Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars has been developed (primarily) in order to explore the role that culture and politics have played in the construction of historical Christian dogmatics, as well as the way in which these things (in conjunction with the traditional theological formulations of the church and our present-day post-postmodern experience) naturally and routinely influence our human understandings of Christian theology; whether antiquated or contemporary. This weblog marks the commencement of an ongoing opportunity for Christian communities across the globe to struggle against the muscular tide of our own communal and personal biases. Our often unrecognized prejudices typically blind us to the ways in which many of our own traditional and progressive theological perspectives have and do contribute to the dehumanization and the oppression of individuals and people groups, both in the United States and abroad, Christian and non-Christian, who reside beyond the borders of our own tight-knit cultural communities. We aim to expose (to ourselves and also to others) our own fallen human propensity to develop ideological, theological systems which (mysteriously or not) tend to be remarkably beneficial to our own personal well-being, often at the expense of the other.
It is the author’s intention, not merely to deconstruct ecclesial dogma of ages past, but also to participate in the construction of a new hermeneutical methodology and a new theological perspective. It is essential that each of these take into account the universal character of God’s reconciliatory purposes for creation. Yet at the same time, they must not neglect God’s predisposition towards aligning Godself with the downtrodden, the impoverished, the powerless, the broken-hearted, and the outcast. The Kingdom of God is an empire which is being erected from the ground up, in opposition to the blueprint after which the world’s empires are generally manufactured, that being from the top down. Within this Spirit-filled community, which God the Father has initiated in Jesus the Messiah, the last are the first, and the first are to be the last. The greatest and most honored should be those who either already are, or indeed choose to become the servants of all. Power must be exercised and expressed through attitudes, policies, and actions which mirror and extend the righteous, suffering death of our Lord (the world’s Savior) on an imperial cross, rather than through the imperial and worldly means of oppression, intimidation, domination, or manipulation. It is in this way that the church bears witness to the love and justice of God.
This leads us to a complimentary objective with which this blog is concerned. One small way in which the author believes that he can contribute to the spread of the righteousness of the empire of God is by creating a space wherein voices which have traditionally been drowned out or even muzzled can have an opportunity to speak and to be heard. Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars is thus to be a locality where suppressed voices can experience a form of liberation from their chains of political, cultural, and theological oppression. It is to be a platform for bible-centered discussion and dialogue between the pre-modern and modern theological constructs of Western Christendom (Reformation and Enlightenment influenced and influencing theologies included; both liberal and conservative) and the biblical and theological interpretations of (for example) non-Western peoples, Amerindian, Black, and Latina-o communities, feminist, womanist and queer scholars, together with any and all other non-traditional critical biblical, theological, and philosophical theorists. The author of this blog is fully aware of his own proclivity to succumb to the temptations of lust, arrogance, and fear, not to mention his own personal susceptibility to bias and blind-spots. Therefore, he is predominantly concerned with observing in order to listen and learn.
It is the author’s conviction that, although God is (most certainly) intimately involved with (to coin a term) the processive intricacies of the everyday life and experience of the entirety of the cosmos, He is especially and sympathetically present and dwelling in and amongst the poor, the emotionally and psychologically frail, the subjugated, the demoralized, and the defenseless. Recall as well the words of Jesus, who told us that the way in which we regard the least of these reflects the way in which we regard the Lord. Consequently, the author is convinced that it is absolutely essential for the entire world (and especially the church) to hear and to heed the cries of those who (because of their endless conditions of suffering, poverty, maltreatment and injustice) stand in nearer relation to the view of the world experienced by the Lord Jesus as He hung on that old rugged cross at Golgotha, than do those of us who stand in positions of relative privilege and freedom; a perspective which likely correlates more closely to the outlook of the Roman imperial loyalists, the Israeli religious leadership, and the nationalistic zealots of both Jewish and Gentile persuasion, who all willingly participated in the crucifixion of the world’s true and only Lord. The marginalized of our global society can no doubt offer the church in the West a much-needed word of critique and correction.
Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars has been specifically organized and designed to function as a revolutionary instrument of cultural, political and (perhaps most pointedly) theological and religious subversion. It has been patterned after the attitudes, actions, and teaching techniques of Jesus of Nazareth, as His attributes and methods are at present understood by the author (an understanding which is constantly undergoing development, and which will definitely metamorphose over time; although hopefully in a progressive and constructive manner). The principle aim is to uncover those areas where the professing church (especially, though not limited to the church in the West) has adopted and internalized thought patterns and behaviors which have been (and currently are) characteristic of oppressive, ungodly world empires throughout human history, to then seek reconciliation with God and God’s righteous intentions as they have been unveiled in the person of Jesus through humble and inclusive interaction, and finally, to locate a practical theological model which, while remaining all-inclusive and universal in extent and purpose, falls far short of affirming the imperial status quo. In the name of Jesus, we pray that this venture might be a source of blessing for both the church and the world at large.
