Re: BHA: On spirituality, the Church and Indigenous Australians

[Hockeys <limhockey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Dick (or Gidday, to be more natural) and all listers anywhere near
Yeovil or Middlesex.

I'd love to respond to your reply in detail, but a short response will
do for now.

> Anyone who takes seriously the critical clarification of his or her own
> traditions soon discovers that there have been those who have done evil in
> the name of some aspect of every tradition.  You mention your Jewish
> tradition.  Are there no stories in the Hebrew scriptures which tell of
> evil deeds done in the name of God?
>
> I understand it to be an important part of my calling to clarify and
> criticize the traditions within which I stand.  I see this as more
> important to my spiritual growth than denouncing the traditions of others.


I must apologise for the brevity of my earlier post. To clarify some of
where I'm coming from (in Archer's terms, a bit about my self, personal
and social identities). I am eternally grateful for the rich Christian
heritage into which I was born and which continues to sustain me, but
which I must subject to immanent critique. On my father's side I am
trying to make contact with Hockeys from around Montacute (4km from
Yeovil in Somerset) from which my ancestors migrated or were dragged in
chains in the 1800s. A line of Hockeys were parish secretaries in the
Anglican church in those days (at least since the late 1600s). My
mother's people apparently lived in Jewish communities around Bethnal
Green and Middlesex, attended Jewish schools and were converted to
Christianity in the 1880s, before migrating to Brisbane in 1912. I have
no hard proof of my possible Jewish heritage, although my oldest uncle
who left England at the age of seven remembered Jewish rituals around
the table in London. My grandparents it appears said nothing of their
supposed Jewish ancestry after coming to Aussie-land. Given the fact
that Jews were banned from England for about 350 years from the year
1255 or so, gained the vote in England around 1825, and were finally
alowed entry to Cambridge university in 1875, and given the rising
anti-semitism at the turn of the century, that might not be surprising.
Is there anyone on the list with some links I could make with Jewish
communities around London? I must admit I haven't searched too hard
prior to this, being immersed in life here.

ANyway to tie things off for now, I hope these snippets of aspects of my
emergent properties/explanatory critique through depth inquiry with
Aboriginal and other colleagues in sunny Queensland, are helpful to our
ongoing dialogue, Dick.

I am also keen somewhere down the track to engage with other listers who
are concerned to explore an explanatory critique of the Israel/Palestine
issues, especially from the perspective of a number of books (and no
doubt many others) such as:
Gish, Art.G. 1970. The New Left and Christian Radicalism. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans.
Sharp, Gene. 1973. The Politics of Nonviolent Action - Part 1: Power and
Struggle. Part 2: The Methods of Nonviolent Action. Part 3: The Dynamics
of Nonviolent Action. Boston: Porter Sargent.
Sharp, G. 1980. Social Power and Political Freedom. Boston: Porter
Sargent.
There is also the (for some) controversial series on "The Powers" by
Walter Wink. His first two books deal with Jewish and other ancient
contemporary undersatndings of "the principalities and powers", titled
respectively "Naming the Powers" and "Unmasking the Powers." His third
book in the trilogy, titled "Engaging the Powers - Discernment and
Resistance in a World of Domination", 1992, Minneapolis: Fortress Press,
includes an analysis of the evils perpetrated by Jews and many others
throughout history, including those recorded in the Tanakh or Old
Testament.

For anyone concerned about the Israel/Palestine issue, I suggest two
other titles by friends of mine from Brisbane, provide some further
critique of the role of Christianity/Bush politics in perpetuating the
mid-east conflict: Dave Andrews' (1999) Christi-Anarchy: A Radical
Spirituality for a new Millenium. Sutherland: Albatross Books; and
Howard-Brook, W. and Gwyther, A. 1999. Unveiling Empire: Reading
Revelation Then and Now. New York: Orbis Books.

(For some further insights on the Jewish/Christian relationship, I am
finding David Stern's translation (including the introductory sections)
of the "Complete Jewish Bible" helpful.)

For those on the list who expend some energy on these issues, does
anyone know how to contact Jewish and Palestinian peace activists in
Israel and Palestine, including Christian Arabs and Jews, by email?

