The
Christian Church has often been a force for good in the world but it has also
been a force for evil, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly. A faith community
which was meant to be inclusive, caring, and positive, has often been
exclusive, hateful, and destructive. Much has been done in the name of Christ throughout
history against perceived others through the perversion of biblical teachings
and abuse of power by the Church. It has cultivated the disastrous practice of
embracing opposition to other people, groups, and even nonhuman creation, instead
of exhibiting the love for creation, neighbor, stranger, and enemy that Christ
taught. The Church has become better known for who or what it opposes than for who
or what it embraces. This dangerous disconnect between professed faith and corresponding
actions partially stemming from a limited and perhaps absent doctrine of
creation has resulted in destructive exclusionary and dehumanizing practices toward
the very people Christ commanded his followers to love and has created a
religious system that needs to be re-imagined from a truer foundation in God's word. When the Church and all its
professed members begin to live out the biblical calling to love justice, seek
mercy, and walk humbly, the world will be changed for the good, creation will
flourish, justice will be realized, and God will be glorified. Christians must
take the lead in affecting this change and work to deconstruct the traditions and
teachings that have allowed the evil of othering to flourish. They need to start
humanizing others through a sound doctrine of creation.
To place
someone in a category of other, as someone considered to be different than
oneself to such a degree that this other person is viewed as failing to meet an
imaginary standard set by oneself, has been a normal practice in societies around
the world. Someone is viewed as different for any number of reasons and through
the identified distinctions, divisions begin to grow which then can lead to
oppression and dehumanization. There are many categories of people who have
been othered by society and by the Church, specifically minorities, including
LGBT people, members of other belief systems, and politicians. They are others
because they are considered to be outside the realm of acceptable Church
communities since they may hold different views than the Christian church and/or
exhibit behaviors the Church has found unacceptable. As a result, there has
been centuries of ignoring and oppressing these populations, dehumanizing and othering
them in order to avoid knowing them, serving them, or loving them and to
justify their abuse. These behaviors directly contradict God’s command to love everyone
and to care for all of creation. In his book, Possible, Stephen Bauman states, "An organization, church,
initiative, or program is only truly Christian insofar as it functions
according to the nature of Jesus. If any community - whether church,
government, or business - functions in ways opposed to the nature of Jesus, it falls
on the side of evil, whether it knows it or not."[1]
For far too long the Church has been on the wrong side of evil and the damage
and injustice that has been done under the guise of Christianity has had
profoundly devastating consequences for the oppressed as well as the oppressors.
Justice
entails developing right relationships with God and his creation by recognizing
and valuing the imago Dei in everyone and the telos in all of creation. In
Christopher Morse's chapter on humanity from his book, Not Every Spirit, he explains what it means to image God, saying it
"is understood to involve being in such relationship to the origin
("in whom"), the provision ("through whom"), and the end
("for whom") of all creation that God appears through us. To exercise
dominion under God, according to God's call, is thus never to violate the
integrity of any creature God has made."[2] To
value creation as something created with love and intention by God and for God
is to bear faithful witness to him. All of creation is designed with a specific
purpose, a telos, and the act of dehumanizing or exploiting any aspect of
creation rejects its telos and rejects biblical teachings about valuing every
person and created being, violating that integrity. What a person believes
about creation determines one's treatment of it and a lack of understanding of
the telos of creation leads to violence and destruction. In his book, God's Good World, Jonathan Wilson makes
the point that, "When humans act contrary to their own telos in God, they
do violence to themselves. When they act toward other humans contrary to the
others’ telos in God, they do violence to others. When humans act toward the
rest of creation contrary to its telos, they do violence to the rest of
creation."[3] To
humanize the other is to recognize the telos and the imago Dei in that 'other,'
and to value it through equal treatment and particular care according to God's
instructions. As author Ann Voscamp so eloquently puts it,
When
we understand that we are all made in the Image of God, the Imago Dei, we stand
with each other and for each other and about each other. What ends the apathy and the trafficking and the
racism and the fighting everywhere is when we start seeing the Imago Dei in
everyone. . . When we don’t belong to each other, we participate not only in
the devastation of the world, but a desecration of the image of God.[4]
Damaged relationships between humans not only hurt the
ones being oppressed, but also the oppressors who, through their sinful
oppression of others, are also putting divisions between themselves and the God
they say they serve. Through this process of othering they are contradicting
their profession of faith in God's word and the value he places on all
creation.
