Constructing a Theology of Lament in Response to Collective Trauma

Prophetic Lament and Collective Trauma, post #1

We live in a traumatized nation, made up of traumatized people. No matter how great we think we are as a nation, suffering knows no boundaries and spares no community from the chaos it brings. And yet, the white American church continues to cover their eyes and ears and demand songs of celebration and victory, especially to racial trauma.¹ As a group of white Christians, we seek to develop a theology of lament that is courageous and compassionate enough to empower us to be with the traumatized individual and community. Together we are reading Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times by Soong-Chan Rah.² Rah unpacks the book of Lamentations in order to expose the need for and lack of lament in the white American church, and to give vision for what could unfold if we embrace a theology of praise and lament.

We hope to use Rah’s concepts of lament as a lens to engage the collective trauma of two people groups portrayed in separate books. In The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander documents how the American justice system has used the “War on Drugs” to create a permanently marginalized caste of black men, deeply harming the black community as a whole.³ She effectively seeks to centralize this issue as the core concern of racial social justice. In Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy and the Forgotten War, Grace M. Cho names the lingering reality and impact of neo-colonialism and how the degradation of women by an occupying political and military force shames and traumatizes an entire people group.⁴ Although we are unified in our desire to engage the intersection of lament and collective trauma, we are each drawn to this topic, and these books, for different reasons.

Hannah:

I love the Church and I have a heart for the suffering and traumatized. At times it is hard to reconcile these two realities. On the one hand Church can be a unique, powerful place of healing. But I have also repeatedly witnessed the harm created and perpetuated by the Church, especially in its response to the suffering of marginalized or traumatized people. My purpose in reading Prophetic Lament and The New Jim Crow is twofold: understanding and action. First, I want to better understand systems of oppression, in particular the collective trauma created by our nation’s history and present reality of white supremacy. And second, I hope to glean insight for how I, along with the Church at large, can better respond to the reality of racial trauma in our country through local engagement and lament.

Janathan:

The triumphalist, white, evangelical religion in which I was raised was harmful both to the marginalized black community and to its own followers. I found myself beaten badly by this conquering faith, but was taught to live in denial of my feelings and experience. Into this void came Dan Allender and Chelle Stearns insisting that we have all been traumatized and need to discover our story and lament our suffering, but lament was a new and confusing concept to me. So I turned to Rah’s book, Prophetic Lament, to find theological grounding.⁵ Though seeking guidance in personal lament, I was pulled rather into a wider discussion of community lament and I found that juxtaposition challenging, provoking, and insightful. Alexander’s book brings this theology to life.⁶ In hearing the suffering of others, we discover our hearts connected back to our own in mutual discovery of contrast and commonality. Deep calls to deep.

Kevin:

Since attending The Seattle School, light has shined into the trauma of my past. But where light is made manifest, shadows can also present. My decision to investigate personal and collective trauma comes from a longing to chase the shadows that still linger in my own heart, soul, mind, and body. And I want to deepen my awakening desire to actively engage with others in communion. Part of my journey invites me to lean upon others, which is the real reason why I gravitated to Rah’s book. Having worked on a group project with Hannah in the past, I chose to follow her leading to read Prophetic Lament.⁷ I was drawn to Haunting the Korean Diaspora largely because my father’s military service in the Korean War.⁸ I grew up hearing stories of war and traumatic suffering from him, and I wish to learn more about the long shadow that cast upon him and crept into my family.

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[1] Soong-Chan Rah, Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2015), 23.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (New York, NY: The New, 2012).

[4] Grace M. Cho, Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2008).

[5] Rah, Prophetic Lament.

[6] Alexander, The New Jim Crow.

[7] Rah, Prophetic Lament.

[8] Cho, Haunting the Korean Diaspora.

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Bibliography

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York, NY: The New, 2012.

Cho, Grace M. Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

Rah, Soong-Chan. Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2015.