The Land and Genocide

I am intrigued by the notion of reading the bible from perspectives that are different from those one typically hears in Sunday School or Wednesday night bible study. This time it’s about the Exodus account. We learned in class that Dykstra suggests that Exodus should be read (in the US at least) from the perspective of the Egyptians rather than from the Israelites; from that perspective we are privileged people who are concerned primarily with empire building. Under this construct, empire has to do with exploitation, control, dominance, colonization, displacement of indigenous people, and cultural arrogance and global military power. From that perspective it seems that we, as a nation in general, are empire builders in terms of land, finances, social policy, politics, and yes, even religion and spirituality. Our history is rife with examples of the truth of these concepts.
Another item that I find equally intriguing is Robert Warriors’ "A Native American Perspective: Canaanites, Cowboys, and Indians," in Sugirtharajah, Voices from the Margin. He submits that as the Israelite exodus from Egypt and entry into the Promised Land overlooks the Canaanite perspective. If one views the story as a Native American, one might identify more closely with the Canaanites who were pushed out of the land that they populated. In addition, the stories also tell of the commanded genocide of a people. The Israelite’s obedience meant the complete annihilation of a nation. As I had recent conversations about this story, I was captivated by the thoughts ranging from “Well they were told to make the destruction complete and they didn’t obey” to “can you believe that, what do you think God was thinking?”
I am also captivated by pop culture and the fact that, in this case TV, wrestles with the ideas of genocide as well. I’m a fan of the new Battle Star Galactica, where humans are at war with a race of machines (the Cylons) that they created. The machines evolved and now look like the very humans they are trying to eliminate because humans do not appreciate all that they have and don’t deserve to remain in power. With humanity on the run towards this mystical, mythical planet called earth, the humans discover an opportunity to wipe out the entire race once and for all. I saw parallels in the genocide thinking, that one race has to be completely obliterated for the salvation of another. Stay tuned.

A CEO, CUSTOMER, AND EMPLOYEE GO TO CHURCH

Reading Laurel Dykstra’s The Other Side of Exodus reminded me of a series of recent conversations. As I relate those conversations, you can anticipate a question, “Do you know which side of Exodus you are on?” Here’s the short form of those conversations.

I recently heard a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, saying that his company is overwhelmed by demands, “Not only do I feel that my company is oppressed, I myself feel oppressed.” Upon reflection, the collective demands of regulators, shareholders, customers, and employees do indeed lend an oppressive atmosphere.

I heard a customer of the very same company, lamenting about the quality of his recent big-ticket purchase, “They just don’t respond to my phone calls. Customers are oppressed and I myself feel oppressed.” His lament has merit.

That Fortune 500 company relies on Mexican Americans to make its products. By any standard, they are poor, often lacking basic necessities to live. Think about where they are at, in the bottom 20% of wage earners who receive a mere 3% of the total American income, a trend that is somehow worsening. Check the Census Bureau stats for more of these un-Christly facts.

Income, however, is not a reflection of intelligence, as evidenced by one such worker, who commented, “We number in the thousands, yet we are weak. We feel oppressed and I myself feel oppressed.”

This CEO-customer-employee microcosm reveals a cycle of oppression, a pattern unclear to the oppressor yet clear to the one oppressed. The solution to this conundrum has to fall outside of some stereotypical suggestion that draws a line, tossing evil wealthy capitalists on one side and poor innocent ethnic groups on the other. The real answer is infinitely subtle, intangible, cerebral, and…spiritual.

We start to get at the answer by knowing that God is always asking, “Where are you?” As Denise said, “Our responses may not be decisive, but they are crucial.”

A response to God may not remove the physical condition of oppression, but it is a start. A response to God will not redistribute income tomorrow, but it does redistribute righteousness today. A response to God will not bring that CEO, customer, and employee into utopian harmony, but it might bring them to the same church.

With God, we cannot be oppressed.

Dykstra’s reading is sure to raise more questions than answers, but sometimes One answer is all it takes. Now, really, which side of Exodus are you on?

God of Our Weary Years

As I read about the Suzerainty treaty form, the format, the tempo and the temper of its parts, I was reminded of how, in my mind at least, the song entitled “Lift Every Voice and Sing” approximates it. Frick outlines the essential elements of this form as Preamble, Historical Prologue, Stipulations, Deposit and public reading, List of witnesses, and Blessings and curses. It appears to me that the Anthem meets these criteria, and could serve, one could argue, as a form of treaty between God and those who hope for freedom from racial oppression. The song, written by James Weldon Johnson, was published in 1949, adopted by the NAACP, and came to be known as The Negro National Anthem. To me it can serve as the reminder of treaty, covenant, and agreement.
PREAMBLE: Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise High as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us,
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won.
HISTORICAL PROLUGUE: Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chastening rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
STIPULATIONS/OBLIGATIONS: Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet, Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way that with tears have been watered,
LIST OF WITNESSES: We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last, Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

DEPOSIT AND PUBLIC READING: God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who has brought us thus far on the way; Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, Our God, where we met Thee;
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
BLESSINGS: Shadowed beneath Thy hand, May we forever stand. True to our GOD, True to our native land.