Christian Hegemonic Thinking Podcast

 

Teaser: The things that really gets me. Is I, is Rowdy – Mr. Divergent thinking. Have been primed over and over again to think – to take for granted things I saw just as a “given” were about me performing a form of Christian Imperialism both on myself and others? I thought I had the ability to unthank – until I really saw how well I had been trained to think and see things in a very specific way. I have been deeply affected by Christian Hegemonic Thinking.

 

This is the last bit of the podcast I am writing and it will make it this part 3 of 4. This has been very eye opening. I have read the book by Paul Kivel and after that book I made the decision to listen to some Buddhist podcasts and practice mindfulness to train my mind for some unthinking. I think that has been successful for me as an individual.

 

 

As far as the growth of the podcast the last week has been very slow, I don’t know if that is due to the subject matter and how it is hitting y’all or if I have a mostly Non-Christian and if this is seen as a topic which does not effect you personally. But it was interesting to see last weeks podcast hit around 30 listens and really stall hard was interesting to me. But I know there is something very important to look at and analyze because there are some important things to examine, process, and potentially rid ourselves from to be more inclusive in our approach. So again I am reaching out looking for some feedback, you can call me on the voicemail hotline at 860-576-9393 or email me at inclusiveactivism@cox.net.

 

Your emails, your voicemails, just stories of how this might be helping or making a difference – these little things matter! I appreciate all your help and your positive thoughts shares and prayers my fellow activists!

 

Checking in on my activism:

I am meeting with my students to build their leadership skills

I will be closing the Emerging Leaders 2 class this week

 

Checking in on Self Care

Lifting 4X a week

Cardio has been a solid 3 times a week

Mindfulness has been good at 3X to 4X a week past two weeks

I’d added in some walking prayer

And got to do some fishing with a friend which was really a blast!

 

Please also remember to both give us a rate and review. Share the podcast to others if you feel there is real value there, Also remember to Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher your podserver of choice! Also give us a call and answer questions or feel free to cheer me on! I need IT! 860-576-9393

 

Onto Christian Thinking and how we have been effected by Hegemonic Christian Thinking and how it keeps certain patterns repeating over and over again because this is part of our worldview.

 

Christian-Thinking

 Dualism – the light and dark notions also give us the idea that things are either good or bad, black or white, just or unjust. It has lead up to either or thinking in a world of uncertainty. Even the old Law was an either or of certainty. Jesus broke that form of certainty by adding in the heart of intention of a rule. As he did with the woman who was brought forth to be stoned, the Law said she should be stoned – when Jesus showed that all have sinned and are unworthy. He also showed this by confronting the people who wrote certificates of divorce and were wealthy and just married and divorced little girls (more on this later) over and over again just to have sex. Jesus showed us the world is more complicated than that.

Think of these neutral phrases and how dualistic they are – That is good, He is a good boy, Bad Dog, its great weather today, They are in a bad period of time, we live in good times, good news!, sorry to hear the bad news – All these things must be framed in either good or bad rather than experiences that just are the way they exist. Weather is always weather it doesn’t need to have a value with it – Here in Phoenix a rainy day is a change of pace!

Light and Dark – the Bible’s emphasis on valuing the light over the dark or equating lightness with Good or the Lord over Darkness which is time and time again associated with Evil is dramatic! First off God was just chilling in the Dark, and given the Lord is omnipresent the dark at the time also was the Lord. This means the dark is also of the Lord, as Dark is NOT EVIL it is just the absence of light. Just like there is no cold it is just the absence of heat. Light is not the Lord and neither is the dark. This has lead to colorism. Colorism is prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group. Sadly this is almost ubiquitous across the world due to Colonization and Manifest destiny

Read pg 42

Good and Evil: Whatever we do as Christians on behalf of Christianity is always framed as good. If we kill someone bad who was against Christianity that is seen as good aside from the explicit “Thou shall not kill” commandment. We as Christians get to justify that death due to our connection to this notion of being good. Though we know that we are not ‘good’ we are only forgiven. Think of the way war is framed in society: spiritual warfare, soldiers for Christ, onward Christian soldiers. And if we are good in any Christian untaking the opposition must be … evil. How can a person the Lord made be evil? While certain actions might be framed this way we still destroy both the sin and sinner in this form of cosmic warfare.

Sinners need salvation: We see others sin through a different lens than we do our own sin. Somehow our sin is less than because we are saved. Sin is sin, and honestly a non- Christian person cannot be held accountable to our own moral standard until they choose to join us. Yet still we judge them according to our moral code, and devalue their moral ideals and values. Our purity of intent is seen as better even after our sin while a non- Christian is just seen as moved by evil intention

One Truth, the only way to God: Yes Jesus said I am the truth and the light. But we need to see the world in a more nuanced way. If people lived both before Jesus, and Moses, where are they in heaven in hell, there was no moral code. It was said that God just didn’t like things and smote folks – which seem a bit unfair if you are playing a game but don’t know the rules. And over that history we went back and forth. No law to just what would seem to be a hearted intention – to the Law – to being beyond the Law again with Jesus who said seemed to emphasize the heart of goodwill to fellow humans. We have to recognize looking back in history there was more than one way to God, in that no exact ‘way’ existed.

