Upside Down

During a Thursday evening Mass, Pope Francis washed the feet of twelve young detainees at a juvenile facility in Rome. The Mass was a commemoration of the meal Jesus and his Disciples shared the night before the Crucifixion. The Washing of The Feet is a representation of the act that Jesus performed during that meal.

The Pope washed black feet, white feet, Muslim feet, Orthodox feet, male feet, and female feet. The fact that he washed the feet of two young women was a strong message in itself as the Roman Catholic Church has traditionally viewed this act to include only males because, presumably, Jesus' Disciples were all male. To break with that tradition sends a strong message about the inclusiveness of the Church.

Pope Francis told the detainees, "This is a symbol, it is a sign — washing your feet means I am at your service," Francis told the youngsters. "Help one another. This is what Jesus teaches us. This is what I do. And I do it with my heart. I do this with my heart because it is my duty, as a priest and bishop I must be at your service." ("Pope Francis Washes Feet of Young Detainees In Ritual" by Nicole Winfield, AP, USA Today, 29 March 2013: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/03/28/pope-frances-washes-feet/2028595/,  29 March 2013).

The act of washing feet is indeed an act of service, of spiritual humility. The feet are the basest of human extremities. In Jesus' day feet got dirty constantly as people wore sandals. The act of washing feet was largely a task performed by a servant. That was the message of Jesus to His Disciples
Love one another as I have loved you. In other words, put others before yourselves, be servants one to another.

This act of servanthood was no mere act of humility, however. It was nothing short of revolution. Jesus overturned commonly held beliefs about the structure of society. The Pharisees and Sadducees and Pilate all represented power, wealth and status. Even the Teacher was honored. They all were "first".

The act of washing the feet of the Disciples was the culmination of Jesus' teachings. Throughout his ministry he taught that love of God meant love of neighbor and that the neighbor included those traditionally frowned upon, the poor, the widowed, the prisoner, the sick. These are the people who would be FIRST in God's Kingdom. The last, he said, would be first and the first, last. Everything, Jesus implied, would be upside down in the Kingdom of God.

It is no accident that Jesus overturned the tables in the Temple. Sitting there were merchants and bankers, trading and profiting off the misery of the poor. Jesus called the Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, teaching the Prophets but ignoring their teachings and worse. Overturning the tables was another parable in itself, showing the spiritual truth of what would happen to the world in the Kingdom of God.

It is interesting and probably no accident that the overturning of the tables in the Temple and the washing of the Disciples feet happened right before the Crucifixion. For in the Crucifixion we see the universe upside down - the sacrifice of God for humanity. When we come to Good Friday we see the initiation of the Kingdom of God. Once again, everything is upside down.

The Pope got it right when he said that he was, first, a servant. If only the Church would get the rest of Jesus' teaching correct. The Pope, for all his declaration of servanthood still holds the trappings of earthly power. He is still the head of State and the Head of one of the wealthiest institutions in the world.

Jesus once told a rich young man who wanted to know how to save his soul that he must sell all he had and to follow him. The young man went away sorrowfully because he was quite wealthy. The truth remains:.wealth and earthly power are pretty much disqualifying characteristics for the Kingdom of God.

So is self-serving false piety. Those who are SURE they will inherit the Kingdom, probably won't. The lack of humility is probably a dead giveaway. Sanctimonious and exclusionary teachings about who God is for and against is another. Once again, Pope Francis got it partly correct - the true Church, the Kingdom of God, is inclusive. The fist shall be last and the last, first. The tables of power will all be overturned. The powerful will wash the feet of the servant. That is the Word of God and that is, my friends, revolution.

The Modern Historical Roots of the War on Women

 There has, of late, been a great deal of discussion about the so-called "war on women" There seems to be widespread agreement that it exists but what are its origins? It did not emerge ex nihilo. On the contrary, the modern roots of the war on women go back to the early 20th century.

The date of August 26, 1920  signaled the beginning of great changes for American women and thus for the country as a whole. The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment meant that women could vote for the first time. No one could perceive what the future would hold (1) but the power of the vote meant that women had a direct voice at the table, perhaps for the first time in history. 

In the 1940's, during World War II. many women in the United States went to work outside the home.  With so many men being enlisted and drafted for the war effort women were asked to step in and fill the void.  Indeed, they were crucial as war production had to be stepped up and maintained. Women were heralded as very important to the war effort. The most visible symbol was Rosie the Riveter, the iconic figure who graced ubiquitous posters. What wasn't clear then was what would happen to those jobs when the men came home ( 2).

