Category Archives: Violence

Frederic, me, and our surprising connection

Ephesians, Ephesians 2, Genocide, Rwanda, Tribal violence, Violence, violence and Christianity, WW2 Germany

It was the afternoon of Good Friday, April 15, 2022. Frederic and I were seated in a small home in Reconciliation Village, Nyamata, Rwanda. It was storytelling time. We gathered closely around a small coffee table—with four other villagers, Lillian from Africa New Life, and my colleague Kristin. 

We had just listened to three stories. Two stories were from Hutu men who were part of the 1994 Genocide as perpetrators. One story was from Jacqueline. She was 17 years old when the Genocide occurred. 

Jacqueline had been out in the field tending the family cows. When she returned to her house in Nyamata, she found the Hutu mob had killed her entire Tutsi family of eleven. 

More than 10,000 other Tutsi had fled to the local church property in Nyamata for shelter and safety. They also were brutally murdered—with guns, machetes, clubs, grenades. (We visited this Nyamata Church Genocide Memorial on that Friday morning. Horrifying.)

Jacqueline fled into the forest and survived. 

Frederic’s story

Also sharing their story was Frederic, a Hutu. “I was one of the perpetrators,” he said to us plainly. Frederic was arrested by the new government and imprisoned like thousands of other young Hutu men after the Genocide. (Frederick did not go into any detail about the crimes or atrocities he may have committed.)

While in prison, Frederic heard the preaching of many pastors. “Confess your crimes, and seek forgiveness. God will forgive all your sins.” Many prisoners could not believe it. They were afraid that Tutsi would kill them in revenge—at first while in prison and later upon being released.

Frederic became honest about his crimes of violence. His honesty and humility had been a step toward freedom. Rwanda’s new government had created a policy to reward honest confession; as a result, many were allowed to return to their Rwandan homelands. Frederic went back to his home area.

I asked, “You who were the perpetrators, do you ever look back and think of yourselves as victims?” They said, “Yes, in part, we are also victims. It is because we had bad leadership. Every day, we were told lies about the Tutsi that they were cockroaches, not real humans, that they should die.”  

I wondered aloud, “If I had been in your community with all the propaganda every day about the so-called enemies in your land to attack them and kill them, would I have done differently or done the same as you?” 

After the Genocide, the new Rwandan government welcomed back tens of thousands of Rwandans living in other nations. Thousands came back from Uganda, Congo, and Tanzania—ready to help rebuild their country, Rwanda. But this created a big problem. A massive number of displaced peoples had nowhere to live. 

An idea is born: Village of Reconciliation

The US-based ministry Prison Fellowship, which had an office in Rwanda, funded the development of a “village of reconciliation.” The idea was to bring together both victims and perpetrators in a real-life, living-together kind of reconciliation in the same community. It was an experiment in restorative justice. The experiment has proven successful.

Frederic told us, “Because I had been honest about being a perpetrator, the officials asked me to be one of the village leaders. So I agreed. We constructed the first homes in the village in 2004. Other men and I helped to make the bricks. We worked together building the homes. Here we are 18 years later. Today, we work together in our gardens to provide food for the community. Our children are living and playing together in peace.” 

After the villagers finished their stories, they concluded: “Two things we want you to remember: First, the Genocide in Rwanda happened, even though some say it did not. And second, true reconciliation is possible; we are proof of that.”

Sharing a bit of my story

Sitting right next to Frederic, I thought it would be good for me to tell a bit of my story. I did not want Frederic to believe I was so different from him. 

I said, “My parents were from Germany. The German government drafted my father into Hitler’s army. Near the end of the war, the Allied Forces captured my father, and he became a prisoner of war for four years in Poland. After he was released, my grandfather took his family with three sons, and they all came to America. My grandfather wanted to go far away from the Russians. My German father and mother married in America, so I was born there.”

My colleague Kristin then asked, “Werner, we see here the openness and honesty of this community; is this openness possibly different from how you grew up? Is their honesty touching you in a way that you did not expect?”

Suddenly, a new topic was on the table in front of us. Open, authentic talking about painful, even shameful things—what does this mean for us?

“Wow. Good question, Kristin,” I replied. As I was growing up, I learned about the Holocaust in Germany in World War 2. I asked my parents about it. They did not want to discuss it. They did not want to talk about the horrors of German people being part of the program to kill 6 million innocent Jews.

I asked the group: “You know there have been genocides in other lands, right?” They nodded, yes.

I spoke about the concentration camp Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, the Germans killed 20,000 people a day through gas chambers and burning. Indeed, Rwanda is not the only land with genocide in its history.

I told our little group that I still had questions about my grandfather’s role in Germany’s brutalities in WW2. He was a businessman who sold fuel. He was trying to survive and feed his family. But what if my grandfather sold gasoline to the German army, which helped them do evil? Was my grandfather complicit?

I also said that my father and one uncle suffered from mental illnesses. Was it because they could not talk honestly or openly about the painful, shameful things they suffered?

