[Oe List ...] The Church as Pioneer

[Joy Bonafield]

Just checking in with a thought -- after reading "the unsettled."  We seem
to glorify Columbus for being a "pioneer" in "discovering" America.
 There's a song, written by indigenous Americans, that talks about "we were
already here."  So the only one being surprised by running into a new land
[with settlements of other people] was the outsider from Europe.
Settlements abounded already.  The indigenous also emphasize that they did
not have to "conquer" the land, but they lived in harmony *with* the land.

So it depends on whose perspective we are taking.  And while we think of
those early days as exploring [or conquering] the "wilderness" -- others
had already made their home and communities there.  So---was it
"unsettled"?  Or did a civilization exist there?

Joyce Bonafield-Pierce
bonafieldcohort26 at gmail.com
Minneapolis

On Tue, Oct 17, 2017 at 12:39 PM, Don Bushman via OE <
oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

> David, good question.
>
> Seems the root of pioneer
>        1515-25; < Middle French pionier, Old French peonier foot soldier.
> See peon <http://www.dictionary.com/browse/peon>1, -eer
> <http://www.dictionary.com/browse/-eer>
> casts a completely different sense of pioneer.
>
> One of the insights coming from systems theory (maybe) change comes from
> the edges of the system not the central.
>
> So maybe a recovery of the word pioneer even in our US of A context works
> just fine. In our history those who pushed out into the unsettled were
> those who often did not fit into place they lived, sometimes because of the
> suffering they experienced. In hindsight others called them leaders,
> however at the time I suspect their experience was filled with uncertainty
> and even escapism.
>
> oh well.
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 17, 2017 at 12:03 PM, David Flowers via OE <
> oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
>
>> The Church as Pioneer
>>
>> Hi everyone!
>>
>> I've been teaching leadership studies in some pretty diverse classrooms
>> the last few years and, to make a long story short, have come to see the
>> imagery associated with the term "pioneer", in my classrooms, as part of a
>> distinctly Western and North American paradigm in particular. Which then
>> evokes images and notions of expansionism and colonialism (often
>> Patriarchal).
>>
>> Don't get me wrong - I love H.R. Niebuhr's paper but ... am recently
>> ruminating on how this pioneer imagery/story might not work for a
>> Global/intersectional Church in community.
>>
>> The Church dynamic is the 1st to respond - and is called for adaptive and
>> creative - human-centered - christ-centered -  responses to human suffering
>> (and a suffering biosphere, for that matter) but - our Western history of
>> pioneers doesn't quite speak to who we are or who the Church is - for me.
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 11:10 PM, <oe-request at lists.wedgeblade.net>
>> wrote:
>>
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>>> Today's Topics:
>>>
>>>    1. Re: [Dialogue] 10/12/17: Spong/Vosper: REFORMERS, ALL; Spong
>>>       revisited (James Wiegel)
>>>
>>>
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 1
>>> Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2017 21:54:46 +0000 (UTC)
>>> From: James Wiegel <jfwiegel at yahoo.com>
>>> To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net>,
>>>         oe at lists.wedgeblade.net, jlepps39 <jlepps39 at gmail.com>
>>> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] 10/12/17: Spong/Vosper:
>>>         REFORMERS, ALL; Spong revisited
>>> Message-ID: <1783080715.144293.1508190886443 at mail.yahoo.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>>>
>>>
>>> TheChurch's responsibility to God for human societies doubtless varies
>>> with itsown and the nations' changing positions, but it may be described in
>>> a generalfashion by reference to the apostolic, the pastoral and the
>>> pioneeringfunctions of the Christian community.
>>>
>>> ?Apostolicresponsibility?The Church is by nature andcommandment an
>>> apostolic community which exists for the sake of announcing theGospel to
>>> all nations and of making them disciples of Christ.?
>>>
>>> Theshepherd of the lost??
>>>
>>> The Church discharges itsresponsibility to God for society in carrying
>>> out its pastoral as well as itsapostolic functions. It responds to
>>> Christ-in-God by being a shepherd of thesheep, a seeker of the lost, the
>>> friend of publicans and sinners, of the poorand broken-hearted.?
>>>
>>> The Church as social pioneer??
