{"id":653,"date":"2011-11-22T08:59:43","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T12:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/?p=653"},"modified":"2011-11-22T08:59:43","modified_gmt":"2011-11-22T12:59:43","slug":"matt-morin-whammy-bars-and-ovaries-forming-christian-disciples-with-rage-against-the-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/?p=653","title":{"rendered":"[Matt Morin] Whammy Bars and Ovaries: Forming Christian Disciples with Rage Against the Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Morin makes a very, very welcome return appearance to the blog with his contribution to the festschrift. \u00a0If you’ve read Matt’s work before, you already know you’re in for a treat. \u00a0If you haven’t, read on, as Matt combines RATM, the writings of Subcomandante Marcos, and the bit in “Conceiving Parenthood” related to Lysol and feminine hygiene. \u00a0Best wishes to each of you for a safe and restful Thanksgiving holiday, from KNS and ALH.<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We in wit the wind below<\/em><\/p>\n

Flip this capital eclipse<\/em>
\n Them bury life wit IMF shifts, and poison lips<\/em>
\n Yo they talk it, while slicin’ our veins yo so mark it<\/em>
\n From the FINCAS overseers, to them vultures playin’ markets<\/em>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

She ain’t got nothin’ but weapon and shawl<\/em><\/p>\n

She is Chol, Tzotzil, Tojolobal, Tzeltal
\nThe tools are her tools, ejidos and ovaries
\nShe is the wind below<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

-Rage Against the Machine, \u201cWind Below\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>In his 1992 essay titled \u201cA Storm and a Prophecy,\u201d[1]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> the anonymous EZLN rebel known as Subcomandante Marcos tells of a powerful \u201cwind from above.\u201d This wind\u2014neoliberal economic and governmental policy\u2014with its strong gusts of foreign tourism, harsh penal code, police brutality, and corruption among high-ranking officials, has swept through Mexico, leaving a trail of destruction throughout the communities of indigenous campesinos. Every day, \u201cPemex [the national oil company]… sucks outs 92,000 barrels of petroleum and 517,000,000,000 cubic feet of gas,\u201d Marcos writes mournfully. And as the company ravages Chiapas\u2019s Lacandona Jungle with impunity, the starving \u201ccampesinos are not allowed to cut down trees to cultivate. Every tree that is cut down costs them a fine that is 10 times the minimum wage, and a jail sentence.\u201d[2]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Yet there is another wind stirring among Mexico\u2019s poor indigenous people. Less explicitly powerful, but active all the same, this \u201cwind from below\u201d is generated by the indomitable spirit of those farmers who refuse to abandon\u2014because they cannot be abandoned by\u2014 \u201cthe only hope that exists in the world.\u201d[3]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Not to be confused with the nihilistic hope (a paradox if there ever was one) for a carefree retirement held out by corporate managers and career ministers alike, or the carelessly-peddled \u201cHope!\u201d that has been plastered across inner-city billboards by savvy political marketers in recent years[4]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a>; the hope that rises on the wind below is as real as the dirt from which every human has been formed\u2014it is \u201chope that is planted and harvested.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/sup><\/sup><\/p>\n

Marcos\u2019s description of hope goes a long way towards understanding why Rage Against the Machine speaks of the wind below in terms of \u201cejidos and ovaries.\u201d The term ejido refers to a centuries-old practice of communal land-sharing that existed from the time of the Aztec people until the theft of Mexico by Spanish and European colonizers. The deep grammar of the ejido is that the stuff of creation is fundamentally good and abundant. The dirt in which hope is planted and harvested is to be received as a good gift, and shared in such a way as to permit others to recognize its goodness, and thereby to share in real hope.<\/p>\n

Additionally, on RATM\u2019s reading of Marcos, the wind below is no impersonal force\u2014no disembodied power. Rather it is a \u201cshe\u201d\u2014\u201cshe is the wind below\u201d; and she is a body\u2014with ovaries. Just as RATM\u2019s celebration of the ejido is meant to affirm the goodness of the created order, so too is their celebration of ovaries meant to affirm the immeasurable and intrinsic goodness of the body\u2014in this case, the female body.<\/p>\n

Contrast this message with what Dr. Hall calls \u201cthe Lysol habit\u201d or the \u201cgerm-free home\u201d in Conceiving Parenthood<\/span>:<\/p>\n

Into the late 1950s the Lehn and Fink Products Company of New Jersey continued to suggest that its product [Lysol] be flushed into a woman\u2019s body for vaginal \u2018hygiene.\u2019 The advertisements suggest several crucial facets of the domestic hygiene movement during the development of \u2018scientific motherhood.\u2019 In the midst of constant reference to the rules of domestic vigilance, a woman was also encouraged to suspect her own body of hidden dangers and impurities.[6]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In sum, one goal of the corporate patriarchy has been to cast suspicion on the female body\u2014to identify \u201cthe female body… as a source of potential disorder and contamination.\u201d[7]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Highlighting a recent ad campaign by Dove Soap, Stephen Colbert shows that such impulses are still very much alive and well in our own day. \u201cWith Unilever\u2019s help, women have now learned that their armpits are hideous,\u201d Colbert states. Of course, the authors of this message neither accept nor reject the notion that the female body is, in fact, hideous. To assert as much would be to credit such people with the capacity for conviction\u2014which seems far too charitable. Rather, the impetus for the message is mere financial gain; its marketers are willing to say whatever must be said to close the sale. Thus Colbert concludes, \u201cIf you take the time to invent a new thing for women to feel insecure about, and then sell them the solution, you\u2019ve cornered the market!\u201d[8]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> We should admit that such marketing strategies are not altogether foolish when measured strictly in terms of corporate profits. But to paraphrase God, \u201cWhat good does it do you to sell shame, when the revenues will cost your very soul?\u201d<\/p>\n

