Introduction
“You have done
really well here. I am so proud of you. What do you plan to do when you
graduate?” I say with a beaming smile. “Well, I don’t really have a plan yet,
but I was wondering what you might have in mind?” Asked the brilliant student
who has just filed for graduation. “How about the Peace Corp or this
great opportunity teaching English in Thailand?” “Nah, I would rather stay
close to home.” I persist, “There is a great chance for working with Christian Appalachian Project or how
about taking that job out in Phelps High School? You know those kids need support
as they have a lot of obstacles.” The student sheepishly shares, “I would rather
have something a little closer to my parents’ house and I really need to make
some money. I love helping people, I am praying about my future, but they do
not pay very well and right now I need a job that pays good and keeps me close
to home. I need something that will help me do more than just get by. I am not
trying to be rich, but I need something where I can get a different car and breathe
a little bit.” Although confused, I relented from the pursuit of specific
justice-oriented jobs and helped him with an online job posting service.
This dialogue is one of many I have experienced as a
chaplain with students at the University of Pikeville (UPIKE). This student was
a devout Christian who was active on campus and graduated with a strong grade
point average. Literally my breath was taken when hearing him express the
language of survival rather than transformation. I had expected this new
college graduate to share how he planned on “changing the world” or “helping
those most in need” yet as I continue to listen to other students, I hear
stories of getting jobs, making money, and being close to family. These
encounters led me to ask how could students immersed in the country’s region of
most “need” not be moved by the plight in the same ways that I was moved to
action?
On nearly all fronts, Central
Appalachia and especially Eastern Kentucky is home to persons suffering from
poor health, less formal education, and disempowering underemployment. Rather
than asking the question of the New York
Times, “What is the Matter with Eastern Kentucky?”[1]
I refuse to blame a people or culture. One thing is for certain, there is more going
on than meets the eye therefore I ask more probing questions that are not as
simple as clickbait headlines. UPIKE students are thoughtful, engaged, and
committed. Most have plowed through many impediments,
developed grit and defied the odds to succeed. What is the disconnection from
their desires and my expectations for their actions?
The basis for this research project is the
notion that various sources of oppression have created the ongoing degradation
of Eastern Kentucky and that a liberation theological paradigm can help empower
Appalachian students to see themselves as agents of transformation. For this
work, Central Appalachia and especially Eastern Kentucky will be explored as
the cultural and regional context, in addition to UPIKE. This research accepts
that Appalachian culture exists and when contextualized within liberation
theology, hereafter referred to as hollering
theology, Appalachian students will be empowered to see themselves as
change agents in the region. As the overwhelming majority of UPIKE graduates
stay in the Central Appalachia region, UPIKE students have a profound opportunity
to effect change in the region.
I have
noticed a disturbing trend among students at UPIKE. There is a disconnect from religious
devotion and community engagement. Is it possible that a view of God uninformed
by liberation theology is what blocks these students from actively engaging in
their community, being with the poor, and challenging systems of oppression such
as the hillbilly stereotype? If so, can insights from hollering theology
empower students to interact with their communities while seeing themselves as agents/restorers
of a broken world? This project will explore the following research question: Is there a hollering theology and if so, how does the critical
teaching of it at UPIKE transform students’ understanding of their obligation
to others as an expression of their Christian devotion, their self-identity,
and their civic engagement?
Through many times of listening to students and reading
their papers in various religion courses, their words and actions provoke many
questions related to self-understanding and
personal agency. Some of the key questions are as follows:
·
Are students disempowered
and oppressed through stereotyping and cultural shaming?
·
Does internalized
oppression happen through the pervasive imagery and labeling of the hillbilly?
·
How much should a
liberation theologian focus on internalized oppression in the work of
empowering Central Appalachia?
·
Does the framework of
oppression through stereotyping become essential to the work of hollering
theology?
So often
when one is experiencing internalized oppression or has a colonized mind the
powers and oppressive themes are nearly invisible.[2]
One of the key questions coming from face-to-face interviews in this project, came
from Dr. Burton Webb, President of UPIKE, as he was addressing issues in
Appalachia. He asked, “Why don’t we grow mushrooms in abandoned mines?”[3]
In his question I wonder if this is a beautiful push toward human agency or does
the question gloss over internalized oppression which blocks creativity and
risk taking?
