(My apologies for the funky formatting. You're watching me learn how to run this thing.)
I once had a nightmare in which the government had run out of money because 90 percent of the population was on Social Security disability. The Republicans proposed to solve this problem by removing all these people to Death Valley and setting them free to see if they could survive. Sure, most of them would die, but at least active murder hadn't been done. They were pro-life, after all. The Democrats, by contrast, proposed to euthanize the most severely disabled, progressing down through the layers of severity of disability until population was sufficiently reduced to balance the budget. They were all about death with dignity, and individual choice, and so forth and so on, as usual.
Was that the worst part of the nightmare? No, the worst part was that all the disabled people who would be killed off by BOTH plans were spending all their time screaming at each other about how their party was right and the other party was wrong.
2016 and the looming abomination of a Trump v. Clinton race is beginning to look, sound, and feel a lot like that nightmare. In this election we all of us truly are in a world of hurt and that is why we all need to
Sit down. Shut up. And Pray.
Not that many months ago, I was partly responsible for monitoring a certain Facebook page. Thankful I wasn't there to referee, I was even more thankful when my services were no longer required. That Facebook feed was like a Trump campaign event, a good place to see just how many unreasonable, irrational, and all around hateful comments can be made in a place where Trump fans encounter practitioners of identity politics. Everyday after breaking the horror-screen trance of staring incredulously at those comments, I would wonder which side is the most unreasonable? Which the most irrational? Which the most hateful? Which the most obviously and totally out of touch with reality? Honestly, it was like a Circle of Hell. Everyday I had to look at that Facebook feed I could feel my heart racing with fear and rage, and my thoughts would repeat the refrain,
"All of Y'all need to Sit Down. Shut Up. And Pray."
I'm not the only one -- and of those I'm not the smartest or most serious -- of the people who believe the U.S. is in growing danger of collapsing in civil war. If you think that would be fun, if you have Me-Big-He-Man fantasies about running through the woods as a guerilla, I invite you to do some research on actual civil wars. Or maybe you want a violent revolution. Again, I invite you to do some research on actual revolution. I get you on your frustration. I was the kind of person the pundits once diagnosed with "Bush Derangement Disorder." He was truly a horrible president, but I was obsessed with his horribleness. (But truly! He was horrible!) But deranged or not, even I knew enough history to know that I wouldn't wish a civil war or a revolution on my worst enemy. That's why I worked on a campaign to impeach Bush, not to overthrow him.
So if you're itching for a war of revolution of any kind from any side, I cordially invite you to
Sit Down. Shut Up. And Pray.
And all these problems are just on the political front. For working people of all races and conditions, crisis after crisis keeps on unfolding. Many of us don't understand what's happening. Why do things keep getting worse? Why are jobs harder to get all the time? Why do we always run out of money before we run out of month? How many more years will Mom have to work three jobs? Why did Daddy leave us? When will Uncle Jack get out of prison? Why did he get that sentence for what he did anyhow? How come the choice of churches seems to be restricted to the incredibly bland or the incredibly hateful? Why is it that no matter what we do so many of us don't fit in anywhere?
And by us, I mean ordinary white working class Christians in America. I don't mean people in designated oppressed groups. I mean the people who supposedly have it made. I mean "privileged white people."
And yet, Mom really is working three jobs and Uncle Jack really did get a 30-year sentence for marijuana and Daddy really is gone, for reasons he will likely never learn how to say out loud, not that the social justice warriors care, because he is by definition a straight white male and, therefore, the embodiment of all evil. Ask any black activist about what that kind of thing -- the men being considered monstrous freaks by definition -- does to a people and then wonder some more about what's happening here. It worked evilly well to destroy black families and communities and now it's working to destroy us.
For the children and the parents, life spins around in a distracting whirl of multiple jobs and multiple trips to get to those jobs. The children are raised by daycare, and the TV, and their smartphones. The adults numb the pain with TV, internet, smartphones, and other substances.
