"The Powers That Be"

I just finished a very insightful book entitled, "The Powers That Be," by Walter Wink. I first caught the name of this author during my Advocacy class last summer in grad school. To typify the institutions, corporations, governments, and organizations of this world as having spiritual entities further opened myself up to possibilities in the spiritual realm. While Wink takes some of his Biblical interpretations a bit too far, and without much to back him up, however I believe he brings up important points.

His insight into the spiritual nature of conflict meant especially much to me as I seek to examine what occurred over the past couple months in the West Bank, and the impact this will have on my life forward. To say nothing of the wealth of relationships I gained, I also experienced a first hand blow of the horrors of the Occupation within the Palestinian Territories. While everything I experienced was real, there was little to counterbalance my emotions and the facts on the ground. What I lacked as I delved further into life among Palestinians who have been severely persecuted by the Israeli Occupation, was a perspective, not only to make sense of the bigger picture around me, but also how to be an agent of positivity.

One of the points Walter Wink makes early in the book has to do with the perspective of the "peace worker" or "agent of nonviolence" him or herself.

"Evil is contagious. No one grapples with it without contamination."

"For the struggle against evil can make us evil, and no amount of good intentions automatically prevents its happening. The whole armor of God that Ephesians 6:10-20 counsels us to put on is crafted specifically to protect us against that contagion of evil within our own souls, and its metals are all forged in prayer."

Peacemakers must realize that dealing with the battle on the outside necessitates a continuing battle on the inside - a constant awareness and alertness to the evil outside, and a constant admittance and cleansing of the evil within.

That being said, upon reflecting on the conflict in Israel and Palestine - I can see no other place where the principles of nonviolence, where Jesus' "Third Way" as Wink coins it, is more needed. While there, I had the privilege of writing the beginning stages of a proposal for the third phase of the student center in Birzeit focusing on the needs of children and university students. One of our main objections was reducing the "language of violence" among Palestinian youth. From an early age, Palestinians grow up seeing that violence gets them what they want - it exudes power - it expresses rage - and it is embodied in the "heros" they see plastered on walls of their villages, eulogiezed as martyrs.

Though it is a mammoth task to unravel the mindset of generations, it is something we felt, and still feel, very strongly about - whether this is through educating students about better forms of communication - opening school administrators, teachers, and parents up to the psychological needs of their children.

Ultimately however, it is Christ appealing to the humanity of the oppressor and the humanity of the victim through the power of the Love He demonostrated on the Cross to destroy the ultimate power of evil, that can give us hope in transformation. All of this hinges on Christ's redemption of the powers which set His aspects of creation off course - we can now, through Him "confront(ing) the spirituality of an institution and its physcial manifestations."

Much more remains to be said on how redemption plays a part in confronting powers of evil - but I'll end with this prayer that Orthodox Christians around the world repeat at this time of year:

"Christ is risen from the Dead!
Trampling death by death,

And upon those in the tombs

Bestowing life!"