Any questions for us?

I said to our little group, “We have asked you questions. Do you have any questions for us?”

Frederic said, “I have a question. You shared about your family and grandfather. Do you still have some pains in your heart about what your grandfather may have done? If so, has this time with us been helpful to you?”

Frederic’s question surprised me. I thanked him for his concern about the possible pains in my heart. “Yes, I have been helped. Your honesty and openness are different from how I grew up with family secrets. You are willing to talk about very painful things in a spirit of forgiveness.”

“For many years, I had like a shadow of shame over the questions about my German family and my father’s mental illness. But in recent years, I have been learning that Jesus does not just forgive our guilt. He also covers our shame.” 

Frederic thanked us. He said I was just the second visitor to their village in 18 years who, after hearing the stories of the victims and perpetrators, also openly shared from his heart.

I felt a strange closeness to Frederic. There was comfort in being together with these men and women in the Village of Reconciliation, Nyamata, Rwanda. I think it was how Frederic and others in the room had been so honest. It was an unusual vulnerability. It felt healthy, like fresh air. If reconciliation is possible here, it is possible anywhere.

I waved my hand across the table in front of us. “We are together sharing in our humanity. We all have struggles. We all need the love of God,” I said.  

The Rwandan woman in whose tiny home we had gathered (she has the green sweater in the photo below) gave a closing prayer. She thanked the Lord for our fellowship. She prayed for us and blessed us in the name of Jesus.

Inside a home in the Village of Reconciliation in Nyamata, with victims and perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Jacqueline, mentioned above as a victim who lost eleven family members, is third from right.
Get an overview of the project here. Support the project here.

Why were we in Rwanda?

We are in Africa on behalf of Mission ONE to conduct research for the Ephesians 2 Gospel Project. Our experiences in Rwanda have been instructive and inspiring.

The Ephesians 2 Gospel Project is about horizontal reconciliation through the cross of Christ. There is a social, horizontal dimension to the gospel of Christ because there is a social, horizontal dimension to the atonement of Christ. The gospel of peace offers reconciliation to groups in conflict (Eph. 2:13–17). 

Rwanda is an important place to learn for the Ephesians 2 Gospel Project for two reasons: 

  1. The 1994 Rwandan genocide by the Hutu against the Tutsi people resulted in 1 million people brutally murdered in 100 days; the church was significantly complicit.
  2. Since 1994, Rwanda has experienced a nationwide movement of reconciliation despite enormous struggles and ongoing trauma. There has been much positive development that would have been impossible without the profound involvement of the church and the reconciling gospel of Jesus Christ.

Final thoughts 

  • On Tuesday, we visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial. It is the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi. Incredible. Check out the website.
  • Want to support the Ephesians 2 Gospel Project? Donate here.

Ephesians 2 Gospel Project—it’s partially rooted in Germany

Ephesians, Ephesians 2, Violence, violence and Christianity, WW2 Germany, ,
At the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on August 6, 2015, I took this picture of myself in front of an aerial photo of the center. I did this to acknowledge the shame of human beings (me being of the same species) who committed the atrocities there.

First, some background material:

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached [the gospel of] peace to you were far off and peace to those who were near.

Ephesians 2:13–17 (ESV)

We launched the Ephesians 2 Gospel Project (E2GP) through my work with Mission ONE in January 2021. The key idea of the Ephesians 2 Gospel Project is this: There is a social and horizontal dimension to the gospel of Christ because there is a social and horizontal dimension to the atonement of Christ (Eph 2:13–17). Our short-term goal is a book. Our desired long-term impact is God’s people drawn into and embodying Christ’s peacemaking work through the gospel.

E2GP is a two-year research project which includes:

  • listening to and learning from the Global Church, including Mission ONE ministry partners,
  • grappling with relevant questions about the gospel, the atonement of Christ, the global mission of the church, and why the church has sometimes been complicit with conflict and violence,
  • reading relevant literature (books and articles) on history, theology, missiology, the social sciences,
  • writing a book (to be co-authored with Kristin Caynor), which is the catalyst for developing other resources for learning and practice,
  • facilitating a fellowship of Christian scholars and practitioners around the world to study and embody the gospel of peace as a solution to collective-identity conflict in the church in their own nations and contexts.

Since last January, Kristin Caynor has been contributing as a research assistant to the Ephesians 2 Gospel Project. Kristin grew up on the mission field; she and her parents serve with a mission organization similar to Mission ONE. Kristin is a qualified researcher. She has a lot of cross-cultural ministry experience, has a passion for helping marginalized peoples in the global church, and is a Ph.D. candidate at Trinity College Bristol/University of Aberdeen. (Check it out: Kristin’s recent lecture on the Ephesians 2 Gospel Project is for the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence; it is outstanding. You can view the video here.)

