The Raven Foundation

The United States of America is under attack.  America has an enemy that will stop at nothing until it defeats our way of life.  If you are afraid of any possible threat to our way of life posed by Islamism, or China, or the European economic crisis, or the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, well, those are all child’s play when compared to this threat.

You may be wondering, “Just who is attacking the United States?”  According to the conservative website Caucus for America, which is “dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the historic American civilization,” liberals are to blame.  Liberals are attacking the religious core at the heart of America’s way of life.  The secular Left, which, according to the website, has contaminated protestant Christianity, “knows that the only way to destroy the America we’ve known is by destroying the Christianity, the Judeo-Christian ethic, which has made it great.”  The Left is attacking America’s soul from the inside.  If this was an enemy from the outside our borders, “We would have raised our swords” against this threat.

That’s pretty serious.  But, there’s more.  According to the progressive website Common Dreams, it’s not the Left who is attacking America; it’s the Right.  And you should be very afraid of the policies those demons would legislate if they were to gain power.  “It’s very possible that Mr. XY Zombie Republican could seize power in November, with the backing of endlessly deep pockets like the Koch brothers, Big Energy, and Big Finance, and the blessing of the Supreme Court.”

As I read these equally hysterical but completely opposite viewpoints, I realized they had something in common that is more profound than their panic and fear.  Whether on the Right or the Left, the American way of life many of us are so eager to defend involves demonizing and shaming others so that you aren’t the one demonized and shamed.  Attack!  Attack so that the attention is on your opponent’s deficiencies and not on yours.  Seriously?  “Zombie Republican”?!?  Are you kidding me?  It’s sophomoric and certainly not progressive.  And the suggestion that we should raise our swords against the Left to protect our American way of life is an American way of life that I reject.

And so I’m attacking this American way of life.  Yes.  I’m attacking it because it’s pathetic.  It’s banal and I think it’s time for us to grow up.  The Left and the Right justify the demonization of one another in the name of protecting America.  And they both look pathetically similar.  The Left and the Right are caught up in a mimetic rivalry, where both sides assert differences where no difference exists.  They are exactly the same.  They both claim the mantle of righteousness while they demonize the other.  It is, apparently, what America is all about.

Indeed, it’s pathetic and weak.  It makes us into cowards because the American way of life that demonizes the other conveniently blinds us to our own faults.  It takes courage to look deep within ourselves and critique our own failings.  Under our current way of life, we will never have that kind of courage because we are possessed.  Make no mistake - when the bible talks about demon possession, it’s not talking about an archaic misunderstanding that our ancestors had about humanity.  No.  They had a much more powerful anthropology than we moderns do.  When we accuse others of being a demon (or a Zombie), when we blame the other for all of our cultural problems, we become instantly blind to our own demons.  You can be damn sure that you are possessed by a demon if are inciting fear of Liberals and accusing Republicans of being “Zombies.”

I’m attacking this American way of life because I demand better.  The American way of life that mimics accusations against one another needs to stop because it will destroy us.  I have little hope that politicians, the media, and bloggers have the power to change this pattern.  I do have hope, though.  I have hope that people like you and I can change.  We don’t have accuse one another.  We are not enslaved to a way of life that demonizes and shames our family members, our neighbors, our co-workers, or even those we call our enemies.  We must say no to that way of life, because only when we say no to that way of life can we be empowered to say yes to a way of life that respect opposing views and values dialogue over demonization.

When the American way of life emphasizes that spirit, I will stop my attack.

“I happen to know there were sealed settlements reached in the plural.  I think that anybody who thinks this was a one time, one person transgression would be mistaken.” – A source for Politico

“When you’re in a leadership position, sometimes people just try to take a shot at you.” – J.D. Gordon, Herman Cain Spokesperson

Herman Cain.  Welcome to politics.

Cain’s rapid ascendancy as the GOP frontrunner has been remarkable and speaks to the growing frustrations with politicians in America. Cain is an unconventional presidential candidate, as his quest for the presidency is his first time running for public office.  He gained his leadership experience in the business world: Cain seems to have been successful in all his business endeavors.  He was the regional vice president of Pillsbury’s Burger King division, President and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, and then President of the National Restaurant Association.

All of that is impressive, but given that he hasn’t held political office, it’s fairly surprising that he finds himself as the lead candidate.  As such, it was only a matter of time before skeletons started walking out of his closet. Michelle Goldberd at the Daily Beast commented, “Herman Cain is currently leading the Republican polls. If he wants to be treated as a serious candidate … he’s going to be subjected to serious scrutiny.”

Indeed, Cain’s personal life is now under serious scrutiny.  Politico recently reported that Cain is being accused of sexually harassing at least two women who worked for him at the National Restaurant Association.  Cain responded to those accusations, claiming to be the “victim of a ‘smear campaign.’”

We have at least three people claiming to be victims in this story.  Who do we believe?  Whose story is true?  Who is the real victim?  Is Cain the victim, or are the women the victims?

Yes.

You may not like that answer.  It’s a paradox.  But the answer is yes.

