Subverting systems of power and domination

I started writing today about the economic practices of the Protestant Church, mainly taken from McLaren's book, Everything Must Change and Max Weber's, The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, but I did not get very far, because the more involved in society I am, the more I realize that our economic practices (U.S.) can not be separated from the social construction of;"White Privilege"!  Although Weber sees this "Spirit of Capitalism" coming from the Reformation and Protestants embracing the work ethic of secular society, I personally believe that that supposition alone will not have much influence in our current society, unless one identifies with whiteness in the U.S., since whites hold dominant control over the means of production.  Wow, that sounded a lot like Karl Marx, but unlike Marx, I do not believe that whites (dominant class, bourgeois) are the problem!  I believe the system of "whiteness" (bourgeoisie) is the problem.

I know many people who work hard, but are extremely poor. What a paradox, one can be a hard worker and be poor?  If those people were part of the system of whiteness, would their hard word be of greater benefit towards advancing in the workplace? Of course the definition of hard work also needs to be deeply examined within Protestant circles, so that we as Christians do not demonize another group, simply by the delineation of "hard work or lazy", as if those are the only two categories we can choose from.  As McLaren says, "Some people are actually people oriented, not task oriented," but in an ever developing technological society, how do we strive to move ahead by focusing on being relational? (My words)  I am being facetious in my question.

I have written a lot on what it means to be "white" in the U.S. and this morning as I took a minor detour by going to Noah's Bagels in South Pasadena, I suddenly understood the intricacies involved in this process of "becoming white".  Simply by going to Noah's Bagels, I feel my "white-ness" affirmed, yet I leave sensing that this privilege has drained people of their ability to be, dare I say, "Human".  The dominant characteristic of my writing stems from my belief that not everything is "alright", and by dominant culture ignoring one of the most controversial issues of our day is not, dare I say, "Christian".  Our assumption of privileges in the Christian community is a direct result of social programs in this country which have been specifically created to benefit the people in power.  It is not a dismantling of the system which needs to take place, but a reconfiguration to include all people, not just some people.

I should do an anthropological study of people who frequent Noah's Bagels, it would be very interesting to understand there are cultural distinctions which are unique to white culture. Noah's Bagels in South Pasadena on a Saturday or Sunday morning is in my opinion, "a bastion of elite-ness".  "What draws me to go to this Noah's Bagels"?  I must say that something inside me wants to identify with people who hold influence and power and it is comfortable.  So, could you say I am a hypocrite?  Depending on what one considers a hypocrite.  A hypocrite is a person who "plays a part, simply to have people acknowledge that they are something more than it appears."  I fit that category sometimes, other times I do not. Once again, simplification of a complex world, NEVER works.  This is a time that I will use an absolute.

People go to Noah's Bagels with their families, but interact very little with each other, but the question must be asked, "Why not make an egg sandwich at home?"  It would be much less expensive.  Expense, is of course not the reason for going to Noah's Bagels.  Community is the reason people go, yet very little interaction with others actually takes place, yet humans still have an innate desire to be around other people, even if they will not talk to those people, or acknowledge another's existence.

I know many who believe that having "White Privilege" can be a catalyst for change and their dominant issue is not, "having power as the problem, but what we (whites) do with this power that matters."  I might believe that the underlying premise of such a statement, spoken by a Fuller student in a class with Dr. Love Sechrest called, Race and Identity in Paul, is a dangerous configuration of many different paradigms. I wonder if people understood that this same idea was also prevalent during slavery, where the cross was not something which demonstrates the evil in humanity, but it became a symbol of power placed upon the backs of those deemed "evil". If not for the mere fact that I know my own tendencies toward power and I know how "all consuming power can be," I would probably not be were I am today.  The underlying issues of power in a police department were some of the reasons that I left. Power has a way, as does violence of remaking the one participating in its system into its very image. This is why being "white", of course is not the problem currently in our society, since these sociological constructions are as real as our sexes, meaning I can not change them, but yet "white-ness" is something which derives out of a system, in which I can choose to NOT participate.