As it turned out, women were expected to return to the home and go back to being dutiful wives and mothers. And so they did - to some extent- but only after an extensive propaganda campaign by the government.   The Baby Boom emerged from this phenomenon as men came home from overseas and women from the workplace. The reunited families made up for lost time.  Television shows as "Father Knows Best," "I Love Lucy" and "December Bride" to name just a few all depicted women as housewives, deferentially following the lead of the husband. The message was that this was as it should be. Women, however, were now aware of what it was like to have a sense of independence and it would be impossible to turn the clock back. Many women started taking jobs outside the home as soon as their children were in school for full days. Many remained working for their entire lives. (3)

In 1960, the first birth control pill went on the market. It had substantial funding by Margaret Sanger, who had opened the first birth control clinic in the United States in 1916 (4 ). The "Pill" changed almost everything about home life, human sexuality and women. For the first time, women could enter the workforce for prolonged periods and actually establish careers of their own without needing to take a long break to raise their children.. The Women's Movement followed right on the heels of the advent of birth control pills and the IUD. So did the Sexual Revolution. The birth control pill meant that sexuality was not restricted to procreation. Recreational sex was on the rise and women were free on yet another level (5).

Both the Women's Movement and the Sexual Revolution opened doors for women in the United States, allowing for the exploration of self. Women were free to think and act for themselves in ways not true ever before. Women went to work, went to college, had careers and could put off having children until a time in the future when they were both planned and desired. It wasn't until the late 1970's, however, that women decided that they no longer had to choose between motherhood and having a career (6). The mantra became,  "We can have it all." 

This led to the demand for full equality with men. The Equal Rights Amendment, originally written by Alice Paul in 1923 was reintroduced in Congress and passed both Houses in 1972. It failed, however, to be ratified by the required number of states in the requisite amount of time. This was thanks, in part, to the conservative organizing effort of Phyllis Schlafly (7).  Nevertheless, as it is impossible to kill an idea, the ERA lived on in spirit and in the continued struggle of women for full inclusion and equality.

In 1973, there was a blockbuster Supreme Court decision that moved that ideal forward. Roe v. Wade codified the right of women to control their own bodies and reproductive processes. Abortions were made legal and because they were now legal they were made safe, taken out of the back alleys where countless women had suffered and died. (8).  In conjunction with effective birth control, legalized abortion meant that women were able to decide when and how they became mothers.

All these monumental leaps forward for women also affected men. With women in the workforce men had to compete for jobs. With women pursuing higher education, men had to compete for places in colleges and universities. Women were increasingly away from home and therefore started seeking help for running the household from their husbands. In short, women had greater freedom and choices and men noticed.

The decade of the 1970's also saw the first discussion of what is now referred to as the "rape culture." Feminists began a consciousness raising discussion of rape. Up until then rape was rarely talked about. During this period, rape was shown to be far more prevalent than previously believed and the underlying causes like misogyny, sexism and the objectification of women were brought out into the open. "In rape culture, sexualized violence towards women is regarded as a continuum in a society that regards women's bodies as sexually available by default" (9). Rape culture  is thus "...a culture in which rape and sexual violence are common and in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media normalize, excuse, tolerate, or even condone rape" (10)

Behaviors that correlate with rape culture include: victim blaming ("she must be at fault because she wore..."), slut shaming, objectification of women and the trivialization of rape. Other behaviors that show up frequently include:  "...racism, homophobia, ageism, classism, religious intolerance and other forms of discrimination (11)

Feminists also point to the distribution and use of pornography as a way in which rape culture is expressed since pornography objectifies women and reduces their bodies to commodities (12). At bottom, rape culture devalues women and makes them objects and things to be used. In this environment women are not self-actualized, intelligent, independent human beings. Rape culture seeks to put women down, to oppress them. "Sociologists posit that rape culture links non consensual sex to the cultural fabric of a society, where patriarchal world views, laced with misogyny and gender inequality, are passed from generation to generation, leading to widespread social and institutional acceptance of rape" (13).  Rape culture is one factor in the war on women.

The 1980's marked the germination of a backlash against the feminist movement. The Right-To Life movement merged with the Moral Majority and with the opposition to the ERA by conservatives. The Right To Life movement was a direct reaction to Roe v. Wade, supported by conservative, evangelical Christians, the Roman Catholic Church and conservative Republicans. (14) The so-called Moral Majority was a movement started by Rev. Jerry Falwell aimed at overturning abortion rights, the ERA and was the modern origin of the Tea Party mentality. It was the first time in modern history that a part of the "Christian" tradition attempted to deliberately overstep the Constitutional boundary between Church and State. In fact, the intersection between Right to Life, conservative Republicans and the Moral Majority were the paternalistic and misogynistic parents of the Tea Party.

The intersection of RTL, Moral Majority and Republican conservatism were joined by the rape culture to create a quadrilateral of oppression and objectification. Right To Life would give the fetus priority over the woman which, in essence, revokes her autonomy and rights to self-determination. The Moral Majority (which is neither moral or a majority) would obliterate the line between Church and State and impose fundamentalist values on the entire country. Republicans would do anything within their power to diminish the power of women who are a strong base for the Democratic Party. Each group had their own motivations but, in the end, all were seeking to diminish the autonomy, freedom and rights of women.

