Before anything else, let’s admit this up front: it is not easy for us to look at 1 Peter 2:18-25 (on slaves submitting to masters, as Jesus submitted to the Father) without fire in our eyes, shame in our history, and nuance all over everything we say. Why? Because of what we know about the history of slavery in our world. This text, to use a term from feminists studies, a ‘text of terror.’ But not to all of us. And that is the point.
So, in today’s post I want to offer an experimental reading. Only after such a reading will I turn to a more traditional look at the text. I will offer a ‘reading of the oppressed.’ I do not want this to be seen as a reading exclusively as to how, say, an African-American liberation theologian would read this. Instead, I’m seeking at how this can text has been used and therefore how it is heard by some. Enter into this conversation by way of sympathy rather than asking ‘Is this interpretation justifiable?’ At least try to do this, and as the week proceeds we’ll be able to entertain other readings, and I hope readings that get us behind and beyond the power ideologies that have been used in reading this text and the others that follow.
(Via Jesus Creed.)
Check out Scot McKnight’s excellent post on a difficult slavery passage. We need more Christians to seriously consider how passages like these are understood by the oppressed. McKnight will be following up with a more traditional understanding of the text.
To take this a place where McKnight has not, I often wonder about the place of violence and freedom from oppression. Christians today seem more than ready to condone violence (the war in Iraq), if they can believe they are freeing oppressed persons. I wonder if this willingness to rush to violence comes from a lingering guilt over the lack of response to slavery from the Church for many, many years. At any rate, I do not believe you have to resort to violence to act on behalf of the oppressed, and sometimes it can be counter-productive. The history of the Church has shown the most lasting freedom and change has come through nonviolence.
Leave a Reply