January 6th, 2021 - The Fruits of Dominionism
I used to write fiction. In fact, my last novel was an exploration of this festering idea that the western church was somehow persecuted. While I liked the book, the storyline, and the characters, the sequel never materialised. I’ll tell you why: I’m not prophet, that’s for sure. But I am logical. In my mind, the logical flow from dominionist theology (seven mountain dominionism, or the idea that God has mandated the church to take dominion in “every domain of society”) was not good. In fact, it scared me. It may have even helped scare me into deconstruction.
What I saw yesterday as Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol looked eerily familiar to what I had seen in my minds eye. I could not, and did not, foresee a Trump presidency when I wrote that book. Like I said, I’m not a prophet. But I was deeply concerned by the attitude of entitlement that went along with the dominionist idea that political dominion was God-given. I watched, mystified, as Christian leaders abandoned their own moral convictions to rally behind an obvious narcissist with a checkered marital history, allegations of sexual assault, and a thin-to-the-point-of-laughable veneer of Christian allegiance. How was it anything but bleedingly obvious that this pathologically selfish, power-hungry thug was doing anything other than saying what he needed to say to lock up the nomination?
There are multiple flaws within the church universal that allowed for this to happen. Bad theology, poor discernment, prophets who confuse their own ideas or desires with the voice of God, the toxic mix of capitalism, dominionism and church to name a few. Perhaps the most significant issue was the tendency for neo-charismatic spokespeople to herald a “greater truth” when referring to the schism between the natural world and the spirit world. How could that not be cherry picked alongside scriptures about the “kingdom of God suffering violence and the violent take it by force”? How could that not result in prophets claiming supernatural overthrow of election results that church leaders hadn’t prophesied? How could that not end up in protests and riots?
It was not arrested then, and it hasn’t been arrested yet.
Now isn’t the day to go into a deep-dive on the issues with these sub-doctrines that seem to have combined to create a perfect storm for Christians to get caught up in the collective right-wing delusion. I have neither the heart nor the time for it. But I will say this:
We must take a keen, unbiased look at every doctrine and belief we hold, realising that if it is not good, if it is not kind, if it is not pure, if it does not build up what the Bible called “the least of us”, then it is not of God.
We must root out the heretical, damaging and unbiblical doctrine of dominionism that has woven its way into evangelical Christianity. Where money and power are promised, corruption can grow. The church is simply another at-risk organisation in this way.
We must give no pass to subtle or clandestine racism, misogyny, anti-government rhetoric, or false prophecy in our midst.
We must be about the hard work of reconciliation. Thoughts and prayers are not enough.
And we must realise that until the church is given back to the marginalised and disenfranchised for whom the person of Jesus dedicated his earthly life, then we are not the church he intended to be.
Now is not a moment to listen to a single church leader who excuses the behaviour at the capitol yesterday, or who claims it was “actually peaceful”, or that it was “necessary.” This was seditious and lawless. God is not glorified.
To my American friends, be safe. If it weren’t for Coronavirus, I’d offer my house up for your escapism! What a mad world we live in right now.
What a mad world indeed.
We Need To Talk About White Supremacy
I had another kickin’ post ready to go today, but in the wake of the Christchurch Mosque Shootings, I just can’t bring myself to publish it. This is a moment in history when racially motivated gun violence reached the shores of a country where gun violence like this is far outside the norm. I know the USA is rife with gun violence. I know that Middle East Countries suffer terrorism far more often than we know – so often that it rarely makes the news. I’m not discounting that. What I am saying is that for Australians, this far-right extremist terrorism was a warning to us – a warning allof us must heed.
One of my closest friends is a person of colour, and oh how she has opened my eyes to the plight of other people of colour in my country. I used to proudly say that “I’m Australian. We don’t have a problem with racism here.” Now that I have spent time listening to her, I know that was about the whitest thing I could say. I had no idea until I sought to understand. Until that point, I was blissfully blind to it.
We do have a problem with racism. Exhibit A: an Australian man walked in to two New Zealand Mosques and killed 50 worshippers in what he made clear was a racially based attack. While it might be tempting to ‘tsk tsk‘ and say this is not us, we can’t afford to do that.
