Justice

A language of domination

By Graham Cameron / 30 July 2007

The church has a long history talking about the ‘poor’. Indeed, the beatitudes are common currency: “blessed are the poor” is possibly the most widely known of Jesus’ statements.

So I have been subject to ridicule as I have started suggesting in forums with community-minded, justice-oriented followers of the Way that we must stop using the language of ‘mission to the poor’. We must stop using this language of domination.

For I believe that the way we discuss the ‘poor’ today has lost the sense of solidarity with which Jesus was speaking. ‘Mission to the poor’ has more to do with 1600 years of Christendom. It is a defining label for a colonising church.

Defining a group as the ‘poor’ is another act of power over the Other. The church defines them, the church saves them, the church directs their transformation.

While I could continue, I’m more interested in others’ thoughts and responses.

If I may cut some objections or queries off at the pass:

• how should we talk about others then? Well, why don’t we use the terms that groups apply to themselves. In my neighbourhood, we say we’re from the ‘vale. We don’t say we’re poor.
• how do we not fudge the issue of poverty by refusing to identify people in poverty? Why can we not use the language of justice, and highlight injustice, rather than the language of povery.

I believe the church needs to reinvent it’s language. What do you think?