{"id":33307,"date":"2023-10-09T20:20:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T03:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=33307"},"modified":"2023-10-11T10:07:27","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T17:07:27","slug":"family-systems-theory-identity-politics-and-the-apocalypse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/family-systems-theory-identity-politics-and-the-apocalypse\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Systems Theory, Identity Politics, and the Apocalypse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Murray Bowen\u2019s Family System Theory tells us that when a change is made in one part of a system a compensatory change in another part of the system will follow. [1]<\/a> The Family System Theory can be applied to non-family groups such as businesses, organizations, communities and large societies.[2]<\/a> This week we read, Francis Fukuyama\u2019s book, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment<\/em> in which he argues that the demand for recognition by particular groups of people is killing our democracy, fracturing the left into a series of identity groups and spawning the rise of a populist right that feels its own identity is under threat.[3]<\/a> While I am still processing this book, it has made me wonder if the uncomfortable place in which we find ourselves in our nation today is the natural chaos that ensues in a family system, or any system, when a challenge is made to the system\u2019s status quo.<\/p>\n

Fukuyama argues that while such movements as Black Lives Matter and MeToo are important, to heal our nation, we need to use identity as a way to come together and integrate rather than divide ourselves. He feels that to do so \u201cwill be the remedy for the populist politics of the present.\u201d[4]<\/a> While I appreciate his desire and even some of his suggestions about how to integrate our identities, I am not sure I believe this is the only path to healing our nation.<\/p>\n

Fukuyama calls identity politics the \u201cpolitics of resentment\u201d because those who identify with a sub-group more wholly than with the larger group, for example, identifying only with black women instead of women in general, are doing so because they have felt less-than, disrespected, oppressed, for so long they have become resentful. They are finally \u201cspeaking up\u201d by banding together as an identity group to take a stand for themselves. However, their taking a standing and voicing their resentment challenges the status quo. Their voiced resentment challenges those in power, those who have always dominated, the System, and therefore causes what Bowen refers to as a \u201ccompensatory change\u201d or what we see in those clinging to populist politics and nationalism. When the System is challenged, it leads to chaos until it can recalibrate to a new way of being a system. I think this is where we find ourselves now and I think it is an important place to be.<\/p>\n

Chaos and discomfort, even bad behavior, happen because people are having to re-think, re-calibrate, remove some of their long-held ways of thinking, living, dominating, being. This isn’t easy – thus the bad behavior we see – as resentment on the side of those being challenged grows, but it is necessary for change to happen.<\/p>\n

Women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, those whose voices and bodies have been oppressed for so very long *are* resentful and with good reason! They are standing up for themselves but to do so they must band together \u2013 for a louder voice, but also for their own physical and emotional safety. And to some, it may seem as though they are becoming megalothymic, but after centuries of being put in their place or placated with laws or policies that supposedly give them equal rights but in practice do not, it\u2019s really difficult to trust that isothymia will be enough.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Fukyama says that Socrates calls these kinds of people \u201cwarriors\u201d but I wonder if, instead, they might be prophets. Prophets imagine a better world than the one they in which they live and they call people to build such a world. Biblical prophets imagine a world in which God\u2019s Shalom reigns and they call all of us to build that kin-dom. I wonder if those who Fukuyama says are partitioning themselves off into political identity groups are modern day prophets calling us to a more inclusive world.<\/p>\n

Prophets usually get either run out of town or killed because they challenge the powers that be, the status quo. Those who have had \u201cthe power\u201d in our nation have traditionally be white straight men. Currently I am raising three white, straight (as far as I know) boys and am married to another one. I am not a white straight man hater. However, I have also been a woman for my entire life and have experienced being \u201cput in my place,\u201d more often than I would like to remember and often, that happened IN THE CHURCH.<\/p>\n

