Liberation
January 14, 2007
Rev. Paul Beckel
First Universalist Unitarian Church ~
www.uuwausau.org
As the year begins, we
recognize that trees have roots and rivers have their source.
You, Dear Ancestors,
Dear Earth, are our roots and our source. We know that you are in us. We vow to
receive, to preserve and to develop the physical resources and the living
heritage you have handed to us. We accept the sacred work with which you have
entrusted us: to be witnesses to your glories, to replace suffering with
meaning, and to open the door for future generations.
We seek strength so
that we will not cling to our
resentments toward one another; we seek awareness and acceptance of
ourselves so that we may pass on your beauty through compassion toward others.
In these and countless ways, we express to you our ongoing gratitude.
Liberation. Liberation has been a pervasive
human aspiration from the Hebrews’ dramatic escape from enslavement by the
pharaohs...to the Pilgrims setting sail for the New World. But these were not
simply ideological aspirations. The quest for liberation – from the Bolsheviks
to Martin Luther King Jr. have been quests for economic power and the tools for
self-reliance, or at least for a level playing field on which to labor.
Liberation has been a driving force behind collectivist movements from those of
miners in the United States to landless peasants in Latin American -- all
seeking release from exploitation by those who hold power over them.
And of course Liberation is also an individual spiritual journey. The jihad
is best understood as an inner battle for liberation. The Buddhist quest for
enlightenment is a quest for liberation from desire. And each of us have sought
liberation from our own resentments through journeys of forgiveness.
==
At the beginning of the 20th century
the United States was experiencing social upheaval on several fronts: vast
numbers of immigrants, a shift from agrarian to urban living, and large-scale
industrialization. Each of these factors brought into stark relief the
differences between ethnic and religious groups, the races, and in particular
differences between rich and poor.
Here’s how various Christian groups reacted to
these conditions: Unitarians and Universalists, who took the teachings of Jesus
to be most relevant to social relationships here in this world, evolved from
liberal Christianity to a broader self-understanding as religions of human
concern. They became less interested in theology and increasingly supportive of
civic reforms such as woman suffrage, child labor, and basic sanitation.
Many moderate Christians at the turn of the last
century were also de-emphasizing the creedal elements of their traditions in
order to place their energies in the development of voluntary associations for
social betterment – assistance to immigrants, education, temperance leagues.
As the century wore on, the themes of this
social gospel movement – liberation, justice, equality – were carried forward
in a variety of forms around the globe, from the christian socialist movements
which attempted to empower landless peasants... to others who attempted to
withdraw from religion altogether, but only managed to turn Marxism into their
state church.
There were many streams of 20th
century thought, then, loosely related to what can be called Liberation
Theology. Many feminists, American blacks, and Latin American Catholics
explicitly used the term and sought biblical justification for their struggles.
Others, without the luxury to theologize, simply lived it.
What is Liberation Theology? In 1970, James Cone, a
black American, put it starkly: “Christianity is essentially a religion of
liberation. The function of theology is that of analyzing the meaning of that
liberation for the oppressed so they can know that their struggle for
political, social, and economic justice is consistent with the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. [Therefore] Any message that is not related to the liberation of the
poor in a society is not Christ’s message. Any theology that is indifferent to
the theme of liberation is not Christian theology.”
For Cone, “in a society where persons are oppressed
because they are black, Christian theology must become black theology, a
theology that is unreservedly identified with the goals of the oppressed and
seeks to interpret the divine character of their struggle for liberation.”
Latin American activist Paulo Freire says that
liberation theology is about two things: 1) speaking for those who are
forbidden to speak; and 2) the side-by-side struggle with the silenced – so
that the silenced can effectively speak the word that will revolutionize and
transform the society that reduces them to silence.
Speaking the gospel, then, is not about praising
Jesus or even telling the Jesus story. Speaking the gospel is not speaking
politely and upholding civil society. Speaking the gospel is not proclaiming
the vision of the powerful who create and uphold the oppressive structures of
society. Speaking the gospel is only
proclaiming the truth about oppression.
Liberation theology is inescapably political and
radically demanding. It exposes the limits of traditional white theology which
insists, to the point of preoccupation, upon sameness and conciliation, getting
along, and upholding the status quo.
Feminist liberation theology identifies sin as
the alienation from authentic existence that arises from sexism. It asks
whether it is even possible to have church without sexism, and explores
alternatives for women beyond Christianity.
Liberation theologies acknowledge that theology is
something that arises in reflection from our personal experience. Theology is
not something that we can just make up out of the blue. The experience has to
come first. And therefore, the rich and the poor, the powerful and the
powerless, are inevitably going to have different theologies because we have
vastly different experience. Some go further to say, essentially, that the
theologies of the powerful are simply wrong. And that if one wants to really
understand Christianity one has to see it from the perspective of the poor, or
the black, or the woman. Better, one has to live and work side by side with the
oppressed to change the system which oppresses them if one is to really
understand the message of Jesus Christ.
