We Need An Abolitionist Seminary, Not A Social Justice Seminary
“Abolition interven[es] in patriarchal and masculinist constructions of freedom/self-determination and obliterat[es] liberal-optimistic paradigms of incrementalist, reformist social justice. Abolition, in its radical totality, consists of constant, critical assessment of the economic, ecological, political, cultural, and spiritual conditions for the security and liberation of subjected peoples’ fullest collective being and posits that revolutions of material, economic, and political systems compose the necessary but not definitive or completed conditions for abolitionist praxis.”
- Dylan Rodriguez
These are the current conditions: On his first day in office, Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders targeting nearly every marginalized group in the country. One of his most ardent and wealthy supporters celebrated his victory by twice performing a Nazi salute on stage and the administration has already instructed federal agencies to dismantle sanctuary institutions, freeze hiring, eliminate DEI workforces within their branches, and place those workers on administrative leave.
It’s relatively easy to signify this as a consequence of the rise of the far-right, but it would be myopic to conclude that liberals within these political institutions aren’t also continuing to enable these very same policies. Through settling for representation and change within the US political apparatus without critically analyzing the reverberations of harm in our society caused by it, liberalism fails to meet the needs of those that require the most change and most care. This played a significant factor (by no means the only factor) in how we got to this place of Trump being president.
Even when those of good will have tried to resist Trump through legal means, the chances of it being effective are dubious at best. The truth stands that Trump was not sentenced for his conviction. Coupling this with his subsequent pardoning of the insurrectionists of January 6th and his admittance of the rigging of this election, we can conclude that these attempts to defy what’s been done within the legal framework will not likely be honored or respected.
All this to say, our suppression within the so-called United States is done by the vehicle of the State with the wheels of elite capitalist interests. The State is our enemy. What’s more, the liberation of our right to be is currently dependent upon the destruction of the State. The abolition of the State. Social Justice as it’s currently framed, which Rodriguez alludes to, is merely incremental to our needs.
Our seminary is an educational institution for a community deeply committed, in some shape or form, to transforming the world and the contexts they exist in through rigorous engagement with theology, spirituality, and ethics. Hence the mission of “Social Justice.” But this seminary’s alignment with Social Justice indicates an optimism that the context it exists within (the State) can change to be more inclusive of the most marginalized among us. Our institution, reflecting back to all of us, deludes itself into believing that the efforts and community-building accomplished within the walls is enough to create liberative conditions for those outside; that it could adhere to the law and protective fiscal policies while maintaining social and moral integrity. This delusion led the institution to fundamentally legitimize Zionism and condemn Palestinian resistance in its expressed divestment proposal.
From my engagement and interactions with the student body and the community that attend/work in this institution, alongside communities that I’ve engaged with outside of this institution, we need more than this. Imagine a seminary that is much more radically inclusive than we’ve been operating. Imagine a seminary that can deconstruct any and all barriers that we have become socialized into (historically exclusive to Black, Queer, Femme, Trans, Disabled, Non-Christian, Non-US Citizen, Non-Human and Impoverished populations). Imagine a seminary that rebels against the law, the normalized, and the constrictive. Imagine an abolitionist seminary. To rephrase, imagine an anarchic seminary.
Imagine a seminary which dares to struggle against the powers and entities that exist in order to construct a deeper imagination of its operations. Imagine a seminary that is fully prepared to disobey anything that the State expects of us when it conflicts with our moral values. Imagine a courageous seminary, not a seminary full of cowardice. Imagine a seminary that will not willingly sacrifice one of our own for its own maintenance and protection under the eyes of this so-called
American empire (one specific example, imagine a seminary that resists a visit from ICE). Imagine a seminary that won’t stifle the free expression, organization, and agency of our community. Imagine a seminary that won’t reward the privileged for protecting their privilege in the name of security and further ostracize those that disrupt those privileges. Now what can we do to make this seminary into being.
Imagine a seminary that won’t stifle the free expression, organization, and agency of our community.
A seminary that is committed to the dismantling of all hierarchy and power is merely the first step of achieving a more liberated spiritual community and will serve as a greater model to the rest of our society. This seminary is currently inclined to being a representative of righteousness within the confines of what our society has normalized rather than interrogating this confinement and practicing a greater righteousness. Everything that this seminary hopes to become and actualize of itself is severely limited and hindered by the construct of legality, which permitted someone like Donald Trump to become president in the first place. This is what follows from becoming a social justice seminary rather than an abolitionist seminary.
We should imagine more. This seminary should be willing to operate outside of the constructs of legality in order to protect its community. A more imaginative, creative, and liberated seminary can make the impossible possible and model a pedagogy of the oppressed that will truly transform the world. We need an abolitionist seminary. Not a social justice seminary.