Currently, state level attacks on women's freedom, autonomy, access to reproductive health care, birth control and abortion are all being orchestrated by conservative elements like the Tea Party and those who fund it as well as the ultra right wing GOP. (15) They are all products of the past and seem to want to take us all back to before the time when women had rights. Apparently they think that regression is the answer, which it is not. The answer is acceptance not denial. The answer is not repression and oppression. The answer is to accept reality. They need to get with the movement of history towards freedom for all.

All of us, however, need to understand that this contemporary "war on women" was born out of historical events and settings. They didn't arise out of nowhere. It is important for us all to understand the "how" and "why" which can allow us to move beyond and overcome. Without this understanding, however, we are, as the saying goes, doomed to repeat history.

ENDNOTES

 



1.   ("August 26, 1920,"  About. com,  http://bit.ly/16UO7yF  24 March 2013 .)

2.     ( "I Am Woman",

       http://iamwoman-mxtodis123.blogspot.com/2010/05/women-and-workforce-1940-1950.html 24 March 2013.)

3.   ( Ibid. )

4.   (Our Bodies Ourselves,  http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/companion.asp?id=18&compid=53 ,   24 March 2013.

 

5.   (“ The Pill”, American Experience, PBS3 http://to.pbs.org/wU3386 ,24 March 2013 )

6.    ("Has The Sexual Revolution Been Good For Women? Yes", WSJ, March 30, 2012: http://on.wsj.com/GLovU6 ,24 March 2013)

7.  ("Equal Rights Amendment", Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment , 24 March 2013 ).

8.  (“Leeches, Lye and Spanish Fly”, by Kate Manning, New York Times, 21 January 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/opinion/leeches-lye-and-spanish-fly.html, 24 March 2013.)

9.  (Chris O'Sullivan, "Fraternities and the Rape Culture", in Transforming a Rape Culture, edited by Emilie Buchwald, Pamela R. Fletcher & Martha Roth in "Rape Culture", Wikipedia,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_culture.  24 March 2013 )

10.   (Wikipedia, "Rape Culture", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_culture, 24 March 2013 )

11.  "(Aosved, Allison C.; Long, Patricia J. (28 November 2006). "Co-occurrence of Rape Myth Acceptance, Sexism, Racism, Homophobia, Ageism, Classism, and Religious Intolerance". Sex Roles (7–8): 481–492. and  Suarez, E.; Gadalla, T. M. (11 January 2010). "Stop Blaming the Victim: A Meta-Analysis on Rape Myths". Journal of Interpersonal Violence: 2010–2035.c From “Rape Culture”, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_culture, 24 March 2013.)

12. (Ibid).

13. ( "Rape Culture", Wikipedia,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_culture  24 March 2013.

 

14.  (“Rev. Falwell’s Moral Majority: How It Changed Politics and Religion,” by

Patricia Zapor, Catholic Online, 20 May 2007, http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=24153, 28 March 2013.)

 

 

15.  (“The Ongoing GOP War on Women” by Alisha Mims, Ring of Fire, 13 February 2013, http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2013/02/13/the-ongoing-gop-war-on-women/, 28 March 2013)

NBC and the Rape Culture

This morning, The Today Show ran an interview with convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky. The film maker, John Ziegler (a conservative) said that his "focus is on Paterno". He wanted the former head coach at Penn State to "have his day in court." (USA Today, 3/25/2013). I can only say that since Joe Paterno is deceased the 'day in court' angle is neither here nor there but the interview with Sandusky is immensely relevant for the very fact that it occurred at all and that NBC aired it.

I will not discuss the content of the interview with Jerry Sandusky. What I will say is that Mr. Sandusky had HIS day in court and was found guilty on 45 counts of child sexual abuse (Ibid). What is the point of dredging this up again when Sandusky is currently serving at least 30 years in prison?

The possibility is that he is appealing his conviction and the extra attention received in the course of justifying his behavior would serve to influence the court of public opinion. If so, that is a vast misjudgment. To bring up the past puts public light on the behavior for which he was convicted. Forty-Five counts is way past overwhelming and he would have done better to remain silent rather than bring it all up again and remind us all just how vile and disgusting and criminal his behavior was.

What this interview DOES do, however, is illustrate that sexual abuse and violence are a horrible part of our culture and that there are those who try to justify the behavior and blame the victims.

