Two
\nyears ago, our niece got a new game for Christmas: \u00a0Harry Potter,
\nHogwarts Battle. \u00a0We usually spend New Years together, and it is a
\ngreat 4 person game, so Kevin and I got to break into the game with
\nour niece and her mother. \u00a0It is now fair to say that this is our
\nfavorite game, and the four us clocked A LOT of hours playing it.\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Beyond
\nthe really fun Harry Potter connections, and the truly excellent game
\ndesign, I think we all love it so much because it is a collaborative
\ngame. \u00a0The players are all working together towards a goal, so in the
\nend either everyone wins or everyone loses. \u00a0Which also means that no
\none of us ends up as the winner while the rest of us have lost.
\nTruthfully, I really like board games, and most of the ones I play
\nhave winners and losers, and I’m generally OK with that, but there is
\nsomething really great about a collaborative game. \u00a0It is especially
\nengaging because each choice we make impacts each other player, so we
\nhave to pay attention to what each person needs and what each
\nperson’s strengths are, and how each person can make the best use of
\ntheir strengths.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The
\ngame is hard, and we lose sometimes. \u00a0Really, we lose about half of
\nthe games we play, and we sometimes give up a game before playing
\njust because the starting conditions are too difficult. \u00a0But the
\ncollaboration makes it interesting enough that even losing isn’t THAT
\nbad. \u00a0(Most of the time.)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I
\nfind it interesting that the collaborative game is so much fun. \u00a0When
\nI was growing up our church had a copy \u201cThe Ungame\u201d which was
\nmean to be a fun game that was collaborative rather than competitive,
\nand while I fully support the creators and their intentions it was
\nthe least fun game imaginable. \u00a0Yet,
\nthere is so much already in our capitalistic society that is
\ninherently about winners and losers, and zero sum games, and
\ncompeting against each other \u2013 and I’m really, really glad that
\nthere are now super fun games that don’t buy into that model.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Collaborative
\ngames seem more like the model of working for the common good. \u00a0Maybe
\nit is just because I was born and raised in the Commonwealth of
\nPennsylvania, but the moment when I finally actually noticed the word
\n\u201ccommonwealth\u201d and thought about what it meant was eye-opening
\nfor me. \u00a0I think of the common good and commonwealths as other ways
\nof speaking about the kindom. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Over
\nthe past 3+ years we’ve talked about Intersectional Justice and
\nIntersectionality a lot, but just in case the ideas are still fuzzy
\nfor you, here is MFSA’s definition of its \u201cintersectional
\norganizing principal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\nAll experiences of marginalization
\nand injustice are interconnected because the struggle for justice is
\ntied to concepts of power and privilege. \u00a0Intersectional organizing
\nrecognizes that injustice works on multiple and simultaneous levels.
\nBecause experiences of injustice do not happen in a vacuum, it is
\nimperative to: develop the most effective strategies to create space
\nfor understanding privilege; organize in an intersectional framework
\nled by marginalized communities; and build effective systems of
\nresistance and cooperation to take action for justice. Practical
\nintersectional organizing always focuses on collaboration and
\nrelationship building.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<\/p>\n
To
\nbring that a little bit more into reality, intersectionality means
\nacknowledging that working on ONE issue and making as small as
\npossible so you can make some gains really doesn’t help that much.
\nFor example, it is said that 101 years ago women gained the right to
\nvote in NY state, that misses that it only applied to white women.
\nThat came from a choice to empower white women at the expense of
\nwomen of color and was NOT intersectional organizing. \u00a0There have
\nbeen a LOT of times organizing has worked this way, most of the time
\nit has worked this way, and it has done a lot of harm.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
During
\nan anti-white supremacy training, I was taught to think holistically
\nabout power. \u00a0That is, we all know what traits are most associated
\nwith power in our society: white, male, rich, straight, English
\nspeaking, cisgender, citizen, with a full range of ableness,
\neducated, tall… etc, right? \u00a0In each case, there is an opposite to
\nthe description that is disempowered. \u00a0I’m expecting you are
\nfollowing thus far. \u00a0Well, because the people who have the traits
\nconnected to power control the resources, they use most of them! \u00a0And
\nthen, it turns out, the people who are DISCONNECTED from power end up
\nfighting to get access to the scraps of resources that the powerful
\nare willing to share. \u00a0There are two
\nREALLY bad parts of this \u2013 first of all, to get access to those
\nresources usually means playing by the rules of the ones who have
\npower, and secondly, those without power are usually set up to fight
\nAGAINST EACH OTHER for access to those scraps. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
That
\nis, when white women decided to try to get the vote for themselves,
\nand not seek voting rights for all women, they made a decision to
\nplay by the rules of how power already worked, and to distance
\nthemselves from people of color to try to get what they wanted and
\nneeded. \u00a0And, this happens time and time again.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Intersectionality
\nis about seeing the wholeness of the power dynamics, and the
\ncomplicated realities of people \u2013 who all have power in some ways
\nand lack power in others \u2013 and holding the whole together while
\nworking for good. \u00a0It is really, really hard.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It
\nis probably also why I teared up when reading Isaiah this week. \u00a0The
\npassage quotes God as saying, \u201cIt is too light a thing that you
\nshould be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore
\nthe survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations,
\nthat my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.“ \u00a0The way I
\nheard that was, don’t just work for the benefit of a few, even if
\nthey are the ones you identify with \u2013 work for the well being of
\nALL. \u00a0And all, in all places, including enemy nations!!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Rev.
