Symbols

The observance functions like a sign on your hands or a symbol on the middle of your forehead: God brought us out of Egypt with a powerful hand." Exodus 13:16 (The Message)

During the standoff in Harney County here in Oregon there have been two predominate flags; Old Glory and one other flag, it is yellow with a rattle snake and the words “Don’t Tread on Me.”  That yellow flag predates Old Glory and was first raised during the Revolutionary War. The rattle snake is indigenous to the eastern seaboard of the United States and symbolizes something uniquely American and common to all the colonies. This is where the known meaning of that flag and its symbols ends. No one knows who coined the inscription “Don’t Tread on Me.” No one is sure what its original purpose or intent was. There are no historical documents that speak to its meaning and usage.  If you search the internet you get a lot about the first time the phrase appears and the first time it was placed on a flag. You also get a lot of speculation about its meaning.

It is obvious to me why groups like the militant occupiers of the Wildlife Refuge use this flag. It comes from the Revolutionary War period and our nations struggle to break free of tyranny. It accompanied the first group of Marines into their first engagement with the British. And the phrase speaks to the idea that the federal government is ignoring the common man and exercising authority where they have none and that doing this will be to their peril. Now I could go into a Musing about this flag, the symbol on it, the phrase it is emblazoned with, etc but what has caught me is the power of symbol.

Why do symbols have such power? Why do people cling to particular symbols like the Confederate Flag, the cross of Christ, the skull of the Grateful Dead, etc? Quite simply, anyone clings to the symbolic world because it shields them from their existential fears and insecurities. Clay Routledge wrote about the psychological power of symbols in Psychology Today, “we invest heavily in the symbolic cultural institutions and identifications, in part, because they help insulate us from basic fears about our mortal predicament.”

University of Arizona psychologist Jeff Greenberg, who helped formalize Terror Management Theory in the ’80s, described the theory: The basic idea is that, from a scientific perspective, each of us humans is just an organism, an animal, that wants to continue to survive but ultimately is no more significant or enduring than any other living creature. But unlike other animals, we are burdened with the knowledge of our mortality. TMT maintains that we cope with this knowledge by viewing ourselves within the context of enduring symbolic systems like political, religious, regional, and national entities. This lets us feel like we’re special beings who exist in a world of meaning, significance, and permanence.

The point here is that symbols provide meaning and permanence especially to groups and individuals that feel themselves, their beliefs or their way of life threatened. And this brings us back around to the recent situation in Harney County and the white militants there. Why did they come? Why do they display the American flag and the “Don’t Tread on Me flag?” Because they perceive that their values, way of life, beliefs and very existence is threaten.  It is the same with the diehard defends of the right to bear arms; they fear a loss of meaning and permanence. Their identity is tied up with their gun just like the identity of the occupiers in Harney County is tied to ranching. In both cases a threat to that identity is a threat to them personally.

The fact is their ways of life are threaten. Gun ownership as it has been will fade away eventually and they know it. Ranching as it has been practiced is a dying endeavor. Mining, logging, fishing, etc are all going to change and change significantly in the future and are already changing and this change threatens those whose identities are tied to these ways of life. The American Christian is experiencing the same thing as the power and influence of our faith decreases, the fear of loss of meaning and permanence increases and we hold tighter and tighter to the symbols of the past that have provided us meaning.

Once again we find a reason for change being so hard. When change is needed or necessary it means symbols and their meanings either are eliminated or altered for the new reality. When the symbols we identify with are threatened or changed we feel our hold on meaning and our very significance is also threatened. Change brings fear and fear is a powerful emotion. Whenever change comes – as it does in everyone’s life – fear accompanies it. How well we address the fear will determine to a large extent how well we will move through the change. Never underestimate the power of a symbol, they provide us with connections that bring meaning, significance and permanence to our lives. They give us something concrete to hold on to when change comes.

Dear God, help me to let go of that which would hold me back from being all you want and need me to be. Help me let go of the symbols that represent what was and to embrace new symbols and new meaning for old symbols that will help me be what I need to be. Be with all those who fear a loss of meaning and significance in life. Help them find those in new and healthy ways. Amen.

WASP Male Syndrome

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. - Genesis 1:27 (NRSV)

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. - Galatians 3:28 (NRSV)

It seems that race, racism, sexism and male gun violence are all over the news. Police profiling, Black Lives Matter, women still making 2/3rds of what men make, the vast majority of those who use guns for violent means are male, etc. I could list many, many other issues and headlines and statistics and accounts but you know what’s out there and that the issues of racism and sexism and violence are ramped in this country. I know that the US is not alone in this but I can only speak firsthand about my nation and my experiences so I am focusing on the good old US of A.

I don’t remember when I first became aware of my privileged status in our society. But somewhere in my growth and development I became conscious of the fact that I was a White Anglo Saxon Protestant Male and I had power, privilege and opportunity that those we are not a WASP male do not have. Once I became aware I started noticing things:

• Sales people talked to me even when the woman I was with had made in clear she was the one deciding things.
• People got nervous when my black friend walked into the bar.
• People (mostly males) told me racist and sexist jokes and expected me to not only laugh but to enjoy them.
• I had to go through a massive amount of work to get the Social Security Administration to recognize my name change when I got married but Amy just filled out a short form and was done with it.

