Belonging or Divesting?

Belonging. I have more to say about belonging.

It starts with some questions; who belongs in the US? Whose rights are respected in the US? Those are essentially the same question. Currently, I’d say the following people, and of course any combination thereof, are seen as not belonging – according to how they are treated by the government. More specifically by Republicans, but Democrats are no angels here.

Black people
Latinx people
Native peoples
Refugees
Immigrants
Women
Gay men
Lesbians
Bisexual people
Queer people
Transgender people
Intersex people (is that still the right word?)
Disabled people – especially if your disability is not easily accommodated.
Poor people
Protestors
People who need government assistance – they are kept poor.
Homeless people
Alcoholics and addicts
Mentally ill people
People with bad credit
People who are unmarried – don’t kid yourself, it’s a thing
People who are not ambitious, or who are content without a “career”
People who have ever been in prison, innocent or guilty
Non-Christians, especially Muslims and Jews
Atheists
People who want to protect the environment
People who want to regulate businesses
Experts in any field

This is not an exhaustive list – just what I could come up with at the moment. If you are not a rich, white, Christian, straight, cis-gendered male, the US system will work against you in a large or small way. The thing is, do we want to live in a country that devalues all these people? Do we want to participate in a system that devalues all these people?

My husband and I have begun a bible study on Sunday mornings before church. We began by reading Isaiah 40. Sunday, we read Isaiah 41:21-29. In this passage, God is speaking through Isaiah to the Israelites exiled to Babylon. The exiles are soon to travel back to Israel:

21 “Present your case,” says the Lord.
“Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.
22 “Tell us, you idols,
what is going to happen.
Tell us what the former things were,
so that we may consider them
and know their final outcome.
Or declare to us the things to come,
23 tell us what the future holds,
so we may know that you are gods.
Do something, whether good or bad,
so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear.
24 But you are less than nothing
and your works are utterly worthless;
whoever chooses you is detestable.

25 “I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes—
one from the rising sun who calls on my name.
He treads on rulers as if they were mortar,
as if he were a potter treading the clay.
26 Who told of this from the beginning, so we could know,
or beforehand, so we could say, ‘He was right’?
No one told of this,
no one foretold it,
no one heard any words from you.
27 I was the first to tell Zion, ‘Look, here they are!’
I gave to Jerusalem a messenger of good news.
28 I look but there is no one—
no one among the gods to give counsel,
no one to give answer when I ask them.
29 See, they are all false!
Their deeds amount to nothing;
their images are but wind and confusion.

Walter Brueggemann’s final comment on that is:

The immediate intent … is to persuade exilic listeners that their future is to be received outside the claims of Babylon … Subsequent listeners (including us) are invited to the claim that our life as well is vested outside the pretended claims of every system of domination … To look outside the dominant system for future prospects is not an easy or obvious thing to do. (emphasis mine)

In other words, trust in God, not human systems. Human systems will always have a bias – many biases as I have just listed.

BUT … what if we took that literally and divested from buying into the dominant values of capitalism? Of Republicans? Of Democrats? Of “keeping up with the Joneses?” Of making sure we have more than enough so we don’t have to worry while others struggle – perhaps because we aren’t using our money? Of home ownership as a means of wealth? Of money and status being indicative of our worth? Of our productivity being indicative of our worth?

What if we looked at those who live, or even give, their lives for others, not as heroes, or virtuous, or exceptional, but as colleagues. What if we all organized our lives around the common good, around making sure everyone has enough to eat, around justice for all people? What if we took Jesus’s commandment seriously? “Love God with all your heart, mind, and soul … and love your neighbor as yourself?

That is the challenge that the US is facing today. Do we want to go back to normal after we – eventually – conquer the novel coronavirus? Or do we want to build something better on the ashes?

That is what my husband and I are asking ourselves. Because we don't want to "belong" to a society that excludes anyone.

In what ways is our participation in life supporting the dominant system that drags the majority of its citizens down and keeps them down? Brueggemann is right – it is not an easy decision to contemplate. But I think it is a necessary one.

Won’t you join us?

B