These are notes and thoughts from Richard Rohr's book - we're going through it as a small group now, and its been a very interesting read...
There are 2 ways to being
a prophet. One is to tell the enslaved
that they can be free. It is the
difficult path of Moses. The second is to
tell those who think they are free that they are in fact enslaved. This is the even more difficult path of
Jesus. - Richard Rohr
Rohr talks about his work
with the Acoma Native American Tribe, a matriarchical society where women have
the power. After working with them, Rohr
concluded that their society is not much different from western - its just the Acoma's
are honest about who's in charge :) He then gives
an anecdote of an interview where he asked a man about who makes the decisions
in his family. The man replied that he
makes the important ones and his wife makes the little decisions. When asked to clarify, the man said his wife
decides things like the family budget and where the kids should go to school,
while he decides on how the government and economy is doing :)
Rohr says that even on the
job, men lack power even though they believe they do. Whether blue collar or white collar or white
starch collar, we are all told what to do - whether its by a boss, corporate
protocols or processes, customers, or market forces beyond their control. We do not
really control our lives. This is why
vacation and entertainment are so important in our lives. Work is not re-creative, so we seek
recreation. We're given the illusion of
making decisions, but they rarely make a difference in our own lives or in the
world around them, except in a diversionary minor way.
A good example is our
democracy. We're given the illusion of
decision-making power, but less than half of eligible voters turn out for
national elections. When asked why, the
non-voters say they feel powerless to change the system or because they see no
difference in the candidates.
"The addictive system therefore offers the
illusion of power and freedom while holding back any real decision-making
power." To feed the addiction, we
are offered promotions and paychecks, status and symbols of prestige
Rohr offers a solution out of
this addictive system in 5 words: “You just stop believing it!” We should look elsewhere for our payoffs and
energy. In Biblical terms, its called
salvation: being saved from the world and its false promises, and being saved
from ourselves.
We won’t have the ability or
courage to stop believing the illusion until we have something more and better
to take its place – God’s love, a frame of reference outside this system.
But as Rohr points out “you
can’t liberate anybody until they are convinced they need liberation.” This is easy in poorer countries, but our
middle-class comforts lets us avoid the question. Jesus’ most ignored statement is “It is
harder for a rich man to know what I am talking about, than for a camel to pass
through the needle of an eye” (Matt 19:24,
Mark 10:25, Luke 18:25)
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