The Dignity Culture
The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 13, 2019
This last Thursday I went to a talk at Wellesley College called “Dignity in an Era of Victimhood and Incivility”. It was sponsored by the Freedom Project. The aim of the Freedom Project at Wellesley College is “the promotion of freedom of expression, pluralism and tolerance on campus and in the greater world.”[1]
The talk was given by Professor Bradley Campbell from the California State University, Los Angeles. His talk was largely based on his book that he co-authored The Rise of Victimhood Culture.
During the lecture he talked about different types of cultures –
The Honor Culture which is most notably represented by two men dueling with swords or pistols. The duel arises when one man dishonors another by calling him a liar, or scoundrel, etc., and then the accused challenges the accuser to a duel – to the death. The honor culture is characterized as being sensitive to slight and quick to insult other people.
Victimhood culture, as Campbell explains it, suspends civility in order to lash out, harm, embarrass, harass, insult and use hate speech toward “the oppressor”. Campbell gave examples from both sides of the political and social spectrum. He cited people and organizations on both the right and the left who use such tactics – in speech, in articles, in tweets and other comments on social media.
He argues that incivility is both immoral and ineffective. Has anyone ever won an argument by insulting and belittling someone?
Campbell went on to suggest that the way forward is with dignity culture – a culture that is exemplified in the teaching and leadership of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, who learned the value of civil disobedience from Ghandi as penned by David Thoreau in his essay of the same name – Civil Disobedience. Dr Martin Luther King Jr. preached a kind of restrained form of non-violent protest based on love of enemy and upholding the dignity of every human being. And of course, this was an intrinsic outflowing his life of following Jesus and living out his Christian faith.
Dignity Culture upholds the belief that humans have inherent worth regardless of what people espouse or think. Dignity Culture and the Logic of Civility asks of its adherers to abstain from causing offense or from taking offense (or as I see it, looking for offense).
As I listened to this talk, I thought about how much this Old Testament reading exemplified Dignity Culture as well as Honor Culture, and what wins out is dignity culture. In this story if Naaman had behaved according to the victim culture or honor culture he never would have been made well.
Let’s start at the beginning of the lesson. Naaman, on behalf of Aram, beats the Israelite armies – empowered by the God of Israel. Israel receives its just desserts for their unfaithfulness.
We learn that despite Naaman’s military prowess, he suffers from leprosy. So, the servant girl who is captured, instead of withholding information because she has been dishonored by being captured, reveals to her mistress that Namaan could be cured. The servant girl respected the dignity of Naaman and his wife.
And Naaman learning of this – takes the advice from an inferior – a little servant girl (which is what the Hebrew translate to) and asks the King to help. And the King agrees and sends a letter ahead of time – to the enemy that they just defeated.
Which brings us to the next part of the story. The King of Israel tears his robes in anguish. Why? Because after receiving the letter and all the gifts, he knows he will be dishonored because he does not have the power to heal Naaman. The king will be disgraced.
But Elisha, a prophet and inferior to the King tells him we will take care of it. That gets the king off the hook.
So Naaman travels to Elisha with all his entourage. And Elisha does Naaman the great dishonor not to come out to great him. Instead he sends a messenger. Again, more dishonor! Naaman is angry and sad. And not only did Elisha not come out – Elisha did not perform a mighty and awesome miracle fitting for Naaman, the mighty warrior. The cheek! And to wash in a foreign river when there are so many other better rivers in Aram.
And again, an inferior, a servant, saves the day – he basically says, “just go ahead and do what Elisha says.”
And what’s more – Elisha did give Naaman a cure. A foreign commander who just defeated Israel is still given the dignity of being cured.
And in the end Naaman is not just restored – he is made like a young boy – which is the bookend of this story – paralleling the young servant girl at the beginning.
Naaman is given his dignity back by being cured – but it would not have happened if he had placed the moral value of honor over that of dignity.
In our baptismal covenant, on page 305 in the Book of Common Prayer we promise, with God’s help, to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves, and to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.
And so, what this calls forth from us is our best. It calls forth from us a willingness to engage in conversation with others with whom we may disagree. It calls us to love others who hold different views from ourselves. Ellen Degeneres displayed this kind of loving last week when she responded to the criticism levelled at her for sitting with George Bush Jr. at a Dallas Cowboys Football game – she said ‘I have friends who don’t think the same things that I do. When I say be kind to one another, I don’t mean be kind to the people who think the same way you do. I mean ..be kind to everyone,”
So, what does this mean for us? It means being good examples
of living a dignified life – a life commended and commanded to us by Jesus. A
life exemplified in Martin Luther King Jr., a life commended to us in the famous
Parables of the Prodigal Son and also the Good Samaritan. And as we live a life in this manner, we demonstrate
to others the benefit of living a life where we are both slow to anger, and also
slow to take offense. And if we can live
this way – we can use our energies to work toward a more just and moral society
in ways that are both kinder and more effective.
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