Arguably since Pentecost, but explicitly since the words of St. Cyprian in the third century, Christians have confessed that \u201cthere is no salvation outside of the church.\u201d Dr. Hall echoes these same sentiments in her assertion that \u201cfundamental to many articulations of salvation … is the idea that adoption is the mode by which we ourselves become children of God.\u201d[9]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Since all adoptions are adoptions into a new social body, we are wise to remember that the Christian\u2019s new social body is \u201cthe body of Christ\u201d\u2014the Church. And since \u201cthe body of Christ is female in the history of the Church,\u201d[10]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> salvation is given by God through the gracious act of adoption into Christ\u2019s female body. What else could possibly be meant by being \u201cborn again?\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Christian would like to forget that we receive our lives as gifts from God through our relationships with one another, then RATM may just be the cure for such forgetfulness. On the band\u2019s account, the wind below on which hope is carried is not\u2014and never could be\u2014anything more than people: \u201cChol, Tzotzil, Tojolobal, Tzeltal.\u201d Together they constitute the body of their mother Mexico\u2014 \u201cshe is the wind below.\u201d At the same time, the corporate body that is constituted by the people, is also the body inside of which those same people always exist\u2014\u201cwe in wit the wind below.\u201d<\/p>\n

So against the otherworldly capitalist spiritualism in which speculation is currency, and flesh is re-imagined as replaceable, the Christian stands with campesinos and wildly inventive rock guitarists[11]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> to proclaim the fundamental goodness of created stuff.\u00a0 Against the trend of contemporary misogyny, the Church insists that all salvation comes through being adopted into the female body of Christ\u2014our Mother who longs to gather us under her wings. And against the stubborn individualism that seems to remain in much contemporary Evangelical theology, the Church demands that all who would be saved, must be saved through one another.<\/p>\n

There could be multiple reasons that Amy Laura Hall chooses to listen to RATM: perhaps she, like the band, understands herself as a Voice of the Voiceless;[12]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> maybe the fearlessnesses with which Zach de la Rocha pens the band\u2019s lyrics appeals to the tough Texas girl in her; it could be the case that she enjoys listening to RATM while running because the music provides an extra shot of adrenaline to help her finish that last quarter-mile; she might even be aware of the unassailable scientific proof that people who listen to rock music tend to have a higher tolerance for whiskey;[13]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> but none of these explanations goes far enough. The reason that Amy Laura Hall enjoys Rage Against the Machine is because she is a Christian teacher of sexual ethics.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Matthew Morin<\/strong> currently worships with Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship and the residents of Carolina House.\u00a0 He became a father in June 2011, to a child that will be born in February 2012. Matt received all the parenting advice he could ever need when Dr. Hall insisted that he \u201cforget all about that Winnie the Pooh and Baby Einstein crap — babies can be happy sleeping in a drawer with a blanket.\u201d His kid probably will not give a damn about any acronym that might follow his name, and you shouldn\u2019t either. <\/em><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n

[1]<\/a> Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, Our Word is Our Weapon: Selected Writings<\/span>, ed. Juana Ponce de Leon (New York: Seven Stories), 22.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid, 23<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid, 33<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[4]<\/a> One particularly scathing moment of Marcos\u2019s essay occurs in his description of the Mexican government\u2019s response to the desperate conditions of its people. It is hard to read these words without considering similarly impotent responses to suffering in our own load\u2014indeed (even especially) the church\u2019s response: \u201cDon\u2019t go to San Marti’n and see that it is a very poor and small community, don’t approach that shed that is falling to pieces. What is it? A sometimes church, school, meeting room. Now it is a school. It is 11 a.m. No, don’t go closer, don’t look in, don’t look at the four groups of children riddled with tapeworms and lice, half-naked, don’t look at the four young Indigenous teachers who work for miserable pay for which they have to walk three days… No, don’t look at the posters which are the only thing that the government has sent to these children. Don’t look at them: They are posters about AIDS prevention\u201d (27).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid, 33<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[6]<\/a> Amy Laura Hall, Conceiving Parenthood: American Protestantism and the Spirit of Reproduction, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans), 73<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid, 23<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[8]<\/a> http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/the-colbert-report-videos\/381642\/april-13-2011\/the-word—buy-and-cellulite<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[9]<\/a> Ibid, 394<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[10]<\/a> http:\/\/www.christiancentury.org\/article\/2011-04\/same-sex-complementarity<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[11]<\/a> http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/lists\/100-greatest-guitarists-of-all-time-19691231\/tom-morello-19691231<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[12]<\/a> \u201cVoice of the Voiceless\u201d<\/em> is the title of the ninth track from RATM\u2019s album, \u201cThe Battle of Los Angele.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[13]<\/a> \u201cScientific\u201d may not be the right term here; same goes for \u201cproof.\u201d All the same, I dare somebody to argue otherwise. First round is on me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Morin makes a very, very welcome return appearance to the blog with his contribution to the festschrift. \u00a0If you’ve read Matt’s work before, you already know you’re in for a treat. \u00a0If you haven’t, read on, as Matt combines RATM, the writings of Subcomandante Marcos, and the bit in “Conceiving Parenthood” related to Lysol […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,24,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics","category-festschrift","category-guestposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EotM-ax","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}