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This is a menu of the topics on this page (click on any): War Bullying The Global War Against the Poor Babies and Psychopaths Because They Can Our Conclusion - Our Response The Kingdom Personality .
A group of people began meeting at St. Gregory's Episcopal Church in May (2005) to discuss Jim Wallis's book "God's Politics". The discussion has led to at least two potentially useful efforts.
(source: Matthew White) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
It is possible that, as Huston Smith argues, the next great accomplishments of humankind will be in getting along with each other. Certainly the Civil Rights movement and its aftermath have set the stage for transformational change. Now, after September 11, the New York Times reports that the "the entertainment industry has opted for restraint to avoid accusations of bias and the danger of offending audience sensibilities in an increasingly multiracial America". While mankind may have been more destructive in the past century than in any prior century, humankind also has risen to unprecedented acts of reconciliation. Events in the new South Africa and the apologies of the Pope are examples.
War
Our nation was struck to the core by "911", but if we look in a context outside our nation
or outside this decade we confront facts that make "911" pale by comparison.
America tragically lost 4000 lives and billions of dollars of property.
Since 1994 more than 5 million lives have been lost by war, genocide and oppression in
Rwanda, the Sudan, the Congo, and Somalia. If we look a bit further back, we find that
40 million lost their lives during Mao Zedong's regime in China ending in 1976,
20 million lost their lives during Stalin's regime in the USSR ending in 1953,
55 million lost their lives in World War II, and
15 million lost their lives in World War I. (source:
Matthew White)
Further back, researchers tell us that
somewhere between 30 and 60 million Africans were forcibly taken from Africa
during slave trade and two-thirds of them died at sea.
So, 10 or 20 million Africans became slaves in America of 30-60 million taken from their families and their villages.
(Source: www.juneteenth.com/middlep.htm)
We have sometimes intervened. The Berlin airlift was a massively successful effort to protect people blockaded in 1948. But we have done very little to help the people of Darfur (Sudan), Rwanda, and the Congo in recent and current conflicts.
It seems clear that, thinking globally, some men will continue to wreak great hardship on others, and some others will turn their backs.
Bullying
"U.S. researchers who have studied bullying say part of the problem is that such behavior is often accepted,
even encouraged by adults. "There's a real value system around [bullying] that basically teaches kids
that it's not just okay -- it's more than okay," said Howard Spivak, a professor of pediatrics and community health
at Tufts University in Massachusetts. "Social acceptability of bullying is a consequence of many complex things,"
including adults' approval and the influence of television, video games and movies that "teach them
that being mean is not only acceptable, but good," he said.
More than 16 percent of U.S. schoolchildren report having been bullied, according to a 2001 survey of nearly 16,000 students in grades 6 through 10 funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). An estimated quarter to a third of U.S. students are involved in bullying, either as a victim or perpetrator, according to Spivak.
Research has linked bullying with violent and criminal behavior later in life, as well as emotional, psychological and social problems. A federally funded study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine reported in 2004 that bullies and their victims had more health problems and poorer emotional and social adjustment than their peers." (source, Washington Post, 8/23/05, Bully for Them)
The Global War Against the Poor
When Richard Barnet wrote a pamphlet and titled it
"The Global War Against the Poor",
I said, "Good grief, Richard, you surely need a different title.
Who's going to take seriously that there is some sort of conspiracy to keep poor people poor."
But he and his publisher (
The Church of the Saviour
) stuck with it, and today (9/1/05)
I typed that title into
Google
and found the concept widely presented.
A New York Times story (8/30/05, by Celia W. Dugger) reports that it is common in India that when you have a baby, in order to see or cuddle the baby, you must pay the attendant $12 if it is a boy or $7 if it is a girl. "The bitter experience of corruption is an everyday trial for millions of poor people across Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is being recognized as a major obstacle to economic development, robbing the impoverished of already measly incomes and corroding the public services they desperately need."
Dr. Barnet's pamphlet makes the case for "The Global War Against the Poor" in many other ways. (available from Carl House)
Babies and Psychopaths
There is nothing more universal in its ability to draw from us our nourishing and protective instincts
than the presence of a baby. We respond to the baby's vulnerability and its needs.
We are excited by the potential of this baby to grow into a loving and contributing person.
