The North Face Army and the politics of identity

I know I should be embarrassed but I must admit that my favorite reality Television show is "Trading Spouses." I have never been a big fan of CMT and what I would call white-trash television but I really have learned to enjoy watching "Trading Spouses." Each episode is packed full of cultural linguistics and the images of the Marxist struggle between the bourgeois and the proletariat. The questions of whose socio-economic, racial, regional etc. culture is superior reigns central.

Last week I took a hand full of students on retreat to Cross Point Camp. The retreat was enjoyable and to be honest I am deeply glad that I participated. Beyond just friendship with other Campus Ministers this retreat was good for my students. I must say, however, that while I know my comments about this retreat risk hurting people I call friends, I cannot help but wish our Church was willing to allow the Marxist struggle that white-trash Television has perfected in "Trading Spouses."

Let me explain what I am saying. As the retreat unfolded I was reminded, in worship, in small groups, in fellowship time, even in prayer that the struggles of our mono-vocal existence are not even confronted by our churches. We have no idea what it might mean to not be centered on white, middle-class socio-economic practices.

To be honest as I watched this retreat I found myself shocked that white-trash television was doing a better job with confronting the politics of identity than we in the church. In the church we continue to have, what my students called, "The North Face Army" which unintentionally flaunts their economic and spiritual superiority. Please understand I do not believe that this "North Face Army" sees themselves as elitist-- elitism is not a desirable trait-- elitism is simply a development of mono-vocal isolation from the poly-vocal world. Elitism is the consequence of only hanging out with people who speak, dress, pray, eat, drive and procreated in the same symantic rythmn as the prodominant culture deems worthy.

Take for example, as I watched "Trading Spouses" this afternoon they had a wealthy, middle eastern family from San Diego, California trade with a lower middle-class Agrarian White Family from rural Missouri. The mother from rural Missouri spent her week sleeping in a five star hotel, eating at high-class restraunts and shopping for name brand clothes in Hollywood while the mother from San Diego mucked horse stalls, bailed hay and slept in a three bedroom fifteen hundred square foot ranch style home. The conflicts both in parenting, education, race, economics and morals remained constantly central. While elitism existed within the various aspects of the episode, elitism had a light shined on it. Brought out in the open, made uncomfortable elitism comes to a crashing end. The conflicts these two mother felt were important-- in fact I would suggest vital-- if we are ever going to be able really transform lives.

For those of us in the Chruch it is not enough to just know of Jesus and belong to an Army made up of self-minded individuals. I know many of us in our self-minded communities will escape this claim by referring to our mission work. However, vacations in the name of missions do not transform lives-- they simply relieve us of our need to feel like we remain good people in our elitism.