About Germany and the Ephesians 2 Gospel Project

I am the son of German immigrant parents. My father was a soldier in Hitler’s army; he was a prisoner of war in Poland for four years. He became mentally ill in my teenage years. I took on a shadow of shame from my father and family.

Concerning WW2 Germany, the juxtaposition of two truths (below) should cause us to shudder.

  1. WW2 Germany and Europe was the location of a massive violence and bloodshed. A central part of this conflict was the Holocaust (or Shoah). It was a deliberate, sustained, unspeakable evil. It was murder on the largest scale committed against the Jews on behalf of the supposed superiority of the German (Aryan) race.
  2. At the time of Hitler’s rule, Germany’s people identified as 97% Christian.

Here’s how Holocaust scholar Robert Ericksen describes this statistic of Germany’s people identifying as 97% Christian.

“When Adolf Hitler came to power, 97 percent of the German population considered itself Christian, with about two-thirds being Protestant and one-third Catholic. Less than 1 percent of Germans were Jewish in 1933, and only a slightly larger percentage registered as pagans or nonbelievers. It is true that the entire 97 percent registered as Christian did not attend church regularly or maintain a vibrant Christian identity. However, all of them agreed to pay the church tax, money they could have saved by the simple act of leaving their church. Furthermore, they received religious education in all German schools, and, of course, many of these 97 percent of the population were fervent Christians active in their faith. Germany in the 1930s almost certainly represented church attendance and a sense of Christian commitment and identity similar to that in America today, for example.”

Robert P. Ericksen, Complicity in the Holocaust: Churches and Universities in Nazi Germany (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 9.

In Germany: Centuries of accrued Christian influence from the church, a population that identifies as 97% Christian … and yet, the Holocaust. How does this add up? How can this be?

Missionaries and missions scholars sometimes speak of the “redemptive lift” that comes to a community when the gospel of Jesus is embraced. I believe this.

But what happened in WW2 Germany? Widespread systemic evil and violence occurred in the society, despite the broad sustained influence of Christianity. Could it be that in the rise of Hitler’s Germany, somehow Christianity was complicit with a redemptive fall?

  • Was there a dimension of the gospel de-emphasized, tragically ignored?
  • Was there a cosmic, systemic dimension of sin ignored?
  • Were there forces—social, systemic, cosmic—against which the German peoples’ Christian faith had little or no defense?
  • Did the church in Germany ignore, abuse, or conceal the gospel text of Ephesiasn 2?
  • Is the gospel of peace (Eph 2:13–17; 6:15) about individual, vertical, personal peace-with-God—or something more social, horizontal, and corporate?

We hope to address these questions, among many others, in the Ephesians 2 Gospel Project through a journey together in the Global Church.

What can we learn from the tragic failure of the church in WW2 Germany? How might these lessons apply to nations today that are dealing with collective identity conflict or tribal conflict? What lessons can we learn about the kind of gospel we are preaching and living?

More on the Ephesians 2 Gospel Project will appear here in forthcoming posts from our ongoing research. Subscribe and stay tuned.

Learn more about the Ephesians 2 Gospel Project at Mission ONE’s website / ephesians2.org.

Brilliant conversation about Paul’s message of the cross in the social context of the Roman Empire

Gospel of Jesus, social context of Roman Empire, Violence

I listened to a podcast recently: “How Saint Paul Changed the World.” This podcast (also in video, below) is chock full of wonderful insights.

The podcast conversation features two brilliant scholars—N. T. Wright and Tom Holland—who speak with “Unbelievable?” podcast host Justin Brierley about the life and writings of Apostle Paul. Central to this discussion is the gospel which Paul puts forth in his letters—the gospel of believing in a crucified God in the social context of the brutal Roman Empire.

I found this conversation compelling, even delightful. A gospel featuring a horribly shamed, crucified Savior (who three days later rises from the dead)—is a gospel which remains as relevant as ever, as challenging as ever, as hope-filled as ever.

This conversation reinforces the principle that understanding the social context of the Roman Empire is essential for a richer understanding of the New Testament.

The conversation features two guests:

  1. N. T. Wright is the former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and one of the world’s most renown Bible scholars. He now serves as the Chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. The author of numerous books, his most recent work, Paul: A Biography, is featured in this podcast conversation. (I read Paul: A Biography earlier this year. I found the book exceedingly rich and readable—and a great encouragement to my faith.) See N. T. Wright’s Amazon page here.
  2. Tom Holland is the author of several books: … on the Roman Empire … the rise and fall the house of Caesar … the rise of Christianity and the West … and the rise of Islam. See Tom Holland’s Amazon page here.

Enjoy the conversation …

 

Toxic shame has its own neurobiology. The gospel offers a cure.

Book review, Gospel of Jesus, Honor and shame, Shame pathology, Violence

A review of The Soul of Shame by Curt Thompson, MD

Curt Thompson’s The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselves (IVP, 2015) addresses the pathology of toxic shame and its cure. Thompson writes as a board-certified psychiatrist and Christian. He is the founder of the Center for Being Known LLC.