>>>
>>> Finally, the social responsibility of the Church needs to be described
>>> as that of the pioneer.?The Church is that part of the human community
>>> which responds first to God-in-Christ and Christ-in-God.?It is the
>>> sensitive and responsive part in every society and mankind as a whole.?It
>>> is that group which hears the Word of God, which sees His judgments, which
>>> has the vision of the resurrection.?In its relations with God it is the
>>> pioneer part of society that responds to God on behalf of the whole
>>> society, some?what, we may say, as science is the pioneer in responding to
>>> pattern or rationality in experience and as artists are the pioneers in
>>> responding to beauty.?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Jim Wiegel ?
>>>
>>> ?That which consumes me is not man, nor the earth, nor the heavens, but
>>> the flame which consumes man, earth, and sky." ?Nikos Kazantzakis
>>>
>>> 401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353
>>> 623-363-3277
>>>
>>> jfwiegel at yahoo.com
>>>
>>> www.partnersinparticipation.com
>>>
>>>
>>>     On Friday, October 13, 2017, 11:38:13 PM MST, jlepps39 <
>>> jlepps39 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>  Jim et al.
>>> I believe Neibuhr's other 2 categories were prophet and priest.
>>> John from Paris.
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
>>> -------- Original message --------From: James Wiegel via Dialogue <
>>> dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net> Date: 10/13/17 23:49 (GMT+01:00) To:
>>> dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net, oe at lists.wedgeblade.net Cc: James Wiegel
>>> <jfwiegel at yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [Dialogue] [Oe List ...] 10/12/17:
>>> Spong/Vosper: REFORMERS, ALL; Spong revisited
>>> As always, thanks, Ellie for passing these on . . .? This one seems a
>>> cry for Niebuhr's 3rd social responsibility of the church, the social
>>> pioneer.? Yea.? What about the other 2 -- the part of the paper we skipped
>>> over to get to that last page . . .
>>> Jim Wiegel ?
>>>
>>> ?That which consumes me is not man, nor the earth, nor the heavens, but
>>> the flame which consumes man, earth, and sky." ?Nikos Kazantzakis
>>>
>>> 401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353
>>> 623-363-3277
>>>
>>> jfwiegel at yahoo.com
>>>
>>> www.partnersinparticipation.com
>>>
>>>
>>>     On Thursday, October 12, 2017, 7:31:46 AM MST, Ellie Stock via OE <
>>> oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> |
>>> |
>>> |
>>>  |    |
>>>
>>>   |
>>>
>>>
>>> |
>>> |    |
>>> |
>>> ?????Homepage????????My Profile????????Essay Archive???????Message
>>> Boards???????Calendar
>>>  |
>>>
>>>   |
>>> |
>>> |
>>> |
>>> REFORMERS, ALL
>>>
>>> By Rev. Gretta Vosper
>>> ?We?ve been anticipating the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the
>>> Protestant Reformation for some time. Now that the month is upon us, it
>>> seems more like a private birthday party than something worthy of global
>>> attention. In truth, I suppose it is. With the global number of Reform
>>> Tradition Protestants diminishing, the celebration of the dramatic and
>>> cataclysmic leave-taking that was our birth seems of little interest to any
>>> but those enchanted by the history of such things and the few others taking
>>> advantage of the liturgical and party possibilities offered up by the
>>> date.The Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogues of the past few decades
>>> culminated in the document From Conflict to Communion, published in 2013.
>>> Within it, Five Ecumenical Imperatives are laid out, providing a base from
>>> which the two traditions could ramp up together for a joint celebration of
>>> the Reformation, a healing of the centuries old rift between them. Shoving
>>> a new foundation of respect under the violence and
>>>   rancour of the past, the Catholic and Lutheran ecumenists have
>>> demanded a new and generous spirit from their adherents: choose unity over
>>> disunity; start from a place of agreement rather than focusing on easily
>>> spotted differences. They seem simple and wise choices. If only we had
>>> managed to get to this place four hundred and ninety-five years earlier. So
>>> much hatred, horror, and bloodshed may have been avoided.There is no doubt
>>> that our great faith traditions have provided the human family much that
>>> has been of benefit. Perhaps their most important work was built of the
>>> evolutionary advantage provided humans by what we might nowadays call
>>> ?group think?. Religion gave us a bigger and stronger clan than family.
