30-10-11
On thankfulness, privilege, and endurance
After church today, I was left with much thought. The ‘preach’ (as sermons are called out here) was provocative, on the topic of thankfulness. I realize increasingly how much I’ve been afforded. It’s always good to be reminded of this, since we are all to easily susceptible to negativity and complaining. I have found it too easy to complain, all too often. However, when I consider how much I’ve been given, it forces me to admit that I’m actually just a whiner. I have been reading a lot about Occupy Wall Street, given its current prevalence in the news. The jargon is always “the 99% vs. the 1%”. However, increasingly, I’ve learned that the 1% is a symbolic ‘other’ that we love to crusade against. In my studies with Peace and Conflict, I’ve seen ‘the other’ being used for blame a number of times…unfortunately, the result is very rarely positive. It’s much easier, of course, to blame a mysterious ‘other’ for the problems that affect us. It’s far easier to point the finger at an inhuman ‘other’, than to take personal responsibility. But my biases about personal responsibility aside, It’s plain when you look outside the US, that we are uncomfortably close to BEING the 1%. I mean, the average lower-middle class American is still in the top 90% of the world income, and even the bottom 2% in the US is STILL in the 63% percentile of world income[1].
Don’t believe me? Check out this site: http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/resources/how-rich-you-are.php
If we want to talk about the ‘haves and have nots’, we’re definitely the former. The thing that has frustrated my most about all the OWS stuff is that we are fantastic about complaining, but absolutely crappy about actually doing anything. It frustrates me beyond belief that all people want to do is complain. And before anyone calls me out on bias, I would like to point out that I actually share many of their sentiments. The difference is, I’m not going to sit on my rear protesting, I’m going to actually work for a constructive change…however I can. I can’t do anything about the behavior of politicians, financial conglomerates, or people, be they wealthy or poor. I can, however, continue to do good at my community placement, working with the youth of Short Strand, despite how difficult it can be at times. At the same time, I can live differently. Part of the reason my faith is practical is because I strive to live what I believe, practice what I preach, and to not push that attitude on anyone I meet, but rather, treat them with the same love and compassion I’d want shown towards me. I feel like by getting off our high horses, steeples, our intellectual ivory tower elite viewpoints, and getting down on the ground, into the community is how we can make the biggest practical difference. I know that circumstances are not ideal, but, they happened. We can’t control them, though we should be conscious and sensitive to them, but we can control our reactions to them.
I get frustrated with politics, both left and right, because neither gets it…and Christians are just as susceptible to manipulation as everyone else. Jim Wallis (head of Sojourners, a magazine I used to read) once said “god is not a republican or democrat”, which is very much true. It’s easy to use God as a political tool and both sides readily do so. The reason I like Shane Claiborne and others who utilize practical theology, of consistently living out one’s beliefs, (the ‘orthopraxis’ in addition to the usual ‘orthodoxy’) is because they (for the most part) can ignore political ideologies, and simply live together in community. I don’t think it’s right to protest a system when doing so prevents bringing about effective change. Don’t get me wrong, I support democratic, non-violent protests, but I think the problems of the world have a MUCH deeper, more sinister root…namely, that which lies within.
It is the dark side of human nature, which lies within me, which is the problem. I am capable of the same greed that got us into the same economic mess that we find ourselves in. This ugly truth is uncomfortable. My point is, that ‘others’ aren’t the problem. I AM. I could apply this language to all, saying ‘we are” , but I apply this language to myself since it’s the only person I can apply it to. In a criminal court, it is possible for proper authorities to delegate guilt but in all due honestly, I think that we cannot begin to address a problem, until we admit the guilt within ourselves. It is not some ‘other’ that caused the problem, except in the sense that the ‘other’ is actually comprised of individuals…who all have the same issue. Solzhenitsyn noted that “The line between good and evil lies within every human heart”, which is also where any form of change should start.
On a more personal note: we should take heart in that we can change. It's not really due to anything we do, but we're enabled to change through faith. Another sermon I heard recently (on 1 peter 4) was about 'the theology of doing the dishes'. I quote the passage (NIV) for reference, utilizing italicization to point out what stuck out to me...
7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
I really like this.
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