is still Communist, but has embraced a globalized market, so it does not depend upon democracy as President Bush would have everyone believe. Always with the rise of a global market, there is a corresponding rise of global abuses, drugs, sex-trafficking, slavery, human rights abuses. Many in the U.S. will decry these real abuse's in China, but don't address them in our own nation. (Just a side note).

As I am finding out, economic growth in certain nations, is so dependent upon the neighboring nations. If a country in Africa is "landlocked", they are not able to export, nor import resources, (capital) because their neighboring nations, either will not let them, or they charge high tariffs, to allow goods to travel through the repective nation. Having a "United States", has helped in the transfer of goods and services to neighboring states. Could this have been done outside of the Civil War, I do not know. I struggle with this issue, because it seems as though war destroys, but also sometimes brings economic prosperity to a nation, but I CAN NOT support the killing of people, so I am stuck. I therefore do believe in the partnering with foreign nations to keep investments in the economies of poorer nations. Africa has the greatest amount of natural resources on the planet, so to see African nations being exploited for those resources causes me pain. This is why I entitled this post, "Does God think differently than we do?"

The World Bank has charted numerous statistics which detail economic issues involved in our world, but the most telling in my opinion is life expectancy, since the ability to function, i.e. work, live, have a family, enjoy the life God has given us, is reliant upon being alive, another reason that war is anti-Christ, since it takes away the one ability humans have to be in relationship with each other and God, life itself.

If you click on the World Bank link above, it will bring you to a map which shows the Life Expectancy at Birth/2002. In red are the nations where life expectancy is 55 years old or below. The African nations have the lowest life expectancy in the world today. There are numerous reasons why some of these African nations have low life expectancy, HIV/AIDS, disease (malaria), no clean drinking water, poor sanitation, no economic growth (food). I sometimes get angry because of after European nations left Africa, post-colonialism, the African economies now had to begin to survive without the assistance of Europe within the structure of a European market. It is the great paradox of colonization.

What strikes me is that Jesus said in Matthew 20:16 "The last shall be first and the first shall be last", but this ending statement of Jesus' was in reference to a parable which involved the economic practices of a landowner. (Click on link to read the parable, I would love to know what anyone else thought) There is much debate over whether Jesus is saying that the landowner had a right to do "whatever" he wanted with his money (denarius) or whether Jesus is using the parable to show that it is unjust in paying someone so little for doing so much work (greedy). Either way, I believe that God sees things differently than we do. God will one day "wipe away the tears from the eyes" of the poor and afflicted and has prepared them a place in the "bosom of Abraham", while those who had everything in this life will not be invited to this place of rest. It should cause us a little discomfort in not knowing who God will justify.