As I hear Dr. Webb’s question, I also feel my own bias
oozing out in this project. I started this research project with a clear vision
of what liberation theology in Central Appalachia would look like when students
engage in the work. My vision was that students would choose the jobs of justice,
areas of most need, and consistently be shifting toward areas that they can do
the most good. My view of “most good” has the dangerous overlay of a “savior
complex.” As much as it pains me to admit, a lot of my work in the region has
been fueled by trying to “save” or “civilize” rather than listening, learning,
and empowering others for the dreams and goals of their lives. In this project,
you will also hear of how I unlearn many of my “savior-like suppositions” and
am now growing into a humbler learning posture.
Liberation poet and educator Audre Lorde provides a helpful
insight when sharing that revolutionary change is not simply the removal of
oppressive forces/dominating circumstances. The key to revolution is removing
the deeply rooted seed of the oppressor which has taken hold in the heart/soul.[4]
This seed is known as internal colonializing or internal oppression. This
reality is often ignored when people are providing an analysis of regional
problems and is often ignored in the formation of public policy responses. Social
scientific frameworks and Marxist critiques are limited in the insight they can
provide. Before one is liberated economically or politically, one must be
liberated through a conversion of heart and mind. Before one is liberated economically
or politically, one must be liberated through a conversion of the heart and
mind. Conversion, therefore, plays an essential part in the liberation story.[5]
This research
accepts the truth that Appalachian people have been internally colonized and
therefore I am stirred to turn to liberation theology
to ask questions as I develop hollering theology: This research starts
with the following questions:
·
How does one “take the
poor off the cross”[6] in
Eastern Kentucky?
·
Who are the poor and
suffering of Central Appalachia?
·
What are the systems
of oppression and who/what holds the power?
·
Where is God working
against the systems of oppression?
·
Where and what are the
false gods/idols of death?
·
Who are the local
players seeking grassroots change at the systems level?
·
What is the role of UPIKE,
as positioned in Central Appalachia, to work toward liberation and can a
religion course empower critical awakening?
In the midst of
these critical questions, another question arises. Why the use of the word hollering
for the contextualized liberation paradigm in Central Appalachia? Although the
word is spelled “hollow” in most parts of Central Appalachia, it is pronounced
“holler,” if you travel or live in Eastern Kentucky, will spend a lot of time
up a “holler.” A holler is a small valley between mountains and are usually
narrow at times accompanied by a parallel creek, leading up a winding road that
has only one way and out. When a person refers to a holler as “hollow,” it is
an instant giveaway that they are an outsider. Some people said that the term
comes from the reality of family-based hollows and how people “holler” back in
forth to communicate. Nationally hollers have been a place of media
sensationalism and the Smithsonian has used the term “holler dwellers”[7] to
discuss people who live in these areas. Hollers became famous when Loretta Lynn
sang about growing up on “Butcher Holler” in her iconic song, “Coal Miner’s
Daughter.”[8]
Holler is an affectionate and localized word that is multilayered in its meaning.
It depicts home, family, a windy journey, mountains, and something that might
only be appreciated by those who live there. It also represents a passionate
and loud volume which gets your attention. In the hollow, one can feel God’s embrace.[9]
As a proud
hillbilly, the work of liberation in Central Appalachia is something to holler
about because there is much up the holler that the theological world needs to
know. Hollering is an appropriate and natural contextualizing word for this
liberation theological endeavor. This work is an attempt to contextualize
liberation theology in Central Appalachia while partnering this “hollering”
theology with critical pedagogy in the classroom at UPIKE. The goal is to
empower Appalachian students to name and claim hollering theology as a method
of doing theology in their hollers.
This project is
one of many projects seeking to support and empower the Central Appalachian
region. Although there are many projects in the region, not all liberation
attempts are as mindful of producing regional benefit. The attempt at constructing
a hollering theology is an experiment in listening to students while providing
engaging and critical materials for students to wrestle with while they are
enrolled in two different religion classes at UPIKE. On the scale of projects
in the region, this project is a minor experiment and theological in grounding.
Other attempts at liberation in the region have been much more expansive and at
times problematic.
Economic and material development pathways to liberation
are the most frequent avenues people/agencies use in Central Appalachia. In
liberation theology economics is a healthy starting place as this theology
advocates for the God who shows a “preferential option for the poor.” The first
major government liberation endeavor in Central Appalachia was through the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC),
which was birthed to investigate and explore opportunities to socially uplift
the poor of Appalachia. Underlying the ARC
mission is the government’s concept of the “Appalachian problem.” It saw Appalachia
as a region strangely apart both geographically and statistically. The
commission initially sought to introduce Appalachia and its people into a fully
active membership in the American society.[10]
This economic focus, without a nuanced appreciation of the oppressing systems
at play, has become a faulty foundation of which some help has caused harm.
