CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY AND IDENTITY POLITICS

Martin Davie  16 January 2024 | 6:29 AM, / (Photo: Getty/iStock)

American Jewish author Jonathan Foxman provides an explanation for why "normal-looking American youth" defaced and smeared dirt on posters of kidnapped Israeli children on October 7.

"I struggled to understand this until I realized that I was witnessing a generation of young progressives who had come to embrace a fundamentally different ideology," Foxman said in the article. I see bigotry more often. People who support Hamas attacks and even encourage their brutal actions are ardent supporters of an ideology that sees only oppression. Because it expresses oppression, wealth and power are important, and skin color is also important because white is the color of colonization and oppression. In this ideology, everyone must be either good or evil, either oppressor or oppressed. It is always one by one or one by two.

The world has become easier to understand thanks to this ideology. You don't need to learn about the complexities of the Middle East because equality has always existed. If A = B and B = C, then A = C. If the Jews are rich and powerful and their oppressors, then the Jews are oppressors. If their invaders are darker-skinned than their oppressors and Palestinians are darker-skinned than Jews, then Jews are invaders. If oppressors and invaders are evil, then Jews are evil.

American psychologist Jonathan Haidt conducted a similar study of the reasons for modern American antisemitism. "In the days following the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, campuses immediately distinguished themselves as separate places from the rest of American society—zones where different moral rules were applied," Haidt said in an article on the After Babel website titled "Why antisemitism is rapidly expanding on campus." University leaders did not cast the strongest vote in condemning the attack and expressing solidarity with Jewish students and their Israelis, even before Israel began its military reaction. Instead, faculty members and student organizations celebrated the attack around the world.

He described the ensuing events as "hundreds of antisemitic incidents on college campuses, including vandalism of Jewish websites, physical intimidation, physical assault, and death threats against Jewish students, often from other students. Haidt states that the education given to students in the United States allows them "to see everything in terms of intersecting bipolar axes where one end of each axis is marked 'privilege' and the other is 'oppression'", which is the basis of antisemitism.

Since "privilege "is essentially defined as" the power to dominate "and generate" pression," t these axes are essentially moral. Both the person above and the person below are good. Teaching like this seems to incorporate our versus theirs untruths into students' cognitive schemas: "Life is a fight between good guys and bad guys."

In this perspective, which is an evolution of Karl Marx's original teaching on the class struggle, the good or oppressed are those who lack the economy, women, and racial and sexual minorities. The wicked or oppressed are those in power economically—men, whites, and heterosexuals—and support traditional Christian views on marriage and sexual ethics.

Because Israelis—and Jews in general—are considered rich and white, while Palestinians are considered poor and dark-skinned, Foxman states that this ideology contributes to modern antisemitism. As a result, Jews are portrayed as evil oppressors, and Palestinians are portrayed as good oppressors. Here, Israeli actions are considered unjustified, while Palestinian actions are considered justified.

If we're being honest, our perspective on events happening in the Middle East is very simple. This does not mean that all Israelis (or Jews in general) are rich and all Palestinians are poor. This also does not mean that all Israelis are white immigrants from Europe. For example, the top leaders of Hamas are billionaires who live luxuriously in Qatar. In addition, the rights of women and sexual minorities are more restricted by Palestinian society, particularly Hamas-controlled Gaza, than by the state of Israel. Therefore, it makes no sense to make a simple equation between evil Israelis (and Jews as a whole) and good Palestinians come across as plausible even in its simplest form.

Moreover, from the point of view of Christian theology, the concept that the world consists of good people and bad people should be considered completely wrong. This happens because the Christian faith, based on the teachings of the Bible, declares that every human being, except Jesus Christ, is evil in the sense that they sin against God and their neighbor.

The Catechism"Becoming a Christian," published in 2020 by the Anglican Church in North America, reveals these basic Christian values. In this new catechism, the section on "salvation" says:

1. What is human nature? Although man is well created and designed to be in communion with our Creator, humanity has been cut off from him because of their rebellion against him, which results in a life without law, guilt, shame, death, and fear of punishment. This is a sinful situation. (Acts 3:1–13; Psalm 14:1-3; Matthew 15:10–20; Romans 1:18–23; 3:9–23).

The fact that everyone is a sinner is an important point to be aware of. All people, including rich and poor, men and women, whites, blacks, and browns, as well as heterosexuals and sexual minorities, have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, as Paul says in Romans 3:23.

As a result, we cannot divide the world into good and bad people, even though we can and should distinguish between people's actions and say that there is good and bad.

We cannot say that we are good while others are bad. All we can say is, "God have mercy on me as a sinner," as Jesus described in Luke 18:13. Nor can we say that X and Y are good for others. By God's standards, all people are bad. Therefore, the conflict in the Middle East is not between bad Israelis and good Palestinians—or vice versa, between bad Israelis and good Palestinians.

From what I have said so far, it may seem that Christianity looks at many things very pessimistically because it says that we are all sinners and that all we can look forward to is "darkness, misery, and eternal punishment." However, there are three other things to note.

First and foremost, although Christianity has pessimistic beliefs, this does not mean that they are false. If we are honest about ourselves, we know that we are not living as we should. Therefore, if God exists and is truly good, he "must hate most of what we do. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves his enemy." (CS Lewis, Mere Christianity).

Second, despite the fact that everyone is a sinner, the Bible and mainstream Christian theology maintain that fallen women and men still have the capacity, albeit not always, to act morally upright due to their creation in God's image and likeness (Genesis 1:26-27). Therefore, it is reasonable from a Christian point of view to ask people to act in order to at least reduce the impact of conflicts, such as the current conflict in the Middle East. That's not an impossible request.

Thirdly, and most importantly, Christianity gives hope to everyone. To quote again from the Christian Life, The Gospel, or "good news" that Christianity gives to anyone, no matter what they do, is the following: "God forgave my sins and reconciled me to himself through his son, Jesus Christ, whom he has given to the world as a gift of undeserved love." God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son to the world (John 3:16; note also Psalm 34; Zechariah 12:10–13:2; and Romans 3:23–26).

None of us are ever truly free from sin in this world. However, through Christ, God gives everyone a wonderful new beginning. This means that we can escape the power of sin during this life of ours and will eventually be resurrected to live a new life with God in which we will be free from sin and death forever.

This hope is more comprehensive than the best hope offered by identity politics because it is given to everyone and offers a total solution to all human problems. Christian expectations are certain because God himself has guaranteed them, in contrast to human political expectations, which may or may not occur.

What is the Christian message? Stop dividing people into good and bad and accept that you, like all other people, are sinners.

In addition, accept the wonderful offer of the Lord for eternal deliverance from sin, starting in this world and ending in the world to come.

Martin Davie is an associate teacher in lay Anglican doctrine and theology at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford.

News Sources :https://www.christiantoday.com/article/christian.theology.and.identity.politics/141270.htm