Thompson often refers to a field called interpersonal neurobiology or IPNB. Thompson’s 2010 book, Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections between Neuroscience and Spiritual Practices That Can Transform Your Life and Relationships (Tyndale, 2010), thoroughly explores the overlap between interpersonal neurobiology and Christian spiritual formation.

The distinguishing feature of The Soul of Shame is that it specifically addresses the neurobiology of shame. Thompson offers a hopeful process of how toxic shame can be cured through thinking biblically, Christian community, Christian disciplines, and therapy.

Thompson describes nine “domains of the mind” based on Daniel Siegel’s The Developing Mind. These nine domains are: 1) Consciousness, 2) Vertical, 3) Horizontal, 4) Memory, 5) Narrative, 6) State, 7) Interpersonal, 8) Temporal, and 9) Transpirational.[1] Thompson offers a brief description of each; he describes how these various domains of the mind must work together in an integrated way for human flourishing. It is fascinating to learn of these dimensions of thinking and the complexity of the human mind.

Thompson describes the inseparable link between mental/emotional health and the biochemistry of the mind:

[T]he mind is as relational as it is embodied. By this I mean that the very emergence of the mind’s capacity to do what it does is crucially dependent on the presence of relationships. From the day we enter the world, our neurons are firing not only out of the depths of genetically influenced patterns but also in response to the myriad of social interactions we sense and perceive when we encounter other people. … In this way, our relational interactions can actually influence our lives at the most basic biological level. Thus, the way our neurological system wires its responses to various emotional experiences is significantly influenced by the relational contexts in which those emotions arise. This means that the “nature versus nurture” boundary is illusory when it comes to the mind.[2]

Dr. Thompson then speaks of the “neurobiological energy” of the mind.

The task of the mind, in terms of what we witness scientifically that it does most effectively (and not from a theological perspective), is to regulate the flow of energy and information. Energy refers to the literal electrochemical communication from neuron to neuron. And information refers to those meaningful perceptions, whether conscious or unconscious, that are coursing through our lives at every moment, that are correlated with that very neurobiological energy.[3]

Then, one of the key points of the book:

Shame has a tendency to disrupt this process of “regulating the flow of energy and information” by effectively disconnecting various functions of the mind from one another, leaving each domain of the mind cut off from one another as we feel ourselves to be disconnected from other people.[4]

In other words, there is a biological correspondence between toxic shame and the brain. When we speak of shame, brokenness, rejection, exclusion, “the fear of disconnection,” the science of interpersonal neurobiology or IPNB shows that there is an observable pathology of disconnection in the brain.

Bad news and good news

The bad news is that shame is stubborn. Shame is not easily remedied. Through case histories from his practice as a psychiatrist, Thompson gets into the debilitating and largely involuntary nature of toxic shame on the human soul.

In light of the interpersonal neurobiology of shame, we learn that this makes sense. The brain is literally wired by the relative health, unhealth or destructiveness of human relationships and experiences which often go back to childhood. These experiences are foundational, core to our identity as humans. It is difficult to undo the foundation.

But Thompson delivers resounding good news, too. The good news is this: Our brains can literally be rewired by healthy practices. Those practices are biblically informed—Christian fellowship, bearing one another’s burdens, confession of sin, loving and accepting one another in authentic relationships. And yes, vulnerability with mature believers who love and accept you. After a case history describing the healing process of a patient he calls Natalie, Thompson writes: “Her shame required a community to realize the fullness of its healing.” Beautiful.

Healing inside of a Story

Perhaps most important is the belief that we are inside of a story of healing and redemption. This also informs our identity. Hence, Thompson’s emphasis on “retelling the stories we believe about ourselves.” He has two chapters on the significance of story: “The Story of Shame You Are Living” and “Shame and the Biblical Narrative.”

In these chapters, Thompson offers excellent applications of theology and the gospel to the problem of toxic shame. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are inside of a grand narrative—the story of a good and loving God who is working all things together for good (Rom 8:28)—through a good and loving kingdom-community whose central focus is relationship with Jesus Christ.

Thompson describes the healing power of living in God’s Story—engaging in biblical reflection, Christian disciplines, and healthy community. These behaviors starve the ever-present ‘shame monster’ (Thompson calls this our “shame attendant”) of his power—which at the same time keeps our minds healthy and integrated.

Excising shame from the organization

The final chapter of the book, “Renewing Vocational Creativity,” speaks to the mission and calling of believers inside of companies, institutions, and the church. Thompson explores healing for shame at the organizational level. Here’s a quote:

We cannot thrive on our own. In the same way, IPNB suggests that the mind must function as an integrated whole—differentiated functional parts: attention, memory, emotion, attachment—flexibly linked together. We cannot form the soul of our company, church, school or family well if we fail to see them in this light. Shame’s mission is to disintegrate all institutions in the same way it intends to disintegrate individuals, and isolation is no small part of its tactical arsenal.