While the ARC was
being launched, President Lyndon Johnson, with one photo opportunity (see appendix one), cemented a picture of Appalachia as a land of despair and
poverty in the minds of the American psyche. In this fateful moment, President
Johnson chose Martin County, Kentucky and resident, Tom Fletcher, a 38-year-old
unemployed father of eight, to show the nation what the downturn in coal mining
had done to the Appalachian people.[11] He
sought to declare “war on poverty” and make the war personal. Tragically this
moment ruined Tom Fletcher’s life and years later, when Tom was asked why he
was unable to get away from the visible poverty that made him the face of the War on Poverty, he said, “I don’t know.” [12]
As this story goes, so does the poverty in Appalachia.
Although billions
have been poured into the region to help the poor hillbilly, circumstances have
changed very little. Nearly 60 years later and the Fletcher
cabin stands but now more dilapidated while Martin County has a poverty rate at
35 %, which makes it one of the poorest in the nation. Sadly, only 9 % of
adults have college degrees and unemployment rates are twice the national
average.[13] Since the War on
Poverty launched in 1964, poverty rates in Central Appalachia remain at the
top of the nation. Nearly 33 % of young adults ages 18 to 24 were in poverty in
rural Appalachia in 2014-2018 as seen in appendix two.[14]
Government programs and projects alone have not been able to liberate the
region.
Where economic development has failed, education seeks to
offer an alternative liberation. In the midst of the famous Hatfield/McCoy feud,
institutions like UPIKE were founded with the aim of providing a quality basic
education to those in need. UPIKE’s catalyst of birth was Rev. David Blythe who
believed that “while giving them a course in English, he was also giving them a
sample of religion.”[15]
People like Rev. Blythe believed that what Appalachia needed was education and
through education the region would flourish. Historically however, education
has also meant educating the “uncivilized” hillbilly. Sadly, this type of
education has been a key strategy for outsiders. In Eastern Kentucky about half
of the people have finished high school and 25 % have attended college in
comparison to national averages of 50 %. Comparatively, only 10% of people in
Eastern Kentucky have earned a college degree.[16]
Dr. Michael Hendryx with the Central
Appalachia Prosperity Project argues that education alone cannot solve the
problem. Without training, skills, and then the job opportunities, Appalachia
will not be able to sustain any development in the twenty-first century.[17]
Education without economic improvement opportunities and education without the
awareness of how class and income disparities impact the receiving and valuing
of education becomes an exercise in futility. Education does not solve poverty
alone. Without this awareness, school becomes a mirage at best and possibly
dishonest at worst if one does not admit that it has a responsibility to
expand their offerings, as a way of preparing students to work against an unfair
reality. If schools do not do this, then it sets students up for a crushing
reality check.[18]
Without a formal
education, hillbillies will be relegated to the back of the national line yet
education must include skills and a broad-based focus that is regionally and economically
appropriate. Currently in the US, there is a great chasm between those who have
degrees and those who do not and “this divide perpetuates a ‘tyranny of merit’ for
the educated, and a ‘politics of humiliation’ for the uneducated.”[19]
Educational disparities are vast in Central Appalachia, yet attempts at
liberation education must be regionally appropriate and guided by local voices.
For many, the
problems of Central Appalachia are not rooted in material or educational realities
but are symptoms of spiritual problems. These spiritual gaps are filled by
passionate missionaries who have flooded the hills with hope and zeal. Without
the work of missionaries, Pikeville Kentucky would not have UPIKE or Pikeville Medical Center as both were founded
by Christian missionaries (PCUSA, UMC). Yet these breakthroughs did not come
without any baggage. In addition to education and health care, some missionaries
brought with them the desire to transform a culture into an image of their own
imperial making. Dr. Jill Fraley, professor of law at Washington and Lee Law School, explores this through the lens of
moral geography. With ideas about the wilderness, some missionaries felt
passion to reach to the far regions of the mountains. They overlaid their ideas
of nature onto the people by dividing the Appalachian people from the rest of
the nation.[20] This
type of missionary came to “fix” and “save” a broken people. Dr. Dwight
Billings, an Appalachian scholar and professor of sociology, summarizes this
notion, “Missionaries, intent on improving conditions in isolated mountain
areas, also perpetuated the stereotype by focusing on the poorest images in the
region and exploiting those images as a call to action for assistance in
funding and resources.”[21] Missionaries
in their zeal can also perpetuate the demeaning of the hillbilly and his/her culture.