In Steubenville, Ohio, the community was deeply divided by a rape trial which should not have been so controversial. The young men were found guilty of rape but face extremely light sentences to be served in the juvenile system. There is no reason that the community should mourn these sentences except that the two young men were looked up to as football players on the high school team. Football in Steubenville is as big a deal as anywhere else in the United States. In the view of the Steubenville community, to cast a dark light on two star players is to cast the entire town that way. This is not strictly true, of course.                                                       

Steubenville is only guilty in the sense that the entire community refuses to believe, and covers up, the truth. Denial is not a crime though conspiracy is. Allegedly, there was some indication that the coach had some knowledge of the rape and failed to report what he knew. Teachers and school personnel have a legal (and moral) duty to report sexual violence and abuse. Failure to do so is a crime. That should be investigated.

What the Sandusky and Steubenville cases illustrate is the extent to which society will go to cover up and excuse rapists and pedophiles. It is not just in the community around high school football or even college football but in the culture in general. It is just more noticeable when it happens among star athletes or their coaches.

Ask any woman who makes the courageous decision to press charges against her rapist - it is tremendously difficult to get many people, let alone an entire jury, to believe her. Even her family and friends will doubt her account if the accused is a "model citizen" and "pillar of the community". The victim is all too often blamed and stigmatized.This is true to some extent, even with children victims.

 Women and children who have been victims of sexual abuse and violence are told by society that their experiences are not to be believed. Even if their accusations are true they are often viewed as far less important than the suffering the accused is going through, even though their situation was one of their own making.

This culture in the United States and many other countries needs to change. Victims cannot continue to be blamed and punished for crimes against them. Women and children, while seen as 'weaker' are traditionally held to be somehow of less value than adult males. Women are told they are guilty because of their clothes or because they are beautiful. In many countries they have to wear burqas and children are told it is better for them to be seen and not heard. Women are often physically punished for crimes against them. This needs to cease being acceptable. Rape or child sexual abuse are not acceptable at any time. It is time to stop letting the Jerry Sandusky's and star athlete rapists of the world off the proverbial hook. They must be held accountable and the victims must cease being blamed.

There ought never be a case when the convicted abuser is given free air time to try to justify their behavior. NBC was wrong to air that interview with Sandusky and they OUGHT to face a backlash from viewers. By putting that interview on, they gave the impression that Sandusky's experience was somehow to be pitied or sympathized with, just like the CNN anchors who sympathized, on air, with the two Steubenville young men found guilty for raping a teenaged girl. This kind of tacit public approval for criminal behavior must stop. NBC was wrong and, I, for one, will never watch the Today Show  again.

Public To Private: The Iceberg Before Us

Michigan recently passed the Education Achievement Authority Act which will let the State take over 50 school districts and privatize them. This is the education equivalent of the Emergency Financial Manager law which allows the State to take over any local municipality that the Governor deems to be in financial distress. 

 The EFM is empowered to do pretty much anything he or she wishes, including stripping the power of elected officials, cancelling union contracts and selling property. For example, "Pontiac had 1,000 employees when the emergency hit the city four years ago. Now, the city has just 50. The Oakland County Sheriff's Office took over police patrols and Waterford now contracts firefighting to Pontiac." (Rod Meloni WDIV March 8, 2013)  

 In 2011,  Pontiac EFM Michael Stampfler dissolved the Pontiac Planning Commission and replaced it with hand-picked, unelected  people. He also "...made a contract for water treatment services with United Water Services permanent, outsourcing the water treatment to them and laying off city water treatment officials."(Eclectablog, June 9, 2011 http://www.eclectablog.com/2011/06/breaking-michigan-efm-outsources-water.html ). What was so noteworthy was that United Water Services was indicted in December, 2010 for violating the Clean Water Act. They were "...charged with manipulating daily wastewater sampling methods by turning up disinfectant treatment levels shortly before sampling, then turning them down shortly after sampling " (Ibid).

 If this is an example of privatization, we might want to reconsider the Emergency Financial Manager Act. Oh wait. On November 7th, 2012 the citizens in the State of Michigan voted to REPEAL the EFM law. But within a few weeks, the MI State Legislature passed ANOTHER such law but this time with a small budgetary appropriation. The State Constitution says that any law with an appropriation attached cannot be put up for a referendum. In essence, they made the new EFM law voter proof. 

 If we think that this is a direct attack on democracy in Michigan, consider this: over 80%of the communities under an EFM have 50% minority population or more.  (Maddow, 2013). And now there is an Emergency Financial Manager in the City of Detroit, the state's largest city and the one with the largest minority population in Michigan. According to Bloomberg, "When emergency manager Kevyn Orr arrives in near-bankrupt Detroit, almost half of Michigan’s black population will live under the rule of state overseers with little say in the governments nearest them (Mark Niquette & Chris Christoff - Mar 15, 2013).   Is this an accident?  No.