Like the teachings of Jesus, these are not ideas one
can take lightly.
Last
week I mentioned Paul Farmer, who, as we sit here comfortably theorizing, is
probably hiking through the Haitian countryside to see one of his patients with
AIDS. In the book Mountains beyond Mountains Farmer speaks a bit about
colleagues in Latin America who had in recent decades been inspired by
Liberation Theology. With them he criticizes the wealthy and the powerful,
whose excesses clearly hurt the poor and the vulnerable. But he is also
skeptical of ANY “ology” which can so easily slip into arrogance and orthodoxy.
He had seen what happened when the poor of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Haiti
were moved to re-read the Gospels to fight for what was rightfully theirs
against overwhelming odds -- “machetes versus Uzis, donkeys versus tanks,
stones versus missiles...” The 20th century is marked with their
mass graves.
==
Whether we call ourselves christian or not, whether
we’re facing down death squads or not, liberation theology has some lessons for
us. Liberation theology teaches that
while tradition is important, when tradition upholds exploitation, then
speaking the truth is more important than maintaining tradition.
Liberation theology teaches that, among the virtues,
courage is more important than long suffering.
It teaches that if religion is supposed to help us
make sense of the world, then what makes sense to the oppressors is very
different from what makes sense to the oppressed... and how difficult it is to
see through the eyes of another person’s experience. But, given this situation,
who is called to broaden their perspective? Obviously it is the ones at the top
who bear greater responsibility to open their.
What
we can take from liberation theology today is the notion that liberation has to
be more than an idea, it has to be a practice, and if it doesn’t work in
practice, then it’s not the message of Jesus.
The
word “liberation,” of course, can be cynically misused. Or it can be used
sincerely, with bad results. But any theory which supports results which are
not in keeping with freedom for the oppressed must be abandoned.
==
It was Clarence Skinner whose ministry might be seen
as the fulcrum of the Universalist tradition as it shifted – in the early 20th
century -- from a liberal Christianity into a religion of human social concern.
Skinner called for a world order in which “the maximum numbers of human beings
would be creative participants in the wealth of the world.”
Well, forgive my optimism, but I believe that we are
moving in that direction. You may be skeptical. You can point to countless
examples where these lofty ideals have not materialized, where Martin Luther
King Jr.’s dream is unfulfilled, where political and ideological changes have
taken place, but not enough.
But what are our goals?
Is it our primary goal to proclaim the ideals, to
repeat them loudly with righteous anger or guilty shame?
Or is our primary goal to do the work? To experience
the dignity of the Other by working side by side, and thereby being
transformed. Is the work itself our goal?
Or is our primary goal to get to the results? To be
able to show statistically that the races and the sexes have unprecedented
opportunities? To be able to point to structures, laws, and real processes of
how people get home loans, promotions, contracts...to see that these are not
skewed by the irrelevancies like race and gender?
For
most of us here our notions of liberation were made most tangible through the
struggle for equality for African Americans in the 1950s and 60s and women in
the 70s. Even those of us too young to remember are shaped by these images.
Those
struggles have not been won, and their lessons had best not be forgotten, and
their ideals must remain forever in our hearts. But in many many ways, these
are yesterday’s struggles. If our goal is nostalgia and righteousness we can
relive and wonder why various strategies didn’t succeed, and maybe even attempt
to repeat those strategies. But if our real goal is to move our world from that
of exploitation to liberation and empowerment, then it may be time to shift our
focus, develop new skills, and even celebrate some unexpected progress – not in
the arenas of politics and theology so much as in demographics, economics, and
technology.
==
Since
the height of the American civil rights movement, immigration and intermarriage
have blurred racial lines dramatically. Within a few decades whites will no
longer be a majority in the United States. Europe too is on a trajectory away
from its historically white christian identity. We’re not going to stop these
demographic realities. Even today in the Wausau School District there are 42
languages spoken in the homes of our students.
Another
changing reality is in communications technology. We saw this even in the 90s
when police brutality began to be caught on film, and in faxes from Tiananmen
square.
And
there’s the microcredit movement, as you heard about a few months ago when
Mohammed Yunnus won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work making billions of
dollars of tiny tiny loans that have enabled impoverished women around the
globe start self-sustaining personal businesses.
Microcredit,
communications technology, and changing demographics will not by themselves
resolve oppression. The powerful do not need a majority in order to exploit.
They do not even need secrecy. But a host of other factors are playing out in
the world today which are making an astounding impact on social equity by
leveling the playing field. These are described by Thomas Friedman in his
recent book, The World is Flat.
By
“flat,” Friedman means that a dramatic shift is taking place from a world
organized vertically, with only those on top having access to the tools of
power, to a more horizontal scheme, a level playing field on which anyone,
anywhere can have access to the financial, communications, and technical tools
to become self-sufficient.
Withhold
your skepticism for just a second. Friedman is not saying that there is no
poverty, that there is no war, that there is food and water and political
freedom for all. But compared to even a few years ago, certain political and
technological factors have come together to create not only mind-boggling speed
and efficiency, but radically expanded access to these tools.
