management models of the absurd
Trust is a difficult state of mind to maintain. Mix in a season of distrust with a state of trauma, and even the simplest kinds of communication are filled with tension. Trauma, anxiety, and distrust are a recipe for conflict, as people turn to survival mode.
I witnessed a community meeting of crisis response professionals and community servants while in Flint, and it seems to me that our social fabric is sewn so tightly to models of conformity and public finance that when the seams bear to much tension, they rip apart and harm the fabric at the very spot they are supposed to be strongest.
It is far too easy to be critical of government and civic officials in the face of crisis. It is also easy to be critical of the monolithic social service “industry” when crises like the one Flint is now experiencing expose what at first glance seems like incompetence. Yet, the gospel ethic displayed by Jesus and his disciples is more than just a critic of the social and political shortcomings of the people in charge. While Jesus certainly stands in opposition to the antagonists of first-century Jerusalem, the messianic response is one of action, sacrifice, and above all, an action of communities taking responsibility for one another.
There was as much distrust between the haves and have-nots in Jesus’ time as there is now in Flint. There was as much distrust of government by the people of the land in Jesus’ time as there is now in Flint. As a matter of fact, the early church and the poor of Judea had it harder than we do – they paid even higher taxes and received absolutely no services. Caesar, Herod, or Pilate would not have been delivering water to the poor of Jerusalem during drought. In fact, during drought in the first century AD, uprisings and banditry were popular pastimes for Jews.
As Jesus worked to overcome the issues facing those who were mired in economic and spiritual poverty, he was ripping at the seams of the social fabric of Judea and basting together a loosely knit community of folk whose primary focus became caring for one another, not preserving order or controlling the outcomes of history. Jesus did not fight the common enemy, he loved them. When he cast judgment on the Temple – he in fact did not take an army to tear it down, or even propose a “regime change” in the manner of forcing the old out to make way for the new. Jesus formed a voluntary non-violent kingdom as an alternative to the system of control and domination that was evident in Roman and Jerusalem governance.
Back in Flint, it was remarkable to me when a representative of a major service provider and funding agency made a guarantee in response to some aggressively vocalized complaints about community members not receiving services that were promised. He guaranteed that he would look into the situation and find answers. It was in his nature as a leader to take such responsibility, because in our American system, that is what we want – someone to control outcomes until a satisfactory solution to crisis is in place and the crisis is resolved.
However, a traumatized people will not trust guarantees. Whether political promises, or guarantees of safe drinking water, or folks insisting that they will take responsibility and fix the problem, the seams have been ripped apart and the fabric torn so badly that wounds underneath the fabric are exposed. When a traumatized people hear guarantees of services from people who are supposed to be in charge, they are simply re-traumatized. There is no greater indicator of poor communication and lack of empathy on the part of the “people in charge” than issuing guarantees that things will get better. When there is a history of outright lying, racism, and class-conflict in a city, a guaranteed fix is simply promising a “SNAFU for the People.” Indeed, Jesus and his brother James insist that we take no oaths.
Because we have a system of accountability that prioritizes finances over caring, and control over creativity, we have a system that, when as broken as it is in Flint, produces anxiety, fear, and combativeness in those who are traumatized, and as far as I can tell, produces little more than defensiveness in those who want to maintain control over circumstances. The poorest response a representative of the criminal justice system can produce in the face of aggressive criticism of the realities on the ground is one that denies the reality of the traumatized. In our system, because social control and maintenance of the system is prioritized over meeting needs by any means necessary through the use of community resources, the reality of the traumatized is one of a failed system, while the goal of the authorities is to preserve the system, and control outcomes according to a social order that is burning down as the fiddler begins taking requests. When law enforcement tells people that their experiences are not measuring up to his own experiences, well, that is the same as a social service provider guaranteeing positive outcomes will be produce by the same system that has failed the people for 50 consecutive years.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ has something to say to the traumatized, and it is not, I repeat, it is not a promise of heavenly and happy life-after-death. The Gospel of Jesus indicates that by loving God and loving our neighbors, we will voluntarily sacrifice on behalf of those who suffer along with us. In fact, as absurd as it might seem, the kingdom of God is that place where the oppressed find a loving way to change the nature of the oppressor. This is not accomplished by caving into social control mechanisms or waiting patiently for the oppressive authorities to get things right. It means finding ways on our own to get things done right despite the obstacles that authority often puts in the way. Civil disobedience is not limited to righteous law-breaking, but also includes disobeying the conventions of the authorities in a manner that indicates love is the primary response to crisis, and not control mechanisms and distribution models that prioritize public order.
