THE SALVATION ARMY - Clarification; Position on Homosexuality VIII LGBT ISSUES IN AFRICA 1

Aristotle once declared, “He who loses support of the people is king no longer.”

Hegemony (CONTROL) is in place when people behave in ways that they think are good for them, not realizing that they are being harmed and colluding in their own poor choices.  Hegemony, 'INVISIBLE POWER' was employed effectively; a ‘theory of power’ in the Marxist tradition.

Lenin recognized it and ‘argued that the power of ‘bourgeois ideology’ system was reinforced by a dominance of ruling class ideas and values – leading to Engels’s well known concern that ‘false consciousness’ would keep the working class from recognizing and rejecting their oppression.

The Italian communist Antonio Gramsci, imprisoned for much of his life by Mussolini, took these idea further in his Prison Notebooks with his widely influential notions of ‘hegemony’ and the ‘manufacture of consent’ (Gramsci 1971).  He saw civil society as the public sphere where political parties gained concessions from the bourgeois state, and the sphere in which ideas and beliefs were shaped; where bourgeois “hegemony’ was reproduced in cultural life through the media, universities and religious institutions to ‘manufacture consent’ and legitimacy”. (Heywood 1994).

Gramsci’s ideas have influenced popular education practices, including the adult literacy and consciousness-raising methods. In one of my graduate classes in Fordham University; Paulo Freire in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed was the focus.

The aim of Paulo Freire was to ‘empower, and promote the self-development, self-confidence and the talents (including functional literacy) of each and every individual, especially the weak in society’.

His three interrelated approaches: community development, formal and non-formal education and community social work were synonymous with liberation theology and other approaches to popular media, communication and cultural actions in his native Brazil and beyond..

The idea of power as ‘hegemony’ has influenced and shaped the form of civil society in large measure throughout the African continent impacting negatively on individuals’ ability to analyze (think critically) ‘one’s own’ spiritual belief or religious commitments, or about the practice of religious doctrines.

THE SPIRAL OF SILENCE

Chuck Colson of Watergate fame founded Prison Fellowship while serving his time in prison, and whom I met three times, sharing the platform advocating reform of the USSR prison system.

He wrote of the need to break "the Spiral of Silence." Colson’s criticism targeted the 40 percent of Americans identifying themselves as ‘born again’ who remained silent, and simply retreated. “Why are we allowing a handful of angry voices to control the public conversation?”

Colson’s adoption of the term was a natural transition from his and Richard Nixon’s oft used quip, the “silent majority”, an unspecified large majority of people in a country or group who do not express their opinions publicly.

The term Spiral of Silence was coined by Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann: “society falls into this fearful state, the Spiral of Silence, when it allows a tiny majority of the population to control the conversation. Most people are by nature reluctant to go against the tide of public opinion. Others are frightened, so the majority is silenced.”

The phrase "spiral of silence" actually refers to how people tend to remain silent when they feel that their views are in the minority. The model is based on three premises:

·      people have a "quasi-statistical organ," a sixth-sense if you will, which allows them to know the prevailing public opinion, even without access to polls, 

·      people have a fear of isolation and know what behaviors will increase their likelihood of being socially isolated

·      people are reticent to express their minority views, primarily out of fear of being isolated.

“It is exercised by those in power exerting influence and control in such a way that mass media influences public opinion. Shifts in public opinion occur commonly and therefore this theory is used to search an explanation for behavior (speak up or stay silent). The theory has also been criticized for ambiguity and methodological weakness, but the idea has persisted. Evidence of the spiral effect is usually small but significant.” (Shanahan & Scheufele, 2013).

1)   George Gerbner and Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann devised paradigmatic theories explaining the media’s ability to set the boundaries for conventional and mainstream thinking in society:theories about media’s influence on perceptions of reality

2)   theories about social control

3)   theories of powerful media effects

4)   macro-social theories

Luke Berggren wrote last Friday in the Swedish newspaper

The World Today’s opinion section: “An effective way to begin a “spiral of silence” is to convincingly label a belief as extreme, unusual or strange.” Or through obfuscation it forces weaker persons with possibly alternative but weak conviction to fall silent. “It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This trick is often used by decision-makers. By presenting some message that odd silences also its messengers. They become victims of the ‘silence spiral’.

Even though Bible-believing Christians are a majority in Africa messages from those in power are ‘performed’ with such intensity that the Christian voice is consigned to the spiral of silence. 

More than two-thirds of the world’s Christians now live in the global South—with Africa growing the fastest.

Christianity is no longer the religion of the West. It’s becoming rooted more authentically in local cultures along with politically motivated theories seeking to preserve the need for authority and power and control by social, cultural and primarily economic elites.

If we look closely at the SA across 126 territories and national borders we find that the spiritual bond is strong but factors such as race, education level, philosophical and a key theological position run the breadth and to a large degree defies any possibility of wholly coming together. A significant theological difference is found in the rampant LGBT discrimination in Africa. 

To what extent has this affected the Salvationists’ camp? Where and to what extent are the positions held? The large majority of Africans believe ‘homosexual orientation’ to be a sin and that it’s an adopted life style choice, in direct and total contradiction to IHQ’s official position. "The Salvation Army does not consider homosexual orientation a sin. “ Psychologists have long regarded that homosexuality is no longer a pathological condition; it is therefore to be accepted not cured.

The Salvation Army is ‘welcoming’, and moving toward an increasingly affirming, and ever more inclusive position in many places in the northern hemisphere. However, in African, Pakistani, Indian and one or two other territories the church (SA) claims it must dissociate itself from the sin of homosexuality. Such sentiments are an anathema to our very message of salvation to the whosoever. Is there room for mutual growth in two SA belief systems side-by-side, one catering to the southern hemisphere and the other to the more progressive northern hemisphere?

(Part One of three or four?)

Sven Ljungholm

March 24, Liverpool