I could go on but you get my point. As a WASP male I was and am treated differently, and most often it is by assuming that I make the decisions, I control the money, I am safe, I enjoy being on top and seeing people of color and women as less than myself, and that I would not willing give up my position and status in our social systems.

With my awareness came a desire to understand what my friends of color and the women I know experienced and felt. I took feminist literature classes, sociology classes that focused on race and gender, liberation theology classes that shared the voice of people of color and women and their understanding and interpretation of the Bible and Christianity. I observed how they were treated and when I could I made a point of treating them with respect and dignity as a witness to how we should treat each other. I speak out when someone starts a racist or sexist joke and let them know I do not appreciate such things and why. But no matter what I read, studied, observed or did I don’t feel I have ever been able to understand what it means to be a person of color or a woman in our society.

So I have stopped trying to understand it. I still try to witness to a way of treating others that is freer of racism and sexism then is the standard of our society. One thing I have done until very recently is try to tell those close to me who experience racism and sexism (and heterosexism) that I know how they feel from my own experiences of exclusion, being judged without someone knowing me, etc. I have stopped thinking this and saying it. I have stopped because I have become conscious of the fact that my experiences are not similar to theirs because I am never, ever in a place where I am not a WASP heterosexual male. I have come to this because of a video that one of my sources for internet wonders shared with me. It is Darius Simpson & Scout Bostley - "Lost Voices" (CUPSI 2015) at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpPASWlnZIA

I encourage you to watch it either to maybe come to the realization I did or to have your own experience confirmed or to gain a sense of what others feel and experience or just to watch two young people express their experiences in a creative and powerful way.

Dear God, help me to be all that you created me to be. Help me to witness to the way you want us all to be. Help me to speak the truth, live the truth and work to make the truth that we all are one, equal and wonderfully made known to all. May we find a way to move beyond racism, sexism and all things that separate us. Amen.

Guns! Guns! Guns!

Then one of them struck the slave of the high priest…But Jesus said, "No more of this!"  Luke 22:50-51 (NRSV)

Well in case you’ve been out of touch or in a sensory deprivation tank or something let me tell you what has dominated our attention this week, guns. Those who regularly read my Musings already know how I feel about guns. I am not going to restate what I have said before concerning guns, the Second Amendment, etc. What I will Muse about is the purpose of guns in our society and how I think we should view guns.

Originally guns were a necessary part of life in the Americas. They were needed for defense. They are critical to survival. And they were the primary means of arming a militia. The average household on the fringes of civilization would have had guns. The average household in a town or even a city would have had guns. There were no standing armies. There wasn’t an armed police force. Folks needed to be ready to protect and defend themselves and their neighbors.

Today guns are still a part of life in the Americas. We have three primary groups of private citizens that that are armed: hunters, target shooters, and those feeling they need to defend themselves. These are not exclusive to one another as many folks with guns cross over the groups. We also have three groups that are professionally armed within our society: members of the military, law enforcement officers, and security personal. The main difference between the private citizen groups and the other groups is that those armed for their professions are trained, have very specific rules concerning the carrying, storage, exchange and discharge of their weapons, and are armed for the common good.

Now don’t get me wrong, many hunters and target shooters take gun safety seriously by taking classes and they operate within the bounds of restrictions and laws that govern guns and their usage.  But those laws, restrictions, etc are not very detailed and are easily circumvented and are limited in how much they limit gun ownership and usage.

Now I don’t claim to understand the whole need for gun ownership thing. My dad had a hunting rifle that I think he used maybe twice when I was growing up and which he gave away when my older brother became a teen (not sure if the two are related).  I would think that as a target shooter or a hunter you could keep your guns secured in a ‘Gun Bank” where you would go and withdraw them when you wanted to use them.  Or you would only own smart guns that could only be used by one person. Or if you kept the guns at home they would have massive security with trigger locks, gun safes, fire pins removed, etc. If you felt you needed a gun to protect and defend yourself then a smart gun would be your best option as no one could take it from you and use it against you.

I know that smart gun technology is available and that it is expensive. I also know that if we offered buy backs, incentives, rebates, tax credits, etc (like we do for home energy efficiency upgrades, etc) we could lower that cost. I also know that if people began to ask for it and were willing to buy guns with it or have a gun retro fitted that the cost would come down. I also know that if the military started requiring it for their weapons it would be cheaper and more available. There are some logistical matters that would need to be addressed but they could be worked out. I like the way gun safety regulations are being talked about as similar to seat belts, airbags, smoking warnings and restrictions, etc. I think if we see guns in this light we can still have them, still honor the Second Amendment and make guns less of a concern. I also know that no matter what we do there will still be guns out there and people with them and that gun violence would not go totally away.

I do not want to take guns away from people. I cannot see how as a nation we could deny the Second Amendment – we could repeal it but I don’t see that happening. So if guns are a part of our way of life we have to take seriously how they affect life and health and happiness and do what is reasonable for the health and well being of the citizens of this land. We need to study gun violence as a health concern in order to maybe address issues that lead to gun violence. We are not doing enough to make sure guns are a safe part of our lives.

Dear God, help us to see a way forward as a nation and as individuals that will lead us to a place of safety and well being with guns in our midst. Help our nation to find a way to say “No more of this.” Amen.