Real Inclusion
One of my favorite philosophers, Rene Girard, had a powerful theory that involves rivalry. He believed rivalry is an effect of something he called mimetic desire. He contended mimetic desire is one of the chief characteristics of human beings.
We are inclined to desire.
Look at the 10 commandments. All of them deal with action except the last commandment. It deals with desire. What Girard concluded is that when we covet/desire what someone else has, the effect of this is rivalry, competition, antagonism, and eventually war. There’s an effort to acquire something to the exclusion of others.
Anytime you see divide, rivalry, hatred, blaming, racism, war: You are looking at the fruit of mimetic desire.
Unfortunately, it’s very easy for us to want what someone else has and believe we are in competition for that. That only one of us can have it. That these good things are mutually exclusive. There have been a couple of recent instances that come to mind.
A few years ago, there was an executive order banning refugees from 7 specific countries. One of the reasons given: the safety and security of Americans. And here we have an example of mimetic desire.
We desire safety and security for Americans.
We desire safety and security for refugees and immigrants.
Mimetic desire tricks people into thinking these two desires are in competition with one another.
Recently, a leak from the U.S. Supreme Court ignited mimetic desire.
We desire safety, protection, healthcare access, empowerment, and rights for women.
We desire protection, systems of support, and advocacy for unborn babies.
Mimetic desire tricks people in thinking these two desires are in competition with one another.
Satan fools us into believing our desires are mutually exclusive. What Jesus reveals is that our desires can be mutually inclusive.
In Acts 8: 26-40, an Ethiopian man is studying Jewish history and one of Christ's disciples, Philip connected with him and shared the rest of the story, who Jesus was and what His life, death, and resurrection meant.
In order to understand the significance and radical inclusion of this story, we need to know some basic Jewish history. The Temple was where God lived. It was filled with barriers, rooms, and rules. Only certain people were allowed in certain places.
It was very exclusive. Only the Jewish priests were allowed into the inner parts of the Temple. That changed when Christ died. The Temple curtain was torn in two. Suddenly, everyone has access to God: anywhere and anytime.
So Philip led the Ethiopian man down to the river and baptized him.
Philip baptizing Him was the most inclusive act this Ethiopian Gentile had ever experienced in his life. It would have been spiritually and emotionally overwhelming for him. This is what Christ-like inclusion does. It overwhelms and destroys barriers. There's nothing else in the world like it. One of the sins put to death on the cross was exclusion. Jesus Christ has cornered the market on inclusion.
Just like systemic racism, patriarchy, violence, and greed, mimetic desire is an insidious power structure that needs to crumble. Many of us struggle with imagining what life could be like outside of these structures. They have been present in the world for so long, they are like infections. But there is another way to live, a better way.
When it comes to the most divisive issues and moments in our culture, what would it look like for us to live as agents of Christ-like inclusion?