We have been watching the attempt by the Republican party and their masters (Koch Brothers, ALEC etc.) to suppress the vote in areas where there are high percentages of students and minorities. What is the connection? It is that both the EFM law and the voter suppression moves are attacks on populations most likely to vote for Democrats. If the GOP can stifle democracy in these areas, Republicans are more likely to be elected and privatization (for the benefit of large corporations) can take place with no effective opposition. On tap to be privatized: schools (private companies stand to make billions), city infrastructure like water, police and fire departments, trash collection, etc. All for the benefit of corporations and all at the expense of citizens. Unionized positions will be eliminated and low paying positions will replace them. 

Voter suppression and privatization and EFM laws are just the tip of the iceberg and democracy is heading for that iceberg all steam ahead. This potential shipwreck is made possible by the low voter turnout in 2010 and the election of more Republicans to state office. With increased majorities in the MI House and Senate AND control of the Governorship, the state GOP was enabled to pass these draconian measures and many others, setting the present course. There is only one way to reverse and avoid the iceberg: elect Democrats in 2014.


 



Suicide at School

We lost another child to guns today. It has been reported that an 8th grade student at Davidson Middle School in Southgate, Michigan committed suicide. According to officials, it was a self-inflicted gun shot to the head. He left a note (WDIV and WXYZ).

May he rest in peace and my condolences go out to the family. This was a tragedy in so many ways and leaves us with so many questions. How is it that this young person had such easy access to a loaded gun? Did he buy it on the street? Was it a parents weapon? If so, why was it loaded and not locked up? Or, if it was locked up, why was the key within the reach of this distraught young person? Where were the parents?  The gun being available was a crucial piece to this awful puzzle but where were the parents when the child was calling for help? My guess is that he had been depressed and desperate for awhile. Parents are not mind readers but almost every suicidal person signals their distress in any of a myriad of ways. It is, however, sometimes very difficult to read these signs. Perhaps the parents thought he was being a "moody teenager."  It is maddening that he had ready access to a loaded gun but also that he DIDN'T have access to help. Why, oh why are guns so ubiquitous while mental health resources are few and far between?

  I sincerely hope that this is not another case where the child had been bullied to the point where he couldn't take it anymore.  Bullying is so common but also devastating. It can scar a life permanently and can even lead to suicide as we have seen all too often. And suicide reaches out and grabs the survivors as well. For the classmates, there may well be guilt, that they survived, or even that they somehow caused the death of a schoolmate. I can only imagine the guilt that will fall upon their young shoulders. I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that help will be available to them now. They will need it. So will his family. According to NIMH, family history of suicide raises the risk for another suicide ( www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/suicide-in-the-us ). According to Danish researchers:

"... people who had a mother, father, or sibling die from suicide were two and a half times more likely to commit suicide themselves compared with those without a similar family history. And people who had a family history of psychiatric illness that required hospital admission had a 50% higher risk of suicide, but only among those who didn't already have a history of mental illness themselves." (WebMD, October, 2002)

I am not sure of the connection between friends or schoolmates and suicide but it would not surprise me to learn that there is an increased risk for them as well.

So, what exactly happened to cause this young soul to seek an end to his apparent suffering? Was it bullying? Whatever it was, it was obviously too much for him. It is too bad that it was so easy for him to get hold of a loaded gun. Without the gun there may have been a way out for him though he couldn't see it at the time. The gun prettywell put an end to possibilities.  Yes, he may have found another way to end his life but a gun shot to the head is pretty much final.  No time for second thoughts. The combination of access to guns and the LACK of access to mental health services can be and was, deadly. When will we ever learn?

Progressively Christian

Pastor Rob Bell

 This past Sunday something amazing happened: an evangelical Christian came out in support of marriage equality - for everyone. Rob Bell is founder of a megachurch in Michigan and is a television writer and author. In 2011, Time magazine named him as one of the "top 100 most influential people". He self-identifies as evangelical and has been called the "heir to Billy Graham" (sorry Franklin). According to Jack Jenkins, guest blogger for Think Progress ( http://bit.ly/116MDgA ), Rob Bell was speaking at Grace Cathedral in San Fransisco when he was asked a question regarding his personal beliefs about marriage equality:

BELL: I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs — I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.

Pastor Rob Bell is proof that it is possible to be an evangelical Christian AND a social progressive, though preaching LOVE of God and neighbor shouldn't be controversial as it is the heart of God's Word to us. John Wesley had a "born again" experience but he didn't leave it at that. Neither did he preach Scripture alone. What he did do was interpret Scripture through the lens of experience, reason and tradition. Tradition isn't paramount and neither is reason or experience. Together, with Scripture as the guide we live our lives as Christians. No one interprets Scripture purely. We all approach the Bible with our own biases and the only way to keep those biases from distorting our approach to the Bible is to study it quite self-consciously applying reason, experience and tradition. Without that self-conscious awareness we are always in danger of making the Bible an idol in our own image. For me, my experience is that I found the love of Jesus because of a church music director who happened to be gay. Thankfully, his life as a Christian told me far more about Jesus than the bigots who drummed him out of the church. 