Death rates for middle-aged working class whites are increasing, a lot of it apparently from too many of us merely drinking ourselves to death or otherwise overdosing or otherwise committing suicide. Kind of like my sister did. And the mere mentioning of these facts is in certain quarters considered an act of racism. And if not racism, then some other evil, or some thing I used to think was evil, but apparently I'm the evil one, which is why I so often need to
Sit Down. Shut Up. And Pray.
When I say we all need to sit down, shut up, and pray, I'm not being as mystical as you think. We will NEVER solve these problems so long as we are distracted by the TV, the internet and the smartphone. We will NEVER solve these problems so long as we are distracted by an eternal debate over who exactly was victimized the most. If you are feeling overwhelmed by life, then there's probably a reason. You'll never be able to work your way out of the mess you're in unless and until you have the cool, the quiet, and the time to think necessary to solve any problem.
Try to do any mentally challenging task -- balance your checkbook, work a crossword puzzle, learn two new verbs in a foreign language -- while the TV is going, the washer is running, and your children are playing inside. Try it the second time with the TV and all phones and all other household appliances turned off while your children are playing in a safe space outside.
Which time did you do the better job? Responsible adults used to know that what I just pointed out is true. This post has taken forever to write because it's just so awkward to write an explanation of the screamingly obvious, but that's the state we're in. We're in the sad state in which someone needs to explain thousands of things which once were obvious.
If you want to be victorious over the ruling class, sitting down, shutting up, and praying is the first step. For many of us, that first step will be incredibly hard. Maybe your life is truly crazy, three jobs, three kids, and no help kind of crazy. But if you're reading this, then you had the time to read this. Likely you read other stuff on the internet too. Take some of your reading time and use it to pray.
Maybe you think that surely, if this is warfare, no matter how nonviolent, then the first step should be to shut up and think. Thinking through a problem actually needs to come later. The first step needs to be to shut up and listen. And the first person to listen to is God. (The second person to listen to is likely one or several of those who live with you.) If you're not praying daily, I would suggest you begin with very brief prayers. Turn off the TV half an hour earlier than usual. Get out of bed five minutes earlier than usual. Go hide in the bathroom for five minutes in the middle of the day. Ask Him to bless you in your messy sinful state, and all your family, and your town, and your county, your state, region, and country, and finally, this poor old planet, all the Creator's suffering creation in all our mess and sin. And then try to just listen. Repeat your favorite name for Him softly to yourself and otherwise ask for His mercy and His presence. Just take five minutes. Five minutes of silence is plenty to start. Any more than that can be really freaky if you're used to constant noise and distraction. I'm not asking you to do anything I haven't done myself.
Sit Down. Shut Up. And Pray.
If anyone much reads this, someone is going to object, "what is this pie in the sky stuff?" or "well, that WWJD mess just doesn't work, you know" or "are you kidding me? Prayer?! Seriously?!"
If you feel that way, with the all the charity I can muster, let me say as gently as possible that perhaps you'd prefer to read another blog. It's not like there aren't millions to choose from. I am here to share reflections with other Christians. I am not an evangelist, and I'm not here to convert you. That's someone else's task.
For the rest of us who understand that we're all in 17 kinds of extremely dire trouble, let's begin at the beginning and
Sit Down. Shut Up. And Pray.
Without it, does this verse make any sense at all?
"I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love." That's the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians, 3:16-17, so...
Sit Down! Shut Up! And Pray!
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
No Church for Working Class Whites
Lately I've thought a lot about how very little the Episcopal Church (TEC) has to offer families like mine. Promiscuity and adultery among us straight people have destroyed many hopes and dreams in my family, but the Episcopal Church's focus when it comes to sexual morality is homosexuals and their rights 100 percent of the time.
The destruction of the working class economy also doesn't much register with TEC. This morning I spent an hour or so trying to imagine any Episcopal priest I've known since I left Atlanta actually preaching a sermon about, say, how a Christian should cope with the kinds of situations working class white people might encounter with their bosses, how St. Paul's advice to the Christian slaves of the Roman Empire might could be applied to the wage slaves of the American empire, how the words of the Gospel of Jesus might be prayed over by we of the wage class.