This
is not just a geeky fantasy. The movement to provide broadband internet access
to children in the poorest and most remote parts of the world has at the very
least enabled us to imagine that everyone should
be able to connect and create and have their voices heard. It’s become
inescapably obvious that every single person should have a fair shot -- with
access to educational, financial, and information tools, a booth in the global
marketplace, and worldwide overnight delivery. That cartoon which reminds us,
“On the internet, no one knows you’re a dog“ is not just a joke. In hugely
practical terms technology has obliterated irrelevant unfair advantages.
Another
one of Friedman’s “flatteners” is the open-source movement. I spoke at some
length last week about the way this movement has worked to ensure that the
intellectual commons is accessible and free so that interpersonal collaboration
may continue on a massive scale.
Another
flattener is outsourcing. Outsourcing has expanded far beyond tech support to
include legal research, medical transcription, editing, and even taking our
orders at the drive through. If bits of information can be digitized (and we’re
finding that just about anything can) then it is proving increasingly cost
effective to send those bits across the Pacific, creating opportunities in
previously unreachable areas for previously untouchable human beings.
The
World is Flat is about technology and economics, but I would
call it the civil rights book of the decade – not because it lets us off the
hook by saying that the impersonal forces of history will take care of our
family responsibilities, but because Friedman is not just a blithe optimist. He
also relates deep cautionary tales about globalization. But ultimately these
flatteners are not necessarily good or bad, though they are unstoppable. And
they clearly have the potential to assist us in making the dreams of the 20th
century become realities -- if we choose to take those opportunities.
Coincidentally,
just as these technological flatteners are emerging, political events have
conspired to open the doors to 3 billion new human participants. The people of
Asia, Latin America, and the former Soviet Block, who have not had access are
finally in a position today to express themselves politically and creatively,
and to compete economically with the rest of the world. They have a fair chance
to play. That is precisely what Martin Luther King Jr. was asking for.
This
emerging global liberation movement will upset our lives. So we can face the
challenges of unprecedented competition or we can find ways to maintain our
dominance. We can celebrate global interdependence, or we can scheme to impose
double standards that will shut others out from participation in the global
family.
==
One
last Friedman flattener was the fall of the Berlin wall on 11-9, 1989. This
symbolic moment and all of the forces behind it not only freed millions of
people from totalitarian governments, it has given us an opportunity like never
before to see the world as ONE. But we have a choice to make now. 11-9, the
date of the fall of the Berlin Wall... or 9-11... which of these stories are we
going to focus upon? Which will guide us in the new century?
It’s
not an obvious choice. The benefits of a flat world are available to anyone.
Osama Bin Laden was a master at utilizing the incredibly powerful tools of
global networking. These tools made it possible for his small group, for the
small cost (estimated about $400,000), to collaborate on a project which
changed history.
But
how much will it change us? Will we be able to walk with grace between these
two stories knowing that, like ancient fire, today’s tools of empowerment,
accessible to all, can be used to harm or to heal?
For
the past 5 years we seem to be calling 9-11 over and over, and it doesn’t seem
to have helped. Perhaps we would do better to remind ourselves as well about
the ideals of 11-9 -- the fall of what seemed an impenetrable barrier to
freedom.
Speaking of taking down barriers, congratulations to
you for your commitment to remove the barriers to accessibility with this
building project. I have a feeling that this tool will both symbolically and in
very practical ways spur us to innovative means to proclaim, to labor toward,
and to achieve liberation.
==
The
human rights heroes of the 21st century may or may not be
revolutionaries inspired by Washington crossing the Delaware. They may or may
not be people of great wealth like Andrew Carnegie endowing libraries. They may
or may not be preachers and marchers for peace.
The
images of human rights heroes of the 21st century are still blurry.
They may be penniless hackers like Linus Torvalds of the open source movement.
They may be the nemesis of open source, Bill Gates, whose foundation is
relieving more human suffering with its medical efforts in the 3rd
world than many governments can accomplish. The heroes may be anyone and any
group inspired to leverage their assets, talents, tools, and compassion to
remove barriers and overcome false divisions.
==
You’ve heard that to give someone a fish is to feed
them for a day but to teach them to fish is to feed them for a lifetime. But
this distinction is irrelevant to the person who does not have access to the
lake. Liberation involves feeding and teaching, but it also involves ensuring
universal access to the lake.
And in the 21st century there is still
another complication. Because even if everyone has access, we will go hungry if
there is no lake.
We now face a new imperative in protecting access
and preventing exploitation. Environmental degradation has become both another
means for the powerful to exploit the powerless AND it has become our wake up
call, reminding us that we are one human family in an inescapable network of
mutuality...a single garment of destiny....”
The progress made through the inspiration of Martin
Luther King Jr., and through the unanticipated serendipity of a flattening
world, have given us incredible power to harm or to heal... to destroy
ourselves, or to save ourselves, together.
CLOSING HYMN #149 Lift Every Voice and Sing