Because the behaviour we have excused, ignored or turned a blind eye to is behaviour that has grown and exacerbated. Now I don’t want to play the blame game exactly. But in truth, I feel like its just as problematic to say “its nobody’s fault,” as to say “its everybody’s fault” when perhaps both things are true. Either way, if we want the blight of terrorism to be expunged from our ranks, we all need to be a little less apathetic, a little more vigilant and a lot less likely to let hate speech slide. No, you can’t stop every act of terrorism. You aren’t the terrorist. But you can call out the racist, Islamophobic BS that you come across in every day life because fear and misinformation are a lethal combination.
We might have been blind to this stuff before. And I hope that its more obvious now that some of the problematic ideologies, and the people that hold them, have reared their heads. But you don’t start out as a ranting, raving, gun waving white supremacist. The slippery slope starts long before there. That’s what we missed and can’t risk missing anymore.
The moments since the Christchurch shooting have flushed out some of the white supremacist rhetoric hiding in our own ranks. I’m not going to show the comments I’ve seen on political pages ( with some page followers claiming the terrorist should be given an award – among other vile, inflammatory comments!) I don’t need to recount the Fraser Anning response to it, or add the other political commentary riling up hate and fear before it. The internet is doing a good enough job of recounting this stuff.
Fraser Anning is just one loudmouth. Years before he attracted the 19 votes that propelled him into parliament (!!!), and even before Pauline Hanson’s resurgence and the re-energising of the One Nation Party, I stood up the back of a church completely unimpressed as the figurehead of a Christian minority party railed against the dangers of Islam and encouraged people to rise up against it.
There was a militance in his air – it was a call to arms and not just a political roadshow (at least in my opinion). Harmless? I didn’t think so then and I don’t think so now.
But what’s the point of all of this? What should we, as Christians, as conscientious members of society, do differently if anything? I have a few thoughts on that.
A few observations from the fallout
Its easy for Christians to get caught up in a freedom of religion argument and believe this only applies to them. But if there is only freedom of religion for one group of people, then we don’t really have it. We only have an exclusion clause in state control.
Its easy for Christians to point to Muslims or Islam as the root of the terrorism problem. But here it was a far-right extremist and his accomplices who undertook the terrorist act. Far-right extremism can breed terrorists too. This is not a moment to point to all the harm Islamic extremists have done as if its justification for what has just happened.
No. The cornerstone of Christianity is love. Compassion. Forgiveness.
It makes my heart sink when I read Christians contributing to societal panic about Muslims, minorities, refugees, etc. Please. Don’t spread this misinformation. Before you share an article on Islam, find a Muslim. Sit with them. Ask their opinion. Before you say “We don’t have a problem with racism,” find a person of colour. Sit with them. Ask them of their experience.
And before you offer your hearty agreement to those who talk about taking back Australia from the clutches of Islam, or immigrants, or any other group, ask yourself whether you might be at the top of the slippery slope into a nasty state of things. Statements about “protecting our way of life”, or telling people to “go home, we are full,” or “if you don’t like our way of life, go home,” might seem like they aren’t worth scrutiny. Heck, we hear them often enough, But they are gateway statements. They set up an animosity towards anyone we regard as an “other”. They soften the ground for more extreme comments and attitudes.
The place where such rhetoric gets thrown around is fertile ground for racism or Islamophobia to grow. For most, hate speech will stay speech. For others, it won’t. So here we are: with a red neck posse here in Australia defending and praising the abhorrent actions of a white supremacist – a far-right terrorist.
For a long time, it has seemed inevitable to me that the narrative of the far-right would reach such fever pitch that terrorism would spring from its own ranks. This week it did. A sad day indeed.
I hope and pray we never see another Holy War. But the only way we can avoid this is to make white supremacist talk completely unacceptable, to exercise compassion to our Muslim and Middle Eastern communities, to respect their right for freedom of religion as much as our own.
I like what New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern said. “They are us.”
They are our neighbours. Lets love them as we love ourselves.
Anyway that’s my lame attempt and putting thoughts around this tragedy as it seems to have gotten to me more than usual.
