Identity

 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:27-28)

 

We hear a lot about division and identity politics. Once in a while, I see a meme that talks about the brotherhood of man or the idea that there is only one race: the human race. The problem with these is that they tend to lack a sense of identity, which involves a distinction. You are a this, not a that. At one point, the brotherhood of man or the human race differentiated one from the animals and plants, but now there are claims that a “A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy,” (Ingrid Newkirk, PETA) and movements to grant human legal status to a variety of animals, including orangutans and dolphins. Scientists are now claiming that trees communicate with one another in a language we can learn. Without delving further into the issue of animal rights, one message we can take from this is the one taught by evolutionary theory already: that Homo sapiens are just another of the many lifeforms on this planet, and therefore, that we really have no means of establishing a “this, not that” identity.

Another thing this failure of identity does is destroys purpose, and therefore blessing. If you’re just another lifeform, there can be no vision of a positive future, no hope. This is the basis of nihilism, and the answer to the despair that nihilism brings is to create an imaginary purpose – whatever you want. The problem is that building, maintaining, and defending an imaginary purpose is expensive in terms of personal energy and attention, if not in terms of finances. These identities tend to require codependent relationships, with others being forced to step in to support and protect the poor, misunderstood this from all the other that's, and to bolster up the vision and the purpose of the this against harsh reality and all other threats.

Among the things that religions and ideologies can do is provide a vision and a distinction. We can be a Christian, and being a Christian at least can involve a means of distinguishing between Christians and non-Christians. There is a vision not only of a blessing in the future but a bigger than ourselves purpose and meaning today. There are purposes within Christianity and distortions thereof.

One of the blessings and curses of Christianity is that the identity conferred isn’t visible. As Paul points out in today’s passage, there is neither Jew nor Greek. Cultural distinctions don’t matter. There is neither slave nor free. Class distinctions don’t matter. There is neither male nor female; even biological differences don’t matter in this vision. While not mentioned here, there’s another distinction that is done away with – what we might call denominationalism. We are called to be Christians, not Baptists or Catholics, and not official church members as distinguished from mere attendees.

Today’s passage doesn’t do away with reality. There are still cultural differences, economic/class differences, and biological differences, but they are not the this that distinguishes us from the thats. When we try to use them as such, Cultural and biological differences are elitist and exclusive, with no hope of the vast majority of the thats never having a hope of being included with the thises. Economic/class differences are only slightly less so. The only way there can be inclusivity is with a this that is not tied to externals, but to the internals of our thoughts, beliefs,  feelings, wills, relationships, and body and the best this would be one that allowed those to be integrated in our lives. This is why we must turn away from the distinctions between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, and male and female.