>>> Members would die for us just as quickly as we would die for them; we were
>>> no longer alone but had the safety of our religious affiliates to add
>>> strength to our prejudices and personal desires. And those prejudices and
>>> personal desires were, in turn, further refined by our re
>>>  ligious beliefs. Put in such a way, it is easy to see how, in the early
>>> 16th century, neighbours could turn against one another to the point of
>>> death, uncovering allegiances that damned an individual or family to the
>>> ultimate exclusion from God?s grace and forgiveness for all of eternity.
>>> Taking leave of an institution with that much power was a risky thing to
>>> do. The rhetoric continues to be chilling to this day.Bishop Spong has
>>> presented visionary work on what a new reformation might look like, what it
>>> might provide humanity in the third millennium, and how we might get there.
>>> His forthcoming book will take that work further, providing much more than
>>> the meticulously negotiated but necessarily simplistic Lutheran Catholic
>>> Imperatives. I expect this book will crown the past four decades of his
>>> leadership in this progressive Christian landscape, a terrain still
>>> tragically unknown to so many.CHOICEAt any point in time, a range of
>>> possibilities lie before us. We make the best decision
>>>  s we can, given the information we have at the time. Decades later, we
>>> sometimes realize that a single choice resulted in a myriad of other
>>> choices, each circumscribed by the first, and all resulting in a reality
>>> that, had it been clear to us from the beginning, we may have refused. We
>>> cannot see what the future brings and we are very poor at extrapolating our
>>> possibilities out much further than our immediate creature needs. And so we
>>> end up in situations, relationships, jobs, communities, social structures,
>>> or a whole world we may not have chosen had we been able to see the
>>> extrapolated implications of our every choice.But you don?t need to keep
>>> going in the same direction just because that is the direction you happen
>>> to be going. You certainly can and many do. But others, either because of a
>>> sudden reorientation of their perspective or because they were just born
>>> without a personal comfort zone, refuse to just keep on keeping on. To
>>> them, the cost is too high. In fact, it is idioc
>>>  y.Enter, the Reformer. Many are the times I?ve heard Martin Luther
>>> compared to Jesus in the work they both undertook. They didn?t start
>>> dramatically; reformers rarely do. It may have been a conversation here or
>>> a private rant there. It may have begun in whispers and only risen to an
>>> audible level over many months or even years. It may have been with or
>>> without design, beginning with a broad, unfocused list of laments or
>>> emerging from the womb, so to speak, with a well-honed mission. But both
>>> Luther and Jesus, at some point in time, and very likely supported by the
>>> gifts of countless unnamed others who listened, shared, cajoled, and
>>> criticized, noticed that the faith traditions they cherished had veered in
>>> directions that were unacceptable to them. Choices made by those in
>>> leadership developed norms for the practices, thinking, attitudes, and
>>> prejudices embraced within the tradition, each chosen from the creative
>>> potentialities of time and place. For most believers, all was accepted
>>>  as it was received.But for Reformers, what is normal for the masses is
>>> anathema to them. Both Jesus and Luther honoured their traditions. Though
>>> we long assumed Jesus was Christian, we now know he wasn?t; he was a Jew.
>>> Luther learned the only acceptable religion of his day, a Rome-centred
>>> Catholicism. They were steeped in their traditional religions, born into
>>> and formed by them. Like everyone around them, they were supposed to fit
>>> in. Their education, far above the level of the average believer, was
>>> supposed to further hone their beliefs. It was not supposed to expose the
>>> little hypocrisies and gross abuses that had been so artfully woven into
>>> the everyday business of religion. Once noticed, however, the normal way of
>>> doing things became unacceptable. There were no options for Jesus or Luther
>>> but those that would bring about catastrophic change in their religious
>>> traditions. Even as others fought to maintain the status quo, forcing
>>> banishment or conspiring toward more final solutio
>>>  ns, the Reformers laid out and presented their arguments. And the world
>>> changed.LEGACYWe stand on the shoulders of great men and women. Countless
>>> Reformers dared challenge the norms of their day ? religious, political,
>>> economic, and social. And they did it at great cost. We are grateful to
>>> them for their struggles, for their lives, for their blood, and for the
>>> first discomfort noticed that set them on their course. They created the
>>> world in which we live, the freedoms we cherish, the perspectives we are
>>> welcome to embrace or refuse, the right to make our own decisions, whether
>>> wise or foolish. They set in course the possibilities from which we have
>>> chosen our new realities and so have become, with them, co-creators of the
>>> world we know.They also, however, created gross disparities and abuses that
>>> yet plague humanity and the planet: the economic enslavement of whole
>>> nations for the provision of privileges assumed by others; the legal
>>> jargons that entrap indigenous peoples in politica
>>>  lly ritualized battles for sovereignty; the lines that set out who is
>>> worthy of the right to choose their own lifestyle and who is not; the
>>> notion that humanity is separate and above the natural world rather than
