c. 2008 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) A dozen professionals met recently to discuss their church. Their conclusion: “We’re tired of having clergy tell us what to do.”
Clergy said such weariness cuts both ways. People have no idea what it takes to lead a church and yet are quick to blame.
The common core of these laments is powerlessness. The laity see their church struggling but feel powerless to make a difference. The clergy see the same struggles and feel equally powerless.
On a larger stage, a vast majority of Americans think the Iraq war is a mistake and want it to end. Nevertheless, a government “of the people” plows ahead, leaving many citizens feeling powerless to stop it.
The middle class works hard, believes in dreams like opportunity and homeownership, and then watches real incomes sag, jobs vanish and banks pull the plug on the debt they pushed customers to accept. Meanwhile, the newly wealthy live large with no hint of community-mindedness as politicians collude with their patrons. Basics like affordable higher education and health care turn elusive.
Also stoking this sense of non-potency is a breakdown of normal accountability. Executives mismanage, then get raises. Banks misbehave, then get bailed out. Politicians fail to perform, then campaign as if someone else were responsible.
These aren’t just meta-trends. Take the normal day: commute to work on crumbling streets or crowded and creaky trains; use technology rife with bloatware and an Internet plagued by spammers and predators; watch for pink slips, offshoring and mergers.
Where do people take their powerlessness? Road rage is one outlet; domestic violence is another. Others are compulsive shopping and eating, tuning out reality in favor of fantasy, scapegoating vulnerable minorities, mass movements grounded in hate or phony claims of superiority.
And of course there’s religion, history’s perfect solution for powerlessness. We make God all-powerful, deny any duty outside the tribe and demonize the different. We reward passivity and offer trivial causes as outlets for energy.
Powerlessness isn’t new to the human condition. Ask the slaves and exploited immigrants who helped to build America, or the women who worked hard alongside their men but couldn’t vote or make decisions, or children chained to mill machines. Many mansions in Manhattan and Pittsburgh were built on the suffering of millions who were seen as subhuman and expendable.
What’s new today is the spreading of powerlessness to the middle class. A broad swath of American society now feels helpless in the most basic activities, such as holding a job, paying off a house, helping children to grow up safely. Those who obeyed the rules in exchange for some control over their destiny feel betrayed.
What’s the answer to powerlessness? I think collaboration is the answer _ radical collaboration. I mean laity and clergy putting down their wariness and working together. I mean citizens turning off their entertainment centers and asserting their rights, and duties, in the public square. I mean voters holding their government accountable, not buying cheap campaign barbs or demagogic scapegoating.
I mean neighbors banding together against crime and for decency. I mean employees and managers working as teammates taking the long view, not short-horizon self-promoters. I mean adult men and women setting aside their differences to see common interests like justice and mutual respect.
We gave up our power. By collaborating, we can take it back.
(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, http://www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com.)
KRE/PH END EHRICH
650 words
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