When I was first exploring ordained ministry as a calling and career, I mentioned this to my college pastor. He looked at me with shock in his eyes, \u201cBut you can\u2019t!\u201d he stammered. \u201cUm, why not?\u201d I sincerely wondered. \u201cBecause you are a woman!\u201d he replied. \u201cWhat?!\u201d I asked? \u201cI\u2019ve never heard that before!\u201d \u201cYeah,\u201d he spat. \u201cIt\u2019s right there, in the bible.\u201d \u00a0To which I inwardly replied, \u201cWell, then, watch me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resentment took root in me that day and has grown and flowered over the years as I continue to experience sexism, microaggressions (yes, that may be a buzz word but it\u2019s an accurate one), and even sexual harassment in the church. So, I get it. I get identity groups because I am part of the \u201cwoman identity group\u201d and I will stand up for women every-where and every-time.<\/p>\n

In a video she made, Nadia Bolz-Weber, welcomes us all to \u201cthe apocalypse.\u201d[6]<\/a> But not the kind of scary doom-filled apocalypse churches so often like to scare us with but the original kind of apocalypse that proclaims a \u201cbig hope filled idea: that dominant powers are not ultimate powers\u2026that empires fall, tyrants fade, systems die, God is still around.\u201d She says, \u201cIn Greek, the word apocalypse means to uncover, to peel away, to show what\u2019s underneath. That\u2019s what this country has been experiencing in recent years. All these movements such as MeToo and Black Lives Matter are simply exposing what was always there.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continues, \u201cIf those who came before looked to the bible to justify their dominance, then let us look to it to justify our dignity. It\u2019s in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

And she\u2019s right. It is in there. Jesus shows us that we ALL have inherent dignity. We are all valued, all welcome, all invited. (Here, some may argue that yes, we all have inherent dignity, all are welcome and invited but we are not all called to the same position. Fukuyama addresses this as well saying, \u201cSince humans are varied in their talents and capacities, we need to understand in what sense we are willing to recognize them as equal for political purposes.\u201d[7]<\/a> I\u2019m not one to say everyone gets a trophy, nor that everyone shares the same gifts or callings, but I don\u2019t believe, if we employ any kind of serious biblical criticism, we can use the bible to justify keeping anyone with appropriate gifts, \u201cin their place\u201d or, in my case, out of ordained ministry.)<\/p>\n

The family system (or the national system) is in chaos right now because those who have been voiceless and powerless are challenging the system with their claim for dignity, recognition, and appreciation for the fullness of their humanity. This is scary and difficult for those who must relinquish some of the power they\u2019ve held on to for so very long and their acting out is to be expected if you adhere to systems theory, but I don\u2019t think we can heal until the dignity of all, and I do mean all, is lifted up, recognized and appreciated.<\/p>\n

When I preside at Communion, I often use this invitation from the Iona community:<\/p>\n

We are here because Jesus has called us \u2013
\nstrangers and friends,
\nlocals and visitors,
\nbelievers and doubters,
\nthe certain and the curious.
\nIt is always a mixed company that Jesus gathers
\nand invites to his table where, in bread and wine,
\nhe meets us
\nand through him we, who are different,
\nare joined to each other.
\nSo come,
\nnot because you understand,
\nbut because you are understood.
\nCome,
\nnot because of how you feel,
\nbut because God has food for you.
\nCome, not because you deserve a place,
\nbut because Jesus invites you,
\njust as you are.<\/em><\/p>\n

I think that is what people want, what they need. They want to be invited, to be wanted, to know there is a place for them at the table.<\/p>\n

I wonder if all of us felt invited, welcomed, in all of our human-ness, if we wouldn\u2019t need identity politics anymore.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Linda Metcalf, Theories in Marriage and Family Therapy, a Practice Oriented Approach, (Springer Publishing, NY, 2011,) 48.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid, 42.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Francis Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, <\/em>accessed on Scribd, 183.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid, 200.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid, 10.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Nadia Bolz-Weber, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=olgaS6Pydc0<\/a>, accessed October 9, 2023.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Fukuyama, 37.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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