A pastor friend of mine called the other day to ask for my prayers. He had been part of a youth confirmation weekend, in which the culminating event was an evangelistic rally.
We all know the sort. Confess your sins, humble yourselves, and believe the gospel. That sort of rally.
Thing is, one of the youths, as a product of said rally, reached a spiritual crisis. She saw herself as a sinner -- specifically an "unclean" girl because of sex -- who was a victim of sex abuse by an older teen, not in the group.
So that got me to thinking.
How do we resolve the theological dilemma of "taking up the cross" for victims?
What does kenosis, humility and "taking up the cross" look like for a person in locations of abuse and oppression?
Since "descending" to a place of "lower status" presupposes that the person is "high status" and on the top. Thus, to be a Christian in these locations is to let go of and to empty oneself of status. To humble and lower yourself.
But victims don't have status. How does humbling oneself work if you are already a low status person, especially an abused and oppressed person? How much lower are you supposed to go?
The worry in all this, as you can probably guess, is when people tell abused and oppressed people to tolerate their abuse and oppression quietly and passively. In this, in acquiescing to the abuse, the person is told he or she is "being like Jesus". Pastoral advice like this heaps theological abuse upon physical, sexual and emotional abuse in how it stands with the abuser and the oppressor.
So we definitely don't want to go in that direction. Kenosis, humility and taking up the cross shouldn't look anything like that, siding with the abusers and the oppressors. (Not that we hate the abusers and oppressors, just that we don't provide them with theological justification for what they are doing and that we engage in vigorous, fearless and sustained theological rebuke of abuse and oppression.)
So if that's not the direction we should go, then what does kenosis, humility and taking up the cross look like for those who are low status, those who are being abused and oppressed?
I think this requires some radical -- in the sense of getting back to the root -- thinking. My idea and my advice the other day is this. It's simple and radical. Victims don't convert. Victims -- the abused and neglected -- are already Christian.
Only oppressors and abusers require conversion.
That requires some fleshing out, so ...
Regarding kenosis, humility and taking up the cross victims have already been poured out, humiliated and crucified. Thus, victims have already been converted. In their victimhood, victims already stand with and in Christ. Or, rather, Christ has already moved to stand with the victims -- sanctifying them, divinizing them. Victims incarnate the Crucified Christ and, thus, they are already Christians.
Hanging already on the cross of their abuse, victims need do nothing more to become "Christ-like" or to become like Jesus. As I said, victims require no conversion.
This, then, is the root of the problem with so much evangelistic preaching. It's spiritually damaging to victims. It's spiritual abuse of the already-abused. That young lady didn't need to "repent" and "believe". She'd already been crucified. No "taking up the cross" for her. She is still hanging on it. She doesn't need to "die to her sins". She's been killed, over and over, as a victim.
No, what she needs isn't conversion.
This demand for re-crucifixion -- the attempt to convert and preach at the one hanging on the cross -- it brings in the potential for more and continued abuse.
This is why I think notions like kenosis, humility and taking up the cross often become dysfunctional, hurtful and sadomasochistic when preached at those being abused or oppressed. You're trying to convert the converted, to make people in these locations do something more, to go lower, when they, as victims, need do nothing more.
(The one caveat that could be added here is that we talk about the forgiving victim on the cross. The victim who seeks to create no more victims. Thus, while the victim is holy and doesn't need to become more of a victim to stand with Christ -- the victim don't need to submit to additional suffering or lowering or humiliation -- there may be internal work that needs to be done to break the cycle of violence, hate and revenge. In short, victims need do nothing more by way of suffering to stand with Christ and to suggest otherwise is abusive. But having been lifted out of the abusive and oppressive context, the victim has the hard work of forgiveness ahead. Hanging on the cross, we still forgive the crucifiers. Pouring-out in this context means vomiting out the vile black bile of an abusive past.)
I realize all this sounds provocative. But it's classic spiritual wisdom. Check out Gregory the Great's Pastoral Rule.
What's more: It's biblical!
In many ways, what I've just described takes its cue from liberation theology. But instead of God's preferential option for the poor what we have here is the preferential option for the victim. God already stands in divine solidarity with the victims. Thus victims do not need to "convert", they don't need to move from one spiritual location to another in order to stand with and be with God. The Crucified God is already found in the midst of victims and among the victims. Thus, victims need do nothing to find God beyond their being victims. The victim requires no conversion to be with God. Victims are already with God.
Biblically, this is simply the theology of the Beatitudes, the Magnificat and the Nazareth Manifesto of Luke 4. The poor, the meek, the gentle, the persecuted, the least of these are already blessed. And being already blessed victims don't need to do anything more in order to become blessed.
What victims require, and this is the clear teaching of Scripture, is elevation and exultation. Being already blessed and already in God's divine favor the victim needs no future encouragement to be more Christian, more blessed, more Christ-like. To preach conversion to the victim -- to ask them to go lower, to re-crucify themselves -- is abusive as the only message the victim needs is the Good News of Divine favor: Blessed are you!
My advice this past weekend, was that the Gospel message to her is simple: You, here in your low estate, have been seen by God. Your cries have been heard and your tears have been counted and gathered into the wineskin of God.
Take my hand, and be lifted up.