{"id":5892,"date":"2015-10-07T21:50:52","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T04:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=5892"},"modified":"2015-10-08T14:01:30","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T21:01:30","slug":"who-am-i-excluding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/who-am-i-excluding\/","title":{"rendered":"Who am I excluding?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading Valentine\u2019s, Social Geographies<\/em> reminds me of Exclusion and Embrace<\/em> by Miroslav Volf.\u00a0 Although Valentine\u2019s book is about geography and Volf\u2019s is about theology, both deal with the concept of social relations and space.\u00a0 Volf talks about how we humans build walls in our hearts between one another for various reasons and Valentine studies and describes how these walls get built in physical space.\u00a0 Through describing the body, homes, communities, institutions, cities, rural spaces, and nations, she not only names specifically what these dividers are, but she discusses their ramifications on both individuals and groups.\u00a0 Volf argues that we Christians leave a lot of people out of our lives and that we should make room for the \u201cother\u201d as symbolized in the action of a hug.\u00a0 Valentine\u2019s study of various geographies in society proves social-scientifically Volf\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n

The first question I have is, who are Christians excluding now?\u00a0 The way many people in America \u201cdo\u201d church, can leave many people feeling excluded from church life.\u00a0 \u00a0 Because every space is invested with meaning, Valentine explains that exclusion comes at various levels and occurs both accidentally and willfully.\u00a0 Valentine says that even the language of citizenship only implies<\/i> inclusion, but in reality is very exclusionary.\u00a0 Pastors often talk about church membership the same way nations talk about citizenship.\u00a0 Having members implies inclusion, but I wonder how exclusionary church membership really is?\u00a0 I recently spoke with a family that visited The Hub and they told me their previous church experience was too clique-ish.\u00a0 They were experiencing the exclusionary forces of church membership.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must face the sad fact that at eleven o\u2019clock on Sunday morning\u2026we stand in the most segregated hour of America\u201d(Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King, March 31,1968).\u00a0 Valentine explains why this statement is still true fifty years later.\u00a0 African-American bodies have been subordinated in the United States.\u00a0 Black skinned bodies have,\u201cbeen understood to be pre-social, to be driven by biology, in opposition to the civilized and rational white body.\u00a0 This has lead to many white church folk, in reflecting societal norms, to view African-Americans as uncontrollable and as a threat to whites (Valentine 18).\u00a0 Consequently we have many white church bodies and separate African-American church bodies.<\/p>\n

Women have also been historically excluded from various ministries of the church.\u00a0 Many churches are literally acting out the fact that women\u2019s bodies are expected to take less space than men\u2019s (Valentine 44).\u00a0 Since gender has social meaning, I wonder what it means that Roman Catholic priests are not allowed to be married to a woman.\u00a0 In many denominations women are still not allowed, even in this 21st Century, to be pastors, elders, or board members.\u00a0 I find it fascinating that in these churches that still exclude women in almost every level of leadership, allow women to teach children\u2019s Sunday School.\u00a0 I think this proves Valentine\u2019s argument that women are expected to take up less space.\u00a0 For so many churches, taking up less space means being relegated to teaching the children only or preparing snacks and treats for fellowship time, or cleaning the church building.<\/p>\n

The concept of \u201cthirdspace\u201d can be of help for churches.\u00a0 Space can be a \u201cresource for those who are marginalized or excluded\u201d (Valentine 5).\u00a0 This is the biblical concept of the kingdom of the heavens as described by Jesus.\u00a0 Thirdspaces can provide events and places to move past historical social divisions and attempt to think about all \u201cthat is gained from a discourse of belonging. (Valentine 7).\u00a0 Ken Wilson, a former member of my tribe, The Association of Vineyard Churches, USA, in order to minister to and with the LGBTQ community, created a new type of Christian church called, \u201cThird Way.\u201d\u00a0 I have a hunch he\u2019s read Valentine (http:\/\/www.readthespirit.com\/third-way-newsletter<\/a>)!<\/p>\n

Besides the issue of exclusion, this book has got me wondering and imagining three new things.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Like Valentine\u2019s discussion of cyberspace communities, I am now wrestling with the question of what exactly is a real community.\u00a0 And, what is a real community NOT?\u00a0 She says that part of being in real community is that we have to worry about the other because they will always be there.\u00a0 Volf and I agree.\u00a0 However, attendance and participation in The Hub (the church I planted and pastor) is very transient. The fact is, there is a large percentage of Christians that just leave their local church (dare I say community) whenever they feel like it.<\/li>\n
  2. Just like Valentine\u2019s assertion that cities are in competition for inward investments and therefore are becoming commodities to be packaged, advertised, marketed, and consumed, so too are some churches.\u00a0 Today I received a well packaged, marketed postcard inviting me to consume an upbeat worship set, a variety of self-help groups, and a great sermon.\u00a0 How can local churches stop reflecting the culture of commodification?<\/li>\n
  3. I wonder about the effects of globalization on the local church.\u00a0 If Valentine is correct in stating that globalization and information technologies are \u201cproblematizing the meaning of citizenship\u201d (Valentine 330), than no doubt the same is true for church membership.\u00a0 How can the local church respond to this?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Reading Valentine\u2019s, Social Geographies reminds me of Exclusion and Embrace by Miroslav Volf.\u00a0 Although Valentine\u2019s book is about geography and Volf\u2019s is about theology, both deal with the concept of social relations and space.\u00a0 Volf talks about how we humans build walls in our hearts between one another for various reasons and Valentine studies and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"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":[1],"tags":[675,638],"class_list":["post-5892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dmlgp6","tag-valentine","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5892","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\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5892"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5894,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5892\/revisions\/5894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}