One way the injustice of othering has been accomplished
is in the context of the seemingly beneficial act of charity. While charity can
be a good starting point for getting involved, if the church never goes beyond
impersonal giving, it merely becomes an ineffectual and temporary aid that is insufficient
as a long term solution which doesn't contribute to the flourishing of those
involved. It is a practice that keeps the degrading boundaries in place around
the others, perpetually denying them their inherent value and ignoring the
imago Dei in them. It fails to address the root causes of broken relationships
that have led to the division between and dehumanization of these perceived
others. A current leader in social justice work, Pastor Eugene Cho, says,
"When you're not interested in building genuine mutual relationships, you
rob people of their dignity and they become projects. Don't reduce people to
projects. When that happens, they become statistics instead of people. How can
you love and serve the poor if you don't even know the poor?"[5] To
love the poor or the other one must actually know them personally. Gustavo
Gutierrez, liberation theologian, challenged people on the same topic. "So
you say you love the poor? Name them."[6] Faith
leaders in particular need to lead the shift in perspective from an impersonal
charity for the victim’s practice to a relationship restoring model that
involves getting to know these individuals and learning from them, thereby erasing
the destructive boundaries and restoring their dignity.
Much
of the othering of marginalized populations that has taken place has been as a
result of fear, selfishness, and greed, as well as blatantly wrong theology. Perhaps
no group has suffered more in the dehumanization of a group than minorities,
particularly Africans, African Americans, and Native Americans who have all
been victims of violent racism created from false doctrines. Slavery became
prevalent due to incorrect teachings and beliefs, often perpetuated by anthropologists
and Christian missionaries seeking to gain influence, wealth, and recognition, who
viewed darker skinned people as inferior and even inhuman and thereby vulnerable,
exploitable, and disposable. The physical differences between white Europeans
and black Africans became an excuse for their mistreatment and a way for white Europeans
to justify the evil of slavery and racism. They developed various ways of
categorizing these others which, in the instance of Belgian colonization of Rwanda, would
directly contribute to the Rwandan genocide. Rwandan’s were categorized as
Hutus and Tutsis by their Belgian colonizers who manufactured these terms based
on the results of their measurements of physical differences between Rwandans, then
stoked these contrived differences into rivalries by favoring one group over
the other, breeding animosity that lasted well after Rwanda gained independence
and was ultimately the catalyst for the 1994 genocide.[7] The
racist ideology that encourages the demeaning and othering of a person for
physical characteristics or nationality became normalized long before this
genocide took place and can be seen in any genocide that has taken place
throughout history, including the genocide of Native Americans in the New World.
When
Europeans stumbled across the New World and
found abundant resources to their liking and indigenous populations not to
their liking, they committed genocide to take control of the natural resources
they coveted. In doing so, they failed to recognize the basic humanity of the
native populations, viewing them as obstacles to be destroyed in their quest
for more wealth rather than relationships to be cultivated. The white Christian
Europeans who created these racist policies and practices and were widely
influential at that time, were operating with a false doctrine of creation
which allowed them to disregard the basic dignity of people of color, stripping
them of their God-given humanity and value in order to exploit them and amass
wealth through that exploitation. The results of this violence against Native
Americans has had profoundly devastating consequences which are still
unresolved today.
The
social and political construction of whiteness as the ideal and norm is an
illusion that has little to do with one's actual skin color and more to do with
the creation by powerful white elites of this category which is subject to
change at any time for any reason and is abused purely for their gain. As Jim
Wallis discussed in a recent lecture, whiteness is a completely fabricated myth
and a lie. He points out that it is an idol and idols separate us from God,
therefore whiteness as a construction separates us from God.[8]
The problem of white privilege and the consequent dehumanizing racist practices
will only be resolved when this idol is destroyed. Recognizing this idolatry is
imperative and Christians need to be the forerunners in repenting from this
practice and leading the Church in a new Godly direction in solidarity with
these others who have suffered oppression.
Even
after the Civil Rights movement ended in the USA, the results of these racist
practices and beliefs that have been rooted in a false Christianity continue to
wreak havoc on people of color today. The injustice they face is nearly as
intense as it was during legal slavery, with black men and women being killed
indiscriminately with seemingly no consequences for their murderers and a
multitude of other abuses being inflicted as well. The evil of racism can be
attributed in part to an incorrect or absent doctrine of creation. Wilson discusses how a
weak or nonexistent doctrine of creation has contributed to the dehumanization
and othering of humanity and creation.
