CAPÍTULO III: EL TRATAMIENTO DE LA DISCAPACIDAD A TRAVÉS DE LA
6.3. El sistema de apoyos y su relación con los conceptos de medidas
The relevance of this passage to post-church people may begin in the space of abandonment that Isa 49:14-26 initially raises, with 50:1-3 addressing the doubt the exiles have towards YHWH’s care. YHWH’s response to the lament of Zion in 49 has not alleviated the anxiety of her children in 50:1-3. Clearly one of the issues being addressed here is the concern that the exile, banishment, and punishment (all aspects of it) was not only excessive but would be permanent - that the people would be forever in a disconnected state from YHWH and that there would never be an opportunity to go home. The dislocation a post-church person can experience leaving a close community, the challenge to a sense of home, and their previous theological understandings of God, may resonate with this reframing message.
In Isaiah 49 the children seemed to play a role of participating in the healing of their broken mother. In 50:1-3 the children seem to be the unfortunate mediators between conflicted par- ents, acted upon. This is a distressing representation, but a reality for so many children in sit- uations of crisis. Dealing with metaphors of marriage, parenthood and divorce provides some challenging hurdles. The reader benefits from understanding the backgrounds to these
metaphors, but there may be significantly different experiences of these today. There may be a breakdown in the commonplace associations and post-church people may also find framing the love and forgiveness of YHWH in the image of a disciplining and punishing parent or husband prohibitive. I note here the work of Julie O’Brien who looks at the use of the father metaphor for YHWH as accompanying the idea of the father as authoritarian.41 Following an ideological critique, O’Brien suggests that such metaphors can be read via a lens of our own experiences of childhood, parents and parenting (positive and negative) and “shows the way in which holding onto parental models infantilizes the believer before God and before the world. Rather than trying to heal by making God into a new parent, the wounded might find value in understanding God as the ‘enlightened witness,’ the one who stands apart from dys- functional family systems and names them for what they are.”42 O’Brien talks about the move to reading the Bible as adults, rather than as children. In the context of parenting metaphors of YHWH, we may find this a particular navigational challenge, due to our own comparative experiences.43
Hearing the voices of children who have suffered war and exile may enable us to understand some of the pain we find in this passage.44 For the post-church person the challenge is to take their empathy for the experience of marginalisation and look towards the ‘other’ in the world. By humanising this passage we avoid taking it too far away from its traumatic roots of exile
41. Julia M. O’Brien, Challenging Prophetic Metaphor: Theology and Ideology in the Prophets (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 2008), ch. 5.
42. O’Brien, Challenging Prophetic Metaphor, 99.
43. This may also relate to other uses of a parenting metaphor such as Zion as mother. I do not assume problems may only relate to imaging God as father.
44. For example, Save the Children Australia has uploaded several short animated films made by Syrian refugee children describing their situation in their own words/ images. One of these is the story of 13 year old Inaam who describes her house being bombed whilst her mother was singing her to sleep, and the escape and fear she now lives in. “Inaam’s Animation, Syria,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v7X58K8Mrc (accessed Nov 1, 2013). These depictions are not only informative for the wider world, they are transformative opportunities for the children to use art as a therapeutic mechanism.
and crisis. Using the resources of current studies of PTSD suffered by those affected by war and displacement, it is clear that one of the acute sources of anxiety for children is the status and safety of their parents, particularly their mothers. If the children addressed in this passage are exiles, it may be assumed that they are separated from their mother. This is commonplace in times of war. Children need to navigate through reasons why they are displaced, why their worlds have changed.45 Perhaps Isa 50:1-3 is a particular response in crisis to explaining to children the cause of their suffering; it is a rationale for their suffering with hope embedded that the suffering would end. It is a terrifying read (YHWH destroying, drying up earth, fish rotting, dark sky), hardly the stuff of children’s bedtime stories, but when the context of the exiles’ doubt is understood it is clear that it is meant to be inspiring. They feared their God was no longer powerful, thus this imagery needed to be emphasised. Children of war experi- ence a break of trust, demonstrated in Isa 50:1-3 with the broken trust between YHWH and the children of Zion. The children are silent in their response. A resistant reading may ask: How would the children respond? And why didn’t they? I propose that 50:1-3 presents us with a gap, where in the silence of the children’s response we can read into the space and see the children speak back to YHWH. Likewise a post-church person may wish to speak back to YHWH with their ongoing doubts or questions.
The shift from the mother metaphor for YHWH in ch. 49 to the father metaphor in 50:1-3 should be seen as a hermeneutical opportunity. The audience’s presumptions about YHWH are being dismantled. A post-church person who is attempting to recover broader understand- ings of God and deal with personal guilt that may arise from their abandonment of church, may find such readings that re-position notions about YHWH’s faithfulness helpful. A post- church person may find great comfort in the expression of YHWH’s power and strength, and the metaphorical overturning of the divorce expectations. The underlying self-perception of the exiles that YHWH does not love them, has rejected them and that there is no way back is challenged in this reading and for a post-church person that may offer hope of restorative re- lationships with YHWH and broken communities.
45. Kollontai’s paper explains the brutal effects on children’s sense of self during the war in Bosnia- Herzegovina, focussing on the use of art as a tool of healing. Pauline Kollontai, “Healing the Heart in Bosnia- Herzegovina: Art, Children and Peacemaking,” International Journal of Children’s Spirituality15, no. 3 (Aug 2010): 261-271.