Temporal Focus: As stated below time is not seen in any other way but on a line which is forward or back. There seems to be no understanding of time outside our human experience of it. Surely God is a timeless entity. This is why I argue once a Christian person get salvation it must be permanent for at the time of repentance the Lord must know we will still sin again in the future. It is not are unwillingness to sin again that saves us it is the power of the Holy Spirit working in us that makes us slowly better – but never perfect. This temporal focus means we put on our own Christian History understand on people of other cultures with other history and values. We are also focused on a past better day with nostalgia or a perfect tomorrow (rapture_ which hurts our appreciation of the right now and today!

Dominion over nature: This is problematic because we there are no messages in the bible or in any Church I have ever attended that asked us to be stewards of the world. We are instead given dominion over it. Due to this we have inflicted eons of pain and agony on other beings. We have no reason to value Earth because it wont be here long, because the rapture and the return of Jesus is of paramount importance. It would seem to me that the Lord would want us to care for and keep nature in a form of sustainability stasis – with a sense of balance rather than take all we need. We see this in the bible in the Lord saying don’t burn and pillage as the trees are needed to be of use in the Jews moving into Kannan.

Our Bodies and Feelings are sinful: We as Christians are taught men are disciplined and rational, and that women are just full of uncontrolled emotions. Think of these stories in the Bible. We also learn that our bodies and feelings are our source of weakness, pain, suffering, and temptation. Our nature is to tempt us into gluttony, lust, the enjoyment of sex, to be lazy and to cross our own boundaries. Think of how we learn that our very nature is to sin. That our own wants are wrong. Those boundary crossing notions kept us from loving those with different color skin. It also denies the ability for a Christian to love someone in a committed relationship and still be a follower of Christ. To be close to God is to deny our feelings – to fast to abstain to avoid our earthly needs which our Lord gave us. We are taught what we are by our nature is sin.

Judgement: Though we are taught it is Jesus who will judge, we find ourselves in judgement all too often. At best we are to hold one another accountable to striving for actions that are closer to God in church. But we severely judge non-Christians by the same rules only we have agreed to play by. This sense of judgement effects everyone with our over assessment of ourselves. “I am I good enough? Am I working hard enough? Am I pretty enough, too fat, too thin. Am I successful enough do I care enough” This sense of judgment works its ways into our own thoughts. And when we feel less than there is a tendency to tear down and judge others to lessen our own sense of guilt.

 

Purity: We hold up notions of purity. Being that sex is a source of sin, we are concerned with dirty thoughts, and dirty impulses. To be free of sin is to be pure, innocent, and clean. Think of the words and their implication Clean and Sober. And since Christians are connected to notions of purity it also given a sense of our own duality to note that the non- Christians are dirty, filthy and vermin. This comes up in our language “Dirty Jews, Natives as savages” This lessening of the humanness of others is a source of justified violence to the less than other.

Charity: Now I am sure by now you are hearing this and thinking, Rowdy surely this is a good thing?!? It is good to want to be charitable and want to help your fellow person. But does that charity seek to raise up those you help as an equal or does their existence as a less than always allow for a constant charitable act? Some charity keeps the recipient dependent. Donating blankets, giving fish instead of giving a person a job on your fishing boat. And where does that Charity focus to members of the group? Or only given to those willing to convert? A hungry person needs food and a job more than your own need to feel as though you are giving them enough reason to find Jesus. This happens a lot on missions.

Science and Technology at odd with Faith:

Its is either science or the bible – we are made to think the Natural world and how it is observable is at odds with our Faith. It is only one way or the other.

Love within a Hierarchy:

This connection to love being within a hierarchy and connected to ones sense of obedience is confusing. Love doesn’t submit but it is humble. This notion creates problematic relationship especially for those in abusive relationships. Ones relationship with God need not be this way one of obedience and then love. Christians have also been taught to submit to authority accepted as legitimate within their religion. We saw this in the Civil rights when Christians implored MLK to submit to unjust laws and we see it today in urges of BLM to simply “comply” and we will be ok. This thinking also was used to justify slavery. Even today the Church has many machinations to implore men to chasten their wives to submit to their authority. We KNOW gender does not make a man right or any other gender wrong history is evidence of this inaccuracy. This interlocking notion of love, hierarchy and obedience sets up continuing cycles of violence in families. Men defer to bosses, and even if ill suited are asked to be head of the household. Childrens will needs to be broken and must submit to authority. How many new ideas or ways of seeing the world have to be done by this notion of Love within a Hierarchy?

Fear and Hope

Christian Frameworks urge people to be both fearful and hopeful in their orientation towards the future. Hopeful of salvation and fearful of hell. (now do you see how Star Wars is effected by Christian Hegemony? You are our only hope?) The future is not guaranteed it is neither hopeful or to be feared it is neutral and it is our own action which CAN make it one way or the other!