But, it is essential that the baby enter into a process of socialization and growth towards emotional maturity
and responsibility to realize that potential. A baby that is not given that process will
not be able to function in our society and may well
become a pyschopath. This socialization process is always flawed. Pain in growing up is common to all of us.
So, we all fall short of our possibilities;
we are all separated from God by self interest, our ego, our anger, our pain...
"Wise old Jung insists that it is good and salutory - even necessary for growth - to face one's shadow and to confront one's inner demons. No one is exempt. Who is without fears, neuroses, anxieties? There is darkness in all of us. Don't avoid your demons! Go through them. Bring them into the light and face them fairly and squarely. Only then will you be able to handle them.The mystical life can be described as a journey into the depths of one's being, a journey to the true self and through the true self to God, who is the Center. Down, down I go through alternate layers of light and darkness, meeting all the slimy monsters and frightening demons that inhabit the subliminal world. And if I progress enough, I meet not only my own little monsters. I meet the monsters of the human race. I meet the root causes of war, oppression, torture, hunger, terrorism. I meet hatred, despair, injustice, atheism, darkness. I meet archetypical evil. I meet it in myself.... We are all responsible.
God is present in all these hurts. He is more present in darkness than in light. He is nearer in a time of desolation than in a time of consolation. Stay with the darkness. Go through it. Don't run away. And through all of this you will expand, making you more and more capable of receiving those sublime communications which come from the darkness of God." (from Christian Mysticism Today by Johnston)
I take this as an invitation to me to be part of the human family. I hope I'll overlook or forgive your shortcomings, and that with appropriate apology you'll overlook or forgive mine. As I've been contemplating this, I've imagined how in my lesser self I could be like Pat Robertson. Imagine that I work really hard. Imagine that I really believe in what I'm doing. My passion runs deep and it is for good purposes; and right now I a bit tired and I'm running on empty. I could well urge we take a shortcut that on more consideration I'd realize is not a good idea. So, however you hurt, however angry you are, even if your sin is dreadful, if you meet my better self you will meet someone who, with Grace, will be a healing presence for you. I need to be part of my human family; I need to experience God's presence. I am reminded:
Because They Can
A few years ago a playwright explored this quality of human beings and concluded that men are
abusing power because they can.
In his modern and artistic way he is making the same statement that early Christian theologians
made in articulating the concept of
"original sin".
This is also why those who wrote our constitution gave importance to the concepts of "balance of power"
and "checks and balances"
and it is a reason why our nation has been able to evolve over 3 centuries into a reasonably
rational and well-governed nation.
Our Conclusion - Our Response
It is hard to conclude that the hope given to us by Huston White
will be fully realized in our lifetime or that of our children.
But it is inescapable that people of good heart and people of faith must be
engaged in protecting those who are vulnerable and in creating opportunity for those who lack opportunity.
We cannot change the nature of human beings; we cannot mandate a world that will work right all by itself.
Going back to the conservative and liberal radicals that Jim Wallis addresses.
Perhaps "progressive religion" embraces the conservative idea that
we can't give people things they won't work for
while embracing the liberal idea that
the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness must exist for all people.
This includes safety and reasonable opportunity for education and employment for all.
Elizabeth O'Connor has written
"if your prayer is not accompanied by caring for the poor, your prayer is an empty prayer".
I think Elizabeth's statement applies to both conservative and liberal theology that is authentic to Christ's teaching.
The challenge in social justice is to find and develop strategies which have the best
chance of moving us towards the
Kingdom.
Resources will be less than what is needed and must be used judiciously.
The greatest asset for social justice is the passion of people who care.
One friend whose faith is as authentic as anyone I know said
"We need another great man. Maybe we need Jesus to come back now."
That sentiment is hard to implement as social policy, but the idea that there is
goodness in all of us and that we need to draw forth that goodness is true and can be implemented.
The Kingdom Personality
Goron Cosby offers the hope that
"You will personally embody the Kingdom personality
described in the Beatitudes,
You will be loving, caring, outgoing, reconciling,
helping alienated people understand one another.
You will be non-competitive, non-violent,
and you will be ready to interpret your word of God assumptions
if anybody happens to be interested."
(from Gordon Cosby's sermon of 8/15/93 entitled Consecrated Strangers )