privilege and the evangelical church

you may or may not have heard how in the last week some of our asian-american brothers and sisters were offended by the marketing theme and materials regarding an evangelical book. i don't want to call attention to the controversy for the sake of airing someone else's dirty laundry. rather, i want to call attention to how it is so easy for the evangelical church at large to overlook minority and female voices. manytimes, this is done without any malicious intention but merely because one is not aware of their own privilege and cultural insensitivities. just recently, i've started learning about privilege. it's not a simple concept but basically is to help us see the areas where society has conferred privilege upon us because of our social, racial or gendered status and how we see that as normal. when you have privilege you are able to:

• assume that most of the people you or your children study in history classes and textbooks will be of the same race or gender as you are

• assume that your failures will not be attributed to your race, or your gender

• assume that if you work hard and follow the rules, you will get what you deserve

• succeed without other people being surprised; and without being held to a higher standard

• go out in public without fear of being harassed or constantly worried about physical safety

• not have to think about your race, or your gender, or disabilities, on a daily basis...

it's too easy not to even realize how those of us with majority status unintentionally marginalize people of other races or genders because we are not aware of our own privilege. all too often it doesn't even occur to us to ask them to the table to share their voices and all of us are the poorer for it. sadly, this is rampant in the evangelical church. please hear me, it is not about political correctness. this is about respecting and valuing all God's children. it is about thinking missionally in our own backyards. i have so very much to learn about all this and have probably not even described it accurately, but i do invite you to learn along with me. one place to start is prof soong-chan rah's blog. he is author of the next evangelicalism: freeing the church from western cultural captivity and a professor at north park theological seminary in chicago. i haven't yet read prof rah's book and i hear it is somewhat controversial, but i think it is important to at least hear his voice even if one doesn't agree with all he says. of course you can also visit christian feminism. julie clawson has written a post there this week on encounters with sexism. seeing people of color and women treated as second-class citizens is not ok, and we all need to raise our voices and speak out about these injustices and work to see them eradicated.

the wonderful art of he qi

~samaritan woman at the well~

if you've never seen the art of he qi then you are in for a treat. his website says:

In his works, He Qi has blended together Chinese folk customs and traditional Chinese painting techniques with the western art of the Middle and Modern Ages, and has created an artistic style of color-on-paper painting. Dr. He Qi was the first among Mainland Chinese to earn Ph.D. in the Religious art after Cultural Revolution.

check out the he qi gallery for more of his wonderful paintings. he qi currently has an exhibit of his work at concordia seminary in st. louis, mo. his exhibit of sacred art, look toward the heavens, will be showing through january.

Postmodern or more modern?

There are changes occurring that is more evident today than even 5 years ago. These changes seem to be affecting everyone, not just the church. What seems to be shifting is control. Particularly control of forms and in institutions that have been created from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, built to mighty crescendos in the mid to late mid 20th century and now are collapsing all around the controllers. For instance all these industries are seeing huge shifts in control of distributions and who gets to say what is important: newspaper and print media, television, movie (although less so for the time being), music recording, IT, cell phone industry, art in all disciplines, and of course, church.

If you are to believe reports, pundits, and many of the assessments, what is at risk of being destroyed is what each of these industries stem from, not just the vehicle itself. Journalism is at risk, entertainment is at risk, dance is at risk. What they are saying is that the only reason these disciplines even exist now is because of the industries that have developed around them. What is really at risk is the record company who used to be the sole provider of music to the masses is losing control of the music. Journalism isn't dying, it is just newspapers are losing control and as such are losing advertisers. Suzi Gablik in her book "Has Modernism Failed?" points out back in the mid 80s that every 5 years The US education system graduated as many or more artists as existed in all of 15th century Florence. George Will recently points out that that is now every year, not just every 5 years.

There are many reasons for the issues facing every industry—ubiquitous access to the content, inability of the industries to understand how to deal with changes, democratization of pursuit of disciplines. But the result is the same. The cognoscenti are becoming less influential. And there are many implications. Is this postmodernism at work? Or is this more modernism at play? Is the shift in control a postmodern characteristic? Or is it Modernism being refined?

Joe

can a mac get spyware?

i don't know -- some will tell you yes and others no but here's what i had happen today and how to protect yourself just in case. some chick tried to follow me on twitter (i have my account set to private). i got an email notification from twitter and didn't think i knew her and hit "decline" and all these pop-ups started opening. i tried to close them but they wouldn't close. uh oh, not good. i finally quit safari and relaunched it but then was worried i might have adware or spyware or some toxic tupperware on my beloved mac. i started doing research and thought i'd share what i found out about how to protect a mac from spyware, viruses, etc:

1. first off when you get these pop-ups hit command-W rather than the x in the corner of the window to close it. that will actually close the pop-up and do it safely. (i wish i had known that one earlier!) do not click anywhere in the window as that could take you to some bad site.

