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| Series Theme: "Culture Wars" |
| Chapter 9: Battlefield No.2: Identity Part B: – the wider modern picture
Introducing this Subject: My original intention with all of these ‘Papers' was to blend Biblical content with overall discussion but the more I have gone on with this subject the more I have concluded that I will produce it in the form of two distinct pages: Chapter 8 – a Biblical Perspective Chapter 9 – the wider modern picture This is the second of those two papers.
CONTENTS
PART 9.1: Considering Identity More Generally What is Identity? The Struggle for Identity Weak Identity Values
PART 9.2: Some Specific Aspects of Identity A. The Idea of ‘Belonging' Modern Family Facts B. The Idea of ‘Purpose' Biblical Aside C. The Idea of ‘Meaning' & ‘Significance'
PART 9.3: Introducing Identity Politics Identity Politics? Identity Crisis Divisiveness Identity Anguish
PART 9.4: Expressions of the Modern Identity Crisis The Spread of Confusion The Destruction of the Family Unit
PART 9.1: Considering Identity More Generally
What is identity? Identity is about who I am, what I know about where I've come from, what I feel about myself AND about how other people recognise me. Example 1: a woman bears a ‘child' and this child is identified as a girl or boy according, externally, to its genitalia and, internally physically, according to its potential ability to grow within it another child. Example 2: a person may be identified as a citizen of a particular nation, a nation that has its own history (good and bad) and has now formed its own cultural norms. If we are an immigrant, who has come from elsewhere to live permanently in this nation, in many places the expectation has been for this immigrant to conform to the ways of this nation while, no doubt, holding on to some of their original national distinctives to enrich the nation. The immigrants of the USA are possibly some of the best illustrations of this in the world. Identity can bring pride and/or shame with it, and we'll examine these more when we come to the subject of race.
The Struggle for Identity: Because of the presence of sin within all of us, we all struggle in some measure or other to have a sense of clear identity. Sadly, the influences of the fallen world can muddy the water and make us question this identity. We may question our genetic makeup, the way we have been brought up, the examples of our parents and how that has impacted us. We may have also been influenced by our peers and especially what we hear on social media.
When we separate ourselves from God – or simply have never linked into Him – we find ourselves adrift in a sea of competing ideas, and of pressures being brought upon us by others to conform to their views of identity. Thus struggle for identity has become almost certainly the most significant factor in modern culture wars, the tool of identity politics, and has gone to create great confusion, especially in the minds of younger generations. Having said that, older generation with no fixed foundation for absolutes, have been seen to quickly cave in to the rants of the baying crowd, that we will examine elsewhere.
Struggles with identity are revealed • in the struggle to make and maintain relationships, • the struggle for peace to counter worry and stress in the midst of what seems a confusing and often hurtful world, • the struggle for self-worth and the struggle for confidence in who I am and what my place is in this world.
Weak Identity Values: Sometimes we are tempted to value ourselves or identify ourselves, by what we see as our weaknesses, or our past failures and maybe what we see as a rather hopeless future, possibly doomed to years of shelf-filling, till service, sitting before a computer screen in an office, or many other roles that we may (perhaps wrongly) feel have little meaning and perhaps no possibility of development, and are in no way creative and in no way leave me feeling fulfilled at the end of a day. The nature of the modern world is such that it holds opportunities for many – but not all. The latter become vulnerable, therefore.
PART 9.2: Some Specific Aspects of Identity
A consideration of ‘identity cannot be considered complete without consideration of three related aspects of it – belonging, purpose, and meaning & significance.
A. The Idea of ‘Belonging': Without a sense of belonging, each of us feels adrift, possibly nomadic and questioning who we are, questioning our identity. Whether it be belonging to a family, a football team or any other sort of group, our identity brings with it a sense of being happy alongside other people, being able to relate to them in pleasurable ways. This, of course, is how the modern dysfunctional broken family, often abandoned by the father, falls down, creating a sense of pain as well as the absence of a source of communal wisdom and example and years of experience. The pleasurable aspects are limited, certainly in contrast with what could be from a fully functioning, harmonious family unit.
