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Honestly, I struggle with people like me - middle-class male, graduate degree, well-versed in the language of evangelical ministry. It’s people like me who create the systems and ethos within the power structures of christian culture. More and more I walk into environments in which I feel a certain weight that characterizes the reality that is the matrix of male egotism.
A particular scene in the movie The Matrix powerfully illustrates this elitist paradigm: As Morpheus walks Neo through the realities of the matrix he leads him through a crowded street full of everyday businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters, etc. He explains that all of these individuals operate within a system that they become so deeply immersed in that they fail to recognize it as a distinct and toxic system.
Like the matrix scene the standard systems of Christian ministry belong to the first half of life male who seldom if ever pauses long enough to recognize this competitive world of posturing and performance.
Throughout history those looking up at us from the bottom have been women, the LGBTQ and black community, the sick and homeless among others. And while they have undoubtedly suffered through much loneliness and injustice perhaps they’ve also been afforded a gift of sight which the masses are unable to acknowledge.
Justin’s mind was just blown. In his short time of hanging around the chronically homeless that we serve at Network he’d been prayed over and blessed on two separate occasions by a man named Ed. Ed is poor in every which way imaginable and he’s not afraid to let his poverty show. So, imagine the look on Justin’s face when after a short interaction Ed asked to pray for him. Through Ed’s meaningful petition and pleas Justin was overwhelmed with a mystical sense of genuine blessing.
This isn’t the first time I've witnessed this.
Last fall, Jamie was holding the Anything Helps sign in an exercise of solidarity with panhandlers. A homeless man gently stopped to pray with Jamie and offer her the $2 he had to his name. Jamie was left stunned in a paradigm shattering shock and disorientation.
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