Not that I have a lot of extra energy myself, alone, but what might we
do as Bhaskarian readers, to support each other in supporting the cause
of Shalom/Salaam in the Middle East?

Now I really am tired, but am glad to have put some thoughts out there
in cyberspace. Do you hear us, Adonai?

Regards

Neil


Richard Moodey wrote:
>
> Hi Neil,
>
> I'm not sure that what I have to say responds directly to your post.  I
> think it is important both to acknowledge the traditions, religious and
> otherwise, that shape my thinking and choosing, and to criticize those
> traditions.  I regard the critical clarification of a tradition in which I
> stand as a theological, rather than a strictly philosophical or social
> scientific, exercise.  My acceptance of my traditions as authoritative is,
> for the most part, tacit.  I can focus upon, and criticize, selected bits
> of this tacitly accepted background -- turn it in into foreground -- but
> always know the object of focal awareness in terms of all the rest, which,
> at the moment, remains tacitly, and uncritically, accepted.
>
> Anyone who takes seriously the critical clarification of his or her own
> traditions soon discovers that there have been those who have done evil in
> the name of some aspect of every tradition.  You mention your Jewish
> tradition.  Are there no stories in the Hebrew scriptures which tell of
> evil deeds done in the name of God?
>
> I understand it to be an important part of my calling to clarify and
> criticize the traditions within which I stand.  I see this as more
> important to my spiritual growth than denouncing the traditions of others.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Dick
>
> At 08:31 PM 05/14/2002 +1000, you wrote:
> >Hello all
> >
> >I reply to this as the 'white' student Gary referred to. First of all I
> >must say that I'm really enjoying reading everyone's contributions to
> >the list. And I look forward to any replies to this topic. My hope is
> >that there will be some who will continue to unpeel the layers of
> >Christian influence and colonisation that have impacted our world for
> >two millenia. But as I wrote to Gary today, "... one point that many
> >people seem to find difficulty in grasping is that within my journey so
> >far, there has been a steady growth in understanding of the colonising
> >impact of Christianity within my own heritage. My resistance to
> >colonisation is first, within my own being and then within the contexts
> >of my life. I was shocked (shouldn't have been) to see once again the
> >assumption from a few people present, that because I am perceived as
> >'white'(??!!), I am therefore an anglo-saxon christian with all that
> >that is seen to entail. Yet from my Jewish perspective (and that of many
> >radical followers of Yeshua the Jew), Christianity is indeed the
> >anti-Christ."
> >
> >Must go for now.
> >
> >Neil Hockey
> >
> >Gary MacLennan wrote:
> > >
> > > I am hoping to be able to persuade some of my graduate students to make the
> > > trip to Bradford. I think that two of them are currently doing interesting
> > > work around the question of Aboriginality and Emancipation.  One of the
> > > candidates is white while the other is an Aborigine.
> > >
> > > Central to both theses is the matter of spirituality.  How though can this
> > > be understood?  For one of the candidates his spirituality comes I think
> > > out of his Christianity. In my own case how do I relate to this? Well I
> > > have been a militant atheist who has grown to detest the aggressive
> > > secularism, which so dominates our epoch and I urged him to come out as a
> > > Christian in his thesis writing. People have a right to be religious. There
> > > I said it!
> > >
> > > However for Aborigines the Christian Church represents something else -
> > > something not very good either. So I think for this candidate the task is
> > > to find a way of formulating the spiritual turn which disassociates it from
> > > the organised religions through an uncompromising commitment to the
> > > eudaionistic society.   The kingdom of god must be located here on earth.
> > >
> > > What of the other candidate?  I have mentioned him in an earlier post.  His
> > > is a struggle from within the Aboriginal community.  He is striving to work
> > > with progressive sectors of the state bureaucracy to bring about a rebirth
> > > in Aboriginal education.  For him the key is the construction of an
> > > Aboriginal identity that is empowering. Much to think about here. Not the
> > > least this which I snipped from Mervyn's post
> > >
> > >  >"the identity of identity and non-identity"
> > >  >(Hegel) versus "the non-identity of identity and non-identity" (Adorno).
> > >
> > > regards
> > >
> > > Gary
> > >
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> >
> >
> >      --- from list bhaskar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
>
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