Drenched in blood she lay, crumpled
on the ground after seven and a half minutes of stoning. The voice of the
yelling and judging husband form the script of the horrifying story The Stoning of Soraya M., an American-Iranian
film, portraying a true story of a woman who is wrongly accused of adultery.
The husband creates a conspiracy to kill her because he wants to marry a
fourteen-year-old girl. Even as the husband plots Soraya’s death, the scene of her
stoning makes a deep impact on the viewers. While stoning at her, she delivered
a prophetic line “with each stone you throw, your honor will return.”
Such incidents are not strange in
our society too. We have terms like honor killing, honor rape and moral
policing all primarily victimizing women. The Global Slavery Index demonstrates
that more than 35 lakh women were forced in to sex trafficking. Many among them
are forced to have sex with minimum 11 men a day.
Let’s reflect on the text from this context.
John
8:1-11 is the most challenging of stories in Jesus’ ministry. The literary
style suggests the non-Johannine origin of the story. While some Bibles omit
this story, others put it in brackets. The omission could be have been made to
avoid the scope of encouraging adultery.
Traditionally,
answering a difficult legal question was a custom. It was taken to a Rabbi for
a decision. Thus, considering Jesus as a Rabbi, the Scribes and Pharisees
approached Jesus with the woman who was caught in adultery. The forth Gospel
narrates the incident to show how the Scribes and Pharisees tied Jesus
inescapably on the horns of a dilemma so that they could discredit him.
Adultery
is considered as an anti-social as well as anti-God act in the Jewish law. In
the Ten Commandments adultery functions as an intolerable sin along with murder
and stealing. The Law of Moses prescribes death for an adulterous married woman
without specifying the manner of death. However, the law advises stone death
for the disloyal betrothed woman (Deut 22:23,24). The answer to the Scribe’s
question and the punishment depend her marital status. It is unclear whether
she is married or betrothed women or none of these?
Pseudo Morality: Being in the safe
space
This
incident not only shows shrewdness of the Pharisees and Scribes but also
reveals their Pseudo morality. Psychologist Albert Bandura defines pseudo
morality as a ‘cognitive reconstruct.’ It is turning something more moral than
what it actually is. The Pharisee with an injury or bleeding is considered as
the most holy person. It is done by turning ones head away from any woman seen
in public and constantly hitting into things and tripping until injured
himself. With this pseudo moralistic nature, Jesus calls ‘whitewashed tombs.’
Moreover, the Scribes and Pharisees used ‘pseudo moral justifications’ to
describe something immoral as moral.
Today
the pseudo morality has been fondly called as Moral Policing. These vigilante
groups claim to be the protectors of culture. In Kerala, it went up to the
extent of targeting a mother and her son for travelling together during night.
Getting
back to our story, although a woman alone does not engage in adultery the
counter part is invisible here. The story does deny the “space” of her identity
with no name, no personality or no feelings but Jesus carries her in a “space”
that brings her new identity. It was not a herculean task either for Jesus, due
to the fear of the crowd for exposing their pseudo-morality in public.
In
this analysis, let me put my language of psychology little more. In the
psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud, there is a phenomenon called “Reaction
Formation,” which is a defense mechanism. Here the emotions and impulses create
“anxiety”- producing or perceived to be unacceptable and develop an opposing
tendency. It also appears as a defense against a feared social punishment.
Furthermore, ‘The bandwagon effect’ in social psychology says that people do
something primarily because other people are doing it, regardless of their own
beliefs. In our story, people who brought the woman to Jesus are acting like
they hate adultery while they may really engage in. This is mainly because of
their fear of the losing their public image as well as punishment. In simple
words it is being with the majority to be in a safe space.
Morality to humanity: Crossing the
safe space
Perhaps,
the words of Jesus “let him who is without sin throw the first stone at her”
creates a counter space: a space between the crowd and the women. Jesus’ words
resonate for the space for realization of their sin where the crowd “backed
off” and the woman “stayed back.” The space between these two generates out of
Jesus’ “siding with the side lined one.” Can Jesus side with the crowd who are
guiltier than the woman? Should Jesus have succumbed to the crowd or the
majority or power pressure? Jesus created a new “space” with the very law by
which they accused her. Condemning any one to death challenges ones right to
live. Jesus retains the right of the woman to continue her life. Thus the new
“space” is the “space of life.”
Now
let us turn our mind to reflect upon “how far we create, maintain and sustain
the “space of life?” Probably, we do deal with problems with pre-occupied
minds. We conclude even before we analyze the situation. We authenticate our
set values. In his book ‘Game people plays’ Eric Bern, the psychologist termed
this tendency as “cognitive grid.” Our non-evaluative belief system regulates
our discerning faculty in all the issues we face. These decisions may not be asserted
as accurate or appropriate. As the crowed approached the woman with a
prejudiced mind, any attempt of “such a crowd mind” would sabotage the “life
giving space” and create a “life negating space.” Jesus, with his response
dismantles all such possibilities of creating a pseudo-moral space or lifeless
space. Creating a new space necessitates one to undo the values that renounce
life. Pope Francis’ recent comments that
“Christians and the Catholic Church should apologize to gay people, women and
the divorced and ask for forgiveness for mistreating them,” needs to be seen as
an undoing or creating a space of life for whom it is denied.
Beyond the safe space: Space of
Reign of God
Jesus
Christ did not condemn the woman who is caught for adultery but He gave her a
chance to survive and to have a new start. Though it looks so simple it is
something very drastic and life changing. The woman is invited to embrace a new
future that will allow her to live as a free woman, not a condemned person.
Sunita Krishna a social activist who was honored with the Padma Shree award
this year and is also the co- founder of ‘Prajwala’, an NGO that works for the
rehabilitation of sex workers and their children, stands as the best example of
affirming life that Jesus offers to all. Sunitha rescues the sex workers from
their vulnerable conditions. However for her the act of rescuing the life of
girls accomplishes the goal of providing “acceptance to them in society”. Their
social stigma and pain of rejection alleviate when bringing them into the
“space of life.” If they carry someone from the “space of death” to the “space
of life,” is it not the characteristics of the reign of God?
“Safe
space,” by “being with the majority,” provides a “sheltered life” for us
pastors but it appears to be a “space against the reign of God.” As Jesus did,
moving beyond the “safe space” demands two things. Firstly, the crowd politics
should not be “taken for granted” at the cost of the life of “the weak and the
meek.” Secondly, the ‘weak’ and the ‘meek’ should be brought to a space where
“abundance of life is assured.”
As
a community, committed to the “new space created by Jesus,” are we ready to
face the challenges of the crowd for ensuring the space of reign of God for the
weak and the meek? When the church and society form itself as a prototype of
the crowd, what is our response? We see the crowd around us in the form of
“males with stones,” “dominant castes - with apology, including me,” “gender
biased pseudo- moralists,” “pseudo-saviors of mother earth, with tons of stone
like garbage, chemical emissions, water plunderers, robbers of natural
resources,” and so on. As a faith community we are called to be a therapeutic
community and agents of transformation. Let us travel along with Jesus to make
a “model space” where life is sustained. Why don’t we all be “Christ like”?”
Why can’t we be like true disciples of Christ like Pope Francis and Sunita
Krishna? It needs guts, guts to break the shackles of conformities, pseudo
morality and thrive to go beyond the comfort space risking our life to save
lives. If we can’t do any of this, can we at least put down our stones and
avoid stoning.
I’m
sure Jesus would provide women a “space of life.” However, do not stop dreaming
to be creators of the “space of life,” which is the reign of God. If we are
ready to face risks, surely, we can be with those in the “space of life.” Amen.
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