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adolescent mothers, Body of Christ, children, community, diversity, equality, faith, homelessness, hope, motherhood, peace, punishment, racism/classism/sexism, redemption, repentance, sin, the Church, vengeance, violence, work
In my last post I wrote about my study of spirituality and stress in young urban mothers. You can read it here Impoverished Adolescent Mothers.
If you remember: we found that trying to make decisions without relying on a higher power and feeling like God was punishing you for your sins were both strongly associated with increased stress in young impoverished mothers in Philadelphia.
Today I want to delve into the implications of what we found.
Before we begin, a couple of caveats are in order. First, all we found were associations; we could not establish causal relationships. In other words, we don’t know which comes first—the stress or the spirituality. Second, and even more important, to be completely upfront and honest, I have no answers. I am still wrestling with this data, and I find it very challenging.
The first finding, that trying to live life and make decisions without relying on God or a higher power is associated with stress, immediately raises some big questions that our data (stupid quantitative data) can’t answer. What does it mean to these young mothers to try to make sense of life without turning to a higher power? Is it just, as one professor suggested, simply a matter that the mothers who answered this way have less resilience? In this population, is trying to live life on your own really a marker for having no vision or purpose beyond right now, having a lack of meaning in life? Does it mean that they don’t believe in God, suggesting that impoverished atheist mothers are more likely to be stressed? If, however, they do believe in God (or a higher power), why are they actively trying to live life on their own? And, presuming the belief in God, is this an active form of running away from God that leads to worsening stress? Or is it a turning away from an organized religion?
So many questions.
The second finding, that feelings of being punished by God are associated with stress, challenges me even more than the first. I believe in a loving God, whose character is always to show mercy, and I believe the trajectory of Scripture is one of redemption, mercy, peace, and hope – culminating in the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Christ and our engraftment into His body the Church. But, I also get confronted by a God who killed the Egyptian children and had the non-Israelite wives and children cast out of Israel (Ezra). I am confronted by proof-text after proof-text about a warring God who brings judgment and vengeance on His enemies, on the sinners, on the non-elect, about fiery swords, raining brimstone, and eternal damnation. And I have had Christian pastors tell me in the past that if this is something I struggle with, it is only because I don’t have enough faith or a big enough view of God.
Maybe so.
But I still believe, and I still struggle.
And apparently so do many young mothers. This is what I think is going on with this data: Their struggle is with feeling the overwhelming weight of guilt and sin. These young mothers believe in God, and they believe in the warring God who brings judgment, and not just any judgment but judgment on them and on their children to the third and fourth generation. They are cognizant of their manifold sins and wickedness and they know that God is punishing them.
And they suffer. And there is no mercy for them.
This I blame on us, the Church. Christ calls us to relieve suffering where we can, and when we can’t to bear witness to His power to transform it. Apparently, instead we take those who are suffering the most, the most marginalized, in our society and tell them not only are the problems they are facing their fault, but these problems are divinely ordained punishments. If the suffering is a divinely ordained punishment, far be it from us to work toward alleviating it – that would be working against the will of God! (I’ve heard this from Christian pastors too.) In essence we tell these mothers, “You deserve to suffer.”
There is no relief of suffering; there is no witness to the transforming power of Christ. There is only the repeated refrain, “You are sinners in the hands of an angry God!”
I sat down last week with Pastor Dave at the shelter where I work to talk about this study. Pastor Dave, “Daddy Dave” as the kids call him, is an amazing and wise man who navigates the intersection of spiritual and practical guidance with young people from varied faith backgrounds who make their way to Covenant House, a homeless youth shelter. He reminded me of another layer to the problem. He reminded me that these young people have been racially and economically marginalized and oppressed on a daily basis. They have internalized this oppression since they were children, and this has occurred for generations. All authority figures become agents of oppression. They are always beaten down, judged and punished. And this is the world view young people hold as they come to God.
The Church reaching out with the love of Christ
It comes back to us, the Church. We must bear witness that Christ’s redemptive work means that here and now oppression is to end, and we are to be the agents of peace and freedom. We must bear witness that our Redeemer is strong and mighty and has come not with punishment but with hope. We must bear witness that judgment has been turned into adoption.
How does this data affect you? How is your view of God shaped by judgment and mercy? I look forward to hearing your thoughts about what this data means!
Thank you for sharing God’s progressive revelation to you of the significance and meaning of your work with the homeless and hopeless teenagers of Philadelphia. I realize I am writing in response to a post that is now 7 months old, however, I am also writing in light of your recent post of June 25, 2012.
The spiritual weight of your observations is revealing in your latest post, in that, you seem to have identified that even in the darkest of moments, a spark of the imago dei resides within the human who has become disenfranchised, both spiritually and physically, from the human race. This is the place of the Holy.
We are told in scripture that it is in the “highways and byways” that those fit for the celebration table of the King will be found. You have descended into that arena, or perhaps, it is true ascension, for as you have stated, these people do not seem to have a relative bearing with the justness of God, yet they bear the image of the guilt of the world. Did not our Lord, Jesus Christ, after His resurrection from the dead, walk with His disciples and they did not / could not recognize Him until He took them through the depths of scripture and opened their hearts?
I agree with you that the church must bear the burden for allowing an element of society to be created that can look back at the church and ask, “Where have you been? Why do you not help?” Philip Schaff made the comment in his History of the Church, that it was not the Missionaries of the early church that brought moral change to Pagan Europe, rather, it was the Bible that they left behind when they moved on.
Perhaps, the stress noted in your study data confirms the point made in scripture that God has put His law in the hearts of mankind. Mankind is without excuse, therefore, those choosing to reject God, give tacit approval to the worry and stress that then becomes dominant in their lives. It has been asked by psychologists, “Why do humans close their eyes to sleep?” This is contrary to any survival instinct that should exist, even in humans. The answer suggested is that at the very base level of cognition, in humans, there is a knowledge of a power greater than themselves that will watch over them.
Could it be that the one institution on Earth that represents God, having turned its back on the plight of these homeless ones, has created in them a hatred for the very One the institution espouses to be their Savior?
I would suggest that a first step to begin resolution in those who feel they cannot trust the institution of religion might be to introduce them to the truth of scripture apart from the institution while meeting their immediate physical needs to the best of your ability. These that have suffered so much pain must see consistency and real caring that is willing to say, “yes” or “no” at the appropriate times.
They must be taught that one’s daily life is their act of worship before the Holy God. Then you will have opportunity to address the problem of evil in light of the loving God of creation. Keep up the good work and seek truth and justice in all you do.