Christian bigots keep more people away from Jesus than their own personal sin ever did. The sad part is that these same people talk about evangelism and "bringing people to Christ" not recognizing that their judgmental behavior speaks more loudly than their words ever will. Fortunately, or maybe with the help of the Holy Spirit (or whatever you want to call the universal force for good) there is emerging an alternative to fundamentalist evangelicals.

There is a movement afoot in Christendom that embraces progressive social conscience  AND belief in Jesus. Groups like Sojourner's, The Christian Left and The God Article's "Be the Love" project are evidence that progressive voices are increasingly speaking and rising up to say that the right wing fundamentalists do not speak for the entire Church, or even most of it. The shrill voices of the right may be drowned out by tolerance. It is a great sign of hope when an evangelical stands up and stands apart from the radical right wing, at least on the issue of marriage equality. Perhaps Love will win the day after all.

The Culture of Rape

The Nation today published an article online entitled, "The Verdict: Steubenville Shows the Bond Between Jock Culture and Rape Culture," by Dave Zirin.  Much of the response to the article was debate as to whether the term, "rape culture" is appropriate.  I believe it is. One of the definitions of "culture" is: "... the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group: the youth culture; the drug culture etc." (Dictionary.com) There is an environment where rape, if not actually encouraged, is certainly not discouraged. It IS intentionally overlooked. Athletics promotes that kind of setting in the sense that athletes, at any level, are so highly valued they get a pass on behavior which would be discouraged or seen as criminal when perpetrated by almost anyone else.

 Another category for which this is true is clergy. It is so because they are viewed as authority figures and many people look up to them. In general, it is assumed that clergy are virtuous and therefore incapable of pedophilia or rape, etc. One only has to look at the problems in the Roman Catholic Church to see the fallacy. 


 It is easy to assume clergy are not vulnerable to foibles and sins for two reasons: First, historically, clergy have been seen as moral examples. In the not too distant past, clergy actually tried to live up to that expectation. Secondly, clergy have been and still are, seen to be authority figures. Trust is placed in them because they are in positions of power AND presumed to be moral examples.

 It is shocking, indeed a real travesty, when that sort of position of power is abused whether by clergy or anyone else.To elevate any group of people, athletes, movie stars, entertainers, etc is a huge mistake because they are all human beings and cannot or will not live up to expectations. To fail to realize that fact is to set up the conditions in which abuse and rape can flourish; abusers and rapists will take advantage of any opening. 

To allow an environment where authority or power or idol worship is predominant is actually setting up a culture. The second definition of "culture" is for the verb form; "to cultivate." In biology culture means "to grow (microorganisms, tissues, etc.) in or on a controlled or defined medium" (Dictionary.com).  There are, clearly, environments in which abuse and rape are cultivated in a controlled or defined medium. In that sense, the term, "rape culture" is very apt. 

As we have seen with the Steubenville case, the culture of abuse and rape is real and abuse and or rape happens far too frequently. Just ask the former altar boys who were sexually abused by priests, or girls/women who are overpowered or drugged by  athletes or the young victims of Jerry Sandusky. Ask them how real that culture is.

 I know how easily that kind of abuse of power can occur as I was raped while in seminary by an older student in his last year. I wrongly assumed that he was being pastoral when he offered to show me scripture to help me with a dilemma I was facing. He showed me scripture alright, then raped me, taking full advantage of both my naivete and trust. When telling a professor of  Pastoral Counseling about  the rape, I was told that it was my responsibility. Then the professor broke confidentiality and told the Dean. I was called in and told to "keep quiet or I would lose [my] career."  The atmosphere in this Dallas, TX seminary was a prime setting for rape. The student rapist used his position of presumed authority as a way of controlling me. It was both psychological control and physically overpowering. It was ideal for him because no one would believe that anyone in the seminary community would ever do such a thing. And very few did. Then the hierarchy was ready and willing to cover up the rape and they let him graduate, no punishment at all. The seminary was definitely a "rape culture".

The problem in all these cases is that the general public or surrounding community refuses to believe the accuser and the accuser is often, if not always, blamed. "She must have asked for it. She dressed like a whore". The fact is that NO ONE deserves to be abused or attacked - EVER. The atmosphere or culture where that kind of thinking is prevalent needs to be changed.

Rape Culture, USA

A great deal of attention has been paid, as of late, to the so-called "rape culture" in India. Many women have been raped and killed with accusers being labeled and shamed. Many rape victims commit suicide rather than live with the perceived shame.

