{"id":36221,"date":"2024-02-29T14:57:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T22:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=36221"},"modified":"2024-02-29T14:57:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T22:57:10","slug":"we-are-more-than-bodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/we-are-more-than-bodies\/","title":{"rendered":"We Are More Than Bodies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The person I\u2019m about to talk about I\u2019ve mentioned before, but this subject of identity politics calls for another mention. A little over ten years ago I sat at Skyline Chili, which is a chain restaurant in Ohio, and listened to one of the most fascinating stories I had ever heard. I had a notebook, my phone was recording, and a plate of chili spaghetti sat in front of me that I couldn\u2019t care less about at that moment. As I leaned forward listening to this 70ish-year-old gentleman share his story of dying and visiting the other side I was debating its validity. I had read his book, and seen him on Unsolved Mysteries, TBN, Oprah, and YouTube, but I wanted to sit with him in person and find out myself if he<\/em> believed his near-death experience happened or if he was just selling books.[i]<\/a><\/p>\n

There is so much to my friend\u2019s otherworldly story, but what stands out that I feel applies to Kenan Malik\u2019s book dealing with an extremely complex subject, Not So Black and White<\/em>, is his realization that he was not his body<\/em>. Throughout our readings, like The Identity Trap,<\/em> The Cancelling of the American Mind<\/em>,[ii]<\/a> and Identity<\/em>,[iii]<\/a> there seems to be a growing concern with the division being created when Western Americans overidentify with their \u201ccategories\u201d. Without oversimplifying this issue, I see this as a product of the Western world losing its theological and philosophical footing. Yascha Monk mentions this in The Identity Trap<\/em> when he says, \u201cA surprisingly wide and varied set of political and religious traditions give their adherents reasons to view with deep skepticism any worldview that puts group identities like race and ethnicity at its moral and epistemological center. Philosophical liberals should welcome these allies with open arms.\u201d[iv]<\/a><\/p>\n

Before Monk warns against revolving our understanding and worldviews around identity groups he quotes Scripture from Genesis 1:27 concerning \u201cin the image of God he created them\u201d, and New Testament teachings from Paul in Galatians 3:28 who says, \u201cThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.\u201d When our identity, whether we are conservative, liberal, or moderate, is grounded in a view of ourselves or others as primarily skin color, genitals, hormones, ethnicity, and social status we lose a common bond and forfeit the ground we could all be standing on together as human souls.<\/p>\n

I had never quite felt as strongly about this theological basis of universalism as much until I read Tom Holland\u2019s book, Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind<\/em>.[v]<\/a> Holland assumed, as an agnostic historian from Oxford and a product of the Enlightenment, that human rights and universal dignity were the result of reason formulated during the modern period, (I would be interested to see Holland and Malik have a conversation). However, he claims his assumptions were wrong as he investigated history. He reluctantly admits that the Western belief system that all humans have rights and inherent dignity ultimately derives from the Jewish tradition expressed in Genesis<\/em> that claims humanity was made in God\u2019s image.<\/p>\n

Holland claims this theological truth, regardless of whether one views the story as literal or ancient mythology, is the basis for human rights. Without that belief system, humanity has nothing to stand on when one group says to another, \u201cMove out of the way, we are stronger and better than you are.\u201d \u00a0He goes on to make a compelling historical case for what has happened when humanity, even the Christians who have promoted this belief, do not live from this theological basis. Division, suffering, murder, slavery, and exclusion are inevitably the result of losing this ideological foundation. He concludes that he, and many others who resist or dismiss the faith, are more \u201cChristian\u201d than they may realize.<\/p>\n

Kenan Malik, by quoting Franz Fanon, makes a case of what can happen when a person chooses to build from something immaterial over something \u201cmaterial\u201d like an epidermis when shaping personal identity. \u00a0Although Franz Fanon is a complex character and even contradictory, he makes some valuable points when he says, \u201cEvery time a man has said no to an attempt to subjugate his fellows, I have felt solidarity with his act. In no way should I derive my basic purpose from the past of the peoples of color.\u201d[vi]<\/a>I quote this, not to dismiss our heritage, race, or ethnicity, but acknowledge the common theme that emerges in our reading material that we need healthier theologies, practices, and values in the West that promote unity rather than division. This is certainly a \u201cwicked problem\u201d, but one that I think we can advance in our respective churches or organizations.[vii]<\/a> How?<\/p>\n

