Changing the story

Richard Pithouse, reflecting on the recent riots in England…

…The young people contained in decaying council estates are bombarded by relentless corporate propaganda conflating access to consumer goods with meaning, beauty and dignity. Cameron likes to say that there are communities in England that are broken. But it is a society that tells young people that they have to consume to live with dignity but denies them work or the money to consume that is broken.

In the age of enclosure, rioters tore down fences. In the age of mechanisation, rioters smashed machines. Its hardly surprising that in the age of consumerism some people should leave their grim and fearful council estates, with their stairwells littered with needles and rank with the stench of urine, to, for a night or two, occupy, smash and loot the temples of consumerism…

They have seized public space, desecrated the temples of consumerism, a religion from which they are structurally barred from full inclusion, and affirmed their existence in a society that holds them in contempt and insists that they keep to their place.

There has, to be sure, been vile and tragic behaviour amidst the upheaval. And while vile acts must always be resolutely opposed we should recall that in a riot, an event that is spectacularly outside of the norm, every perverse act is hyper visible and will be exploited to stand in for and to condemn the whole. In the everyday passing of time the structural vileness of society… is masked as normal and remains largely invisible.

from The Return of the English Riot

by Richard Pithouse

The over arching meta-narrative of consumerism – a meta-narrative we are not suspicious of, despite what postmodernism would have us believe – is not serving us well. Coupled with a ‘do whatever is right for you’ approach to morality, it isn’t working at all. Whether you are spinning corporate propaganda to convince a fifteen-year-old that new trainers are a matter of life and death, or whether you are a fifteen-year-old who believes you must satisfy your own desire for new trainers no matter the cost – what feels right to you may cause untold grief and heartache for someone else. Unfortunately, a society that privatises morality has no framework to address these issues.

What is needed is not an increase in wealth, or structural social changes so that the poor can participate in the religion of consumerism. What is needed is a change of religion.

People need to know they are valuable, not on the basis of what they own, or what they do, but on the basis of their humanity. Meaning, dignity and beauty are their birthright, not something they have to purchase on the way.

People need to know that it is possible to move from devastation and despair, through to peace and hope.

People need to know that mercy and forgiveness and grace could swallow up the whole world’s evil, if only we let them.

People need to know they are so loved, that God didn’t even spare His only Son, but sent Him to the cross and raised Him from the dead so they could be in a relationship with Him.

People need to know your story church.Tell it,  live it out. Never has it been more necessary.

Procrastination and Violence

So I was in the library avoiding anything remotely productive reading “around” my essay topic, when I came across this incredible sermon called Self-inflicted Violence, by Ellen Davis.

Davis explores the somewhat uncomfortable relationship between violence and praise in Psalm 149:6-9 and in the life of the saint. She argues that “there is a regular pattern of sainthood: first withdraw and do battle in your own heart, then do battle in the world” (2003:295). This is clearly seen in the life of Jesus, as He battles in the wilderness before He goes out to battle in the world.

“Withdraw and do battle against the powers that have made your own heart occupied territory,” she urges (2003:295). “The key to responsibility in ministry is precisely the saint’s practice of self-inflicted violence, rigor in naming and opposing the evil we find in ourselves. It is the toughness gained from fighting the battle within that enables us to be gentle with others” (2003:297)

Davis goes on to describe the difference between godly and godless violence, which I found particularly poignant in light of recent world events:

“every kind of godless violence is directed at getting something or holding onto it – power, oil, satisfaction, vengeance, personal or national security. But the battle of the saint is always fundamentally directed toward giving, giving praise to God, and that cannot be fully, freely given without first giving up what we normally value above all else, namely, a good opinion of ourselves” (2003:296).

I could type out the whole thing really, as it’s so inspiring, but I’ll leave you with the quote I found the most moving, right near the end of the sermon:

“‘Let the high praises of God be in their throat and a two-edged sword in their hand.’ The sword-wielding singers of praise – this is the image that clarifies the conditions of Christian ministry and strengthens us against intimidation. It is an icon of the saints standing firm through the great ordeal, the ordeal that every one of you, and everyone you serve, will pass through in this life; an icon of the imperiled saints, literally singing for their lives, singing God’s praise as they hold fast to the one piece of equipment that will bring them safely through: “the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17), the sword of God’s cutting and healing word, the sharp instrument of discernment that we learn to wield accurately only through the discipline of prayer” (2003: 297).

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(After reading the sermon, it wasn’t a huge surprise to find out that Ellen Davis is an eminent Professor at Duke Divinity School, alongside one Stanley Hauerwas.)

Publication details:

Davis, E. ‘Self-inflicted Violence,’ in The Art of Reading Scripture (Eds. Davis, E. & Hays, R. B.) Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans, 2003, pp. 294-299.

You can access most of the sermon on Google books.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Sing Your Freedom.

On “The Urgent Matter of Books”

I’ve been mulling over something I read all day, and I should probably mull over it some more before I respond to it, but I’m impatient, and I also get my best inspiration to write late at night, so here we are.

Now, a little disclaimer before we begin. I don’t necessarily agree with, or endorse absolutely everything this writer suggests.  And I could see how her post could be offensive in some ways. BUT. But…

Yuknavitch loves books passionately and believes they can change people, who can change the world. So do I. She loves the real books, you know, “those thingees with covers and pages that you hold in your hands? Smell like paper and trees?” So do I.

This quote kind of summarizes the article:

Books, like all art, breed in us desire. In times of crisis and fear and misrepresentation we need desire, or else we shut down and hide out in our houses, succumbing to infotainment and the ease of an available latte, turning off our brains and emotions. Books breed desire. Even if, as Jeanette Winterson argues, the responsibility to act remains with us…

… And underneath the story of BUY THIS and FEAR THIS and HATE THAT, rising up and punching through the infomercial we call public discourse in a moment of danger is this: read books.

