Ethics of Hope Week #4
Readings for today – Making a Way Out of No Way, by Monica
Coleman (first 2 chapters) and 3 articles from The Occupy Handbook – Economic
Insecurity and Inequality Breed Political Instability – Nouriel Roubini,
Globalization and the Perils of Democracy – Pankaj Mishra, and “15M”: The
Indignados – Salvador Marti Puig
These readings are particularly enlightening in light of my
life experience of the past two years.
Observing and participating in the Wisconsin re-call election of
Governor Scott Walker, as well as the 2012 Presidential Election, and my move
from rural to Wisconsin have each added to my personal understanding and
experience with regards to politics and their effect on the reality of everyday
human life and suffering.
Monica Coleman self identifies as a womanist theologian, a
form of liberation theology (with an important difference from a feminist
theologian) as well as a postmodern process theologian, and a black woman. She presents five other voices of womanist
theologians focusing on their individual responses on salvation. It is interesting to note that each author
focuses on how salvation addresses most importantly the multidimensionality of
human suffering. Jacquelyn Grant eloquently
opposes a view of atonement based on the idea of Christ as “suffering servant”
pointing out how damaging it has been to the most vulnerable of society. Discussions of the surrogacy of Black Women
both imposed and voluntarily chosen is highlighted by Delores Williams, which
builds into a salvation process of addressing sin – not the death of Christ on
the cross. Each of these voices and more
contribute to Coleman’s presentation of process theology in chapter 2 through a
postmodern lens. Alfred North
Whitehead’s philosophical contributions to postmodern though are applied to the
reality of deep human struggle with issues such as evil, sin, freedom and
ultimately – God.
The Occupy Handbook articles continue to speak to the issues
of inequality, especially in light of political structures and
globalization. Nouriel Roubini speaks to
the effect of globalization and the complex social, economic, and financial
issues and struggles of countries from China to the U.S. He points out that in this system there are
clear winners and losers. Pankaj Mishra
questions the prospect of democracy as a whole in light of so many countries
struggles to balance economic desires with social stability. Salvador Marti Puig presents a recent view of
Spain’s economic crisis and the events around May 15th, 2011 and the
indignados movement. Through this
protest the organizers were able to draw attention to major issues of political
parties, the amount of power of the financial markets in politics, and justice
issues around unemployment and layoffs as companies moved out of the
country.
Combined, this conversation is more complex than I pretend
to understand, or even entirely grasp. I
was touched however by Coleman’s discussion on the power in holding truth. As each culture understands truth and
attempts to honor it, the impact of globalization to continually bring so much
of the world together brings inevitable disagreement. Power added into these differing
understandings of truth brings mistrust and often violence in reaction to fear
of others and their “truths”.
Globalization and diversity do have clear economic and power based
winners and losers – however the challenge of communicating and respecting one
another also brings authentic community and I would argue todays vision of the
Kingdom of God on our beautiful and diverse earth.
For me as well as Coleman, God must address the suffering through salvation. How long can we as a general society continue to not? How long can the larger church continue to believe that all people can live together peacefully without intentional work and some kind of reparations or at least acknowledgment of the depths of the multidimensional suffering so many around the world experience today?
No comments:
Post a Comment