… There is no “Jesus and me” option. There is only “Jesus and us.”[5]

Commenting on Paul’s analogy about the human body and the health of the church (1 Cor 12:15–23), Thompson helpfully writes:

But beyond our tendency toward judging others, Paul makes an even more extraordinary statement, especially for his time. He suggests that the weaker parts are indispensable, and that the less honorable parts are to be treated with more honor (vv. 22–23). These “weaker” and “less honorable” elements are understood to carry the weight of shame in that culture. They would normally be seen as disposable, contemptible and worthy of abandonment. But quite counterintuitively, as our IPNB models would also reflect, Paul turns the tables on shame, indicating that the body benefits when it’s fit and vital parts turn their attention to the more vulnerable parts, seeking them out to create space for them to contribute “indispensably” to the overall health of the body. To flourish, a mind or a community must turn its attention to where shame is hiding in order to create space for even greater growth, even in the way Jesus moves from his place in heaven to join us (Philippians 2:5–8).[6]

I find this compelling. Not only is this needful for the organizations and local churches in which we serve. This is vital for cross-cultural partnerships and collaborative efforts that are now widespread in the world Christian movement.

Finally, below is a listing of the chapters in The Soul of Shame.

  1. Our Problem with Shame
  2. How Shame Targets the Mind
  3. Joy, Shame and the Brain
  4. The Story of Shame You Are Living
  5. Shame and the Biblical Narrative
  6. Shame’s Remedy: Vulnerability
  7. Our Healing Cloud of Witnesses
  8. Redeeming Shame in Our Nurturing Communities
  9. Renewing Vocational Creativity

Curt Thompson has given us a wonderful resource on the healing of shame. He integrates recent advances in brain science—with evangelical Christian theology and practice. I found The Soul of Shame insightful, encouraging, and practical.

Videos: You can watch Curt Thompson teaching his material on several videos. Click here for a selection.

FOOTNOTES
1. Curt Thompson, The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselves (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2015), 42–44.

2. Ibid., 40.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid., 173–4.

6. Ibid., 175.

New book, “Why Honor Matters” by Tamler Sommers, challenges Western views about honor cultures

Book review, Honor and shame, Violence

The new book by Tamler Sommers, Why Honor Matters, offers a much-needed corrective to Western views of honor cultures.

Sommers is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Houston. But this is not a book of abstract philosophical musings. This is deeply practical and relevant to  modern life.

He says that unlike honor cultures, we are too risk-averse in America. This affects us—from an obsession with bicycle helmets … to irrational fears about the refugee crisis … to America’s criminal justice system.

Designed as a “trade book”, Why Honor Matters is highly accesible. It is handsome, not big and not too long—just 215 easy-to-read pages (before you get to the back-of-the book material). Despite the compact size, Why Honor Matters is weighty. It impacted me a lot.

Some of the literature over the past few decades about honor-shame has been critical of honor-shame cultures—pointing to honor killings and honor-based violence as so-called conclusive proof that our modern world should transcend cultures based on honor and shame.

Sommers challenges this view.

Sommers clearly acknowledges that honor-based violence is sometimes dehumanizing and evil. But having researched the differences between “honor cultures” and what he terms “dignity cultures,”  Sommers unmasks a Western liberal bias, and includes a fascinating assessment. Honor-based cultures and communities are, overall, much more skilled than Western “dignity cultures” at conflict resolution and restorative justice. Sommers writes:

Although honor cultures are more famous for their bloody feuds, the fact is that feuds are costly and people want to avoid them as long as they can maintain their honor and self-respect. With such high stakes, honor groups acquire tremendous skills and techniques for mediation, for discovering nonviolent ways for all parties to save face and restore their honor. Revenge is one form of restorative justice but not the preferred one, by any means. (p. 173)

I first heard about Tamler Sommers and his book Why Honor Matters on the Sam Harris “Waking Up” podcast. The podcast is titled “In Defense of Honor.”

It is fascinating to listen to Sam Harris discussing honor-shame with Tamler Sommers. Note—there is a little bit of swearing on the podcast, and the conversation gets bogged down in a couple of places where they lost me due to the  philosophically dense points being made. But overall, I found the conversation enlightening and interesting.

Why Honor Matters explores the downside and upside of honor cultures. Sommers offers real-life examples of communities that have strong honor codes. He explains why we need more of that in our world today, not less. He looks at a range of examples. From the major league baseball team … to the Navy Seals … to the hockey team honor code … and the Korean collectivistic society … to gangs … to the family unity in which everyone sticks up for one another … Sommers examines the honor values that characterize these groups and enable them to survive. He makes a compelling case for a return to honor values—with constraints.

