Anthropology and the Word of God

When I was an anthropology major, I learned a lot about God, and not just because I studied theology at the same time. I had so many challenges to the things I believed and the way I applied it, I had to seek revelation in order to continue to believe. I needed revelation to continue to cling to what had gotten me from the streets/ghettos and a rather rootless life believing I could not do academics, to one of the top schools in the nation with an international reputation. I did not believe, and still don't believe, that I or any other human is smart enough to figure out the cosmos, God, and the Truth. However, I DO believe we can be taught, not by each other but by God. God uses us to give each other lessons, but that is not the same as building our cosmology and beliefs on the sayings or doings of other people or on ourselves. God used what I learned in that short season to break strongholds in my life; it was either ask/allow God to show me the strongholds and divorce them from my world-view, or let go of the One I love. My pragmatic mind allows no other alternatives. I know I had to take that journey to prepare me to break even more strongholds and also help other people, and that preparation continues today.

I post a lot of stuff on indigenous rights and gender roles, particularly in my groups "For Woman- Friendly Goth" and "For Christ-Centered Environmentalism." I get extremely wired and hot-under the collar about a lot of teaching I have heard and still hear, and even the examples given in sermons to help people understand certain things. I now realize they are just trying to make analogies so people can grasp biblical concepts, but it still annoys me. In scripture, Paul used the slave system a lot to expound on things, not because slavery was of God, but because it was a deeply entrenched stronghold that was so ingrained and familiar, it was the best way to explain some things to his audience - and himself, I suppose.

Gender is a hot-button issue in our society, in church and out of it. Marriage is under attack from numerous fronts, and attacker is, of course, the devil (not the people he uses!). We are experiencing a chastening and a process of correction when it comes to some core, foundational aspects of our society (gender and subsistence) and the enemy is trying to twist it to his benefit. The Accuser of the Brethren is happy to say that we are wrong NOT ONLY in the ares God is trying to show us, but in supporting things that really are God's ways.
I am an ex-gay, or rather, an ex-bi-sexual. I am out of the closet now, I guess, but no matter how many times I openly self-identify as a person with a testimony of deliverance in that respect, it always feels like the first time. Gender issues have been a source of torment and potential alienation for me for as long as I can recall. The Bible does indeed condemn any surrender to the temptations I often had, and around which I once built my identity. The church has long been a scary place for me, and important areas of teaching - e.g. gender, marriage and family, etc. - a source of intense pain and confusion. Studying anthropology has exposed me to versions of darkness in this area I have never known, that boggle my mind and could make me cry.

It has also exposed me to the wonders and the works of the Lord in ways/degrees I would not have thought possible this side of Heaven. Those later things are a challenge to my Western/American pride like no amount of reciting scripture has been to me or anyone I have ever met. Seeing people who have never heard the Word LIVE IT DAILY in areas/ways the church here does not seem to dream of is both embarrassing and liberating at once. Paul observed this phenomena and mentioned it in Romans 2:13-15, "(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another." I've been exposed, albeit indirectly, to ways of life where "The Up-Side-Down Kingdom that is Right-Side-Up" as Joyce Meyer used to call it, is actually perceived as Right-side-Up without having any knowledge of scripture.

Initially, this put stress on my faith because unreached people groups were living better in some big ways that anyone here. If we are charged with bringing light into the darkness, what doe sit mean if the places without the Word already have so much light? Also there are lies in those studies I found later with more study that seemed to "prove" that what I believed about the universe was insupportable. So between all of that, I went through a lot of hell trying to make sense of my now transformed world. I refused to reason it out but walked the floor and prayed for revelation. I got "It is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick." Throughout scripture, the worst or most unlikely heroes were the ones used by God. Why would we think God chose to give us the word and send us through the world because we were morally better than everyone else? of course He would choose the worst. Abraham came from a really screwed up place and was married to his sister. THAT is almost unheard of in all the world, no matter how unreached or dark. It is an instinctive moral conviction anthropologists don't know the source of, and it is very rare to lose that, but Ur of the Chaldeans had lost it. Abram's world was so foul, he thought people would kill him to take his wife away whenever he went to new places. That is a most unusual extreme of misogyny and violence, of course God started his redemptive plan among the peoples of the world that needed the most help. Why would I think otherwise? Because I was raised to think I was better and knew better than all the people's of the world, that the most moral and godly people on earth live in my society, or a similar one, and act/think like me.

This has resolved a lot of confusion for me about stuff I'd been taught and believed that seemed to contradict (they did contradict, but neither I nor my teachers could comprehend how to put it all to work the right way) and how to go about in this world. What I learn helps reveal answers to me for many serious problems, in the home and out of it, in my personal life and in the nation/world I live in. It has been instrumental in crushing deep, powerful strongholds that have kept me from living and thinking as God wants me to, and from doing what God destined me to do. If I sound confused at times it's because at times I am. It is hard to see things I believed about myself, people, or God that are really destructive and not really in scripture. When I see it, though, I can break free of it if I don't try to "figure it out" but listen and wait for God's guidance. When I write it, it may also help others to do the same. It will be tempting to assume I am "trying to make the Bible fit a left-wing view", but I am not part of the left. I am no longer part of the right, either. This process has been divorcing my heritage as a believer from my heritage as an American, my identity as a woman from demeaning stereotypes, my view of men from my view of dogs and drill Sergeants (in a manner of speaking), my view of love and sex from the media - both "Christian" and secular, cause both are often gateways into bondage - and my view of God from the past. It's not the be-all-end-all but it is wonderful, and great preparation for ministry and/or missions.

Every time I speak, I expect I might upset someone. Usually those most offended are the ones who most need to hear, but I can't help that. All I can do is share what I am learning as this process unfolds. I hope you can understand that.
Godspeed.