Walter Wink has written about the issues of personal and systemic power in three different books entitled, Naming the Powers, Unmasking the Powers, and The Powers that Be.

Although it is not a new phenomenon that those who have identified with "white-ness" in the U.S. have been part of a dominant majority; this majority have aligned themselves with a power system which has slowly subverted their allegiance.  I am speaking of the allegiance the Christian majority, since they are the ones who "run" the churches in the U.S.  I guarantee that when most pastor's started they were concerned about power, but the structure and design of churches have allowed pastor's to gravitate towards holding the dominate ideology over the subjects. Therefore, if we understood the power system which underlay the identity forming supposition of this "white-ness" in the U.S., we might not so closely align ourselves with this dominant structure.  We desire as Christians to be followers of Christ and although the argument has been made for centuries about how Christ and Culture intersect, rarely are systems of power the basis of the discussion, but it is my firm believe that Jesus clearly understood "power systems" and spoke about them frequently.

A New Revolution

The more knowledge of certain issues that I acquire, sometimes it seems as though the angrier I become.  It is easy to assume in the "present evil age", to quote George Eldon Ladd, New Testament theologian, that we will all grow weary and tired of pursuing the fullness of being enveloped in love to some extent in our lives.  Normally in my blog posts, I would say something like; "We talk about the fullness of community, yet still live isolated, we talk about global crisis, yet still have bills to pay, we talk about the idealistic objectives of the "renewal of God's creation", yet pursue jobs which provide security and safety, remaking us into people who are satisfied with the status quo," but for some reason today, Jurgen Moltmann's article, "The Crucified God", has captured my attention.  Through my alleged pursuit of revolutionary activity, it seems to simply get me angry at others' apathy, yet being someone who naturally dislikes apathy, I feel very apathetic myself.  Moltmann talks about the coldness which the God of success gives to his people.  It is not the God of love found in the theology of the incarnation, cross, and resurrection.  When Moltmann went walking through a Concentration Camp in Poland, he said, "The shame I felt for what my country had done, I wished the earth swallow me up, if I didn't believe that they (the victims) will rise again."

This brings me back to the dominant underlying issue concerning my over-reaction against the Evangelical Church in the U.S..  In American Evangelicalism, the over-arching premise is its implicit stand with nothing, and yet everything, so I therefore, react. I react harshly and say, "You have no backbone, you talk about injustice, (and sometimes never talk about injustice) yet perpetuate injustice by your lifestyle, you are apathetic and do not understand systems of power, which are so clear in the way you operate."  The only problem is, "I am them!" 

I react against the John MacArthur's of the world, who say, "God is not concerned about slavery, because slavery is something 'of this world'"!  I do not need to give a rebuttle to this statement, since it is not deserving of my reaction, but I can not help myself.  John MacArthur went on Larry King and spoke these exact words and subsequently drives a wedge between those who already are disgruntled with Evangelical Christianity, and those who actually follow the words of MacArthur.  The followers of MacArthur, i.e. those who attend his church, actually believe that he is attesting to God's Word.  I would urge John MacArthur to "only live by the spiritual Word of God", which he claims is what humanity needs to live, because I am fairly confident that he enjoys some of the finest food, the nicest clothes, and lives a somewhat luxurious lifestyle. I do not like to harp on race, but once again, "Why is it so difficult for white Christians to understand that they have directly benefited from social programs in the U.S."? From the numerous conversations that I have been involved, most who identify with whiteness in the U.S., believe that they have "earned" what they have, coming the the next logical conclusion, that which is "earned", is then theirs to do with it whatever they desire. Why are we so ignorant?

Getting back to my own journey, I would quote Miroslav Volf at this point and say, "The exact evil that we are fighting against, robs us of our innocence towards violence and recreates us into the image of violence, making us violent ourselves," quoting Dorothy Suchocki.  I understood this perspective when I was a police officer as part of a governmental system which survived as great Leviathan, which feeds upon incarcerating poor people for addictions, but as a Christian leader, I do not want to survive upon others' misery! So, it is important to ask the question, "How vulnerable am I"?  How willing am I myself to stand beside others when no one else does?  Do I still want a "piece of the pie?"  I probably do, and I thank God that I have this recognition, so that I do not venture to acquire these opportunities at the expense of my brothers and sisters.  Are these opportunities wrong?  Not as long as others have equal access to the same opportunities, but until that time, we should not be pursuing them at the expense of others.  