For many young people today in the West, their lives experience a sense of fracture, of brokenness, of lacking something, missing a key component, missing a very foundation that could create a sense of security and well-being – wholesome family life. Such vulnerable young people often end up questioning themselves and of living.
Modern Family Facts: Jonathan Sacks in his book, ‘Morality', points out that, “ In 1968, 56 per cent of Americans between the ages of eighteen and thirty-one were married or heads of households; by 2012, this was true of only 2.3 per cent. An unprecedented proportion of marriages – rising at times to 50 per cent, 42 per cent in Britain in 2017 – terminated in divorce, and almost one in two children were born outside marriage.”
He goes on that,
“A 1993 survey in Britain found that children living with cohabiting rather than married parents are twenty times more likely to become victims of child abuse…. There is overwhelming social scientific evidence that children benefit from being brought up in a stable marriage by two parents, that divorce is harmful to the children, and single parenthood still more so: whether measured in terms of childhood aggression, delinquency, hyperactivity, criminality, illness and injury, early mortality, sexual decision making in adolescence, school problems, dropping out, emotional health, educational achievement, career success, and the ability to make strong and lasting relationships, marriage especially.”
Is it any wonder that the family unit became the focal point of enemy attack and has been used to create, not only disharmony and isolation but in very large numbers, a feeling of loneliness and subsequent vulnerability and insecurity?
B. The Idea of ‘Purpose': Once an individual has been cast adrift from the fully functioning family unit, we see how so often they are left questioning, not only who they are but what purpose they have in life. Instead of creating goals for achievement, many are left with a single purpose – to achieve a sense of identity that is meaningful and often, in the absence of a family unit, they seek it by identifying with others who are like-minded in respect of gender etc.
Biblical Aside: It can be argued that the disparate bunch of disciples that Jesus drew around himself, found new meaning and purpose in their new lives following him and seeking out and following the will of God that was for the good of the world. An even more powerful image is seen in the Old Testament when David, destined to become king but presently on the run from Saul, ends up at a cave at a place named Adullam where, “All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered round him, and he became their commander,” (1 Sam 22:2) and he turns them into a most effective guerilla fighting force. From being people who grumbled, they became people of purpose – and with a new identity!
C. The Idea of ‘Meaning' & ‘Significance': Identity is about recognising who you are and where you are in life, why you are here AND what you can achieve. Put all these together and we arrive at ‘meaning'. Meaning, that we have already just referred to twice, has a close cousin – significance, which speaks of importance, of meaningfully standing out and being distinct, which is what identity is all about. We will pick up more on ‘significance' later below.
Part 9.3: Introducing Identity Politics
Identity Politics? As we noted in an earlier chapter, at the heart of the culture wars, is what is sometimes referred to as ‘identity politics' defined as, “a political approach wherein people of a particular gender, religion, race, social background, social class, environmental, or other identifying factors, develop political agendas that are based upon these identities.” In recent decades we have seen it being used on both sides of the Atlantic, by both right and left of politics. It emphasizes difference, distinctives, and division.
Because this may not be familiar territory for many of us, let's restate this but in slightly different terms. Once upon a time politics used to be concerned with ‘policies'. The ‘left', it was said, was concerned with such things individual liberties and economic equality, the poor in society, big government, higher taxation to pay for nationalizing important areas of provision for society including healthcare, public education etc. for all. The ‘right', it was said, was more concerned to allow freedom of choice for education, healthcare, etc. and had a strong concern for law and order. Those were, very roughly speaking, some of what politics used to be about.
Today, ‘Identity politics' focuses on groups who have grounds to claim they have been oppressed and thus seeks to disturb those identities to cause greater dissent and an unravelling of society. These groups have historically been in respect of feminism (oppression of women) and race (oppression of colored's) but has extended in gender classifications (originally gays but more recently into transgender issues). Identity Crisis was a term coined in the 1950's by Erik Erikson known for his theory on psychological development of human beings. He put forward eight life-stages, the fifth of which addressed adolescence, a time “when we start to question ourselves and ask questions relevant to who we are and what we want to accomplish. Who am I, how do I fit in? Where am I going in life? The adolescent is exploring and seeking for her own unique identity….. Identity crisis is the result of role confusion and can cause the adolescent to try out different lifestyles.” (Wikipedia) Note that latter phrase – the result of role confusion.
