Identity Politics

“Shadows and Names”

Dr. Celucien Joseph Human solidarity, Humanism, Identity Politics, Islam, Justice, Justice as Love, Kindness, Love one another, Peace, Poetry, Police brutality

“Shadows and Names”

When it’s not Jews, it’s Arabs.
If it’s not Muslims, it’s Mexicans.
When it’s not Mexicans, it’s Haitians.
If it’s not Haitians, it’s Somalis.
After Somalis, it will be a new shadow,
a new name,
a new narrative,
but the same fear.

Someone is always the other.
The “uncivilized” is always to blame.
Fear changes faces:
geography, location, cultural identity,
but never leaves the room.

When we see ourselves in them,
when empathy comes first,
until love triumphs over the face of evil,
when repentance breaks us,
until reconciliation rises over division,
until we recognize our humanity in others,
until we see the face of God in their experience and pain,
the next scapegoat waits.
The cycle of violence and dehumanization never ends.

The Problem with Modern Theology

Dr. Celucien Joseph Identity Politics, Modern Theology, Uncategorized ,
The Problem with Modern Theology
 
One of the dangers of identity politics theology is that it focuses less on the spiritual communion of the individual with God, but prioritizes the physical needs of the individual than the individual’s essential need for Christ to satisfy the human soul and the deep longing for healing. Theological discourses framed within this ideological worldview are more anthropocentric than theocentric or christocentric. To express this differently,  the emphasis is on the social dimension of theology and human care.
 
On the other hand, non-identity politics theological discourses seem to ignore the existential needs and daily struggles of the individual and the group; the priority is put only on the spiritual communion between the individual and God. The spiritual life fulfills the social life, and the social life is divorced from the spiritual sphere. Theological discourses framed within this ideological perspective are deliberately theocentric or christocentric. In this perspective, God or Christ is concerned primarily with the cultivation of a robust Christian mind or the nurturing of the human intellect. In other words, the stress is on the intellectual dimension of theology and the life of the Christian mind.