downward mobility again - repenting of abuses of power

This week we looked again at Philippians 2:1-11. We considered specifically how the passage speaks to us about our relationship to power. The challenge Paul puts to us is that we are to have the same mind in us that was in Christ Jesus: namely, that he did not regard equality with God as a matter of getting, taking, exploiting but of giving and serving. There is much to be gleaned and many applications to be made from this passage but this week we looked specifically at what it tells us about the danger of misusing power. Right out of the gate we have a problem applying this to our lives because many of us really don't think we have any power to abuse. If we think this, we have not thought enough. Certainly, Paul's poem of Christ's "downward mobility" is a direct confrontation to Caesar and his abuse of power (remember that the Caesar cult of worship was strong in Philippi and that Caesar called himself "savior" and "lord". But in order for us to understand the gospel more fully we must be willing to look at our own misuses of power. These misuses become more clear to us when we consider how far short we fall from having the same mind in us as was in Christ Jesus. What follows are examples of misuses of power that will make most of squirm a bit (it had that effect on me as I searched my heart when I wrote them). But we want to explore these dark places in our hearts for a positive reason; because we are convinced that the road to human flourishing takes a cruciform shape, requiring us to repent of our abuse and manipulation of others and ourselves. The renewal that comes through this process is worth the discomfort.

In order to think this through I will propose a working definition for abuse of power: it is whenever we use our power (wealth, influence, position, etc.) to take advantage of, hurt, or demean another person.

Here are some examples of the misuse of power that we often fall prey to.

Two from the work place -

Managers and bosses:
Use of one's position as a manager or boss to treat one's employees in a way that does not honor their dignity. It is easy to bark orders instead of speaking in a way that we would wish to be spoken to. Another example of misuses of power: deliberately making employees feel uneasy about the security of their jobs as a manipulative power play. Other instances: refusing to find opportunities to step outside of the hierarchical order of things in order to engage one's employees in the fullness of their humanity, refusing to mentor and develop people, not acknowledging good ideas or stealing good ideas from people who report to you, engaging in verbal abuse abuse, etc. - we can all find something to repent of if we have responsibility over others.

Those low on the totem poll:
You may say to yourself, "I have no power to abuse. I have no office, no name on the door and you should see my bank account!". Well, here again, we have not though carefully enough. Examples of the misuse of power by those who are in positions of weakness and vulnerability in the workplace include creating and fostering a culture of disrespect for "the Man". This is so common in situations with which I have familiarity that I would consider it an epidemic. Through gossip, cynicism, and self-righteousness those who are in one sense weaker than those who have power over them can create a subversive structure of power that demeans those in authority simply because they are in authority, prejudging and condemning their "victims" without a trial. Now, of course, there are the very real situations where the weak in the workplace are being exploited but the challenge to the weak at this point is to find a way to work towards justice without engaging in self-righteousness or destructive gorilla warfare in the workplace.

Family dynamics -

a. Parents, do not exasperate your children. While exercising discipline over our children we can too easily resort to abusive words, or simply through a lack of patience we can misuse our authority over them. We must ask God for patience and wisdom and love to inform each of our interactions and for specific help to organize the whole of our lives in a way that helps us succeed in loving our children as we discipline them.
b. The deliberate withholding of forgiveness in order to hold someone emotionally hostage and/or perhaps destroy their reputation. This is an example of when a victim can retaliate by refusing to forgive.
c. Pathological raging. Many learn to manipulate their entire family with their moods. Everyone walks on egg shells to keep from setting off the volcano of one's rage.

Sex as power -

In our culture many become sexualized prematurely with one of the results being that sex operates on its own power, separated from mature emotional love. In turn, one of the results of this is that we have a whole bunch of people who are on one end or the other of a relationship where sex becomes power and is used manipulatively. One thinks of the person who has learned to get his or her way by manipulating others with his or her sex appeal. One thinks of those who are pathologically prone to be manipulated by sex as power, or of the one trapped in sexual addiction. The church has often been little help here because of our focus on rules rather than the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter is that human beings are made to love and be loved unconditionally and when sex is used manipulatively love is damaged big time. This is why God has prescribed the covenant of marriage - to among other things protect us from sex as manipulation: nestled in the promised and hoped for future signified by vows of fidelity (forsaking all others) a husband and wife learn to give themselves to each other as gifts and help each other develop fully as individuals. (Of course, sadly, many marriages are not places where this happens and in many cases can be death-traps of sexual and emotional manipulation. This reminds us of the depth of our brokenness and how much we need God's grace to be at work in each part of our life. It should also remind church leaders of the necessity of helping people get out of these kind of toxic relationships.)

Victims as perpetrators -

The writing of Miroslav Volf has been an invaluable help here (3 books in particular: Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World, Exclusion and Embrace.) There is perhaps no group of people more prone to underestimate their ability to misuse power than those who have been profoundly abused in any variety of ways. Volf has considered this at depth from one particular angle. Volf, a Croatian, has meditated upon the violence done by Serbians to Croatians in recent conflicts. Here is an excerpt from an interview on this topic in which he talks about how the gospel speaks to the victims.

This is from an online journal from Calvin College and Seminary:

GARRISON: "Can one forgive those who have perpetrated particularly heinous crimes?"

VOLF: The answer is simple, "I must forgive." And if I cannot, I must be liberated from my inability-both from my inability to want to forgive and from my inability to actually do the forgiving that I may want to do. Forgiveness can be learned.

GARRISON: How so?

VOLF: As my former teacher and friend, Lew Smedes -- Mr. Forgiveness, you can almost call him -- has argued in many of his books, forgiveness is an art. It will help us master the art if we keep in mind that we all are sinners, not all equal sinners but all equally sinners. The world cannot be neatly divided into innocent victims and guilty perpetrators. There were periods in history when Croats were on the whole not victims in relation to the Serbs, but perpetrators; and during the most recent war not a few Croats acted as victim-turned-into-perpetrator in search for revenge. So we Croats will find it easier to forgive if we realize that we ourselves desperately need forgiveness.

Volf's point is crucial to our discussion of the misuse of power. The reason we misuse power and the reason each of us must ask God to give us the "same mind that was in Christ Jesus" is because only the gospel that is forgiveness can shape us into a people who do not regard power as a thing to be used to exploit and hurt others but instead see ourselves as those inhabiting and being inhabited by the one who did not regard equality with God as a thing to be exploited but rather a position from which to serve and to love.

Questions for discussion:

1. Does a "rule based" approach to life cloud our ability to see abuses of power for what they are? If so, offer an example or two?

2. Can you think of a mundane occurrence when you have hurt someone with your power or position? What could have helped you act differently?

3. When Smedes via Volf (see above) talks about forgiveness being an art what does this suggest to you about the way you approach growing in the gospel? Does looking at it as an art to be learned give you a different category for thinking about how you approach the struggle you have with forgiving others - does it offer you a new strategy and new tactics?