A Brief Look at the Miseducation of the American Christian.

One of my very favorite books is Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire. A key idea in the book is the discussion and critique of what Freire calls the banking concept of education. The idea is that the teacher deposits (banks) their knowledge into the student, with the implication that the student is completely ignorant and can only receive what is given to them directly. The teachers knows and understands. The student does not. This relationship provides the teacher with power over the student. It is the job of the student receive, file, and store the deposits of the teacher (pg 72).

Where's the issue? Freire points out that the idea of a teacher giving the student the "gift" of their knowledge projects an absolute ignorance of the students and that this is a characteristic of the ideology of oppression (72). No one learns. You get what the teacher has allowed. Education is drenched in presupposition.

I feel like this is how Americans approach our faith. We assume that because our nation is wealthy and powerful that God approves of it and its dealings in itself and around the world. We then read the Bible from this perspective. Rather than faith informing culture, culture informs faith. By doing this we are defending the status quo, which is an historically oppressive act.

This is how we're taught to share our faith. We share our tidbits of salvation* knowledge with the lowly sinners who should feel privileged to hear our words. This is why the word "missionary" often makes people cringe. Missionaries are famous for going somewhere with a hero complex and dismantling peoples ways of life (read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe).

This is the opposite of what Jesus said and did. He was the very opposite of oppressive. He was and is the liberator. He acted with compassion and respect for other people. He submitted. When asked questions, he often resonded with one of his own. This is the opposite of the banking concept, it is the "problem-posing" concept (pg 80, PotO). He made people think. He also mentioned (read: stated clearly) that the world's definition of wealth and power is different (read: oftentimes opposite) from that of God's kingdom.

In teaching the principles of the kingdom, Jesus used problem-posing (liberating) techniques instead of just telling people how they should live. An example of this is his healings of the sick. Walter Brueggemann points out that by healing lepers ("unclean" people), Jesus was contradicting the societal norms of his day. By doing so he discredited the moral distinctions of the culture and thus discredited the power structures that put them in place (The Prophetic Imagination, pg 107).

When faith in Jesus informs our view of culture, the world is turned upside-down.

* When I first typed out the word "salvation" I mis-typed "slavation." I find this fitting because when we have a hero complex we do not share the freedom of God and his kingdom. Instead we perpetuate oppression.