The question now is, "But when will everyone have the same opportunities"?  Jesus said that we will always have the poor.  Dueteronomy 15:4 in regards to the canceling of debts affirms that, "There should be NO poor among you, for in the land the Lord God is giving you, he will richly bless you."  So, the earth has the natural ability to produce an abundance?  Why then do the poor not have access to this abundance?  Sin?  Laziness? Or do the wealthy hoard, pushing the poor farther into the fringes and taking the sweetness of the core for themselves? We have a somewhat abstract concept of unequal disparities between rich and poor and most Christians have a difficult time articulating what the disparities look like in "Real time and real language."

Doesn't everyone benefit from the systemic injustices, which are the natural forms of life in the U.S.? "Should not we all participate, attempting to gain what is rightfully ours?"  It is not that Christians do not participate with the abundance of the earth, but we participate in a new way. No longer do we participate in ways which identify with the elite classes who whore the land. I heard Dr. Michael Eric Dyson in a documentary called, Black in America talk about the prophetic voice, "Which stand outside the structures", calling these structures back to their intended vocation. (my words)  This documentary brought us to the ghettos of inner city Houston, which could be inner city U.S. to look at the blight and poverty.  I always have a difficult time allowing one side, predominantly white America projecting their own apathy

It is not difficult to understand my natural inclination towards revolution and here is what scares me though about veering away from my revolutionary tendencies.  I fear then people would not want to think about injustice and say, "See, really Jesus is not concerned with those "social" issues, he is concerned with simply lovin' up some people."  "After all, Jesus said nothing about social or political issues."  Once again, I want to tell those people that they are the DIRECT recipients of social programs which they have benefited from and have utilized for the past 200 years, which makes them socialists, but simply ignorant socialists.  Here is the most dangerous supposition about our lack of understanding regarding somewhat invisible social programs.  We perceive God in regards to the earth, since we are directly connected Read David Roediger's, Working Towards Whiteness; How America's Immigrants Became White; The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs.

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Here then is the main issue in what I am discussing: Vulnerability.  I think that Moltmann knows about this process, since he also reacted against what he thought was Karl Barth's somewhat negative stance towards social action, in favor of a more existential Christianity and instead pursued Dietrich Bonhoeffer's writings to gain a more nuanced view towards a gospel of liberation.  Bonhoeffer wrote that the Nazi's did not care about Christian's preaching the gospel on Sunday, because it did not affect their programs, but it was only when Bonhoeffer realized that standing with the oppressed, i.e. the Jews, did the Nazi's take notice. Moltmann has also come out of the Enlightenment's, "Myth of human progress", whereby humanity could simply make more logical choices and change the earth.  

The theology of the cross completely debunks that myth, because if Yahweh was incarnate into Israel's story, then Yahweh was also found in death in Israel's hope, but hope is embodied in a cross of shame and the Enlightenment does not allow the cross to have an existence.  The embodiment of love then is found in suffering, through the death of Jesus on a cross, next to two criminals.  Therefore all the other programs and action must be found in Christ on the cross.  Too many times though the cross is separated from the incarnation.  The incarnation of Yahweh becoming Jewish flesh, is the affirmation of life, the affirmation of Yahweh's faithfulness to his covenant promises.  As I read the O.T. prophets, I can't help but think that all the harsh statements of the prophets towards Israel, Yahweh decided that he would actually bear the prophetic injunctions against his people into his own body, then afforded us the opportunity in which we now participate in the bearing of suffering for the sake of humanity, because when all is said and done, we believe that "they (the victims) will rise again" and in that age, again to quote George Eldon Ladds', "the age to come", the resurrection will vindicate the evil suffered and that is The New Revolution.

After writing this blog post, I have decided to write a book, which a certain friend has been suggesting to me.  Thanks.