Religion and Theology

Jonathan Kozol is one sensitive soul who was able to cut through layers and layers of collective cultural false consciousness in order to bring to light what is really true in the world. He himself is the illustration and epitome of the song Amazing Grace ...who once was blind and now can see...
Jonathan Kozol had the bravery to march into hell for a heavenly cause. And by hell here I mean the institutional as well as collective cultural block that not only manufactures social sins of poverty, racism, dehumanization, and deprivation to many but also culturally blinds us to the stark reality of the fact that these things are happening.

Right before our very eyes social injustices are happening in its myriad and malevolent forms killing children by institutional poverty and starvation, excluding the poor, the colored, the different from social rights and privileges, creating structural injustices, and creating dehumanization in a grand scale and yet we act as if that is everyday occurrence and simply acquiesce to the fact doing nothing.
Yet even now, even if have the likes of Jonathan Kozol who can bring us into grace and enlightenment, many people would still choose darkness and would not leave the comfort zone of the cave. Similar to Platos Allegory of the Cave, the sight of the light pains us and we fear to leave the comforts of the dark cave. We choose to remain in ignorance.

More than this however is that the cave for me represents structural and institutional forces of darkness that would keep us in slavery.  This social sin which has grown into its malevolent structural and cultural forms are what really keeps us indifferent at the least and even side with the oppressors at the most.

Even now, Jonathan Kozol is like the prophets of old, a voice in the wilderness with nobody ever listening to him. At worst, Jonathan Kozol is under fire and criticism by the same forces of social sin that he wants to expose.

Kozol asks a very crucial question, Why doesnt America care about the children of the poor  (Kozol) An honest to goodness answer to this simple question I believe will not only poke the beehive but will actually put American society into trial.

Social Sin and its Dimensions
Gregory Baum describes social sin as committed out of blindness and that people are involved in destruction action without being aware of it.

This social sin creates to a large extent a numbness and insensitivity to peoples pains and makes the people commit on a collective scale the sin of omission. The sin of omission is not doing something when you see an actual evil happening right in front of you.  An exaggerated example of this is when you see your own sister being raped in front of you and you just kept on with what you are doing eating lunch as if nothing is happening.

This is actually an indictment of our culture of apathy and indifference as we feel no guilt in the face of statistics of degrading poverty, discrimination, dehumanization, violence, and war on a large scale. It is not simply a matter of ignorance or not knowing what the issues are. Everyday we hear of stories of war, poverty, bombings, and hunger, and yet we have been trained to accept them all as normal. We simply acquiesce to the fact that the world is not right and accept the facts doing nothing.  There is in fact a false consciousness haunting and pervading our culture.

Another side of this social sin is not only the sin of omission of choosing to do nothing by simply staying in the darkness of the cave but the structural sin of commission. There are social structures responsible for poverty. There are institutions that actually breed dehumanization and oppression. We do not just accept the presence of these institutions to wreak havoc on peoples but we actually participate in them also.

To add injury to insult, we have cultural and religious symbols that tend to legitimize social injustice. With social sin using the tandem of structure and culture, a collective false consciousness arises guiding peoples decisions on  a collective scale.  (Baum)

Ideology and Idolatry in Neo-liberalism
We have a saying that goes, Money makes the world go round. In our pursuit of money, we are already trapped in selfishness that we put a blind eye on the poor because we are so busy making a living. In the pursuit of money, we tend to make money the supreme standard of value that it becomes an idol, a god that could get everything if you have it. Thus we sell our bodies, our souls, our integrity, our dreams, and our talents all for the money. In the pursuit of money we can also be tempted into greed and operate the very structures that create social injustice.  Thus we are guilty of idolatry without our ever knowing it---the idolatry of money. Money actually is the defining feature of todays ideology. This is further translated into structure and institution-Neo-liberalism and racism. The institution of the market is now left to decide on the fate of millions of human lives. The neo-liberalist principle of letting the market decide will now offer human sacrifices of billions on the altar of money. The decisions of the World Trade Organization which only recognizes the dynamics of the market as the sole criteria will create hunger and starvation on a planetary scale. Neo-liberalist principles translated into state laws will legitimize it and people are prone to accept neo-liberalism as a way of life. Hand in hand with neo-liberalism would be racism that would actually discriminate groups who are different in color, belief, and culture and structurally induce them into poverty and with no voice and meaningful participation in society.

The effects of these types of social and structural sin would be a world gone mad, with billions going hungry, the threat of war and nuclear annihilation always impending,  large groups of people dehumanized and oppressed, and even the whole planets ecological balance will be at stake due to exploitation and oppression on a planetary scale.

The Role of Religion
Religious institutions in general tend to justify oppression by not focusing on social sin but only on personal sin. There is only the emphasis on personal pain and the individual salvation of souls. There is a show of false piety and concern for souls, but there is no action towards the achievement of genuine social justice.  While there is much talk about heaven, there is no dimension of social salvation here and now.

There are certain individuals who have the grace and courage to see through all the deception such as Rev. Overall. She believes that people tend not to reach out because they are protecting themselves emotionally by closing their hearts to compassion.