To say that humans are creatures is
to say that our identity, our meaning, our life depend on our relationship to
the One who created us. . . When we do
not recognize that humans have their identity as human by virtue of our
creatureliness before God, we become susceptible to other bases for our
humanity. . . Or we may begin to construe "the human" according to
our own particular likeness. We construct ways of identifying our particular
identity markers as those that identify all that is human… Instead of being
wonderful variations that make creation beautiful and reveal God's delight in
"dappled things," these variations become markers of inferiority, of
status, and finally of human identity.[9]
The culture and people who created and perpetuated racism even
to the point of genocide failed, and continues to fail, to embrace the basic creatureliness
of all people. Their theology was so far misguided that not only did they
falsely believe that people of color weren’t human and could therefore be
mistreated as animals, they also failed to recognize that even in categorizing
them as animals in the world that those animals, as part of creation and the
handiwork of God, are deserving of respect and proper treatment.
The
othering of groups like politicians is yet another category that has been
dehumanized and rejected by the Church. When a leader exhibits a lifestyle or
philosophy that the Church takes issue with, they more often than not discount
those voices as invaluable and therefore unworthy of basic human treatment, frequently
even speaking against them in negative ways. The current presidential campaigns
unfolding in America
are great examples. Every day the news is filled with hate-speech by the
leading nominee for the Republican Party with language full of exclusionary,
racist, sexist, and xenophobic beliefs that are being broadcast ad infinitum and
are being embraced by an astounding number of people. Instead of taking this
opportunity, as someone with influence and access to a large audience, to break
down the evil divisions created by centuries of bigotry toward any perceived other,
those fears are being reinforced once again and the divisions are being deepened
and exploited for political gain. This fear-mongering is ensuring the others of
color, particularly Hispanic immigrants, and the others of Islamic faith, are
demonized and vilified. Parallels can be drawn between this situation and what
was done to the Jews leading up to and during the Holocaust who were initially
blamed for many social problems, segregated into walled ghettos, all before
being murdered in the worst failure of humanity in history.
The
similarities are horrifying and it is easier to put these politicians in an
other category all their own than it is see the image of God in them, and yet,
it is present and it means they, too, are deserving of the same treatment as
those whose ideologies are more closely aligned with Jesus. He called his followers
to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them. He also commanded
believers to pray for the leaders, regardless of their style of leadership or
belief system. He didn't ask his followers to agree with or to approve of these
people's actions, but to love them as he loves his children and to pray for
them and their salvation. Vincent Bacote points out in his book, The Political Disciple, "The
command to pray for the prosperity of the lands in which we find ourselves
remains important. . . regardless of our location, we should pray for nations
to flourish because such flourishing may likely be beneficial for all who dwell
in the land."[10]
It's not about agreeing with what the politicians do or say but about remaining
faithful to God's commands in spite of those disagreements, seeking to hold
them accountable, and not reinforcing those divisions but breaking them down
for the prosperity of all. Praying for political leaders should also include
the leaders of other countries, particularly for ones who are committing
atrocities against their own people like in Syria
and Sudan,
to choose but two examples. These are places where prayers, love, and solidarity
are desperately needed rather than more fear, division, and distance. A correct
doctrine of creation allows for one to see the imago Dei and telos in everyone
as one of God's creations, regardless of that individuals actions and words.
Christians
have often found it easier to distance themselves from those they oppose by
excluding themselves from any involvement in political arenas. Not only does
this maintain divisions, it goes against God’s call to be a good steward and
contributing member of society who recognizes that God puts leaders in place. Bacote
states, "One of the most important implications here is that our identity
as citizens in cities, states, and nations is to be taken seriously. Though
Christians have a greater allegiance to God than to any earthly nation or
political figure, it is proper Christian practice to be a good citizen.[11] Regardless
of one's personal political beliefs, God calls believers to pray for and love
everyone including political leaders so that justice can be realized. This
should be undertaken by all Christians through a shift in their rhetoric from
that unjust exclusionary and dismissive language which only inflicts damage, to
hopeful and prayerful actions and words which have the ability to defeat the
powers of darkness and bring positive change to an area of society that
desperately needs the gospel.