I hate to say that the situation is not all that much better in the United States. Two stories ("Sex Assault Rarely Punished In Military, Victims Say"; R. Norman Moody, Florida Today and the Steubenville rape case) recount the atrocities that occur because our culture has refused to admit there is a problem with star athletes and military personnel (and others). Too often men are given a free pass for sexual assault because they are seen to be heroes or stars. Women who have been assaulted are presumed to be liars and degraded or harassed if they have the courage to report the crime. They are regarded as the perpetrators, not the men who raped them..

In the Steubenville, Ohio case, two male high school athletes were found guilty of sexual assault ONLY because the hacktivist  group Anonymous found texts and pictures and video and exposed the crime. Though it is apparent that many people in the Steubenville community knew of the attack, there is a good chance that no one would have pressed the issue if it wasn't for Anonymous. Even then, the community is deeply divided . I wonder if the victim will continue to be victimized by the community? My bet would be, yes, she will be hounded and derided and blamed. It is very wrong but it happens

In the case of women in the military who have been sexually assaulted, it has, historically, been extremely difficult for them to report and then to be taken seriously. In fact, many, if not most, have been harassed and persecuted. Many women have not reported the assault for this very reason.

It is this entitlement atmosphere that permits rape to occur. The two convicted young men in Steubenville undoubtedly thought they were safe because of their status as football players. Military personnel likewise think if they make life as difficult as possible for the assaulted women they will not report the rape and, historically, they have been correct. Only now is this travesty getting attention and action in the military and from Congress.  The question is, will attention translate into action and will assault victims ever get the justice they deserve? Thankfully, the assault victim in the Steubenville case seems to have prevailed in the justice system. It shouldn't have taken Anonymous to bring the assault to light so that justice COULD  be served.

When will women, worldwide, be safe? When will women and girls stop being trafficked worldwide and when will the rape culture be dismantled?

 UPDATE : Apparently the answer is: not now.  When reporting on the verdict in the Steubenville trial CNN couldn't restrain their sympathy with the convicted rapists: 

[CNN Anchor] "I cannot imagine having just watched this on the feed coming in. How emotional that must have been sitting in the courtroom." 

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: "I’ve never experienced anything like it, Candy. It was incredibly emotional — incredibly difficult even for an outsider like me to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believe their life fell apart..." (Quoted from:  PoliticsUSA, Jason Easley)

Jason Easley (PoliticsUSA) continued, "CNN was sure to mention the impact of the verdict on the two football players, but they didn’t mention that the victim had her life ruined too. As the victim of a violent sexual attack, she will potentially carry trauma and injuries with her the rest of her life...

I wish I could say that this was a CNN only problem, but the blame the victim culture being perpetuated by the media and the Republican Party has created an epidemic. It would have been appropriate for CNN to mention that this was a sad and troubling case all the way around, but the network’s sympathy for convicted rapists while never mentioning the victim was inappropriate and disgusting."        http://www.politicususa.com/cnn-reports-steubenville-verdict-disgusting-pro-rapist-bias.html  
 
CNN is not unique, unfortunately. Our culture too often sides with the rapist and blames the victim. "She was just asking for it." Wrong. No one ever asks to be raped. Our culture needs to change and now.

Cause and Effect

"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." -Gandhi

 If Gandhi is correct then the Koch Brothers, the Tea Party and the GOP have achieved: debasement, degradation, derision, disgrace and dishonor, all the opposites of greatness.  They have actually SOUGHT austerity in this country and applauded when sequestration took effect. 

 "In an email, Koch brothers’ front group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), sent congratulations to Republicans and their supporters around the country for helping push sequester cuts AFP says are “an important step forward for economic growth.” The email continued, “Americans for Prosperity thanks Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans for standing up to President Obama and making sure the $85 billion in much-needed sequester spending cuts took effect,” and it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Koch brothers and Republicans own the sequester and are giddy at the prospect of a recession and killing millions of jobs." (Rmuse, The Koch Brothers Take Credit for Imposing Economic Hardship on Millions of Americans, in Politicususa, March 4, 2013) 

The Koch brothers and their ilk are trying their best to bring about the same decimation of the economy via austerity as in Europe. The misery, the hardship on the people, especially the poor, is intentional. The more misery for the 99% the greater the wealth for the 1%. As Rmuse describes,

 "Republicans won the austerity battle, and Americans will now know what it feels like to live in “socialist Europe” that imposed austerity, massive unemployment, negative growth, double and triple-dip recessions, and no hope for recovery anytime soon."

What these modern day "robber barons" do not realize (or  care about)  is the spiritual price they pay and will continue to pay  for their arrogance, greed and disregard for the welfare of the weakest in our land. 