2. pop-ups aren't just annoying but also dangerous as they can leave things on your computer to track/steal your info. so, be sure to 1) enable block pop-up windows in your safari drop down menu 2) turn on ad block in your preferences and 3) get a good additional adblocking app like safari block or adblock plus (both are free) to get more pop-ups or pop-unders(!) that try to slip thru the cracks. firefox is supposed to be a safer browser than safari but hey i'm a purist.

update: safari block blocked me from watching shows online but it can be temporarily disabled from the file menu.

3. run some software to test your mac for viruses and trojans. i ran iantivirus, clamvax, and the demo version of macscan. all 3 are free. i came up with no viruses or spyware but macscan did detect some tracking cookies. these may or may not be dangerous but i deleted them anyway.

4. in your preferences under security disable java (not javascript). also, empty your cache ocassionally--it's in your safari dropdown menu. and delete your cookies once in awhile too even though that removes your remember me login settings on some sites. they are in the security section of your preferences. just "show cookies" and then remove them.

5. make sure you have antivirus software running on your computer and that it regularly checks for viruses and updates itself. i'm going with the free iantivirus.

6. check out your mac's help section on security and choose your firewall settings, put your computer on "stealth mode", and encrypt your files if you feel you need to.

these tips should give you some good basic security and if you need more go for it. stay off questionable sites and don't download anything suspect. also, don't give out lots of info online on facebook or anywhere else. use their privacy settings to control how much info goes to which apps and people.

interesting parallels between psychology and theology

i've been learning more about psychology lately and i'm noticing some interesting parallels between the fields of psychology and theology. the three main branches in psychology are psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and humanistic. the 3 main branches in the western church are Catholic, evangelical and mainline (i.e. liberal). psychodynamic therapy comes from freud which has a strong focus on the therapeutic relationship and gaining insight from that relationship while humanistic therapy focuses on the unconditional positive regard of the therapist toward the client, empathy, and genuineness. cognitive-behavioral therapy focuses more on the present rather than dealing with unconscious conflicts and adjusting one's thoughts and behaviors to bring relief in one's life circumstances.

i was thinking how many evangelicals sound so similar to cognitive-behaviorists in their focus on learning scripture and changing one's behavior. this of course can degenerate into mere "sin management" (i've heard andrew use that term which i believe comes from dallas willard). liberal churches seem to be heavily influenced by humanism with it's focus on love, compassion for the poor, and acceptance of the outcast. the contemplatives (e.g. monastics like teresa of avila or john of the cross) within Catholicism focus on the union with God or the love relationship.

i'm sure influences in culture, philosophy, history, etc. have always shaped how christians have experienced their faith. we always have a context in which we experience God. hm...that sounds like those existentialist psychologists who focus on "experience" just like the charismatics. hah, this is funny stuff. :)

certainly, different personalities do seem to naturally gravitate to different streams of the faith. personally, i've never liked the cognitive-behavioral approach to therapy and i have always struggled with the "take every thought captive, fill in your bible study workbook" approach to spiritual growth. that isn't to say i don't need to take every thought captive but there may be more natural ways for me or someone with a similar tempermant to grow spiritually. ultimately, we all need a holistic approach to our faith that encompasses our relationships, deals with our thoughts and behaviors, and our emotions as well. i don't think we can be complete without any of these as they are all aspects of being human.

so, which tradition do you gravitate to naturally to approach God? have you switched church traditions or do you supplement yours with what you find in the other traditions? through which spiritual practices?

How have you grown?

The question from a recent interview still reverberates in my mind. Have I grown? In what way? Artistically? Emotionally? Intellectually? In weight alone? In what way that matters?

After almost two years of living in Connecticut with my wife remaining in Atlanta and my daughter attending Georgia Tech, we decided Connecticut was not where our future was held. After almost two years of praying, making lists of pros and cons, trying to figure out what might happen, watching, waiting, we decided Atlanta was the place to be. Actually it got to the point that it "became clear". Plus it looked like opportunities were opening up that I needed to be in Atlanta in order to take advantage. Of course Atlanta.

One such opportunity was that Georgia Tech's Ferst Center for the Arts was looking for a Theatre Operations manager. Even though I am looking to move away from production work into more producing/presenting, this seemed like a logical transition and a job I could handle. And my long time tag line has always been "timing is everything". And this timing seemed pristine.

But I've long felt I don't interview well. And I think this one question "How have you grown while at Pilobolus?" was my opportunity to show how I could make the transition from where I have been in the performing arts, that of working more on the performer side of the industry, to the day to day workings of a single theatre and all the physical needs implied. I fumbled.

I was totally caught off guard. I just didn't know the answer to that question. I always take the approach in planning for interviews and submissions of resumes of "If I were them what would I want to see or hear from a prospective candidate?". That's where I focus my prep. But this question made me falter. I didn't get the job. I didn't even make it to the next level of interviews like I was convinced should have happened. While my experience may not seem directly related, my experience is nothing to sneeze at or blow off. I've done important work, I have experience presenting and producing, I have the skills to do this job.

Anyway. Fast forward to now. Sort of.