In
addition to placing groups of people in other categories and dehumanizing them
accordingly, the Church has also treated nonhuman creation as something to
exploit and destroy for selfish gains in similar ways. It has made a habit of
denying responsibility for its care, allowing for immeasurable damage to be
done. The evidence of human greed and insatiable consumption that has led to
the destruction of and disregard for creation is everywhere, from the trash
along the road to the destruction of rainforests to the prevalence of modern
slavery for the purpose of mining minerals used in cell phones and computers, and
shows little sign of abating without drastic action. Wilson says, "One of the greatest
tragedies of theology’s neglect of creation has been the church’s complicity in
the destruction of the natural world and thus also of conditions that
contribute to the flourishing of life."[12] The
plentiful injustices inflicted on this planet will have far-reaching
consequences for future generations and any hope for slowing this trend and
reversing it lies with strong Christian communities who acknowledge the
Church's failings and work to restore justice in creation.
Some
of this inaction and these destructive acts stem from another aspect of an
errant doctrine of creation that is more gnostic than Christian.[13] The
rather commonplace gnostic view that leaving this earth for heaven is the
ultimate goal has come at the expense of this planet and has permeated
Christian belief for far too long. "Christians talk about the gospel as
the great escape from this creation with an eagerness that at times sounds like
they have forgotten that the incarnation of Christ means that the material
world is ultimately good and will be redeemed (Romans 8:19-22)."[14] This
belief can be heard disseminated in sermons on Sundays, in songs on Christian
radio that proclaim, "this world has nothing for me,"[15] and
in everyday discussions in Christian communities. It is so ingrained in the
belief system that many Christians may not even recognize it as being false
doctrine. Revelation 21 discusses the new Jerusalem coming down to earth and
God coming down and dwelling among his people. He is returning to the earth he
created. Christians are often so focused on leaving this world that they have,
once again, failed to recognize the value of creation itself and their role in
it as one part of it. God placed Adam and Eve in the garden to take care of it,
not to abuse, exploit, and destroy it, but that is what happened. It is
imperative that Christians begin to understand the value of and take
responsibility for the natural world God put them in charge of until he returns.
Wilson contends
for the importance of understanding the createdness of all creation.
When we come to recognize our own
createdness, we will begin to care for, nourish, and delight in all createdness
because we will recognize that the love and sustenance and redemption that we
receive from God’s hands is directed to all creation. To the extent that we do
not care and do not delight in all creation, to that same extent we have not
yet learned that we are creatures who live by delighting in God – the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit. To the extent that we have not learned and delighted
in our creatureliness, we are in danger of not recognizing the creatureliness
of others.[16]
The myriad differences found in all of creation that have
served as points of division and oppression need to be seen as evidence of
God’s love for diversity and individuality and as something to be embraced and
celebrated through a correct doctrine of creation that values the createdness
of all things. "It is tremendously important for Christians to see that it
has always been our responsibility to care for the world, cultivating the
flourishing of life through our activity in culture, politics, education,
medicine, business, and every public area."[17]
As Romans 8 says, this creation will be redeemed and restored. Christians can
no longer afford to be the voices of dissent and dismissal shouting down the
voices of the one's fighting for better treatment of this planet and all its
inhabitants.
The
common thread to be found here is the necessity of changing how Christianity
has been lived out and that that change must start with the deconstruction of
dehumanizing practices and be replaced with the just treatment of all humanity
and proper stewardship of the earth. This change has to begin with a proper
foundation in the Gospel of Jesus Christ; not the gospel that has been
perverted for humanity's profit, but the true gospel as Jesus taught it, starting
with the belief in the sanctity of all creation and the restoration of these
damaged relationships. Genesis says that God created man and woman in his
image, placed them as stewards of the earth, and proclaimed all of his creation
to be good. Having a strong creation theology demands that Christians recognize
that every male and female on this planet was created in God's likeness and
bears this very imago Dei within them, regardless of any class, race, or gender
differences. It also demands the respect and care for all of creation as God
has promised to return to this earth. Wilson
reminds and challenges people, saying, "If we had this understanding of
justice rooted in a robust doctrine of creation, we would be deeply and
repentantly committed to living generously and mercifully rather than 'living'
fearfully, anxiously, and vengefully."[18] In
recognizing the createdness in oneself and in others, Christians can bear
faithful witness to God and afford each other mutual respect as equal creations
before God. The flourishing of creation in all its forms is possible through
the transformative work of putting one's faith in God into generous, compassionate,
and loving action. "Caring isn’t a Christian’s sideline hobby. Caring is a
Christian’s complete career. We don’t just care about people, caring about
people is our job, the job every single one of us get up to do every single
day. That’s it. Caring is our job, our point, our purpose."[19]
The greatest commandment given is to love the Lord God. To love him is to
follow his leadership and to love and care for his creation in its entirety.
