I really enjoyed our time with Dr. Ruth Padilla DeBorst. During the conversation, I wrote down a couple of questions that I didn’t end up asking. They were too long, and I didn’t want to overstep and ask two long-winded questions that would potentially pull the conversation in a particular direction. I shared them with my breakout group, and I thought I’d put them on here as they do seem to represent the ways that my “ache” and “pressing question” have been refined by the conversation.
- It feels like in these first two weeks of the Trump administration, there has been an intentionally overwhelming and chaotic push toward priorities of USA power and wealth, mixed up and supported by the Christian Nationalist movement. Dr. Padilla DeBorst talked about some of the immediate affects of these actions around USAID, changing immigration patterns, and way that they represent a shift in USA global priorities which will undoubtedly affect people all over the world. It feels like many of us are struggling to figure out how to respond and how to organize. We are so cynical of everyone that it’s difficult to find leaders to coalesce around. Who should we be following, joining, and collaborating with? Are there names of people and organizations that are creating meaningful resistance in the immediateness of this moment? How can we learn to temper our cynicism and open ourselves more fully to collaboration?
- Longer term, in trying to join a movement toward a southern shift in ecclesial power, things are complicated by the racial and patriarchal systems that have been instilled in many of the structures in southern hemisphere Christian institutions, often by the the Northern/Western Christian groups that have been active in Southern Hemisphere missions work for many years. How do we in the global north untangle our own mixed priorities around justice, growing in self-awareness about our northern privilege and our own colonial formation? How can we enter the complicated work of listening more fully to the voices of the global south without abandoning the critiques that have become significant as we deconstruct patriarchal systems in our own context?
5 comments
Hi Chris, I am definitely looking for guidance on how to respond and who to listen to in the midst of the onslaught from these past few weeks. Thank you for this question.
I feel like there is a vacuum of real leadership in general right now. In terms of cynicism, I find it difficult to navigate the balance between a healthy dose of critical thinking/questioning and cynicism. I’ve been feeling for years that we are collectively in a crisis of truth… that we need to cultivate a real desire for truth… fall in love with truth again… whether it’s convenient or fits in with our clan or not. It’s as if in the US we’ve been functioning for a while under the moto “as long as you can sell it or get people to believe it, good on you! Doesn’t matter if it’s true.” And so it becomes normal to be wary, distrustful or even cynical. Thank you for these questions!
Appreciate this comment- totally on the same page.
Little by little? One day at a time? By actively seeking to do so even in small ways?
I don’t actually have real answers, but I have faith…most days…that if I’m listening well, God will reveal what role I have to play in these bigger narratives. May it be so, and may I not neglect that listening.
Chris, I appreciate you naming the cynicism as a factor in this struggle. I have felt myself having to battle so intentionally against being cynical in these past few years as it is not a good look for any follower of Christ. May God grant us the opportunity to connect and collaborate with those leading with integrity and truth!
Hi Chris I really appreciate both these questions and ask them, too. I love to imagine us dismantling the northern bias in missions so that we can listen and defer to others who know so much more about living the gospel in complex socio-economic situations. We need their perspective and wisdom.