>>> enfolded within and vulnerable to it; the entertainments by which we
>>> anaesthetize ourselves to the truths that quake around us; the cruelties
>>> endured by herded, caged, and crated animals so we might pleasure our taste
>>> buds and sooth our sun-scarred skin. And we, in making our choices, remain
>>> co-creators, complicit in a litany of normals that, had we the heart of
>>> Jesus or Luther or the millions of unnamed men and women who have poured
>>> their lives out in the pursuit of justice and compassion and the building
>>> up of love in the world, would make every one of us a Reformer.There is a
>>> legacy in the Reformation that I believe belongs in the middle of our work,
>>> calling out the power brokers, the hegemonists, the deceivers. Ours is not
>>> the work of complacency or settling for imperat
>>>  ives that take decades to conjure only because it takes that long to
>>> soothe the sensitivities of those still wielding ecclesial powers that make
>>> no difference to the challenges facing our world. Our reforms must be much
>>> bolder, our work in the world more creative than what those beyond our
>>> walls believe is all we do. It may be that humanity is facing the greatest
>>> crises of its too-brief history as it reels with the challenges of global
>>> warming and climate change, exponential population growth, and resource
>>> depletion. There may be no future moment for us to step up. Now may be all
>>> there is. Literally.Change is our very birthplace. It is our right and
>>> responsibility as heirs of the Reformers, to stare down every comfortable
>>> ?normal? that sings its siren song and refuse to be enchanted by it. It is
>>> our right and responsibility to count up every ease and privilege we enjoy
>>> and educate ourselves about its source ? what makes it possible? Who pays
>>> for our pleasures and how? And when we fi
>>>  nd that ?normal? is built on the subjugation of others ? our tea, our
>>> chocolate, our party-ready shrimp rings ? work to redistribute or limit
>>> those pleasures until all have access to shelter, security, food, clean
>>> water, and the joy of planning for their children?s futures.ECLESIA AS
>>> REFORMERBut change is costly and few have the strength or fortitude to
>>> bring about its grander accomplishments. That?s why those usually
>>> identified with the most highly evolved faith in James Fowler?s Stages of
>>> Faith, a Universalizing Faith, are so few, so well known, and all
>>> assassinated: Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. We aren?t that strong,
>>> most of us. We might start out heartily, but we then draw up far short of
>>> our goals, beaten by our own fears, our own comforts, our own weakness. We
>>> may be legion but we are ordinary, too.Throughout the New Testament, the
>>> word translated to ?church? is originally ecclesia. It?s a poor
>>> translation. Rather than ?church?, it shared the idea of government. In G
>>>  reece, the ecclesia was the council of elect elders who governed the
>>> city. It?s use in the early Christian writings was a radical refusal to
>>> live according to the rules of the day by a ragtag group of people who
>>> believed they had a better way. They believed they were called to a bolder
>>> and more perfect reflection of the dignity of humanity as they had seen it
>>> represented in or inspired by a heretical Jew who?d once moved among them
>>> and left a residual and radical idea of what community should look
>>> like.Perhaps it is not we, frail and human as we are, but our ecclesia that
>>> can set out upon the sea of change and call us forward. Perhaps we can use
>>> the New Testament ideal of an alternative ecclesia to set the standards,
>>> the ideals, the vision by which the corrective to human destruction of the
>>> earth might be realized. Perhaps my United Church of Canada and your United
>>> Church of Christ, United Methodist, or Disciples of Christ could be called
>>> to this greater and most urgent vision that
>>>  lies in the roots of all our Christian traditions. Perhaps the
>>> sacramental traditions, Reformed and Roman, might step up together in this
>>> celebratory year and cry out the words that need to be heard by all,
>>> challenging us to notice that normal isn?t acceptable, even if it is the
>>> culmination of all our choices. We need our religious institutions to be
>>> the ecclesia they were called to be, to be great for us and challenge us to
>>> be the reform we want to see in the world. Perhaps this is the year for our
>>> ecclesial institutions to step into the role of the Reformer and built a
>>> vision we can work toward. Isn?t this the nature of the gospel call, that
>>> our ability to notice provides us the challenge to change for the better,
>>> to take and make good news and not simply welcome it?Like most, I?ve been
>>> largely indifferent to the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. It seemed
>>> to esoteric, to trivial in the face of what challenges us today. But
>>> perhaps it is exactly the opposite. Perhaps, like Jes
>>>  us and Luther before us, it is time to challenge the traditions by
>>> which we have been formed. We would challenge them to reawaken to the
>>> purposes set out in their deep, deep roots: to bring the people together,
>>> to be the assembly of Christians and call us all to the frightfully
>>> challenging tasks ahead of us. To be sacrificial in their work, giving
>>> everything even if it leads to death.Or perhaps the Reformation anniversary
>>> is, more personally, a reminder that to each of us that we are a people
>>> born of cataclysmic change and inheritors of its demand: notice what lies
>>> all about you, what humanity?s choices have led to, what a continued
>>> trajectory might mean. Notice, and then stand up and make your stand.~ Rev.