Jesus also commands his followers to love their neighbors and their enemies,
the poor and the foreigner. There are no qualifiers or exclusions to his
command to love God and love others. The Christian faith does not allow for the
belief that any human being is beyond hope[20]
or deserving of being othered and any Christian theology that teaches otherwise
is false. It is only through this foundation, this acceptance and embrace of
the doctrine of creation that the dehumanizing categories will be destroyed,
justice will be realized, and creation will flourish.
Bibliography
Adams, Sam. "Liberation Theology Part 1." Lecture,
Kilns College,
Bend, OR,
March 15, 2016.
Adams, Sam. "Liberation Theology Part 2." Lecture,
Kilns College,
Bend, OR,
March 15, 2016.
Bacote, Vincent. The Political Disciple: A Theology of
Public Life. Zondervan, 2015.
Bauman, Stephan. Possible:
A Blueprint for Changing How We Change the World. Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 2015.
Cho, Eugene. Overrated:
Are We More in Love with the Idea of Changing the World than Actually Changing
the World? Colorado Springs:
David C. Cook, 2014, 218.
Gourevitch,
Philip. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our
Families: Stories from Rwanda.
New York:
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998.
Morse,
Christopher. Not Every Spirit: A Dogmatics of Christian Disbelief. Valley Forge, PA:
Trinity Press International, 1994.
Voscamp, Ann.
"Into Iraq
#2: What the News Isn't Telling You & Why We Can't Afford to Pretend It's
Not Happening [Sozan's Impossible Choice -- and Our Very Possible One]." A Holy Experience. May 18, 2015.
http://www.aholyexperience.com/2015/05/into-iraq-2-what-the-news-isnt-telling-you-why-we-cant-afford-to-pretend-its-not-happening-sozans-impossible-choice-and-our-very-possible-one/.
Wallis, Jim.
Lecture, Kilns College,
Bend, OR,
May 1, 2016.
Wilson, Jonathan R. God's Good World:
Reclaiming the Doctrine of Creation. Baker Academic, 2013.
[1] Stephan Bauman, Possible: A Blueprint for Changing
How We Change the World, Colorado
Springs: Multnomah, (2015), 76.
[2]
Christopher Morse, Not Every Spirit: A Dogmatics of Christian Disbelief,
Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, (1994), 265.
[3] Jonathan
R Wilson, God's Good World: Reclaiming
the Doctrine of Creation, Baker Academic, (2013), 27.
[4] Ann Voscamp, "Into Iraq #2: What the News Isn't
Telling You & Why We Can't Afford to Pretend It's Not Happening," A Holy Experience, (2015), http://www.aholyexperience.com/2015/05/into-iraq-2-what-the-news-isnt-telling-you-why-we-cant-afford-to-pretend-its-not-happening-sozans-impossible-choice-and-our-very-possible-one/.
[5] Eugene Cho, Overrated:
Are We More in Love with the Idea of Changing the World than Actually Changing
the World? Colorado Springs:
David C. Cook, (2014), 218.
[6] Sam Adams, "Liberation Theology Part 1,"
Lecture, Kilns College,
Bend, OR,
(March 15, 2016), Gutierrez quote.
[7] Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That
Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, (1998).
[8] Jim Wallis, Lecture, Kilns
College, Bend, OR, (2016).
[9] Wilson,
God's Good World, 41.
[10] Vincent
Bacote, The Political Disciple: A
Theology of Public Life, Zondervan, (2015), 50.
[11] Ibid.,
51.
[12] Wilson, God's Good World, 9.
[13] Ibid., 5.
[14] Bacote, The
Political Disciple, 31.
[15]
Numerous songs have this lyric as central to the song, including ones from
Building 429, Caedmon's Call, and New Song.
[16] Wilson, God's Good World, 44.
[17] Bacote,
The Political Disciple, 30.
[18] Wilson, God's Good World, 10.
[19]
Voscamp, Into Iraq#2.
[20] Sam Adams, "Liberation Theology Part 2,"
Lecture, Kilns College,
Bend, OR,
(2016).