And I could not do it. I simply could not imagine any of these priests managing it. I could imagine two Episcopal priests who served on the Southside of Atlanta when I lived there preaching such sermons because I'd actually heard them do it. One of them was very "conservative," and the other very "liberal," but both of them loved Jesus and it showed, AND they actually preached about the situations we of the wage class find ourselves in (although they also preached against the sins of the middle and upper classes and THAT, friends, is what caused them to be ejected from the Atlanta metropolitan area of TEC).
Part of what's frustrating about the catchphrase "Stuff White People Like" or SWPL is that the white working class doesn't much like that stuff either. Or maybe we like that kind of stuff, but we can't afford it quite like other white people can. We are the white people who, in addition to having to suffer all the crap the boss class throws our way, have to also endure being lumped in with the boss class by the all social justice warriors who shriek about how horrible we are for being, well, white. Well, yeah, we're white, ain't going to change even if the day ever comes when we all enjoy "transracialism." ;)
But today, the spiritual, cultural, and economic needs of people like me, my parents, my siblings, my stepchildren ... we don't quite register with the local parishes of TEC. Trouble is, I'm only picking on TEC because they're what I know best, but it's not that any denomination really seems any better. My favorite perhaps is the Orthodox Church as described by Fa. Stephen Freeman at Glory to God for All Things , but wise and dear as I find Fa. Stephen, I don't see him preaching these sermons either. As for the more "conservative" churches, some of them will say they are a working class church. But among them I have always noted all kinds of typically conservative problems, such as their uncritical support for the lies that led to the Iraq War and their continued failure to repent of that support. Although the suffering the Iraqis suffered from that war was horrific and continues to this day, the suffering the American working class has suffered from the war deaths and disabilities of our veteran children is considerable. And no one in power in any of the churches seems very concerned about any of it.
Not the wars. Not the economy. Not the environment. Not the destruction of the family. None of the churches see the world through the lens working class white people do.
This morning it occurred to me that what I was missing was a church that thought more along the lines of my old Yarnell Perkins Helpful Household Hints column in the Hellbender Press. The Hellbender has been out of business for years now. Rikki Hall died two years ago this spring. I don't know where any of the other editors and writers are. Frankly, we were never that close. I turned in my column and that was kind of the extent of our socializing. That is, it was all online. I got the impression it would've helped my writing career if I were just willing to go out drinking more, but there again ... I am a married woman and I'm old. I'm devoted to my husband. Even if I were young, running around drinking in order to argue politics with the editors is not the kind of prudent behavior I want to model or encourage for working class white people.
And that's a feminist issue, or it would be if the interests of the white working class mattered to feminists. There's a name for the gulf between the interests of conventional feminism and those of women of color, "womanism," invented by women of color to take into account the differences between the interests of upper and middle class white feminists and those of women of color. If anyone has invented a name for an effort to address the gulf between the interests of white feminists bosses and the white working class women they oppress, please clue me in.
Anyway, the editors did not like the full and deliciously wordy name I originally planned for my Hellbender column, which was Yarnell Perkins Helpful Household Hints and Guide to Nonviolent Class Warfare. It occurred to me this morning that I might not be able to establish a congregation, or be ordained a deacon, or found a newspaper, or form a revolutionary party, but I can start a blog. And in that blog I can talk about these issues from my viewpoint as an aging white woman dangling precariously between the middle and working classes as she loves a great many working class people she happens to be kin to. And in that blog I can be as Christian and as churchy as I want, to a degree that wouldn't have been appropriate in a secular journal like the Hellbender Press.
So this is my Hellbender column resurrected and christened with the name it always ought to have had anyway. I hope to post at least once a week. If anyone actually reads this, thanks and God bless.