\nDr. Martin Luther King Jr. is best known for his transformational
\nwork on racial justice, work that make our country noticeably better.
\n Yet, at the end of his life, he had broadened his work, and was
\norganizing around poverty. \u00a0As several of the past year’s
\nIntersectional Justice Book Club books have pointed out, the powers
\nthat exist in the United States have VERY INTENTIONALLY used race to
\ndivide people, in large part so that impoverished white people and
\nimpoverished people of color wouldn’t start working together against
\ntheir common oppressor. \u00a0Dr. King’s Poor People’s Campaign was
\ndesigned to bring people together for their common good, and truly
\nfor every’s good. \u00a0 As King once said, \u201cIn your struggle for
\njustice, let your oppressor know that you are not attempting to
\ndefeat or humiliate him, or even to pay him back for injustices that
\nhe has heaped upon you. Let him know that you are merely seeking
\njustice for him as well as yourself.\u201d \u00a0Because, truly, oppressing
\nanyone harms both the oppressed AND inherently, the oppressor.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Today,
\nother’s have picked up Dr. King’s mantle, and there is an active Poor
\nPeople’s Campaign underway. \u00a0While their \u201cFundamental Principals\u201d
\nare expansive \u2013 there are 12 \u2013 they are a coherent whole and I
\ncouldn’t edit them down. \u00a0I want you hear, and be filled with hope,
\nand maybe even be motivated to work with this campaign, so here they
\nare:<\/p>\n\n
- We are rooted
\n\tin a moral analysis based on our deepest religious and
\n\tconstitutional values that demand justice for all. Moral revival is
\n\tnecessary to save the heart and soul of our democracy.<\/li>\n- We
\n\tare committed to lifting up and deepening the leadership of those
\n\tmost affected by systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, and
\n\tecological devastation and to building unity across lines of
\n\tdivision.<\/li>\n- We
\n\tbelieve in the dismantling of unjust criminalization systems that
\n\texploit poor communities and communities of color and the
\n\ttransformation of the \u201cWar Economy\u201d into a \u201cPeace Economy\u201d
\n\tthat values all humanity.<\/li>\n- We
\n\tbelieve that equal protection under the law is non-negotiable.<\/li>\n- We
\n\tbelieve that people should not live in or die from poverty in the
\n\trichest nation ever to exist. Blaming the poor and claiming that the
\n\tUnited States does not have an abundance of resources to overcome
\n\tpoverty are false narratives used to perpetuate economic
\n\texploitation, exclusion, and deep inequality.<\/li>\n- We
\n\trecognize the centrality of systemic racism in maintaining economic
\n\toppression must be named, detailed and exposed empirically, morally
\n\tand spiritually. Poverty and economic inequality cannot be
\n\tunderstood apart from a society built on white supremacy.<\/li>\n- We
\n\taim to shift the distorted moral narrative often promoted by
\n\treligious extremists in the nation from issues like prayer in
\n\tschool, abortion, and gun rights to one that is concerned with how
\n\tour society treats the poor, those on the margins, the least of
\n\tthese, women, LGBTQIA folks, workers, immigrants, the disabled and
\n\tthe sick; equality and representation under the law; and the desire
\n\tfor peace, love and harmony within and among nations.<\/li>\n- We
\n\twill build up the power of people and state-based movements to serve
\n\tas a vehicle for a powerful moral movement in the country and to
\n\ttransform the political, economic and moral structures of our
\n\tsociety.<\/li>\n- We
\n\trecognize the need to organize at the state and local level\u2014many
\n\tof the most regressive policies are being passed at the state level,
\n\tand these policies will have long and lasting effect, past even
\n\texecutive orders. The movement is not from above but below.<\/li>\n- We
\n\twill do our work in a non-partisan way\u2014no elected officials or
\n\tcandidates get the stage or serve on the State Organizing Committee
\n\tof the Campaign. This is not about left and right, Democrat or
\n\tRepublican but about right and wrong.<\/li>\n- We
\n\tuphold the need to do a season of sustained moral direct action as a
\n\tway to break through the tweets and shift the moral narrative. We
\n\tare demonstrating the power of people coming together across issues
\n\tand geography and putting our bodies on the line to the issues that
\n\tare affecting us all.<\/li>\n- The Campaign
\n\tand all its Participants and Endorsers embrace nonviolence. Violent
\n\ttactics or actions will not be tolerated.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nThis
\ncampaign is DEEPLY good news. \u00a0I encourage you to look them up, their
\ndemands are even better (but ever longer) and well worth the read.
\nThere are a lot of opportunities to volunteer with and support the
\nPoor People’s Campaign, and I’d be happy to connect to to those who
\nare organizing \u2013 as would your Intersectional Justice chairs. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Working
\ntowards justice for all is really, really hard work. \u00a0It can even be
\noverwhelming, but as Isaiah says, God is out for the well-being of
\nthe whole world. \u00a0Before you get overwhelmed though, let me remind
\nyou that God has a LOT of partners in this work and no ONE of us is
\ncalled to do all the work. \u00a0In fact, we’re called to trust each other
\nand each other’s work, and to carefully discern what our work is to
\ndo. Love exists, its power can spread, justice is possible, and good
\npeople are at work. \u00a0We are meant to be a light to ALL the nations,
\nand with God at our backs, we can and we will. \u00a0And it is possible
\nbecause of collaboration. \u00a0Thanks be to God. \u00a0Amen\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she\/her\/hers
http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/<\/a>
\u2028https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FUMCSchenectady<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
January 19, 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"