‽istis ponders the sins of the
fathers (weekending September 9th 2023)
Power;
safeguarding and abuse; faith and religion; dominant/prevailing/hegemonic
beliefs or ideologies and what may be built on them; ‘history’ and potential
legacy of the past in the present; memory and forgetting; trauma, vulnerability
and resilience; apologetics and apologies…
themes that ‽istis perhaps
too often ponders and quite often includes in several recent and earlier blogs[i].
Once again, this week, many of those
same themes seem hard to avoid:
·
Watching
the ‘Woman in the Wall’[ii]
on TV (‘Murder, mystery, morality. One woman's traumatic past threatens to
expose Ireland’s most shocking and darkest secrets.’[iii])
·
Reading
about army chaplains during the Second World War[iv],
about ‘Gott mitt uns’ on the belt buckles of every enlisted member and
non-commissioned officer of the German army and navy; reading about the
‘Holocaust by bullets’[v]
and thousands of Jews executed in the forests before the scaled-up industrialisation
of the gas chambers of death camps
·
Hearing
David Harewood and David Lascelles (the current Earl of Harewood) discuss the
ties that bind their ancestors and their present - not least slavery. Owned and
owning; exploited and profiting; advocating for apology, ambivalent to apology for
something that one is not directly responsible for but recognising
accountability and duty; seeking restorative and reparative actions together[vi]
·
Reading
the conclusion to the internal Church of England investigation into safeguarding
concerns relating to Canon Mike Pilavachi – ‘substantiated’[vii].
So, all these troubled ponderings
and wonderings for ‽istis have settled on the issue of spiritual abuse and perhaps the role
of religion in, at the very least, providing fig-leaf cover for international,
national, social, institutional, organisational familial and individual ‘sins’
– of the fathers?[viii]
In the Church of England report (above
and ‘endnote vii) the substantiated concerns (covering a period of c.40 years
and pre-/post organisational approval, blessing, ordination and even the according
of hero status?) are considered an ‘abuse of power relating to his[ix] ministry, and spiritual
abuse.
Spiritual abuse: described
in guidance as ‘a form of emotional and psychological abuse characterised by a
systematic pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour in a religious
context.’
And so ‽istis has been wondering
about what could be considered to be centuries of coercive and controlling behaviour in a religious context - perhaps, possibly, maybe:
·
control
of hearts and minds and behaviour of individuals, in relationships, within
families, in homes and schools and communities
·
the
threat of hell, the threat of eternal damnation and torment v the ‘promise’ of
heaven, if…
·
the
ability to decide what and who is wrong/right/sinful or holy
·
the
promotion of family structures perhaps despite the domestic violence and child
abuse; the prizing of patriarchs and patriarchy, of masculinity sometimes
deified, sometimes toxic, sometimes both
·
the
inclusion and exclusion, access or barring – to jobs and opportunities,
preferment, status, power
· the blessing of exploration, endeavours, exploitation, systems of government and political ideology; sectarian strife, conflict, wars civil and international
the suppression of dissent, the defining of heresy, the treatment including murder of dissenters and heretics, excommunication, shunning, silencing
At the very least, again, ‘fig-leaf
cover’ has perhaps been given for international, national, social, institutional,
organisational familial and individual ‘sins’ – of the fathers; possibly these
dynamic processes still play out today, maybe their legacy reverberates on and
on…
At the very most, perhaps,
possibly at a fundamental level in some of the actions of a hegemonic Christian
church over centuries, we may have seen an utterly dominating ‘form of emotional
and psychological abuse characterised by a systematic pattern of coercive and
controlling behaviour’ with maybe unquantifiable and unqualifiable consequences
and impact at psycho-social-cultural structural and systemic levels – for individuals,
relationships, families, organisations and institutions…
And ‽istis wonders now who might
say sorry – who might recognise their accountability and duty; who might seek and
be responsible for restorative and reparative actions…
But you may well have a different view. The 'church', the 'bride of Christ' - for better or for worse? Humanity's well-being - net gain, net loss?
On earth as it is in heaven? What evidence could be presented,
would 'amens' and ‘hallelujahs’ ring out, and would the conclusion be: ‘substantiated’‽
©‽istis
NB: further reflections and
comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog entries to be found on
Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval,
sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders. Twitter ‘follows’
and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...
[i]
Preoccupations and interests are all to obviously on show, perhaps…
[iii] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001q28v
Plus many references but this seems a helpful starting point: http://jfmresearch.com/home/preserving-magdalene-history/about-the-magdalene-laundries/
[iv]
‘The motives of the chaplains were not unusual… their noble, personal and
professional motives turned them into a legitimating force in a war of
annihilation.’ From the article below, by Jennifer Popowycz.(Jan. 24th
2022)
[vii] https://www.churchofengland.org/media-and-news/press-releases/concerns-substantiated-mike-pilavachi-investigation
[viii]
…and patriarchal domination may well be one of the most pernicious… discuss!
[ix]
Canon Mike Pilavachi….