Identity Politics, it has been suggested, dates back no earlier than the 1980's. Jonathan Sacks in his book ‘Morality' declares, “The Left has focused on groups that have come to see themselves, not wrongly, as marginalised, oppressed and victimised: African Americans, women, minority religions, the gay and lesbian communities, and most recently, transgender individuals.” [A pretty fair summary.] Later he suggests in respect of this process or activity, “It can quickly turn into the politics of grievance and competitive victimhood. This creates a vicious circle of social divisions leading to divisive politics that deepen and harden social divisions. It is one of the causes of the Us-versus-Them mentality.”
Some have suggested that this last quote summarises what happened in Britain in the Brexit Referendum in 2016 and the Trump election and later defeat in the United States. Bitterness, acrimony, hostility, and divisiveness was common.
Divisiveness: We will consider as a separate subject ‘divisiveness' but it is worth noting here Sacks' further comment on this subject:
An ever-lurking divisive culture war based on differing identities.
Identity Anguish: Identity has come to be expressed for many, as Sacks later writes, “We are who we are because of the groups to which we belong,” and, “Only a member of my group can understand my pain,” which can be seen in the groupings that are strengthened by their fighting ‘for their rights' where they see themselves (often rightly as Sacks noted) oppressed in the past within such groups as radical feminists, ‘Black Rights Matter' and ‘Gay Pride'.
The only problem here is that truth is often the casualty of the battle, as we will show elsewhere. We will look at these subjects in their own pages, but the expression of confusion and hurt over identity, is focused in the culture wars over the anguishes, genuine as well as imparted, felt by those of the ‘rainbow community' and their varying sexual identities, as well as those from coloured communities. This is at the heart of the ‘culture wars'.
PART 9.4: Expressions of the Modern Identity Crisis
The Spread of Confusion: By way of a summary we may simply note the confusion that has spread through the battlefields of racism, into the battle of the sexes, and now into the battlefield of gender identity, all of which are really a simple battle over identity.
Historically, as we have already suggested, the primary foundation for stable civilization has been undermined by • the rejection of belief in the loving God of the Bible and His design for the world, • replaced by a godless, humanistic, materialistic outlook, reinforced by inadequate understanding of the developments of science and technology, • while at the same time a developing focus on increasingly unrestrained sexual pleasure running parallel to the failures of the traditional family unit.
All these things, we would suggest, have contributed to a crisis of individual identity. There is nothing unusual in this for again and again in the Bible, with the example of the nation of Israel, when belief in God is abandoned, the alternatives that remain are found wanting.
God's word to His people through Jeremiah focused the two failures: “‘My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” (Jer 2:13) Water was seen as the resource to sustain life, but in biblical prophetic pictures, ‘living water' summed up all the resources provided by God to sustain ‘life'. God put Himself forward as their Provider and when they rejected Him (as happened numerous times), they were left trying to make sense of life and make provision for life from their own resources – human wisdom and human strength – but found again and again, neither were up to the task.
Identity and resourcing go hand in hand. When identity is absent or even just confused, then the resources necessary to maintain life, are similarly found to be absent. Confusion reigns and increasingly the individual finds their resources are insufficient.
The Destruction of the Family Unit: As we have noted above, the next target on the enemy's radar was the family unit. With the breakdown of marriage almost encouraged by easing of divorce laws, instead of society and government working to bring help and support where simple stress became too great, t he unforeseen consequence was a new generation raised in dysfunctional and broken and struggling families, a generation who soon started showing the symptoms of hurt and confusion.
We are tragically reaping the fruit of this. With the breakdown of stable family units, the acrimony that so often accompanies this creates ever more divisions, not merely between the separating parents but also between growing children and their parents. All of these various identity crises simply contribute to the ever more anguishing society we have generated in the West.
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