[I had removed this temporarily, because of valid questions about the truth of the claim in the book I reference. There seems to be enough documentation to put this back.]
This second type of apologetic violence, then, occurs when our
Christian witness unwittingly participates in the kind of systemic or ideological violence that takes place in modern rational societies…This violence is almost completely objective in the sense that it is not attributable to any one person or group and their evil intentions. It is largely anonymous. No one (in particular) is doing it, but it is the underlying violence required to maintain the status quo in which we all participate indirectly. (pg. 159)
This concept apologetic violence weighs on me. I’ve not questioned the existence of systemic and ideological violence for a very long time. It horrifies me to think that I am also complicit in it. But I haven’t given my all, or even my “a lot” to subvert it, either. This leads me to an art installation I saw a few years ago called The Land Grant: Forest Law by Ursula Biemann and Paulo Tavares. (The book form of the installation is available here at Internet Archive.) The installation focused on the forests of western Amazonia, the indigenous nations that live there, the biodiversity and the problem created by the rich natural resources of oil, bas and minerals under the ground.
The installation included reports covering many aspects of Amazonia and interests there. I was horrified to notice one that covered Wycliffe Bible Translators and JAARS aviation. I knew missionaries, who worked for these agencies, who had devoted their lives to taking the Gospel to places that were dangerous and hard to reach. They really loved the indigenous people they worked with as brothers and sisters in Christ. They were also my friends. And then I read this:
One of the main facilitators of oil penetration in Amazonia, chiefly in Peru and Ecuador, was the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), the “anthropologic branch” of the Wycliffe Bible Translators, one of the largest American evangelistic missionary organizations. SIL emerged and expanded its operations during the Cold War, following the economic and security interests of the United States in the resource-rich, largely indigenous, and politically turbulent frontiers of the third world. Often directly funded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), SIL’s operations played a central role in the campaigns of political containment deployed by the United Sates in various strategic zones, as in the forests of Vietnam and Guatemala, and at the same time served as one of the most efficient means through which these remote territories were integrated into circuits of global capital.
In Latin America, SIL became one of the closest allies of the United States-backed military regimes that ruled over practically the entire continent at that time. With its own air fleet–the JAARS (Jungle Aviation and Radio Service)–and the increasing support of local dictators, the agency’s network eventually became transcontinental, including operations in Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil.
…
From the perspective of the Ecuadorian state, which lacked financial means and technical conditions to consolidate its western frontier, SIL and its vast logistical infrastructure served as channels for state expansion, permitting national homogenization and integration while providing access to natural resources in Amazonia. For the oil corporations, SIL operated as the pacifying force that contain the resistance of indigenous groups trying to block the invasion of their ancestral territories.
pp. 25, 27, 29 & 31.)
This report leaves me with many questions, but I put it here as a known example of how close to home apologetic violence can come and how easy it is to participate in something you don’t even know exists. Is it possible to ever ask enough questions or think of enough angles?
At least, I can be aware of what my own mouth is doing, or is about to do, and check it. Maybe?
I’m beginning to understand why Kierkegaard named one of his books regarding Christian practice Fear and Trembling. It might take that much concern for me to learn to be in the truth and live that way.