{"id":2074,"date":"2012-06-06T16:17:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T16:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/06\/politics-presentation-and-the-prophetic-element.html"},"modified":"2012-06-06T16:17:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-06T16:17:00","slug":"politics-presentation-and-the-prophetic-element","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/06\/politics-presentation-and-the-prophetic-element.html","title":{"rendered":"Politics, Presentation and the Prophetic Element"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a><\/div>\n
by Earle Fisher<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
Rhetoric Race and Religion Contributor<\/span>
First published in Rainbows and Lilacs <\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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When the President made his stance<\/a> regarding Same Sex Marriage I feared that there would be a certain backlash from a contingency within the black church<\/a>.\u00a0 What I didn\u2019t prepare for, however, was the current media\u2019s local and national recapitulation of the black preacher, church and community being consistent with the stance of a particular segment.\u00a0 If one is novice or untrained regarding the particularities of the black faith experience it may be easy to assert that all black people of faith are homophobic, hypocritical, anti-intellectual and that black faith leaders are all pimpish priest and not prophets.\u00a0 To be clear, there have been a few exceptions projected nationally (and even fewer locally, in Memphis).\u00a0 Dr. Michael Eric Dyson<\/a>, Rev. Otis Moss III<\/a>, Pastor Leslie Callahan<\/a>, Dr. Renita Weems<\/a> and even a couple of those on the Faith in Memphis Panel<\/a> and Rhetoric Race and Religion blog<\/a> have expressed views in opposition of those opposing the President.\u00a0 Yet, in a broader and more vast sense there has seem to be a strategy by some to demonize, reduce and re-project black faith as buffoonery at worse and misguided spirituality at best.\u00a0 I believe this mythical, monolithic portrayal has compartmentalized our faith based expressions of love, hope in the American Democratic system, and the activism that is the bi-product of our spirituality.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n

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This strategy is not new.\u00a0 In 2008 Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. was ostracized by pundits, public commentators and various others of the political and priestly persuasion.\u00a0 We have recently seen the soon to be Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney\u2019s constituency plan<\/a> to represent Rev. Wright as the quintessential model of the \u201cworst\u201d of the black church.\u00a0 To expose the irony here would be a convenient dissertation topic.\u00a0 Instead, what I\u2019d like to push back against is the notion that any ONE person, church, group or geographical location can adequately represent a people of faith with a legacy as long as the Nile and Mississippi River\u2019s combined.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n

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People of faith, who are also people of color, many of whom have been actively involved in the political process, have never collectively been one value voters, in complete agreement with any theological premise or political legislative stance.\u00a0 We are a complex people, and that is a good thing.\u00a0 We never agree totally on anything, just like other ethnic groups.\u00a0 The diversity of thought, theology, expression and practice of the black faith community is part of our beauty and when it is disregarding and reduced it becomes a tautology of xenophobic slave master sensibilities that stem from a hermeneutic of privilege.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n

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We have warred against this throughout our history in our attempts towards spiritual liberation, communal emancipation, racial desegregation and other issues of discrimination not limited to sexual orientation.\u00a0 And to be honest, we have seen several setbacks on this sojourn.\u00a0 This ought to be expected when a group of diverse and complex humans gather and seek to progress collectively.\u00a0 Sometimes we are our own worst enemies; most responsible for our own stagnation.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n

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But we have never been defined by one group or one era.\u00a0 The civil rights vein of the black prophetic tradition was not limited to the 50\u2019s and 60\u2019s.\u00a0 The prophetic element can never be monopolized.\u00a0 When the attempt is made to do so, the movement ceases to be prophetic.\u00a0 It is commoditized for the sake of profit and disregards the voices of true prophets. But prophetic movements don\u2019t succumb to commodification.\u00a0 In all of our diversity we stay committed to the struggle for justice because of the call and cause of our Christ and never for the sake of compensation and conceit (even though sometimes money and notoriety accompany prophetic persona in a hyper-technological, social networking culture).\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n

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It seems clear to me that faith in our current climate has political requirements and implications.\u00a0 This is not to say that our ministerial leaders need to be politicians, but if our theology is disconnected from practical life and the political ethos, our theology becomes irrelevant.\u00a0 This is why the prophetic narrative is not Ameri-centric.\u00a0 True prophetic persona and presentation is universal at its core.\u00a0 Therefore one cannot, in my opinion, faithfully interpret the life and ministry of Jesus devoid of his political realities (i.e. the treatment of lepers, Sabbath, the status of women and other politically affirmed cultural values of his day).\u00a0 Doing so is to be reductionist relative to Jesus\u2019 prophetic ministry, the prophetic tradition in which he stood and his divinity in general.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n

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I believe God CALLS us ALL in our various vineyards to raise our voice (not always in agreement, that\u2019s unison, but still in harmony) to adequately represent the beautiful hues of our humanity and the complex cords and tones of our theology to continue to help us progress.\u00a0 We must find a way adequately and authentically to represent all voices. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Earle Fisher Rhetoric Race and Religion ContributorFirst published in Rainbows and Lilacs When the President made his stance regarding Same Sex Marriage I feared that there would be a certain backlash from a contingency within the black church.\u00a0 What I didn\u2019t prepare for, however, was the current media\u2019s local and national recapitulation of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPolitics, Presentation and the Prophetic Element<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Earle FisherRhetoric Race and Religion ContributorFirst published in Rainbows and Lilacs When the President made his stance regarding Same Sex Marriage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/06\/politics-presentation-and-the-prophetic-element.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Politics, Presentation and the Prophetic Element\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Earle FisherRhetoric Race and Religion ContributorFirst published in Rainbows and Lilacs When the President made his stance regarding Same Sex Marriage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/06\/politics-presentation-and-the-prophetic-element.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-06T16:17:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/files\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-bT-L-MMbLHE\/T1_BWtQkMCI\/AAAAAAAAAdo\/cHK79jc2C8Y\/s200\/earle+fisher.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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