>>> Gretta Vosper
>>>
>>> About the AuthorThe Rev. Gretta Vosper is a United Church of Canada
>>> minister who is an atheist. Her best-selling books include With or Without
>>> God: Why The Way We Live is More Important Than What We Believe, and Amen:
>>> What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief. She has also published three
>>> books of poetry and prayers.Read the essay online here.  |
>>>
>>>
>>> |
>>> Question & Answer
>>> ?Lesley from Minnesota, writes:
>>> ?
>>> Question:
>>> What are your views about so many Christians being in favor of gun
>>> ownership? Doesn?t that completely contradict the Jesus of peace we read
>>> about in the Bible??
>>> Answer: By Eric Alexander
>>> ?Thanks for your question Lesley. This is a timely question for me as I
>>> was in Las Vegas during the recent shootings. Being so close to an event
>>> like that made this issue feel even more urgent than it already did to
>>> me.What made the Las Vegas shooting so interesting to me is that it
>>> involved a large group of mostly white conservative casualties. It made a
>>> large demographic of people suspend their NRA sponsored talking points and
>>> deal with the reality of the situation in their own hearts and minds. And I
>>> should note here that I enjoy a good skeet shoot as much as the next guy,
>>> but that is not the issue at hand here.I think it?s an absolute perversion
>>> of the U.S. 2nd amendment to allow nearly anyone who can fog a mirror to
>>> have a cache of assault rifles. In my mind, there is no way America?s
>>> founding fathers intended that. And even if they did, they may not have
>>> imagined what the world would come to hundreds of years later. People say
>>> ?guns don?t kill people, people kill people? and I
>>>  say fine ?let?s not put the guns that kill people in the hands of those
>>> people that kill people?? There are many sensible steps we can take to find
>>> a more sustainable footing here.The bottom line is that many Christians are
>>> not all that interested in Yeshua of Nazareth. Rather they follow a Jesus
>>> who has been morphed into a pawn of radical right-wing political agendas. I
>>> don?t think there is any way a disciple of Jesus, or someone who was
>>> brimming with love, compassion, and forgiveness in their hearts, would feel
>>> a need to accumulate military grade weapons and thousands of rounds of
>>> ammo. Disparate militias have no place in 21st century American politics,
>>> especially in a nation with over 325,000,000 people.No hunter alive needs
>>> to take more than one shot per second to put dinner on the table. And even
>>> though full automatic weapons are now illegal in many cases, it is quite
>>> easy to master or manipulate a semi-automatic weapon to inflict mass
>>> destruction.We need more stable progressiv
>>>  e voices countering the NRA arguments within Christian circles. And as
>>> a side note, this was a key reason why I started the Progressive
>>> Christianity and Politics group on Facebook a couple years ago. It is now
>>> over 2000 members strong and we are propagating progressive principles out
>>> to compassionate and thoughtful people all across the world. If you or
>>> anyone else reading this would like to join, please feel free to register
>>> at www.JoinPCP.com~Eric AlexanderRead and Share online hereAbout the
>>> AuthorEric Alexander is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur. He is a board
>>> member at ProgressiveChristianity.org, and is the founder of Jesism,
>>> Christian Evolution, and the Progressive Christianity and Politics group on
>>> Facebook. Eric holds a Master of Theology from Saint Leo University and
