{"id":34608,"date":"2023-12-10T16:54:41","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T00:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=34608"},"modified":"2023-12-10T16:54:41","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T00:54:41","slug":"the-outside-edge-of-the-inside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-outside-edge-of-the-inside\/","title":{"rendered":"The Outside Edge of the Inside"},"content":{"rendered":"

Identity politics is a charged phrase these days. For some, it elicits a prideful response, for others a snicker or sneer. Regardless of whether one is a fan of identity politics, we all must acknowledge that we want to be valued for who we are. It is this desire for recognition and respect that Francis Fukuyama places at the heart of his book Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment.\u00a0 <\/em>Described by one reviewer as a \u201cmacro-historian,\u201d[1]<\/a> Fukuyama looks at qualitative patterns emerging across Western society and names identity politics as a force that must be addressed one way or another.<\/p>\n

Identity Politics Defined and Dissected<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Fukuyama traces the roots of modern-day identity politics back to the Protestant Reformation when Martin Luther became one of the first Western thinkers to describe the importance of one’s \u201cinner self\u201d and prioritize it over the external being.[2]<\/a> As power structures began to change and modernism took hold, more and more people began to identify with groups who had previously been marginalized and sought recognition and restitution for that marginalization. In one sense, this was a positive development as it resulted in important social advances such as the civil rights movement and equal rights for women. However, Fukuyama states \u201cthat desire for equal recognition can easily slide over into a demand for recognition of the group\u2019s superiority.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

For the remainder of this essay, I will further dissect the concept of identity politics with its negative and positive aspects through a reflection of my journey as a female leader in a Protestant denomination that is publicly, proudly, and staunchly complementarian.<\/p>\n

Constantly Proving One\u2019s Worth is Exhausting & Frustrating <\/strong><\/h1>\n

It wasn\u2019t until I was out of college in 1998 that I recall questioning why there were no female pastors in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). My entire life, I was told that I could be anything I wanted to be, and I believed it. It didn\u2019t bother me much when I first started digging into the difference between egalitarianism and complementarianism because I had already declared that \u201cI would never work for the church.\u201d \u00a0It wasn\u2019t that I thought there was anything wrong with it, but so many of my relatives (including my parents) were church workers and I was determined to do something completely different. Fast forward to 2003 and I found myself leaving the corporate world to work at a church\u2014God has a sense of humor like that.\u00a0 As I found my way around the church world, I quickly learned there would be limitations to what I could do and what roles I could hold.<\/p>\n

I began feeling what Fukuyama described as \u201cthat desire for equal recognition\u201d[4]<\/a> \u00a0and sought out people and perspectives that aligned with my feeling of resentment. I had unknowling entered the world of identity politics, and it was exhausting.<\/p>\n

Why Would You Stay?<\/strong><\/h1>\n

That\u2019s the very question I found myself asking author Heather Choate Davis 5 years ago as I sat across from her at a patio table. She is part of the same denomination and is a theologian unable to give a message at an LCMS church because of her gender. She told me something I\u2019ll never forget. She said, \u201cyou always have the choice to leave, but if you leave the inside you\u2019ll never have the same influence to evoke change. I\u2019ve decided it\u2019s better to be on the very outside edge of the inside and see what happens in my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the crux of the tension in identity politics. Yes, it\u2019s good to identify with others experiencing the same marginalization. Yes, it\u2019s good to seek equality and reform. However, when that goal turns into us vs them<\/em> or we seek the easy way out, we can cause more walls to be built and more division to separate. We see this happening with Christian nationalism and nationalism in general. To avoid the pitfalls and dangers of nationalism, \u201cFukuyama proposes that democratic nations adopt a national identity that is creedal and based on traditions and common national purpose.\u201d[5]<\/a> He proposes that coming together in commonality is better than further division.<\/p>\n

My personal experience as a woman leader in a complementarian denomination is quite different from a democracy, but perhaps the same principles apply. For the time being, you\u2019ll find me quietly (or not so quietly) sitting as far on the outside edge of the inside as possible. Hopefully using what I\u2019ve learned to find common ground where possible until things change or God clearly calls me somewhere new.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> \u201cIdentity According to Francis Fukuyama: An Obstacle to the End of History,\u201d Politics in Central Europe (Pilsen)<\/em> 16, no. 1 (2020): 328, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2478\/pce-2020-0015.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Francis Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment<\/em>, First Edition (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018), 26.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Fukuyama, 22.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Fukuyama, 22.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Grace Rademacher, \u201cDignity and the Psychology of Nationalism: A Review of Francis Fukuyama\u2019s Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment,\u201d Georgetown Journal of International Affairs<\/em> 20, no. 1 (2019): 160\u201362, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1353\/gia.2019.0021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Identity politics is a charged phrase these days. For some, it elicits a prideful response, for others a snicker or sneer. Regardless of whether one is a fan of identity politics, we all must acknowledge that we want to be valued for who we are. It is this desire for recognition and respect that Francis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2309],"tags":[2782],"class_list":["post-34608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership","tag-fukuyama-identity","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34609,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34608\/revisions\/34609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}