How Faith Can Empower Our Fight Against Dehumanization
The Humanist Turn in My Spiritual Journey
(It’s been a while since I wrote on here. I started this series revisiting the themes of my book, The God Who Riots, and then it took me a lot longer than I thought it would to have the energy to write the next one. I’ve been working through a lot in my personal life, and I’m happy to say I’m writing again! So thank you for waiting patiently during that unexpected hiatus. My book isn’t required reading for these posts but if you’re interested in reading more you can order the book here or anywhere you order books!)
Today, I want to expand on the theme of the second chapter of my book, “An Alternative to Your Dehumanization.” That’s what my faith has always been for me: an alternative way to the way our world dehumanizes, marginalizes, and oppresses us. And there have always been radical streams throughout Christian history that have articulated this humanizing expression of faith, in contrast to the dehumanizing expressions of faith that we are all much more familiar with.
Our faith should inspire us to recognize injustice against God’s creation, and empower us to make change wherever we see that injustice. I dream of spiritual communities where we can gather and, through worship, prayer, and mutual support, remind each other of the inherent value God has given each of us. And through that recognition of our value we can be empowered to build a new world that we are actually worthy of.
While I was brainstorming ideas for the book with my friend, I told him about my desire to write about this framework that begins with acknowledging our inherent value, and about how that acknowledgment can empower us to resist oppressive institutions that treat us like we’re less valuable than we are. He said it reminded him of a kind of humanism. He meant it as a compliment, and I took it as one. But there was a time when I would have been more apprehensive.
I realized my spirituality has taken a significant humanist turn over the last few years, and what I mean by that is that my spirituality directs me toward other humans, and working toward human flourishing.
In the Christian environment I grew up in this humanist turn would have been condemned. There was a binary between the “God-centered” faith that they wanted us to strive for and the “human-centered” faith that we were warned against. Other religions, even other Christian denominations were condemned for being too focused on humans, instead of God. In that environment a preacher who boldly proclaimed that “it’s not about us, it’s about God!” would be met with cheers and praises.
In that worldview any message of self-love and self-trust is categorized as anti-God. But my love and trust in God has always led me to self-love and self-trust—even love and trust in others. God becoming flesh in the incarnation is an act of love and trust in humans. My desire for human flourishing emerges from my Christian faith, not in spite of it.
The Direction of Spiritual Growth
When I think of spiritual growth I think of the story in Acts 10 where Peter has a vision of a sheet of ritually unclean animals that he wasn’t allowed to eat because of religious restrictions, and God tells him to eat. Peter resists, essentially telling God he can’t eat because God told him he can’t. The irony is on purpose. God tells him “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” The next day Peter discovers the meaning of the vision when he gets the opportunity to preach to non-Jews for the first time. It wasn’t about food. God showed Peter that the people he thought were excluded were actually included!
In the Christian tradition spiritual growth often looks like a continuous revelation that those other people matter too! And also…them too! And yes, even them too! And so on.
Tragically, throughout history Christians have also used this idea of expansive inclusion to extend power over others, instead of love for others. Too often the revelation that others are part of God’s story has been taken as a command to change other people by making them just like us. But it’s actually an invitation to learn from others, collaborate with others, and change ourselves.
They matter too. They’re included too. They have something to teach you about God too!
Get Particular
In Jesus’s first sermon he refers to the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the hated, the excluded, and the defamed, and he calls them blessed. From a first century Jewish perspective Jesus uses that word, ‘blessed’ to say that God is on their side. Today we tend to use the word ‘blessed’ to refer to people who have more advantages. But Jesus uses it specifically for the disadvantaged. And for the advantaged—the rich, full, and laughing—Jesus says, “woe to you.”
Yes, Jesus loves everybody. Certainly. But he made it a priority to express that love for those that were specifically unloved by their society.
Getting particular about groups of people who need justice makes some people uncomfortable. I’m reminded of the “All Lives Matter” folks who use that phrase as an argument against those who proclaim “Black Lives Matter”. I’m also reminded of the so-called “Pro-Life” folks who use that phrase as an argument against people having the right to make their own decisions about their reproductive health. And then there’s those who condemn violence in response to Hamas but dismiss the decades of the Israeli government’s violence against Palestine.
Justice for the collective begins with justice for the particular.
If we want justice for all then we must confront the specific needs of those marginalized. This is another way of being in the world, following the way of humanization, away from the way of dehumanization. I would call it the Way of Jesus, but it transcends the Christian religion. The work of God is the work of liberation, and it goes by many names. But I affirm it wherever I see it.
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