>>> studied negotiations at Harvard Law School, and is the author of?Teaching
>>> Kids Life IS Good.________________________________________________
>>> Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited
>>> The Bible, Corporal Punishment and Human Guilt - Part 2
>>> ?The physical abuse of children under the guise of "proper discipline"
>>> has been practiced in western history so frequently as to be thought of as
>>> normative. It has had the approval of those recognized sources of cultural
>>> value - tradition, Bible, Church, School and family. It found expression in
>>> popular novels written by such noteworthy authors as Charles Dickens and
>>> Mark Twain in the 19th century and by no less a person than the 20th
>>> century's ultra-conservative political pundit, William F. Buckley. When
>>> some of these novels were turned into motion pictures, the corporal
>>> punishment scenes were quite graphic.In the schools of western history,
>>> which were normally church-related parochial or church-influenced public
>>> schools, corporal punishment was regularly employed until quite recently,
>>> certainly within my lifetime. Almost always this discipline was
>>> administered with parental approval. In boarding schools of the 19th and
>>> early 20th centuries this disciplinary activity sometimes had a
>>>  bout it a quality of a ritualistic act and even came to be thought of
>>> as a kind of "liturgical observance." That is, the act of discipline was
>>> carried out at a time-certain. It was scheduled on a particular day for all
>>> offenders during a specified period of time for which the school staff
>>> prepared the instruments to be used, such as a bunch of bound switches or a
>>> freshly prepared cane. It was followed through in a prescribed, unchanging
>>> and traditional manner.The intended victim or victims would have to wait in
>>> fearful anticipation until the proper moment when the price of their
>>> misbehavior was exacted. The disciplinary act clearly defined boundaries
>>> and made all aware of where authority resided.In my own experience, as a
>>> public school boy growing up in the Southern Bible Belt, corporal
>>> punishment was employed, but much less ritualistically. It was administered
>>> on the spot whenever it was deemed essential to control the classroom and
>>> as a response to a particular act of misbehavior.
>>>   Yet it also followed a set form that we all recognized. It was not
>>> used frequently. I recall that in my seventh grade class, which was the
>>> last time I knew it to take place, only two of my classmates were subjected
>>> to this discipline during the entire year. The fact, however, that I can
>>> still recall both instances some sixty years later, indicates that each of
>>> these occasions made an indelible, albeit not a positive impression, upon
>>> my young mind. Most of us who were not the actual recipients of the
>>> punishment were in fact intimidated by it.The offending student, in both
>>> cases, a boy 12-13 years old, would be asked to accompany the teacher who
>>> had ruler in hand, to the room adjacent to the principal's office, which
>>> was reserved solely for this purpose. That room also happened to be next
>>> door to our classroom, so even though we could not observe the act of
>>> discipline, we could not fail to hear it. The students remaining in the
>>> classroom sat in silence during the period of time it to
>>>  ok the teacher and the pupil to reach the required location and to
>>> assume the proper positions for discipline. Then the noise of the ruler
>>> landing on its target resounded. No cries were ever heard because proving
>>> that "he could take it" preserved the pupil's last shred of dignity.
