GET CONNECTED

Dangerous Seeing:
Fahrenheit 9/11 Richard Rohr

For the sake of fair hearing, I am going to assume that only 25% of the interpretations implied in the Michael Moore film, Fahrenheit 9/11 are completely fair and accurate interpretations. The pictures and verifiable data speak for themselves, but still deserve and need interpretation, and that is what we got in Michael Moore’s editing and direction. There is no such thing as a completely objective observer on anything, which even quantum physics teaches and any good historian will admit. We must “interpret.” There is no other way. There is no completely “value free” position.

All “truth” is somehow interpreted truth. Only God is outside of this ever moving river. Even those who claim to have no bias, always do, even the bias of CBS Evening News and the Supreme Court. Every viewpoint is a view from a point, and that includes the viewpoint from the side of George Bush, from the side of Michael Moore, and I would like to propose a third: the viewpoint from the side of the poor and excluded in any system. If we are to be people transformed by the Biblical text, it is always from this deliberate bias that we must read reality, If not, another bias will always win out, regardless of whether you are liberal or conservative, which is why we need a “third something” to clean the lens. The untransformed self will naturally interpret reality from the position of private ego, self-interest, personal advantage, addictive opinion, and that extension of ego which is whatever “belonging system” you have identified with—country, denomination, Democrat, Republican, feminist, or anarchist.

The conservative/liberal split that is dividing our country is a bogus way of seeing reality. It is simply two different shapes for the ego. It still leaves us trapped inside of our prejudices, whatever they might be. The brilliance and grounded spirituality of the Biblical Tradition is that the text gives us a different starting point than my “little interpretation” or “my personal opinion.” From the very beginning and throughout the Bible, God’s privileged one is consistently the enslaved instead of the supposed free, the outsider instead of the insider, the sinner instead of the righteous, the wounded instead of the healthy, the lay instead of the clergy, the poor instead of the rich. I dare you to try to disprove that. It is the “theme of themes,” so consistent and so demanding, that it has been ignored and avoided throughout most of Christian and Jewish history. We would rather be self designated liberals or conservatives than take the defenseless and vulnerable side of reality that Abraham, Moses, and Jesus took. It always looks naïve.

The true Biblical text will always be a subtext in history. It is too difficult to maintain, and in fact, impossible to prove to one who does not “know God” and God’s mysterious ways (Isaiah 55:8-9), or to one who has not entered into identification with Jesus. It is from this brilliant analysis and privileged viewpoint that I must critique and analyze Michael Moore’s movie. Without it, the conversation will remain much as it is in contemporary America: “I think/you think” and most minds are already made up. “Don’t bother me with any more perspective, I have my own.” That is what has happened inside of the deadlocked culture war that we are trapped in today. Each of us tends to either totally agree with Michael Moore or totally dismiss it.

In general, I would say “a pox on both of your houses,” Republican and Democrat. As Jim Wallis, of Sojourners, recently said to me, “The Right is wrong, but the Left just doesn’t get it!” The Right seems largely incapable of any self criticism, as we see personified in Rush Limbaugh, or George Bush who cannot think of any mistakes he made his first two years in office. That, of itself, puts their ideology totally outside the prophetic and Jesus tradition. The Right is usually the glorification of self interest, while frequently hiding behind the language of religion and patriotism. The Left is so eager to please everyone and to appear broad minded, that it cannot find any philosophically grounded points of agreement. It is a collection of interest groups, each of which is self interested and not much more. It ends up with a hodge-podge world view, and is even afraid of the words God, faith, or prayer. So what are we to do? I think we must seek out the Biblical viewpoint, which will probably make us sometimes agree with the Democrats and sometimes with the Republicans. If you need a strong belonging system to reassure you, you will not find it here. (This makes it very hard to vote, doesn’t it?)

Where does Michael Moore fit into all of this? Well, whatever his faults, or his faulty interpretations, he consistently takes the side of the poor! I do not know if he is a believer, but for whatever reason, he sees as the Bible sees. Moore always asks the question, “What effect does this have on those at the bottom and those marginalized by the system?” Only that position reveals and exposes a country’s lies, addictions, and idolatries, the “false gods before us. It is the privileged viewpoint, but always a rare one. No one will defend that position if he or she is on bended knee before any of the many gods. Here we see the true price of the first commandment: “Having ONE God before you”. If God is God, then America is not God, nor is its flag, nor its self interest, nor its borders, nor its gross national product, nor its armies, nor any of its presidential candidates.

That is pure and scary Gospel. The teaching of Jesus takes a position that is outside the normal reward systems of money, promotion, lower taxes, my job security, the security of my country, an increased GNP, the defense of my group, a love affair with the military, or with technology. Jesus called this the viewpoint from “the Kingdom of God”, whereas humans are inclined to look out from our smaller kingdoms and loyalty systems. No wonder he said that if you followed him, “you would be hated by all” (Luke 21:17). It is hard to buy people off at that level or to reward them at that level because they are not impressed by the usual pay offs. A scary freedom that the system does not like. It is the ultimate Big Picture, and we end up like Jesus “with nowhere to lay our head” (Luke 9:58).

I came out of Fahrenheit 9/ll both very sad and very disturbed. Whatever its truth, and I personally think there is much truth in the movie, why did it take an outsider to say things that cannot be said on CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, Fox, the Washington Post or the New York Times? What is the blindness in this country that only allows us to critique so far? What is our isolation that cannot see what most of the world now sees about America? What is our addiction, what is our loyalty system that forbids us to see outside of our own self created boxes? Who are our real gods? What made most of the country, including Democrats, Congress, Christians, and the media, jump on the bandwagon of this unjust war as soon as we started it? Loyalty to troops who signed up? Loyalty to my country because it is my country? Country as a substitute for the true self? Inability to believe that our government would lie to us? Fear of terrorism after months of paranoia and reinforcement? Fear of death? Fear of not being in control? Fear of not being “number one”?

I know that people cannot see what they are not ready to see. I know that the Gospel allows us to see, and to see far and clear. This seeing is both the eye of God and the eye from the edge and the bottom of the system. Who would have ever imagined that they were the same pair of eyes? I know for sure it is a dangerous seeing, and even Divine Revelation has not been able to convince us or change us. It is a naked seeing, a hated seeing, because it has nothing to prove and nothing to protect except life and love itself. It does “not bring peace but a sword.” The true Gospel never initially unites. It always divides those into self interest from those into “God’s interest.”

Richard Rohr, OFM