Racism in Australia - a Lived Experience
As protests circle the globe following the horrific deaths of George Floyd, Tony McDade and Breonna Taylor (the latter two to whom I pay homage because they matter so much, even though it seems to be George's murder that has raised the global pot to boiling point), I've wanted to pass the microphone where I can - so that we can hear voices that matter. I'm about to share a story I saw on Instagram. It was shared by a friend of mine who is educated, intelligent, sophisticated, traffic-stoppingly gorgeous and brown. She is a mother of four mixed-race babies, to whom she gives her heart and soul every day. I am in awe of this woman.
When she posted her own experience of racism in Australia, a move done with much trepidation as its not usually something she speaks about, I had to reshare it (with permission of course).
But before I do, I must quote our esteemed PM, Scott Morrison, who said in an interview on Monday that "There's no need to import things happening in other countries here to Australia." He was referring to the Black Lives Matter protests. It is a triggering time for many Australians, as we have had more than 400 indigenous deaths in custody since 1991. One of them," David Dungay, said "I can't breathe" 12 times while being restrained by prison guards in 2015. He died, and the video of Floyd’s killing has been traumatic for his family. [1]" None of the officers have faced consequences.
I raise it to say this isn't an overseas problem.
And now, on to Laura's story - reposted with permission.
Muted posts are easy. Anti-Racism work is not. Do the latter.
"I'm about to talk about racism, and the Black Lives Matter movement. I rarely use this space for anything other than our homeschool journey, but I believe the current situation warrants a conversation. If you'd like to pass over this post, feel free to do so.
I'm brown. I'm equal parts Anglo-Indian, Scottish, Welsh, and Polish, but my skin colour is brown, and when I'm asked what nationality I am, what people mean is "What part of your heritage makes you brown?", so I just say I'm Anglo-Indian. My husband is white. Our children are bi-racial, two are white, two are olive. Racism is no stranger.
I was born and raised in Australia, and I have dealt with racism since childhood. As a kid, there were slurs, outright hostility, and violence. I remember a kid at my school following me on my way home, hitting at my calves with a garden stake. I remember my concerned Dad teaching me how to defend myself physically when I was seven, knowing I would probably face other similar incidents. I remember punch-ons, and teachers who turned a blind eye when I defended myself, as they knew they couldn't always be there to intervene. I remember stories from my parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, of the insane levels of racism they had faced. My grandfather (Scottish) married my grandmother (Indian) and was disowned for it. His own mother refused to help my grandparents care for their starving children, because their kids were mixed race.
As an adult, the racism I have encountered most often is of a more subtle nature; generalisations of my work ethic based on race, on the number of my children I have based on race, of my talents based on race, of intelligence, of hygiene, of parenting... and the occasional bout of outright hostility.
My kids haven't had many of such experience (yay for homeschool!) but the thought that they might both breaks my heart and kindles my anger. The awareness that there are children who are dealing with this... the awareness that George Floyd was someone's son and he cried out for his mum, the injustice of it all... it just makes me burn.
How is it that we are still having to defend a belief that people are people?!?! How is it that a Black Lives Matter movement is being diminished by responses of "all lives matter"? Of course they do! But Black Lives Matter is the burning issue, and pointing out that your life matters too does nothing to extinguish those flames! It is not helpful. Posting a black tile doesn't make you an ally.
Muting yourself doesn't make you an ally - and frankly, how utterly ridiculous to think that you should be silent because you're white. Instead, listen, and then use your voice and your privilege to support change. Share posts from black content creators, and from black platforms. Silence around racism has not saved anyone yet, but it sure as hell has enabled it to continue.
Lovely people, if we want to change, then we need to do the work. Ask questions of yourself and of others. Please don't mute yourself - learn, and listen, and then speak. Being Anti-Racism is not a something that we can achieve, as such; it's an ongoing journey, learning to challenge racism in ourselves and to grow in love as we do. I hope you'll grow with me.
xxx."
Laura Grimmond
Thank you beautiful lady for sharing your voice. Thank you for letting me honour it with a reshare.
Kit K