For my part in this \u201cwicked problem\u201d I hope to introduce more quality education, human stories, healthier theologies, critical thinking, and vertical learning within my ministry context. Some may say, the church is no place for some of that that, but I adamantly disagree. We are realizing that society both right and left, is encouraging us to quickly identify as black, brown, white, male, female, non-binary, gay, straight, etc. without acknowledging that there is something about us that is deeper than our physical categories.<\/p>\n

As Kenan discussed the new identity politics, which is not new, just a different form which encourages a hyper fixation on race, gender, sex, and sexuality, I couldn\u2019t help but think of not only the above near-death story, but multiple others I\u2019ve heard over the years who now hold a new view of human nature that transcends these limited categories. Back to the initial story.<\/p>\n

While my interviewee recalled his memories of fighting for his life in a French hospital, he remembers the moment he was standing in his hospital room, looking down at his body and thinking, \u201cThat looks like me dow\"\"<\/a>n there, but I\u2019m up here<\/em>.\u201d For those of us who are skeptical Christians, it may be helpful to remember one of Paul\u2019s own experiences of what he claims in 2 Corinthians 2:12, \u201cI know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven\u2014whether in the body or out of the body<\/strong> I do not know; God knows.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Paul claimed to have possibly left his body and experienced \u201cthe third heaven\u201d, then it leaves us to conclude that something about us could be immaterial and eternal. As Westerners who live in post-modern world, highly influenced by the Enlightenment, which Malik points out throughout his book, we might be tempted to disregard theological assumptions about humans having \u201ca soul\u201d as ancient superstition from Plato\u2019s day of dualism.[viii]<\/a> However, without this theological basis, humans are no more valuable or dignified than fungus. We would have to force meaning in ourselves. Aayan Hirsi Ali, a former atheist and Harvard professor who became Christian points this out in a recent interview.[ix]<\/a> If there is something deeper in us, like our faith tradition claims and near-death experiences hold, then we are continuing to overidentify ourselves, both conservative and liberal, with social, racial, sexual, and gender identities that are ultimately not who we are as souls. Although I believe our bodies are sacred and precious creations, we are more than that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>[i]<\/a> Malik, Kenan. Not so Black and White: A History of Race from White Supremacy to Identity Politics<\/em>. London: Hurst & Company, 2023.<\/p>\n

[ii]<\/a> Lukianoff, Greg, and Rikki Schlott. The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust, Destroys Institutions, and Threatens Us All–but There Is a Solution<\/em>, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2023),<\/p>\n

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

[iv]<\/a> Mounk, Yascha. The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time<\/em>. New York: Penguin Press, 2023, 280.<\/p>\n

[v]<\/a> Holland, Tom. Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind<\/em>. Paperback edition. London: ABACUS, 2020.<\/p>\n

[vi]<\/a> Malik, Not so Black and White<\/em>, 168.<\/p>\n

[vii]<\/a> Bentley, Joseph|Toth, Michael, Phd. Exploring Wicked Problems: What They Are And Why They Are Important<\/em>. Archway Publishing, 2020, 55.<\/p>\n

[viii]<\/a> Plato.\u00a0The Dialogues of Plato: Phaedrus<\/em>. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Vol. 7. 54 vols. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, 1952.<\/p>\n

[ix]<\/a> \u201cAyaan Hirsi Ali: From New Atheist to Christian Convert.\u201d YouTube, November 21, 2023. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3B6oLMrHQhs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The person I\u2019m about to talk about I\u2019ve mentioned before, but this subject of identity politics calls for another mention. A little over ten years ago I sat at Skyline Chili, which is a chain restaurant in Ohio, and listened to one of the most fascinating stories I had ever heard. I had a notebook, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":171,"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":[2310],"tags":[3082],"class_list":["post-36221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-malik-dlgp02","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36221","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\/171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36226,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36221\/revisions\/36226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}