Guns, and terrorists, and harassment, Oh My!

A couple nights ago I watched a West Wing episode that addressed extremist Muslim terrorism and the tendency to blame all Muslims (one line from the show was "Extremist Muslim Terrorists are to Muslims as ___ is to the Christians." and the answer was "KKK".) (season 3 episode 3 I think) Tonight I am watching season 3 episode 6, about a church shooting and the gun debate. What is freaking me out is that WE'VE BEEN HAVING THESE CONVERSATIONS FOR YEARS AND THEY HAVEN'T CHANGED.

Is something changing? Not unless we take action! Here's some writings I found useful this week.

True Security

A colleague has a vision of what can be different, we can create true security:
https://baptistnews.com/article/looking-security-church-thats-got-us-mess/#.WgflcGiPI2z

Undoing the Doctrine...

Photo: Lynn Friedman, Creative Commons

A colleague, Reverend David Pyle, names one key source of pain and destruction that needs to be undone:

"I believe there is a "Doctrine of Original Sin" that is specifically about men. Call it the Doctrine of the Violent Man, for want of a better term. It is the belief that there is something inherently violent and abusive rooted at the core of maleness.

Of all the "Original" doctrines, I will admit this is probably the one there is the most evidence for. And some of the more ardent believers in this doctrine are violent and abusive men themselves, because of how it allows them to evade responsibility for their violent and abusive actions. And for the billions of people in history who have been subjected to violence and abuse at the hands of men, it is a rational extrapolation from personal experience.

I almost said "lived" personal experience, but that would be inaccurate. Too often people do not live through those experiences.

And yes, there are violent and abusive people who are not men, that is true... and does not affect the functioning of the Doctrine of the Violent Man in all of human society.

Photo: David Maiolo, Creative Commons

This Doctrine (this widely accepted and societally enforced belief about the nature of things) has many effects. I named one of them above, the belief by some men that it excuses violent and abusive behavior, because it is simply their nature. When combined with white supremacy it leads to profound excusal of white male violence while also creating deep fear of any black male as dangerously violent.

It leads to the belief that State Power must primarily rely on violence to maintain its power and authority, with expressions from offensive military power to a coercive incarceration based legal system.

It leads to "strength" being defined as capacity for violence. It leads to diplomacy that is based in coercion. It leads to young boys being celebrated for displaying capacity for violence, and humiliated for showing anything else.

Because, at its core, the Doctrine of the Violent Man says that men cannot help but be violent, because it is an inherent part of their being. It says to men who are violent and abusive that they cannot help being what they are. And so some revel in it, believing that violence and abuse makes them more of a man. To others, it centers them in their violence when they are feeling powerless or afraid.

And to those who are less naturally inclined to violence, the Doctrine of the Violent Man says that they are not really men. That they are something other than male.

The effect of this Doctrine on what it means to be a man is profound. It goes to the core of personal and societal assumptions about maleness. I am aware that I write this from a position of privelege... that of the male who "proved" his capacity for violence (through a state-approved means), and now restrains that violence and practices peace. But even this conception of male identity, celebrated though it is, has violence at its core.

The Doctrine of the Violent Man requires that almost every conception of male identity be measured by the relationship to and capacity for violence. It is a doctrine for which there is a lot of evidence, in society and even in my own heart. The reality of male violence will not change until we have deconstructed the doctrine that upholds it."

What about you? Why do you Protest?

A colleague, Rev. Jeremy Rutledge, asks the following question:

"People often ask me why I protest. And I want to say, I don't know, because I have a conscience, because I have a kid, because I have a sweetheart, because I have a church, because I have examples, because I have love, because I am half woke, because I am not a cynic, because I believe that my life is about more than myself, because I buy what Jesus said about the greatest commandment and the second like unto it, and because I was raised by Hawaiʻians who taught me aloha. I mean, these are the first reasons that come to mind.

What about you? Why do you protest?"