Sunday, August 18, 2013

DBF: The Toolkit

(This is part of a series exploring Michael Emerson and Christian Smith's book Divided By Faith.)

In summary, this series first established that America is indeed racialized (both anecdotally and statistically). Further, history and the present both show American religion is currently racialized and segregated. Another post demonstrated that this type of segregation matters. God cares about it.

Previously, Emerson and Smith's thesis was revealed that white American Evangelical Christians do care about this problem, but in practice, they unintentionally and ironically perpetuate segregation and inequality rather than alleviate it. In connection with this, it was argued that most whites will respond to racialization and segregation by saying, "Yes, this is a problem, but . . . " The actions taken usually will not only fail to solve anything, but will make racialization more pronounced.

The primary explanation for this can be seen in a framework known as a "cultural toolkit". And specifically, that the toolkit employed by most white evangelicals is seriously lacking in a number of ways. These will be expounded on in the coming posts.

First though, what is this concept? The toolkit could also be described as a worldview, but more uniquely a toolkit gets at the idea that this is a collection of beliefs, values, and assumptions that can be drawn upon when necessary.

All people have a cultural toolkit. There is an American toolkit. There is an Argentine toolkit. There is a Zambian toolkit. But there are also more specific tools drawn upon by subgroups within a society, whether they be economic, geographic, professional, or religious. There is a middle class American toolkit. A Manhattan toolkit. A military toolkit. An evangelical Christian toolkit.

Of course, no group is monolithic. Every group (even a family unit) contains diversity, but I think we could all examine ourselves and see very obvious things from our various group memberships that impact how we think, see, and explain the world. But beyond, the obvious identifiers, we are also all being worked upon by covert assumptions that we may even be totally oblivious to.

A quick example. Everyone says Americans love efficiency. People from other cultures criticize Americans for being too speed oriented and unable to take a break. But, until I was 22 years old I doubted those proclamations. I used simple logic.

1. I'm an American.
2. I don't love efficiency.
3. In fact, I appreciate the complicated, slower things.
4. Therefore, don't group me in with those "efficiency people".

Then I moved to Asia for a year.

And check this out, I moved to a very large, buzzing city. One of the largest cities in the world. An academic and economic center. But within weeks, I found myself having a constant internal dialog "What is taking so long?", "Why is this line not moving?", "Is this even a line?", and perhaps more salty word choices.

Why?

Certainly not because I'm so culturally flexible, but because like it or not, I have been raised in and influenced by a middle-class American (specifically Midwestern) toolkit that emphasizes efficiency. In fact, I would say efficiency is a highlighted value for all three of the subgroups I listed above. I denied it, but in fact, my toolkit mattered. It impacted the way I thought, the way I saw, and the way I interpreted the world.

This toolkit concept is the biggest factor in causing white Evangelicals to perpetuate and re-create segregation. So understanding it is key. Our toolkit not just impacts how we see and interpret but literally everything we think or do as well.

But, what exactly are these values?

Emerson and Smith identify three key cultural tools that impact the white Evangelical view of race.

  • Accountable freewill individualism
  • Relationalism
  • Antistructuralism
Of course, individualism is a core American value, but the authors identify that white Evangelicals hold it in a form and with a fervor that is distinctive. Evangelicals are marked by a particularly strong attachment to this value, seeing sin and salvation as personal entities and as marked by choices. Further, the idea of a Divine Lawgiver and Judge gives evangelicals a distinctive care for accountability within their individualism. Many of you can probably see how this plays out theologically, but also note that these tools are exercised elsewhere. They will, like-it-or-not, be used when assessing other situations (i.e. Why is their economic inequality? Why are churches segregated?)

Relationalism is putting "central importance on interpersonal relationships." This is most distinct in the view of a "personal relationship with God." God is a relational God. God has given us relationship with Himself as well as relationship with his Body, the fellowship of the Church. This is a "bedrock, nonnegotiable belief" that is "difficult to overemphasize" for evangelicals according to the authors. This relationalism makes evangelicals interpersonal ties and networks particularly strong and deep as well as highly influencing evangelical explanations (i.e. Evangelicals will be more likely to select "hanging around the wrong crowd" as a reason for criminal activity than Americans at-large).

Antistructuralism can be paired with the high value placed on individualism. It is the "inability to perceive or unwillingness to accept social structural influences." The authors found that often evangelicals are not just dismissive of structural explanations, but are even hostile towards them. It should be noted that, though Scripture often points to the influence of social structures, an emphasis on accountable individualism causes this group to see structural explanations as a mere attempt to shift the blame for sin off of oneself. In fact, I would argue that this anti-structuralism probably caused some of you to dislike my third post and that it probably even caused a number of folks to not be reading this post because they gave up midway through that one.

Just as a carpenter who only has a hammer will use nails and never screws, we all can only access the things that are already in our toolkit. Further, the process of adding to our toolkit is lengthy, uncomfortable, and requires being exposed to the views of people unlike ourselves. So as a result, most people are not just unaware of their toolkit, but if made aware, they are wary of acknowledging it's influence, let alone expanding it. 

Toolkits limit the explanations available to us. So as a white evangelical approaches a race issue, the reality is that the available explanations have already been highly limited by their toolkit. Many ideas and viewpoints are not even on the table, along with all thoughts that might flow out of those concepts.

I'd invite you to come along and see how these tools play out in various ways that impact the church and race.

In the next post, I'll unpack what I believe to be a serious theological error that the standard evangelical toolkit propagates and how that error harms both the mission of the church and the issue of race in particular.

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