Books are so vital because they remind us that “buy this and fear this and hate that” are only one story, told from only one perspective. There are a lot of other stories that need to be heard, made available, lived. There are good and beautiful stories that remind us of how things could be. There are stories of hope and redemption, where justice and mercy walk together hand in hand, fingers entwined.  There are stories of generosity and self-sacrifice, where love drives out hate and power is perfected in weakness.

These are the stories infused with the Kingdom and the Gospel. They breed in us the desire to see the kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven. They tune in our emotions as we grieve over brokenness and lament that things are not as they should be. They switch on our brains to help us realize that we are what we desire, and maybe what we have desired is too shallow to satisfy us. And maybe the cost to other lives to produce what we want to consume is too high to pay.

As we read, we are coaxed out of our individual houses into communities where thinkers and writers and believers and hopers re-envision and re-inspire us to re-imagine our world and re-awaken us to all the glorious possibilities for change that exist.

And yet “the responsibility to act remains with us.” We have to do the hard work of forgiving and loving and acting and serving and being the way we want the world to be.  We have to fight for the poor and the oppressed, the widow and the alien. We have to manage our time, our money, our habits. We don’t just read the story, we are the story. We infuse the stories of the Kingdom so we can live them out and offer an alternative way of being in the world to the dominant discourses of consumerism and violence.

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I enclose a link to the article mentioned above in the interests of quoting my source, but…   It is not recommended for the faint-hearted, the Republican American, or those offended by bad language.  If you fall into one of these categories, you probably won’t like the whole article, you have been warned!

The Urgent Matter of Books

Some good news and some bad news…

Ok, lets start with the good news…

On Friday April 29th, 2011, the United Kingdom (and a lot of other nations), celebrated the Royal Wedding of HRH Prince William to Catherine Middleton. A national holiday was declared so we could watch a superbly elegant ceremony, showcasing the best of all that is British. But the major highlight for me was the outstanding sermon given by the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres.

He spoke movingly about the hope found in the generous love of a generous God “who so loved the world he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.” He exhorted the couple to commit themselves to the way of generous love, and give of themselves to find their true spiritual beauty.

“Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire!”

You can read the text of the whole sermon here, or watch below.

According to the BBC news page, 24.5 million people in the UK watched the Royal Wedding live on TV, with a further 9 million people watching live online. So an estimated 33.5 million Brits heard a warm, witty and thoughtful presentation of the Gospel, and were reminded that marriage is about selflessly giving to each other as God has given to us. 

Beautiful.

But fast forward three days and we have some really bad news.

The US President announces that Osama Bin Laden has been killed by an American military operation and is greeted by congratulations and celebrations from many people, including the British Prime Minister, who said “This news will be welcomed right across our country.”

Well, the news is not as welcome as you think, Mr Cameron.

There have been a lot of differing reactions from the Christian community –  some I am proud of (which you can see below) and some I am not (which I won’t publicize by linking here).

But for me, the best response is summed up in a Martin Luther King Jr quote:

I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.

(Paraphrased from Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967) pp. 62–63).

Other links:

Whose Death Does God Cheer?

 The Shocking Truth that God Loves Osama Bin Laden Too

Christian’s Should Not Rejoice over the Death of Bin Laden

 

Making a (small?) difference

Jamie Smith’s blog  refers to a NY Times column by David Brooks, in which Brooks reviews new musical, “The Book of Mormon.”  The whole review is interesting, as Brooks argues against the “lowest-common-denominator” kind of spirituality embraced by the pluralistic, vaguely spiritual, well-educated American middle classes, in which all religions are acceptable as long as they are teaching us to be kind to each other and promote world peace through tolerance.

Brooks suggests instead, that theological rigor and particularity is necessary for many reasons. This one in particular stood out to me:

Rigorous codes of conduct allow people to build their character. Changes in behavior change the mind, so small acts of ritual reinforce networks in the brain. A Mormon denying herself coffee may seem like a silly thing, but regular acts of discipline can lay the foundation for extraordinary acts of self-control when it counts the most.

As Smith points out, this is exactly what he argues in Desiring the Kingdom. And while it made me feel slightly guilty (my giving up Facebook for Lent didn’t exactly last til Easter) it did inspire me that the small things we do can make a big difference. We are tempted to think that these little things don’t matter because we view them in isolation. (It’s only one person I treated that way, only one negative attitude, only one bitchy comment I made…) But in reality, these small habits interlink, reinforce each other and create patterns of behavior that become the foundation of our character, who we are.

The things we habitually practice are as important as the things we try to refrain from. The seemingly small spiritual disciplines we carry out as believers, such as attending church services, reading the bible, singing our theology, fasting, speaking words of encouragement, all add up to create and reinforce our ways of being in the world as the people of God.

As Smith says

…what comes to mind is Pascal’s advice after his infamous wager: “Can’t find yourself able to believe?,” Pascal asks. “That’s OK. Just fake it for a while. Go to Mass. Try on the rhythms of a believer. Practice your way into faith.”

It’s encouraging to realize that the rituals,  routines and rhythms we are so familiar with are not mindless and repetitive, but a vital part of shaping who we are, especially when times are hard and answers are scarce. We are instructed to keep doing these things because they make us into who we were always created to be.

Considering the difference our practices and habits can  make also means re-examining how we faithfully inhabit our culture as disciples of Jesus. My friend Aaron Rathbun has compiled a list of resources that highlight ways in which we can live intentionally and unplug from systemically unChristian institutions and practices. I highly recommend you check some of them out here.