The dominant focus on hope keeps people if they do not have personal hope their efforts will not be rewarded – that they have the option of thinking despair and inaction. Why work for change unless I know I will succeed? No one gets these types of guarantees in life no one can give it. Nor does not having hope allow one to opt out unless they have the privilege of making that choice – it is an illusory choice because we are all interconnected and interdependent.

The Economy

As a small part of the Us Vs Them mentality Christianity can propagate manifests in the way Americans treat the Economy. The Western Economic system came from Christian Culture whose prime focus was salvation and the fulfillment of God’s Plan. In the 13^th century it was deemed as of value to renounce one’s wealth give it to the Church in order to live closer to God. Then you were deemed as the Just Poor. This set up a paradigm of Just poor vs deserving poor. This meant the poor deserved it. During this time frame the elite classes were also moving people into the city where there was little work. This caused protests and created a need to provide basic sustenance. But this was in direct opposition to Church teaching about the need to work aka Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,

This set up the idea in God’s eyes this is a driver for the need to work .. hunger. If one removed this driver – you end up with the lazy shiftless poor! This and the notion that God punishes or rewards people with justice helps to demonize the have nots as well as create evidence to why they deserve their fates.

 

The Criminal Legal System

 

Judeo-Christian Thought is the basis of the American legal system. It is built on belief that sin (crime) and salvation and rituals such as marriage, concepts like repentance, punishment, retribution, forgiveness, judgment and virtue. Crime/Sin is seen as a temptation of the devil, as is breaking the law. Unintentional, accidental, or mistake sin/crime is seen as much less evil than other intentional sin/crime. It is also built on the notion that Justice – based on the admission of guilt, leading to remorse, expiation and redemption helps individuals to salvation.

See how this thinking got forged? Admit guilt or be found guilty – be punished for only punishment can lead to remorse and redemption creates the problem we find ourselves in now. It is not about helping people not need to commit crime or to keep people from jail. It is not about rehabilitation, shouldn’t we forsake punishment if truly allowing people to redeem themselves for crime is the goal. Ideas like Restorative Justice take out the notion of the need to place blame and more so concern themselves with making the community and aggrieved parties whole again.

Our current criminal legal system is about enforcing forms of control rather than the proliferation of peace. Courts resemble the system of Judges found in the Old testament. And it is only for the punishment of crime where slavery is still seen as legal, and this is due to these Christian notions.

 

The idea of Discovery

The notion of discovering lands is very much a Christian ideal. Let me make this clear you learned something that always existed when you happened upon a new restaurant, it existed before you “found it” . In history books we hear about the Americas as wilderness, undeveloped, or as unsettled lands. We see evidence of this doctrine of discovery in the ruling by the supreme court Robert Muller the professor of law has written – The deed to almost all real estate in the US originates from an Indian title that was acquired (love that word – I need to go visit a car lot and acquire me a Prius Prime from a car lot) by the US by discovery principals.

 

Today we still use the world discovery with new restaurants, bars, and hot spots. Culturally we DISCOVER other rituals, sacred texts or sites. Right now people are “discovering” the beautiful Azores in Portugal – and are commercializing the crap out of it. We still hear about people discovering new neighborhoods. This also is what drives Gentrification which I am sure will be the subject of a podcast at some time in the near future.

 

 

How do these ideas manifest in our everyday lives? How are we effected by Christian Hegemony.

 

Christian Hegemony by Paul Kivel pg 105

 

With that here are my 3 walkaways from today.

 

• This podcast is where you really see the performance of imperialist thinking of Hegemony. These mental constructs and manifestations really get you a sense of how internalized we might all be by Dominant Christian Ideology.
• All the different ways that Christian Thinking has really gotten into the way we see and view the world and how that thinking has shaped our ideology .
• How this thinking has caged our thinking and really made us fall in to a pattern of complying with these ideas and notions.

 

With that that is all I have for you today. This part of the Christian Hegemony podcast was the most enlightening of all. I was stunned to see how completely embedded much of this Christian thinking was a part of how I thought and it framed how I see the world.

 

Part of what I love about Diversity is the fact that I get to see the world differently. By far this is as far as writing and toil of getting though. I don’t know I have ever been challenged like I was by this podcast. I felt really bad a guilty about my faith, and its all the harder for me without a church family to influence.

 

Honestly too it has been hard because I have not heard anything from any of you as listeners. It peaked quickly but it also got really quiet as far as numbers. Is it because you felt like me, is it because you didn’t feel personally involved in this? It is places like this I really feel the need to hear from you.

 

SO if this made you think something, if you have a question or even more shocking a critique let me know. You can call me at 860-576-9393

 

This space is a place to talk back ask me questions, hit me with scenarios of how to react to situations real time. Depending on how good your stuff is I will give it my “first take response” or if it’s good it might be a future podcast!

 

Please also remember to both give us a rate and review. Share the podcast to others if you feel there is real value there, Also remember to Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher your podserver of choice! Also give us a call and answer questions or feel free to cheer me on! I need IT! 860-576-9393

 

 

Also as always if you’re interested in booking me to bring the power of inclusive activism to your organization you can always do so at inclusiveactivism@cox.net or you can learn more about this organization at www.inclusiveactivism.com