God has never "given" me anything. I've never won anything. I remember being at a computer users group meeting once. There were 20 of us there. The company that was demoing their product had 18 give aways. I thought to myself, this is my chance. Not only did I not get anything, one person won two things. I am convinced that there is no way I would ever win the lottery (class moral issues aside). There are some people for which life just seems to fall into place. I am not one of those people. Progress for me is not a neat set of steps. It is an arduous climb up a steep or even sheer rock face. Often the adage "two steps forward, one step back" best describes my life. As much as it seemed, as much as I hoped this was not going to be one of those times, as much as I felt that this is where my life is making an important turn, all that I have worked hard to do and learn is finally going to start paying off, it was not to be so.

I've been really down over the past couple of weeks because I really felt like I should have at least gone to the next level of the process for that job. I felt defeated. And the question kept staring me down, kept yelling at me "How have I grown?"

Sometimes you don't know how or if you've grown until you go back to the door frame where your parents scratched a mark each year for each year, scratch a new mark and then compare. After a fairly long conversation with my wife, I started to put together how I actually have grown, what things I have gotten better at, what I have accomplished, the things I have done and what I have learned from those things. Looking at the new mark, it seems to be more growth than I was giving myself credit for. This was... encouraging.

God has always been faithful. But I can only see that when I look back. I can rarely (ever?) see that in the present. So after all that, I eagerly look forward to what God DOES have for me. I have never felt more ready than I do now. While things never seem to turn out in the way I think they should, they do turn out as they should. Not everything is in place yet, but God has reminded me of many things, not the least of which he is faithful. Patience has always been the lesson I have to learn. Now is no different. But I am hopeful. In this much I was right, this is where my life IS making an important turn, all that I have worked hard to do and learn is finally going to start paying off. One step at a time. God continues the good work he began.

Joe

P.S. Since Linda always changes my labels, I'll just let her decide what they should be. :-)

The problem of universals

This is not what I was once thinking of posting on. The other subject had to do something about modern reductionism that was triggered by the thought of the paperless office. I can't even remember the gist of what I was thinking. Go figure.

Lately, however, I've been pondering the problem of universals, especially as a particular person always seemed to think I was promoting "nominalism" whenever I proposed a different way of thinking about something. One topic that comes to mind was a long discussion on women's roles and how I find it hard to believe that the whole "Father, Son" relationship, while true in detail, is not part of a larger cultural understanding that if someone doesn't come from that environment will not totally get all the implications of the mid-eastern cultural, particularly the Hebrew culture. So somehow my finding the cultural underpinnings of that relationship set me as a nominalist. Go figure.

This thinking even prompted me to post on Theologica! I just didn't theooze is interested in such discussions any more so I didn't even bother there. Maybe no one here is interested, either. But here is an edited version of my post:

"...To a certain degree I think it sort of pervades all our discussions... There is some talk occasionally of universal truths and objective truth (the latter always stumps me as I still don't understand the need to qualify truth, as it seems to me either something is true or it isn't). We also seem to speak in terms that what we are saying or the position we are taking is based on a greater truth that somehow supersedes or otherwise invalidates someone else's position or claim.

Artist struggle with this. Francis Schaeffer seemed fond of pointing out how Picasso was seeking the universal of a woman by destroying the particular of a woman. Makoto Fujimura (as I point out often) briefly describes the overarching theme of art in pre-modern, modern, and post-modern terms like this "How do you paint a flower, what is a flower, and is there a flower?". Cezanne struggled with wanting to find and paint the "appleness" of an apple.

I've been accused of nominalism. I can understand why, but it isn't true. I just happen to think Paul's statement that he sees through a glass darkly is true. Yes we have the Holy Spirit as our teacher, but we are learning in the context of imperfection and that clouds both what we can understand as universals as well as how we understand universals.

I don't really have a particular point I am trying to express, just interested in hearing other people's ideas and thoughts and what others may have learned academically or non-academically ("school of life" things). I guess if someone wanted a question to spring board from these questions come to mind—How much of our disagreements are based on taking our limited understanding further than is warranted? How much is based on not taking our understandings far enough? Theologically or otherwise.

For instance, the search for the universal man or woman, I think, is what created the objects and popularity of Barbie and G.I. Joe. However, some would regard these as harmful as there is no way all or even a majority of children can achieved these "ideals". Is this also reflected somewhere in our/your theology or someone else's theology that you know of? Do we put an ideal on a pedestal to the point of our detriment?"

Through this discussion, I came to a few thoughts, one is that realism (in terms of universals and even along the lines of Plato) strikes me as reductionist as I've heard some accuse nominalism. And the more I think about it the more it seems realism may be the meta-narrative (not very postmodern, I know) but nominalism seems to be where we live.

What I mean by this is while, for instance, we can now look back and see and understand more so the evils of slavery, when you are living in that time, particularly as the slave, that universal seems to have little meaning. As I put it at one point, not only do the victors get to write history, they get to define good and evil, regardless of a universal Good from which all goodness flows. What good is the general if it gets lost in the details?

Thoughts?

Joe