Unlike some missionaries who imported a view of
civilization on hillbillies, the greatest threat to Central Appalachian
liberation is a danger from within. Escapist spirituality is a view of
Christianity that sees escaping the earth and its painful reality as the goal
of the Christian faith. In this expression of faith, the aim is escaping the
pains and chaos of earth for the otherworldly paradise of heaven.[22] This is not a spirituality centered on grace
and liberation. A grace-centered spirituality seeks to set people free from
suffering by working toward the earthly relieving of bodily suffering. It is
through an embodied faith that one is emboldened to challenge the death
dealings systems.[23]
Escapist faith can be seen in popular hymns such as “On Jordan’s
Stormy Banks”[24]
and “I’ll Fly Away”[25] which are regularly sung in the hollers of Central
Appalachia.
Escapism
does damage to long-term discipleship and makes the critique of the oppressive powers
anemic. Although escapism has its limitations, it can provide a way of
subversion and temporary relief from oppression. Dr. Harry Lefever, professor of
sociology, offers humbling insight as he argues that escapist religion can
provide the oppressed and poor “spiritual compensation” for all of the material
suffering. Although having no status or power on earth, the poor/oppressed will
be given eternal bliss in heaven.[26]
Evaluating escapist spirituality demands theological humility and honesty. There
is a rich humility in knowing that poverty and suffering may be one’s lived
reality and the American Dream is a myth, particularly for those in Central
Appalachia. For many in the region,
the promise of social advancement has proven to be a mirage.[27] Escapist spirituality
provides some solace in the wake of this mirage. However, despite the benefits
and solace it affords, it has left behind so many hillbillies in the areas of
education, job creation, and sustained economic progress. Escapism has fueled
many hillbillies to look past the undersides of capitalistic profiting off of
their land/people, because Heaven is their home thus nullifying the need to
change earthly realities.
Chapter one will discuss the key concepts of colonization of the
mind and internalized oppression as a diagnosis for a key avenue of oppression
in Central Appalachia. Also, this chapter will explore the origins of the
Appalachian hillbilly and how this stereotype is sinisterly used to oppress
Central Appalachia resulting in the deadly fruits of addiction, disempowerment,
justification
of the ransacking of the region’s resources, land, and people.
Chapter two will take a closer look at
the scholastic underpinnings of the project by examining the works of
liberation thinkers Leonardo Boff and Ignacio Ellacuria. Special attention will
be given to Ellacuria’s idea of the Christian university. In addition, Dalit
theology will be explored for the ways in which it speaks to the notion of
inherent shaming of people. Ultimately the chapter will provide the theological
rationale for the creation of hollering theology.
Chapter three will
dive deeper into the culture of Central Appalachia by dialoguing with Appalachian
scholar Loyal Jones and Appalachian provocateur JD Vance in addition to
scholars in the field of Appalachian studies. Further, the context of UPIKE and
its spiritual life will be addressed in detail. This contextual framing leads
to discussing more fully the problems that are addressed by this study and the
change sought.
Chapter four will frame
this study within the higher education setting and therefore discuss the
educational philosophy of critical pedagogy and key scholars within this
movement such as Paulo Freire and Myles Horton. Critical pedagogy is the method
of teaching for the classes in which the project is set. Later in the chapter
the courses of Introduction to the New
Testament and Appalachian Liberation
Theology are discussed whereas you will learn the inner dynamics of
specific assignments and course philosophy for the classes.
Chapter five will
plumb the depths of the project and show the results of the research. Special
attention will be given to survey results in addition to the results of student
writing reflections and interviews. Also, the development of hollering theology
is addressed and will be related to other liberation projects. Finally, the
chapter will share the evaluation of the project and give concluding
interpretation of the results of the project.
Chapter six is the
heart of the project as it shares the pastoral method of Leonardo Boff which is
used in this work and then applies it in the creation of hollering theology.
UPIKE and Appalachian leader Paul Patton will be provided as models for hollering
liberationists who are acting out this contextualized theology. Throughout the
chapter, readers will learn the key theological framework of hollering
theology, such as terms, images, and how this theology presents a hillbilly
Jesus and a family metaphor for the Trinity. The contextualization of Jesus and
the Trinity will be explored as ways to better introduce liberation theology to
Appalachian students.
Chapter seven will
explore the implications and value of this project by seeing it as an agent for
social change. In addition, this chapter looks at the potential of using hollering
theology in other works and how this study can be further expanded. Finally,
the chapter serves as a conclusion to the thesis.