>>> Finally the blows would cease and in a few minutes the chastened student
>>> would return to the class, followed by the teacher, still gripping her
>>> ruler. The student would take his seat saying something about it "not
>>> hurting at all," a brave attempt to reestablish his place in the social
>>> fabric of the class. The teacher would then use this episode as a teaching
>>> moment by warning the other students that a similar fate awaited each of
>>> them if their behavior made it necessary. It seemed to me that it took the
>>> disciplined child a day or so to absorb the humiliation before he began to
>>> ease back into the life of his school community. The ever-present threat
>>> that the ruler would be employed again, however, instilled
>>>   apprehension, fear and developed something of a herd instinct among us
>>> all. Instead of enhancing life, it seemed only to bruise a fragile ego. It
>>> certainly taught by example that physical force was a proper way to deal
>>> with those who are smaller and weaker. It surely issued in a more
>>> controllable classroom, but it was never, in my opinion, a pathway into
>>> maturity.It is interesting to note who, besides children, have been
>>> subjected to corporal punishment in the history of our Judeo-Christian
>>> world. There were basically four types of adults on whom corporal
>>> punishment was deemed to be appropriate discipline, at least during some
>>> part of our history. The one thing each of these four groups of people had
>>> in common was that they were thought to be deserving of the status of a
>>> child.The first category was adult prisoners. Those who had violated the
>>> rules of the society in such a way as to be judged a threat that must be
>>> removed, jailed and punished. I suppose the reasoning process was si
>>>  mple. If physical punishment made school children more pliable and
>>> obedient, to say nothing of being easier to control, then why should the
>>> same tactic not be used on those adults who consistently disrupted the well
>>> being of society's life? So the right to use corporal punishment was
>>> written into the penal codes of most Western, and by implication, Christian
>>> nations.The public whipping post was a regular feature in the criminal
>>> justice system in nations like Great Britain and the United States until
>>> the 20th century. The last state to make it illegal in America was
>>> Delaware. It is still employed to this day in Singapore and in several
>>> Muslim nations like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The familiar jail diet of
>>> "bread and water" was just another form of corporal punishment; that is,
>>> the punishment of the body.By extension from the penal codes physical
>>> discipline was used in situations where control was deemed essential to
>>> survival. It was a standard practice, for example, on the ships of
>>>   the colonial powers in the 18th and 19th centuries when the whole
>>> world was shrunk to the dimensions of an individual boat, with the captain
>>> exercising the decision making responsibility for discipline, indeed
>>> sometimes for life and death, with no further appeal. Physical discipline
>>> was also employed on the Lewis and Clark expedition across the Continental
>>> United States on their journey to the Pacific Ocean, opening the West. The
>>> diaries from that journey describe what they thought were its salutary
>>> effects.The second class of adults to be treated in this physically abusive
>>> manner during our history was the slave population. Christians must never
>>> forget that the institution of slavery was accepted as normal, even in the
>>> New Testament. Paul directs a runaway slave named Onesimus to return to his
>>> master Philemon, not with the request for his freedom, but with the request
>>> that he be treated kindly. In the Epistle to the Colossians (3:22), slaves
>>> are ordered to "obey in everything thos
>>>  e who are your earthly masters" and masters are urged to "treat your
>>> slave justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in Heaven
>>> (4:1)." With no rights accruing to the slaves, who were defined as
>>> sub-human and therefore childlike, it followed that disobedience was to be
>>> punished in slaves in the same manner that it was deemed to be appropriate
>>> in children. It is worth noting that even the popes have historically been
>>> slaveholders.No one denies that slaves were lashed in the United States for
>>> everything from disobedience to running away. The master had the right to
>>> do to his property whatever he wished. When slavery ended following the
>>> Civil War, these tactics of intimidation continued to be employed against
>>> powerless blacks in the South by quasi-religious organizations like the Ku
>>> Klux Klan. It is not as large a step as people now think to move from the
>>> corporal punishment of a slave or former slave with the bare back absorbing
>>> the lash while the victim was tied to a tree
>>>  , to the ultimate act of corporal punishment called lynching, where the
>>> victim was hanged from the tree. Violence is always violence. The degree of
>>> violence is the only difference. What the inmate or prisoner and the slave
>>> had in common was that neither had power and no vestige of adulthood
>>> accrued to their status so they could be treated like children who had no
>>> rights. If it was the proper thing to do to powerless children, it must be
>>> appropriate for powerless adults. That was the reasoning. Violence is never
>>> contained. It always seeks new victims. Corporal punishment was and is
>>> legalized violence.Corporal punishment has been used on two other types of
>>> adults in our history: women and people in religious orders. To their story
>>> we will turn next week.~ John Shelby Spong
>>> Originally published June 23, 2004  |
>>>
>>>
>>> |
>>> Announcements
>>> ?
>>> 5th Annual Climate and Creation Stewardship Summit
>>>
>>> The 5th Annual Climate and Creation Stewardship Summit will be?Saturday,
>>> October 28?from?9:30 am ? 4:30 pm? in Hamden, CT.?
>>>
>>> The focus of this summit is on water, both on land and the oceans. It
>>> will consists of speakers, panels and workshops on different aspects of our
>>> current climate change crisis and other critical environmental issues ...
>>> ?Click here for more information/registration  |
>>>
>>>   |
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>>>
>>>   |
>>>
>>>  _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> End of OE Digest, Vol 67, Issue 10
>>> **********************************
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> David Flowers
>>
>> "Whatever the problem, community is the answer.  There is no power
>> greater than a community discovering what it cares about."  Margaret
>> Wheatley
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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