Tamler Sommers spends the last couple chapters examining the difference between “retributive justice” and “restorative justice.” Retributive justice is the default in America, and Sommers critiques the ways that our criminal justice system tends to dehumanize both the criminal as well as the victim of crime. Sommers is an eloquent advocate for restorative justice, and as such is a “victims-rights advocate.” Taking into account the suffering and costs incurred by the victim (as well as their wishes) is one of the great benefits of restorative justice.

Unlike many of books I have read about honor-shame, this is not a Christian book. Obviously, it would not focus on issues of Christian mission. However, this book contributes much to the conversation about the deeply human and practical considerations about honor and shame in the world in which we live—especially concerning issues of violence. I therefore find Why Honor Matters a valuable contribution to the conversation about honor and shame in cross-cultural ministry.

Perhaps the most significant contribution is that Tamler Sommers, with his academic and cultural authority as an associate professor of philosophy at an American university, is calling his readers to reconsider and reintegrate honor-shame values into our modern world. He does so in a nuanced, carefully reasoned, readable manner using vivid examples and stories. I highly recommend Why Honor Matters.

“Honor, Shame and the Gospel”—six-week class at Scottsdale Bible Church starts January 24th

Bible study, Contextualization, Global Christian mission, Gospel of Jesus, Honor and shame, Terrorism, The Global Gospel, Violence

sbclogoI am so grateful for my home church, Scottsdale Bible, which has provided me the opportunity to teach a class based on my book, The Global Gospel. The class will incorporate lecture with PowerPoint, handouts, and ample discussion. It will be held six successive Sundays, January 24 to February 28, 11:00 a.m., at the Shea Campus. The classroom is A7. Copies of The Global Gospel are available at the Scottsdale Bible book store/café.

Honor, Shame, and the Gospel

Honor shame and the gospelOverview: How does the gospel speak to a violent world and the refugee crisis? Are there facets of the gospel that especially resonate with Muslims as well as millennials? In this interactive class with the author of The Global Gospel, you’ll discover how understanding the Bible’s own honor/shame dynamics offers fresh answers and powerful hope through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Class 1: Biblical Honor for a World of Shame: We’ll compare basic Majority World values of honor/shame to Western values of innocence/guilt. We’ll show why guilt is more likely to lead to healing behavior—whereas shame is more likely to lead to hurtful behavior. Could it be that a gospel that focuses on sin and guilt is the “on-ramp” to a gospel that also addresses sin and shame?

Class 2: The Gospel of Honor-Status Reversal: We’ll discover a motif in Scripture—honor-status reversal—hidden in plain sight from Genesis to Revelation. We’ll go through the The Father’s Love Booklet (each attendee gets a copy). We’ll learn how to share the gospel in the “language of honor and shame”. It’s a new, easy way to share Christ with people from Majority World cultures.

Class 3: The Gospel of Purity: Christians know they are forgiven. But for many, a sense of shame persists. How does the Bible’s “purity language” speak to us through the gospel to forgive, cleanse and restore? How does the gospel speak to Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist peoples with their ritual purity practices? This is good news here and now—and across cultures.

Class 4: The Gospel of the Kingdom for a Violent World: Honor-based violence makes the news daily. Yet the church is weak in its understanding and response. Discover how the dark side of honor and shame fuels violence. Examine how Christ’s honor-sharing “gospel of the kingdom” offers a powerful cure for violence—a living hope and powerful message for the world today.

Class 5: The Gospel that Speaks to Postmodernism and Pluralism: How can our theology emphasize “sola Scriptura” (the sole authority of Scripture)—while also speaking to our postmodern, pluralistic world? We will examine three ways: 1) Acknowledging blind spots in Western theology; 2) addressing the sinful pathology of shame; and 3) magnifying the multicultural essence of the gospel.

Class 6: The Story of Joseph as Gospel Motif: Can the story of Joseph (Gen 37–50) help us make sense of the whole Bible? We’ll explore the motif of honor-status reversal in this amazing drama. In so doing, we’ll see God’s sovereignty over evil, his purpose to bless all peoples through his honorific family, and his persistent reversal of honor status—all pointing to the glorious gospel.

Questions? Please write to me at werner@mission1.org.

Why so much honor-based violence in the Bible? Part 1

Bible commentary, Evangelism, Global Christian mission, Gospel of Jesus, Honor and shame, Violence

Honor-based violenceThe Bible is a great big book about violence.

One could rightly say that the Bible is at once 1) God’s revelation of the origin of violence among humans, 2) a series of stories and case histories on the kinds of violence common to humanity, and 3) God’s revelation through the Jesus Christ as the cure for violence on the stage of human history.

Of course, the Bible is more than a great big book about violence, but it is certainly not less than this.

In the Old Testament, there is an enormous amount of murder, raping, bloody revenge, the stoning of sinful people, decapitation of enemies and kings, the offering of infants in ritual sacrifice, whole cities being destroyed, entire peoples and armies either enslaved or annihilated … and so much more.

In the New Testament we read of the murder of infants, the decapitation of John the Baptist, the stoning of righteous people, the bloody torture and crucifixion of the holy Son of God, the martyrdom of saints.