[1] Anne Lowrey, “What is Wrong with Eastern Kentucky,” New York Times, June 26, 2014, Accessed
May 7, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/magazine/whats-the-matter-with-eastern-kentucky.html
[2]
Mukoma Wa Ngugi, “What Decolonizing the Mind Means Today: The Work of
Linguistic Decolonization Cannot Be Done By Writers Alone," Literary
Hub, March 23, 2018, accessed 5-13-2020,
https://lithub.com/mukoma-wa-ngugi-what-decolonizing-the-mind-means-today/
[3]
Burton Webb, interviewed by author, Pikeville, KY, June 21, 2020.
[4]
Alvaro Basista Alcaza, "The Curriculum Implications of Liberation Theology
as a Theory for Social Change," (2001), LSU Historical Dissertations and
Theses, 233. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/233
151
[7] Abigail Tucker, “Capturing Appalachia’s “Mountain People” Smithsonian Magazine, March 2010, Accessed May 29, 2020, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/capturing-appalachias-mountain-people-7194840/
[10]
Andrew Isserman, “Socioeconomic Review of Appalachia Then and Now: An Update of
the "Realities of Deprivation" Reported to the President in 1964,” Appalachian Regional Commission, 1996,
Accessed July 17, 2020, https://www.arc.gov/report/socioeconomic-review-of-appalachia-then-and-now-an-update-of-the-realities-of-deprivation-reported-to-the-president-in-1964/
[11]
Allen G. Breed, ‘Poster Father’ Weary of Sour Fate: Kentucky: Tom Fletcher
still lives in the hillside house where Lyndon Johnson visited. He voices
resentment over media interest in his life story, in which most luck has been
bad,” June 26, 1994, LA Times, Accessed
July 30, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-06-26-mn-8651-story.html
[13]
Pam Fessler, “Poverty in Appalachia today: Kentucky County That Gave War on
Poverty A Face Still Struggles,” January 8, 2014, National Public Radio, Accessed August 4, 2020,
[14]
Kelvin Pollard and Linda A. Jacobsen, “The Appalachian Region: A Data Overview
from the 2014-2018 American Community Survey Chartbook,” Appalachian
Regional Commission, June 2020, Accessed July 21, 2020, https://www.prb.org/appalachias-current-strengths-and-vulnerabilities/
[17]
Michael Hendryx. “Education and Jobs, Jobs and Education: A proposal for
funding economic redevelopment in Central Appalachia,” Central Appalachian
Prosperity Project, January 4, 2010.
[18] Edmond Gordon, Education and Justice: A View from the
Back of the Bus, Teacher’s College Press, 1999, 20.
[19]
Nicole Simon, “Harvard professor lectures on American populism, class divide,”
October 29, 2018, The Observer, accessed July 24 2020, https://ndsmcobserver.com/2018/10/harvard-professor-class-divide/
[20]
Jill Fraley, “Missionaries to the Wilderness: A History of Land, Identity and
Moral Geography in Appalachia,” Washington & Lee Legal Studies Paper No.
2015, Journal of Appalachian Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1/2 (Spring/Fall
2011), 28-41.
[21]
Dwight Billings as cited in Amanda Slone, “To See Ourselves: A Mixed Methods Study of the Relationship Between
Place, Mindset, and Grit in Appalachian First Year College Students,”
Northwest Nazarene University, 2020, 32.
[22]
Christopher Benek, “Escapism Theology is Causing an Exodus from The Church,” Christopher Benek.com Accessed December
13, 2020, https://www.christopherbenek.com/2018/03/escapism-theology-is-causing-an-exodus-from-the-church/
[23]
Ignacio Ellacuria and Jon Sobrino, Systematic
Theology: Perspectives from Liberation Theology Readings from Mysterium
Liberationis, Orbis, 1996, 210.
[24] Samuel
Stennett, 1787, “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand” Hymnary.org Accessed December 13, 2020, https://hymnary.org/text/on_jordans_stormy_banks_i_stand
[25] Albert
E. Brumley, “I’ll Fly Away” Hymnary.org
Accessed December 13, 2020, https://hymnary.org/tune/ill_fly_away_brumley
[26] Harry
G. Lefever, “The Religion of the Poor: Escape or Creative Force?” Journal
for the Scientific Study of Religion, Sep., 1977, Vol. 16, No. 3, 225-236,
Accessed December 13, 2020, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1385693.pdf?refreqid=excelsior
percent3A1cb85c23e27d091a02851722030e41c9
[27] Alina
Stefanescu, “Innocence & Violence in Appalachia: on William Woolfit’s
Spring Up Everlasting,” October 7, 2020, On the Seawall: a community gallery
of new writing, art, and commentary hosted by Ron Slate, Accessed December
13, 2020, https://www.ronslate.com/innocence-violence-in-appalachia-on-william-woolfits-spring-up-everlasting/