Social control demands controlling people instead of liberating them, and the responses of institutions, whether those are governments, police, educational systems or jails, prioritize the preservation of such models and often stifle the creativity of a free people. The Gospel eliminates our obligation to the mechanisms of control, and changes the fundamental nature of our identity. As we are liberated by Jesus’ loving challenges to authority and the identity of institutions, we are free to love one another without competing for resources, or relying on oppressive structures to provide resources according to their terms.
When I spoke up in that meeting in Flint, I asked why the city was not just delivering water to every block so that it was easily accessible. The response was that it was impossible, people would hoard water, people would come from outside of Flint and steal it, and those who were unable to secure what they needed would lose it to others. That was the end of the discussion concerning distribution. It was obvious that the distribution model would mimic that of business and for-profit commodity distribution, and this was the only model that would work in their minds. Otherwise, folks would get away with crime.
At face value, it seems to make sense. An orderly distribution model for water and other items like diapers will work best, despite the fact that some people cannot access the distribution sites or move water from one place to another because they are homebound or ride a bus. But no one is asking the follow up question. The gospel, however, prompts me to ask plenty of questions.
Why are people in charge more concerned with people playing the system than getting water to people who need it – who were poisoned and are experiencing a kind of corporate trauma? Why is the distrust of the poor and criminally minded overwhelming the ability of authorities to see that many of the poor will ensure that people on their block will get water that they need?
Another question the gospel leads me to ask, is why can’t the authorities simply pay people to take shifts to help track who takes the water they need as it is delivered to each block? Public works had positive outcomes during the Depression, but while banks can be bailed out and countries can be bombed, there is no will to go into debt to provide the people of Flint unlimited access to safe water. Even the state government struggled over using savings to help Flint recover. As one woman from Flint stated, if the money is being saved for a rainy day, it is pouring now in Flint.
Yet another question - if companies can use Michigan water to bottle and sell for a profit, and get tax cuts and credits for doing it – why can’t this water, from our state resources, be delivered to Flint before being sold in, say, Phoenix or Ann Arbor. I believe it doesn’t happen this way because our authorities are more invested in maintaining order and controlling the outcomes, even if the outcomes will be more detrimental to Flint than large debt will be to federal and state treasuries. Care for people will not be a consideration if it impedes the profits of corporate water distributors.
The gospel is clear – Christians should not participate in war, yet we will finance the campaigns and elect individuals who take an oath to engage in war. Billions spent on war should be billions spent, not only on Flint, but on replacing the lead pipes across the country. This will put more people to work.
But the gospel is clear about another thing – Christians cannot wait on or expect that authorities will provide for us. God’s provision is to be sufficient, and like the stories of God’s people being fed with manna from heaven, the poor of the land being fed with loaves and fishes, and the prophets being fed by crows, Jesus knows, not only that God will care of us, but that we are not to live on bread alone, but also on the very word of God.
Those words ring true, and just as the gentiles are basted into the whole cloth of the people of Abraham, we know that we can rework our fabric in ways that allow for those whose nakedness has been exposed can by fully covered when we embody those words – all of the law and prophets are summed up as such. Love God with all of your heart, soul, and might, and love your neighbor as yourself. Government is not obligated to love, and will never understand the nature of such relationships.
Unjust authority can only be held accountable by love, and in love, for Jesus would tell us that the oppressors are also victim, under the control of the Satan who is the author of this world. Christians must refuse and resist social and economic control, and exhibit the grace and mercy of God by living the life of Jesus – sharing resources with all and sundry, knowing that God will provide for our every need.
