Cowardly War of Words

 

"So Jews othered non-Jews, Greeks othered non-Greeks, and Romans othered non-Romans.  Each divided the world into us and them, where them is always wild, violent, unmanly, dirty, stupid, lazy, horny and yet scary.  That was, of course, because they were not actually wild, violent, unmanly, and so forth, but they were actually scary... All this ethnic othering had to do finally with trying to put a finger on that fear factor.  Why are we so afraid?"  -- Stephen Patterson in The Forgotten Creed

Throughout history, cultures develop narratives to understand their identity and root that identity in community values, informed by the experiences of a people.  The narrative or myth may be based entirely on a true rendering of historical facts or can be a carefully crafted multigenerational account of fictionalized stories that support a culture/nation/people's preferred understanding of themselves.  It should not be surprising to most to acknowledge that is what is in history books is often a crafted articulation of events, told in a manner to support the dominant narrative. (Check out "The Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James Loewen for a great review of history books and fact checking) 

Dr. Richard Hughes describes a myth as "a story that, whether true or false, helps us discern the meaning and purpose of our lives and, for that reason, speaks truth to those who embrace it." (Myths America Lives By, 2003).  He identifies six different myths that help us understand our national behavior and identity.  All of the myths, although developed at different points in American history, serve to further solidify our understanding of America as divinely exceptional.  Exceptionalism is the understanding that a people/nation/region are divinely ordained to embody the character, image, and will of God.  It understands that the image of God is better revealed through "us" through divine election and that others in the world are best served to emulate us (think manifest destiny).  Examples abound of this identity and the devastation that occurs to others as a result.  The genocide of American Indigenous people in the name of Christian exceptionalism is a great example.  The recent discovery of hundreds of bodies of children who were forced to Church sponsored boarding schools to be "civilized", stripping them of their heritage, language, and culture, is an example of a policy that stems from American exceptionalism.

The reason that exceptionalism continues to exist is because it is reinforced with narratives and myths that protect it.  Our history books fuel the myths of the Chosen Nation, the Christian Nation,  and the Innocent Nation among others.  Because exceptionalism is not simply an ideology, but a source of identity and purpose, it is deeply held and strongly resisted.  

The classic American western was rarely accurate but were accounts of brave men and women who sought to "tame" the wild west, including its inhabitants whose families had existed in these regions for a millennia.  The white settlers were seen as the hope of that region and were simply defending themselves from those who are described in the Declaration of Independence as "savages".  These movies are examples of myth building.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the movie "The Birth of a Nation" was a story where the heroes were literally members of the KKK who protected innocent white women from Black people who were portrayed as criminals and rapists.  It was very popular and justified Jim Crow laws and the further dehumanizing of Black people.  It was simply a means to support exceptionalism and justify the horrific violence committed against people of color in the US at that time.

Fast forward to today.  Any attempts to seek justice that threatens America's exceptionalist identity, is met with immediate discrediting and further elaborating and expansion of exceptionalist narratives.  

The process happens so often that I want to share the steps:

1. Clear evidence of injustice is revealed and authorities do nothing to address it.

2. People affected by the injustice organize and demand justice

3. Authorities ignore or diminish the demand for justice, and the organizers increase their protest with civil disobedience.

4. Authorities focus solely on the civil disobedience and develop resources to limit the disobedience or tools used to reveal injustice and inequities.

5. Public discourse centers on the civil disobedience or the tools used to understanding injustice as the real threat to culture, community, and exceptionalist identity. 

What does that look like?

The disproportionate use of violence against Black people has been expressed by civic and civil rights groups for nearly 100 years. Extending from state-sponsored lynching, televised beatings of civil rights protestors and the hands of law enforcement,  the beating of Rodney King at the hands of the LAPD, and reaching a tipping point with the Minneapolis police execution of George Floyd.  The resulting Black Lives Matter protests remains the largest global protest ever seen.  Despite nearly a century of organized protest, no initiatives on legal and law enforcement reform came in response to documented brutality, unequal sentencing and rigged juries.  Most government entities began to center their responses on BLM and discrediting it as opposed to dealing with complaints of injustice.  

Many churches, who should lead in peacemaking and keep government accountable, instead chose exceptionalism over Jesus-following.  Churches did not call for justice, reform and equity, but spent energy denigrating BLM as Marxist, anti-God, and anti-church.  In the Wesleyan tradition of Christianity in which I am part, there is a concept of God's spirit moving among and through people prior to them having a relationship with God called "prevenient" grace.  It should shame churches to see God raising up others for "such a time as this" because the church refused to be shaped by the story of Jesus and his sacrificial life for  the righteousness and justice of the world. 

Use the same process but substitute a different word like "CRT", "wokeness",  "progressive", or "social justice".  Same outcome: A desire to avoid the actual injustice that threatens the sense of exceptionalism.  CRT does not state that all white people are racists, but it does point to the fact that racial inequities are a result of racist actions and systems.  There's a reason that Black people on average live in areas with lower housing values as has been well documented.  In many cities there was a collaboration of banks, real estate companies and municipalities to prevent people of color from living in many neighborhoods.  It is called redlining.  To understand the inequity of housing for people of color, a system of analyzing disparities that was initially  developed in the legal field (critical theory) to help understand and to resolve the racially different outcomes and address injustice.  Yet too many churches and their leaders spend hours literally protesting CRT (which is not taught in schools other than graduate and Law schools) rather than protesting injustice.  

This deflection justifies inaction on their part and more importantly, allows a sense of identity as special people of God who are chosen to exercise authority so that other people might have the chance to be just like them.  Exceptionalist churches would rather believe irrational, completely debunked, impossible conspiracies than accept that they are complicit in horrific brutality around the world that is not innocent, and definitely not of God.  

The war on the "word of the season" is essentially cover for cowardice.  This is not to say that organizations and movements are beyond critique because the are not.  It is saying that governmental entities, and in particular churches, are more concerned about preserving social, cultural, and racial disparities than justice and equity, will typically be outspoken to cover up their cowardice.  They will often create a new boogieman that justifies inaction or embrace a conspiracy theory that literally diminishes and destroys the credibility of the claim (People who say the Jewish Holocaust didn't exist, American Slaves were happy, Indigenous people instigated violence, etc).

God is described as one who sits on a throne of "justice and righteousness" and expresses this through love and faithfulness (Psalm 89:14).  People of God should reflect this but time and time again, the churches in America find themselves on the wrong side of history by being on the wrong side of justice, which means... being opposed to God.

Let's stop the war of words and live into our destiny as peacemakers, shalom-encouraging, reconciling advocates of justice.  Churches: Lets  remember our founding narratives based upon Jesus, who as the fullness of God, came to reconcile the world to God and one another (Col 1:19).  Let that shape who we are and what our mission is.