Faraway, So Micro

My friend Tim Neufeld, from my @U2 fan site and podcast days, posted his thoughts about an article published in the MB Herald detailing the mess that the Canadian Conference of of Mennonite Brethren Churches and their US equivalent, USMB, made of a recent book they published, and then quickly pulled and removed 3 pages, and have now republished - all without talking to the author, editor, or anyone involved in the publishing of the book.

Setting that mess aside, my point in mentioning all of that is part of what Tim wrote hit way too close to home here in my own church that I was compelled to document it below:

…but one value I have always prioritized is to honor voices of diversity, not just in theory but in practice. Many leaders are fearful these days. That fear shapes a leadership culture of defensiveness rather than openness. Voices of disagreement are threatening when denominations and churches face peril on multiple levels (declining attendance, closure of facilities, damage control after scandals, reduction of budgets and staff, challenges to old patriarchal assumptions, etc.).

Three critical qualities are needed in both local and national leadership as we hurl through the chaos and upheaval of these changing times. (1) Absolutely essential is the capacity for self-reflection and the ability to see oneself as others would see them. We are dead in the water without the wind of self-awareness. (2) Similarly, the need for empathy and the desire to empathically hear and feel those that are voiceless, marginalized, and victimized on the edges, without leaders projecting their own pain onto those that have been hurt by leaders’ actions (red flag warning: “It hurts me to do this, but…”). (3) Finally, rather than belittling and controlling, leaders should focus on empowering members into new thoughts and experiences without feeling threatened and without seeing leadership’s primary role as theological gatekeeper.

When leadership acts out of fear, and without empathy, the community they are trying to lead are pushed to anger or apathy - neither of which bring peace or love back to the community.

Matt Haughey wrote a Twitter thread today referencing his experience back in 2018 of visiting the Whitney Museum in New Orleans:

I’d read Just Mercy, I’ve read the People’s History of the United States, I’ve read a bunch of Ta-Nehisi Coates, so I naively thought I had some idea of how bad slavery was. After visiting and hearing the stories from my guide and seeing the displays, I really had no clue. Think of the worst thing you can possibly imagine that one human being might do to another and know that what really took place was a hundred times worse."

I don’t know if or when I’ll ever be in New Orleans, but I hope I can someday take my family to visit this museum. Much like visiting the museums and memorials to the holocaust in Germany, which I was lucky enough to do with my family back in 2000, it’s important to know where and what we’ve come from - and in North America, the generational destruction that is slavery is a huge part of the foundation of what we’re all standing on today.

The darkness and brutality of slavery was evident from start to finish on the tour. In the “Gold Coast” around New Orleans, slaves lived for only 7-10 years after arriving on plantations in the region, no matter what their starting ages were. Slave owners insured their property (including their slaves) and would get up to 75% of their investment back when slaves died, so plantation owners had every incentive to work everyone to death, making many times over what they paid thanks to their free labor and when their slaves did die, owners were rewarded by recouping most of their original investment. The entire economic system was designed to support it.

I know here in Canada we have our own reckoning with the past that we continue to make a mess of even today, in light of all that we know.

I don’t have the answers for how to heal from the past atrocities. But I do know that actively working to deny they happened is among the worst ways to process and help healing:

I feel like the rise in conspiracy theories is due to so much more concrete information and data out there and people saying they can’t possibly believe what they see with their own eyes, instead it just HAS to be something else that doesn’t undermine their own beliefs.

Just a reminder that social media posts and stories don’t represent the entirety of a person you follow on social media. It’s a glimpse into part of their day, an emotion they felt for a fleeting second, filtered and edited, or something they did months ago that they’re presenting as current. Or it might be completely made up. Rarely can you know why they posted it. And your guess is very likely wrong. Unless you’re in conversation with them semi-regularly, you don’t really know them or what they think about a specific issue, event, or thing.

Speaking personally, I’m always open to conversations about what I have posted as long as you remember I don’t take things very seriously on social media - except for the things I do. 😆

I’ve been on twitter since 2006 and playing on the internet since way before that. It’s where everything is made up and the points don’t matter. Something you think is so important today, you won’t even remember 2 years from now. And in 5 years it will be wiped off the internet after the corporations have bought and sold our content into oblivion.

So have fun!