Blood and honorLet‘s face it: The Bible is a big book with a lot of violence, much of it honor-based violence. But why?

In this series of posts, I am proposing:

  • The Bible reveals the origin of human violence—and that it is largely honor-based.
  • The Bible describes the kinds of violence in the Bible and in our world today—and that what they have in common is that they are both largely honor-based. This reflects the pathology of sin/shame permeating humanity—as well as the cultural value of honor/shame.
  • The Bible reveals that the cure for humanity’s violence is found in Jesus Christ, and we will see that this cure may also be considered honor-based.

And if there will be one point to grab hold of from these posts, it will be this:

The numerous stories of honor-based violence and bloodshed in the Old Testament—often considered obscure, repulsive, or irrelevant—are, to the contrary, profoundly relevant entry points for the gospel in today’s world.

Gory stories and glory stories

What else will this series of posts lead to? I will contend that we must rediscover the Old Testament’s stories of violence—what I am calling the “gory stories”.

I will propose that we must teach, preach, and evangelize by using the Bible’s gory stories—for they are historic, narrative on-ramps to God’s own gory and glory Story—culminating with the good news, the gospel of peace in Jesus Christ.

Christian leaders of all kinds need to re-acquaint themselves with the bloody, gory, “adult content” of the Bible—and be willing to teach it and preach it.

The Bible’s numerous, dramatic stories of violence are there for a reason. That reason is to connect—to resonate, to speak with Christ-centered hope to a world awash in violence. For the Word of God pierces “to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow” (Heb 4:12).

We must recover the truth that the entire Bible is useful for evangelism, not merely a set of a few verses or biblical presuppositions. The entire Bible, even the gory stories can be an essential, exciting part of making disciples of all nations—so that King Jesus is known and worshiped among all the peoples of the earth.

Could it be that the peoples of the earth are actually longing to hear this gospel which speaks with blood-earnest, street-level authenticity to our worlds of violence?

A new honor code to end honor-based violence

Honor and shame, Shame pathology, Violence

The Honor Code | Katy Chevigny from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

Thanks to HonorShame.com, I learned about this short video which artfully describes the problem of honor-based violence—and how it can be overcome. It presents a secular view on the subject, and has really worthwhile content.

Here’s the main idea: Honor-based violence can be overcome through a new honor code.

Now isn’t that what Jesus teaches? We have a new honor code as we follow Christ—as we pattern our lives after his.

Consider these two well-known passages about Jesus’ reversal of honor codes:

And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)

But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:43-45)

Easy to say it, hard to live it

We all know this is not easy, even for those who follow Jesus as Lord and Savior.

How can we actually live out these new reverse-honor codes?

Here’s how: I believe the Bible teaches that God himself shares with us his honor and glory, so that we gain an “honor-surplus” … and build “shame-resilience”.[1] In turn, Jesus himself empowers us to live in a way that reflects his very love and servanthood. We can actually endure shame, and be “last of all and servant of all”—living out the reverse honor codes of Jesus.

We can do this because God has already shared with us his own honor and glory!

We can call a cease -fire! Because of Jesus, we are not compelled to defend our honor or engage in honor competition—because we are already so abundantly honored in Christ! We are literally peacemakers (Mat 5:9–10)—in the honor and under the reign—of King Jesus.

God shares his glory with his people

Consider these verses that reveal that God actually shares with his people his honor and glory:

How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (John 5:44).

… for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God (John 12:43).

The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one (John 17:22).

In addition, these verses below show that followers of Jesus Christ are, in fact, to be given honor, to seek glory, and to be called glorious.

So the honor is for you who believe … (1 Pet 2:7)

To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life (Rom 2:7).

… that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom 8:21).

But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory (1 Cor 2:7).

Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones (Jude 1:8).

Do you see it? We have a new source of honor in following Jesus.

The verses above are but a small sampling from Scripture which tell followers of Christ that God is sharing with us his glory and honor. (Click here to learn more about the believer’s honor-status reversal through salvation.) This abundant honor surplus in Jesus helps us overcome rivalry, conflict and violence in our relationships.

Oh, how we need to experience the glory and honor of God—our honor-surplus in Christ—to build peace-filled marriages, families, communities, churches, and nations.

A new honor code through following Jesus Christ—this ends honor-based conflict.

1. For more on the concept of “shame resilience”, see Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (New York: Gotham, 2012).

Did shame lead to the Holocaust?

Honor and shame, Shame pathology, Violence

Bergen-Belsen1
Bergen-Belsen was a concentration camp for Jews between 1940 and 1945. According to Wikipedia, “The camp was liberated on April 15, 1945, by the British 11th Armoured Division. The soldiers discovered approximately 60,000 prisoners inside, most of them half-starved and seriously ill, and another 13,000 corpses lying around the camp unburied.”