How is Cain the victim?  He’s in the lead and because he is in the lead many people want to see him fall, especially his Republican opponents.  Whether or not these accusations are true, his Republican and Democratic opponents can unite against this creepy man who made unwanted sexual advances toward women who worked for him.  Of course, those who unite against Cain benefit in their accusations against him, as they feel a sense of moral superiority.  Knowing that he’s creepy allows us to feel good about ourselves.

How are the women victims?  If their accusations are true, they were sexually harassed by their boss.  They were victims of an abuse of power and made to feel like sexual objects as opposed to human beings.  That would be an abuse of power and Cain should be held responsible for his actions.

So, where is the truth in this story?  It’s hard to know because the truth is being obscured by whether or not you support Herman Cain.  For example, the “truth” for one side could be that, whether or not the accusations are true, this issue was solved in the late 1990s and has no relevance for his candidacy.  The “truth” for the other side could be that this issue reveals Cain’s abusive character that would only continue into his possible presidency.

I don’t know the truth of Cain's is guilt or innocence.  But I do know this truth – I don’t envy anyone who gets involved in politics.

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Adam discusses Job of the Bible. Job challenges much of the wisdom in the Bible that claims good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people. For example, see Deuteronomy 6:18, Psalm 1, and Proverbs 3. For a book similar to Job, see Ecclesiastes. Job claims his innocence, while his friends unite in accusation against him. In the end, God sides with Job, the victim. Here we see the evolution in the human understanding of God. God is not with the crowd that unites in accusation against a common enemy; rather, God is on the side of the victim. This is seen ultimately in life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

For more, see Rene Girard's book, "Job: The Victim of His People."

Blogging has been slow for me during last few weeks.  I was stressed about delivering a paper at the “Girard and World Religions” symposium in Berkeley.  It was asked to present a paper on Islam.  Like many, Islam has been a growing interest for me since 9/11.  After 9/11, I began to wonder what everyone else was wondering:  “What within Islam could lead Muslims to commit such horrendous acts of violence?”  It feltlike American culture was becoming obsessed with that question.  It got old for me.  So, I began to ask its opposite:  “What within Islam could lead Muslims to love and non-violence?”  I explored that question in my master’s thesis.  Well, I actually posed the same question to Christianity, too.  It was entitled Love and Nonviolence in Christianity and Islam.

When I started delving into mimetic theory, I began to see that, on the whole, the first question is false.  It’s a red herring.  Of course there is violence within Islamic scriptures, Islamic history, and Islamic theology.  But that is not because violence is endemic to Islam in a way that it is not to other religions or other people.  One of the many things I appreciate about mimetic theory is that it takes violence seriously.  Violence is like a disease that infects us all.  All human institutions, including religious institutions, create an “us” and a “them.”  Our identity seems to depend on that distinction.  We know that “we” are good because we accuse “them” of being bad.  The accusations against one another are mimetic, that is, we non-consciously imitate one another’s accusations.  Soon, the accusations escalate and we commit even more verbal, emotional, and physical violence against one another.  Unfortunately, it is easy for us to get sucked into this trap.  It is human.  So, of course the distinction between “us” and “them” shows up within Islam.  It shows up everywhere.  The important question is: Does Islam have the tools to critique the human propensity to violently divide the world into “us” and “them”?

Before I left for the conference, I tried to write something productive about Rob Bell’s latest book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.  (Click for parts 1, 2, and 3)  It’s a controversial book because he challenges popular notions of hell. I worried about getting sucked into the mimetic rivalry in the blogosphere concerning Bell.  It seems as though you either love him or you hate him.  I love him.  I think he’s asking the right questions, but it is easy for me to get sucked into a rivalry with those people and accuse them of being jerks.

While researching Islam during that time, I discovered that the Qur’an has a lot to say about hell, and I discovered that it describes hell in very mimetic terms.  In fact, hell in the Qur’an is a place of mimetic accusations.  “This is how it will be,” claims the Qur’an. “The inhabitants of the Fire will blame one another” (38:64.)

So, hell is a place, even a way of life, which is based on accusations.  The Qur’an provides the alternative way of life that is based on the hope of reconciliation.  “Good and evil cannot be equal.  Repel evil with what is better and your enemy will become as close as an old and valued friend” (41:34).  In his commentary on this passage, Abdullah Yusuf Ali states that “what is better” is love.  “You repel or destroy evil with something which is far better, just as an antidote is better than poison.  You foil hatred with love.” 

Accusations, according to the Qur’an, are the mimetic actions of hell.  But how might the Qur’an lead us to be saved from hell?  The only way out is to repel those accusations with something better, which is love.  It’s an intentional love that hopes for the transformation from “us” against “them” into “us” in a relationship of love with “them.”  We do this by finding our common humanity.  As the Qur’an states, “People, We created you all from a single man and a single woman, and made you into races and tribes so that you should know one another [not that you should despise one another]” (49:13).

In the end, there are violent aspects within all human institutions that make us uncomfortable.  Some form of violence is found everywhere.  Maybe the most important thing we can do is critique our own violence and help one another to see the good that exists in the “other.”  Then we may begin to know one another without accusing and despising one another.  We may even begin to love one another.