The Inevitable Spiral of Violence<\/strong><\/a>\nTuesday, September 19, 2017<\/strong>\n<\/iframe><br \/>\nDom H\u00e9lder C\u00e2mara (1909-1999) was a Brazilian archbishop and brilliant nonviolent activist who offered a model for understanding how structural injustice leads to greater violence. [1] I overlay Dom H\u00e9lder\u2019s teaching on the \u201cspiral of violence\u201d with traditional Catholic moral teaching which saw the three primary sources of evil as the world, the flesh, and the devil\u2014in that order. If evil and institutionalized violence (\u201cstructural sin\u201d) go unrecognized at the first level, the second and third levels of violence and evil are inevitable. If we don\u2019t nip evil in the bud at the level where it is legitimated and disguised, we will have little power to fight it at the individual level.<\/p>\n<p>By \u201cworld\u201d we don\u2019t mean creation or nature, but \u201cthe system.\u201d It\u2019s the way groups, cultures, institutions, and nations organize to protect themselves and maintain their power. This is the most hidden and denied level of evil. We cannot see it because we are all inside of it, and it is in our ego\u2019s self-interest to protect the corporate deception. For example, I have yet to hear a sermon or confession concerning the tenth commandment: \u201cThou shalt not covet.\u201d It\u2019s almost impossible for an American to see colonization, capitalism, or consumerism as problematic. Our culture is built upon the idea that there\u2019s not enough, that we must always seek more\u2014at others\u2019 expense. Lynne Twist calls this unconscious, unexamined assumption the \u201clie of scarcity.\u201d [2]<\/p>\n<p>Historically, organized religion has put most of its concern at the middle level of the spiral of violence, or what we called \u201cthe flesh.\u201d Flesh in this context is individual sin, personal mistakes that you and I make. Individual evil is certainly real, but the very word \u201cflesh\u201d had made us preoccupied with sexual sins, which Jesus never talked about. <em>When we punish or shame individuals for their sins, we are usually treating symptoms rather than the root problem or cause: the illusion of separation from God and others<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>There is a deep and direct connection between \u201cthe world\u201d or \u201cthe system\u201d with its culture and corporations and the evil things private individuals do. The entertainment and business worlds celebrate people who are greedy, ambitious, angry, vain, prideful, deceptive in the name of profit, and \u201clustful\u201d in many ways beyond the obvious (these were historically called the \u201ccapital sins\u201d). We can\u2019t reward and promote evil at this level and then shame it at the personal level. It does not work. We can\u2019t romanticize war, but then rail against murder. As my friend, Cardinal Bernardin, put it, we have no \u201cconsistent ethic of life.\u201d [3] Because of our inconsistency, more and more people do not look to Christians for moral leadership. If we are to be truly \u201cpro-life,\u201d we must defend life \u201cfrom womb to tomb\u201d and stand against all violence, including war, racism, capital punishment, hunger, lack of health care, the destruction of the earth, and all that impoverishes people.<\/p>\n<p>At the very top of the spiral of violence sits \u201cthe devil.\u201d This personification of evil is hard to name or describe because it\u2019s so well disguised and even idealized. If \u201cthe world\u201d is hidden structural violence, then \u201cthe devil\u201d is <em>sanctified, romanticized, and legitimated violence<\/em>\u2014violence that is deemed culturally necessary to control the angry flesh and the world run amuck. Any institution thought of as \u201ctoo big to fail\u201d or somehow above criticism has a strong possibility of diabolical misuse. Think of the military industrial complex, the penal system, banks, multinational corporations subject to no law, tax codes benefiting the wealthy, or even organized religion itself. We need and admire these institutions all too much. As a result, they can \u201cget away with murder.\u201d Paul called this level of violence \u201cpowers, principalities, thrones, and dominions\u201d (Colossians 1:16).<\/p>\n<p>If we do not recognize the roots of violence at the first and disguised structural level (\u201cthe world\u201d), we will waste time focusing exclusively on the second and individual level (\u201cthe flesh\u201d), and we will seldom see our real devils who are always disguised as angels of light (\u201cthe devil\u201d). (Remember, Lucifer means \u201cLight Bearer.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p><em>Evil only succeeds by disguising itself as good<\/em>, Thomas Aquinas taught.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gateway to Silence:<br \/>\n<\/strong>Love your enemies.<\/p>\n<p>_________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Are You Going on With Jesus?<\/p>\n<h4>By <a href=\"https:\/\/utmost.org\/oswald-chambers-bio\">Oswald Chambers<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><!-- \/.col-12 --> <!-- \/.row --><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"row entry-meta\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-12\">\n<div id=\"key-verse-box\">\n<h4>You are those who have continued with Me in My trials. \u2014Luke 22:28<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>It is true that Jesus Christ is with us through our temptations, but are we going on with Him through His temptations? Many of us turn back from going on with Jesus from the very moment we have an experience of what He can do. Watch when God changes your circumstances to see whether you are going on with Jesus, or siding with the world, the flesh, and the devil. We wear His name, but are we going on with Him? \u201cFrom that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=John+6:66\">John 6:66<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The temptations of Jesus continued throughout His earthly life, and they will continue throughout the life of the Son of God in us. Are we going on with Jesus in the life we are living right now?<\/p>\n<p>We have the idea that we ought to shield ourselves from some of the things God brings around us. May it never be! It is God who engineers our circumstances, and whatever they may be we must see that we face them while continually abiding with Him in His temptations. They are <em>His<\/em> temptations, not temptations to us, but temptations to the life of the Son of God in us. Jesus Christ\u2019s honor is at stake in our bodily lives. Are we remaining faithful to the Son of God in everything that attacks His life in us?<\/p>\n<p>Are you going on with Jesus? The way goes through Gethsemane, through the city gate, and on \u201coutside the camp\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Hebrews+13:13\">Hebrews 13:13<\/a>). The way is lonely and goes on until there is no longer even a trace of a footprint to follow\u2014 but only the voice saying, \u201c<em>Follow\u00a0<\/em><em>Me<\/em>\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+4:19\">Matthew 4:19<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Rohr The Inevitable Spiral of Violence Tuesday, September 19, 2017 Dom H\u00e9lder C\u00e2mara (1909-1999) was a Brazilian archbishop and brilliant nonviolent activist who offered a model for understanding how structural injustice leads to greater violence. [1] I overlay Dom H\u00e9lder\u2019s teaching on the \u201cspiral of violence\u201d with traditional Catholic moral teaching which saw the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16012"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16012"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16015,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16012\/revisions\/16015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}