I did NOT want to go to a concentration camp memorial while on vacation in Germany in early August.

But my wife Daphne insisted. My cousin’s daughter Stephanie said it was a good idea. Onkel Udo especially agreed.

So on Thursday, August 6, 2015, we all drove from Hanover to the memorialized concentration camp in Germany called Bergen-Belsen—all seven of us in my cousin’s VW minivan.

I did much research about honor and shame my book The Global Gospel. One of the insights I gained concerns the pathology of shame. Here’s the principle I learned:

Guilt tends to lead to healing behavior,
whereas shame tends to lead to hurtful behavior.[1]

It is one thing to see the effect of shame on a personal level. But when the pathology of shame impacts whole societies and nations, it becomes truly horrendous. James W. Jones writes,

The two greatest group humiliations of the modern age produced the two greatest movements of genocide and terrorism in the modern world: the collapse of the Ottoman Empire along with the imposition of European colonialism on the Arab world leading to the rise of the jihad; and the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the First World War and the appeal of Nazism in Germany.[2]

So let’s look at the second of these “two greatest group humiliations” in a little more detail. For it is a fact of history that a shamed Germany after the First World War contributed to the rise the Hitler and the Nazi party, which led to the horrors of the Second World War and the Jewish holocaust.

“Hier Ruhen 5000 Tote” — “Here Lie 5000 Dead”, April 1945

Shame as fuel for genocide in Nazi Germany

Concerning the humiliation—the shaming—of Germany following World War One, Jones writes:

The Treaty of Versailles removed all of Germany’s colonies from its control, laid on Germany the worst sanctions that decimated the economy, and demanded its disarmament. All of these had been sources of pride and their loss was a total humiliation for the Germans. These humiliations along with the virtual collapse of the weak Weimar government and the German economy laid the groundwork for Hitler’s rise to power. German veterans returning to a defeated and destabilized nation reported “as a Front-fighter, the collapse of the Fatherland in November 1918 was to me completely incomprehensible,” or “I had believed adamantly in Germany’s invincibility and now I only saw the country in its deepest humiliation—the entire world fell to the ground.”[3]

Jones continues, describing the longing of the German people to regain their honor:

People holding such sentiments became the core of the Nazi movement. National humiliation caused by military defeat, internal political weakness, and economic collapse had at least two disastrous results for Germany and for the rest of the world: it set off a furious search for scapegoats, for someone or some group to blame and to punish for all this suffering; and it unleashed a ferocious drive to undo the humiliation by defeating those who had humiliated Germany. Many citizens were vulnerable to someone who could explain which group was to blame and could offer a way to Bergen-Belsen3overcome the humiliation. That person was obviously Adolf Hitler who pointed the finger of responsibility at Jews and other “non-Aryans” and had a plan to restore German prominence through military conquest.[4]

It is ironic that the national shame that fueled World War Two and the Holocaust ended up giving Germany the reputation as the most barbaric of civilized nations—shaming the German people for generations for their descent into such horrible evil.

My father was a soldier in the German army. He only survived because he was captured by the Allied Forces. He became a prisoner of war in Poland for four-and-a-half years. After he was freed, he came to America with his father, mother and two brothers. I am therefore a second-generation American from a German family. The ‘German guilt and shame’ of which I have written above has touched my life and other members of my extended family in deep and enduring ways.

Of course, what my family experienced is nothing compared to the mammoth, murderous humiliation and shame suffered by the Jews of Germany and Europe—at the hands of the nationalistic honor-seeking Nazis and Germans.

Oh, how we need to understand and overcome the dark and devilish side of honor and shame.

Questions

  1. What can we learn from the anemic response of the German church to the horrors of the nationalistic Nazi political machine? To explore the relationship between so-called “German Christian movement” and the Nazi party, see Susannah Heschel’s The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany.
  2. Consider the campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again”. To what extent does this reflect the longing to recover our national honor in America’s current political climate? How might this be healthy or unhealthy, godly or ungodly?
  3. Does the gospel of Christ cover our sin and shame, and answer the human longing for honor? For a gospel presentation that speaks to these concerns, see The Father’s Love Gospel Booklet. Or, see a more comprehensive treatment of the subject in THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World.

Note: Portions of this post have been excerpted
from my book, The Global Gospel.

FOOTNOTES

1. See June Tangney and Ronda Dearing, Shame and Guilt (New York: Guilford Press, 2002).

2. James W. Jones, “Shame, Humiliation, and Religious Violence: A Self-Psychological Investigation,” in Jewett, Robert, Wayne L. Alloway, and John G. Lacey, eds. The Shame Factor: How Shame Shapes Society. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2011, p. 41.

3. Jones quotes an article by David Redles, “Ordering Chaos: Nazi Millennialism and the Quest for Meaning,” in The Fundamentalist Mindset: Psychological Perspectives on Religion, Violence, and History, ed. Charles B. Strozier et al., (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 156–74.

4. Jones, 41.