The destruction of the working class economy also doesn't much register with TEC. This morning I spent an hour or so trying to imagine any Episcopal priest I've known since I left Atlanta actually preaching a sermon about, say, how a Christian should cope with the kinds of situations working class white people might encounter with their bosses, how St. Paul's advice to the Christian slaves of the Roman Empire might could be applied to the wage slaves of the American empire, how the words of the Gospel of Jesus might be prayed over by we of the wage class.
And I could not do it. I simply could not imagine any of these priests managing it. I could imagine two Episcopal priests who served on the Southside of Atlanta when I lived there preaching such sermons because I'd actually heard them do it. One of them was very "conservative," and the other very "liberal," but both of them loved Jesus and it showed, AND they actually preached about the situations we of the wage class find ourselves in (although they also preached against the sins of the middle and upper classes and THAT, friends, is what caused them to be ejected from the Atlanta metropolitan area of TEC).
Part of what's frustrating about the catchphrase "Stuff White People Like" or SWPL is that the white working class doesn't much like that stuff either. Or maybe we like that kind of stuff, but we can't afford it quite like other white people can. We are the white people who, in addition to having to suffer all the crap the boss class throws our way, have to also endure being lumped in with the boss class by the all social justice warriors who shriek about how horrible we are for being, well, white. Well, yeah, we're white, ain't going to change even if the day ever comes when we all enjoy "transracialism." ;)
But today, the spiritual, cultural, and economic needs of people like me, my parents, my siblings, my stepchildren ... we don't quite register with the local parishes of TEC. Trouble is, I'm only picking on TEC because they're what I know best, but it's not that any denomination really seems any better. My favorite perhaps is the Orthodox Church as described by Fa. Stephen Freeman at Glory to God for All Things , but wise and dear as I find Fa. Stephen, I don't see him preaching these sermons either. As for the more "conservative" churches, some of them will say they are a working class church. But among them I have always noted all kinds of typically conservative problems, such as their uncritical support for the lies that led to the Iraq War and their continued failure to repent of that support. Although the suffering the Iraqis suffered from that war was horrific and continues to this day, the suffering the American working class has suffered from the war deaths and disabilities of our veteran children is considerable. And no one in power in any of the churches seems very concerned about any of it.
Not the wars. Not the economy. Not the environment. Not the destruction of the family. None of the churches see the world through the lens working class white people do.
This morning it occurred to me that what I was missing was a church that thought more along the lines of my old Yarnell Perkins Helpful Household Hints column in the Hellbender Press. The Hellbender has been out of business for years now. Rikki Hall died two years ago this spring. I don't know where any of the other editors and writers are. Frankly, we were never that close. I turned in my column and that was kind of the extent of our socializing. That is, it was all online. I got the impression it would've helped my writing career if I were just willing to go out drinking more, but there again ... I am a married woman and I'm old. I'm devoted to my husband. Even if I were young, running around drinking in order to argue politics with the editors is not the kind of prudent behavior I want to model or encourage for working class white people.
And that's a feminist issue, or it would be if the interests of the white working class mattered to feminists. There's a name for the gulf between the interests of conventional feminism and those of women of color, "womanism," invented by women of color to take into account the differences between the interests of upper and middle class white feminists and those of women of color. If anyone has invented a name for an effort to address the gulf between the interests of white feminists bosses and the white working class women they oppress, please clue me in.
Anyway, the editors did not like the full and deliciously wordy name I originally planned for my Hellbender column, which was Yarnell Perkins Helpful Household Hints and Guide to Nonviolent Class Warfare. It occurred to me this morning that I might not be able to establish a congregation, or be ordained a deacon, or found a newspaper, or form a revolutionary party, but I can start a blog. And in that blog I can talk about these issues from my viewpoint as an aging white woman dangling precariously between the middle and working classes as she loves a great many working class people she happens to be kin to. And in that blog I can be as Christian and as churchy as I want, to a degree that wouldn't have been appropriate in a secular journal like the Hellbender Press.
So this is my Hellbender column resurrected and christened with the name it always ought to have had anyway. I hope to post at least once a week. If anyone actually reads this, thanks and God bless.
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