 "Shame on you! you who make unjust laws and publish burdensome decrees, depriving the poor of justice, robbing the weakest of my people of their rights, despoiling the widow and plundering the orphan. What will you do when called to account..." (Isaiah 10: 1-3b NEB)

What WILL they do when called into account, and they will be one of these days.  It is inevitable. It is a spiritual truth and it is a law of physics: "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." The equal and opposite reaction in this case is yet unknown, though history tends to point to rebellion or revolution.  Regardless, it has to happen, it cannot be averted. Call it what you will; God's judgement or a law of physics, the actions of the 1% will catch up with them.

The Tea Party, the Republicans and the Koch Brothers have all made their austerity bed and now they must lie in it.

A Call To Action

This week we have seen at least two appalling displays by the Radical Right. The GOP in the House and Senate have blocked solutions to the looming sequester, all because they want to protect their wealthy masters. Then, Antonin Scalia, upon hearing arguments about whether the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ought to be applied in an Alabama county, said that renewing the Act was "A perpetuation of racial entitlement."  It was such a blatant display of ignorance and racism that gasps could be heard in the courtroom.

Clearly, Justices Scalia and Thomas need to be booted from the Supreme Court but there is really no way to accomplish that. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court is the only unchecked branch of government. That really ought to be changed with a constitutional amendment but it will probably never happen.

The radical right wing court and the radical right G.O.P. make me less than hopeful for the future of this country. They do not care about actually serving THE PEOPLE (except the very few richest people and corporations).  

There comes a time when the people of the country need to step up and demand change. We have a long tradition of doing just that starting with the American Revolution, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Suffragettes, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and the protests against the Vietnam War. We are a people who stand up to injustice. Now is the time to do so again. The injustices we face are from the tyranny of the right. Now they attack all of the rights we fought for throughout our history.

In addition to the attacks on the Voting Rights Act, itself,  the radical right, in the guise of ALEC (The American Legislative Exchange Council,)  have crafted legislation to make voting harder, if not impossible for the people of color, the elderly and students - all of whom traditionally vote Democratic.  

They would also have us under the thumb of mega corporations just as the colonists were under the thumb of the East India Trade Company: 

"...the British trading company that faced ruin which was the reason parliament to pass the tea act, removing most taxes and bypassing colonial merchants, giving the British owned company an unfair advantage since they could sell their tea much cheaper than the colonial merchants, causing protests and the Boston tea party."  (Quizlet.com) 

If that sounds familiar that's because some things keep rearing their ugly heads. Just as the British Parliament gave The East India Trade Company monopolies to keep it from going under, so we have the US Government giving huge bailouts to our biggest banks. 

Then there are the attacks on women, particularly our right to govern our own bodies and our access to health care.  State after state (with the encouragement of ALEC) have attempted to pass or actually passed laws which make getting a safe and legal abortion almost impossible.  The most notorious of these being those which require a women seeking an abortion to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound, which essentially amounts to state sponsored rape with a foreign object (see Think Progress: http://bit.ly/UHD9tZ).   And on and on it goes.

If we sit back and continue to allow these injustices now, it will soon get worse. Already they have started attacks on trade unions because unions give employees a collective voice. For the radical right it is all about money and power and unions give their members power in the workplace. They also mean higher wages and better benefits: 

• Unions raise wages of unionized workers by roughly 20% and raise compensation, including both wages and benefits, by about 28%.
• Unions reduce wage inequality because they raise wages more for low- and middle-wage workers than for higher-wage workers, more for blue-collar than for white-collar workers, and more for workers who do not have a college degree.
• Strong unions set a pay standard that nonunion employers follow. For example, a high school graduate whose workplace is not unionized but whose industry is 25% unionized is paid 5% more than similar workers in less unionized industries.
• The impact of unions on total nonunion wages is almost as large as the impact on total union wages.
• The most sweeping advantage for unionized workers is in fringe benefits. Unionized workers are more likely than their nonunionized counterparts to receive paid leave, are approximately 18% to 28% more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, and are 23% to 54% more likely to be in employer-provided pension plans.
• Unionized workers receive more generous health benefits than nonunionized workers. They also pay 18% lower health care deductibles and a smaller share of the costs for family coverage. In retirement, unionized workers are 24% more likely to be covered by health insurance paid for by their employer.
• Unionized workers receive better pension plans. Not only are they more likely to have a guaranteed benefit in retirement, their employers contribute 28% more toward pensions.
• Unionized workers receive 26% more vacation time and 14% more total paid leave (vacations and holidays).  (Economic Policy Institute: http://bit.ly/pW3UdF)

For obvious reasons, many employers would rather not have a unionized workplace. ALEC helps them in their union preventing and union busting ways.  

What we, the people, need to understand is that all these struggles are one. When we fight for justice for one we fight for all. And fight we must, for women, for children, for the poor, the elderly, minorities and the unions. When we fight for them we fight for ourselves and for the country. Now is the time to act.