244. Vienna Mission Years, Pt. 5

"Ideology as a Means of Rule

If ideology as thus defined is to be accessible to the grasp of understanding, it cannot be left in this half light [between the passive reflection of living processes, the pragmatic invention of ends, and scientific axioms]. As we shall discover, this lies in its pragmatic tendency. Ends are invented. This may be seen above all in the fact that wherever an ideology enters normative spheres like science, law, and ethics, it robs the norms of their authoritarian position and turns them into mere means for attaining certain ends and serving certain 'interests.' The pragmatic purpose of ideologies is beyond question. Our concern, then, is not so much to assert this fact as to inquire concerning the degree to which this pragmatic tendency works in opposition to such non-material norms as the true, the righteous, or the good, actually swallowing them up....

Hence ideologies are subject, not to the truth, but to the end which they serve. They are variable, not merely in the sense that they change in accordance with the material substructure on which they depend, but also in the sense that they change with changing ends. As means of actualization, ideologies are controlled by men, whereas truth controls men. The consequence is that the statements made in ideologies are not shaped by the truth even if they resemble truth. The form of their statements is wholly an expression of the will to power, in Nietsche's sense. By appearing to pronounce truths, while in fact proclaiming a program, they supply an intellectual alibi for the exercise of a collective will to power.

The norm of the good is similarly swallowed up by the ends sought. In this connection one may draw upon illustrations from quite different sources, such as the sayings: "God is whatever serves my country," or: "My country, right or wrong." Or one may think of the demand of Machiavelli that in practical politics the good not be made the ideal, but that ethical phrases be used only in order to establish the moral credit which will be useful in achieving political ends."

Thielicke, Helmut. (1969). Theological Ethics, v. 2: Politics. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, p. 35-36.

***

Up to my time in Vienna I was very good about keeping in touch with friends I met in various places under various circumstances. My friend in Minneapolis (with whom I stayed when I did the literature review I've discussed in this blog) and I for several years put out a newsletter so that everyone from the summer mission trip in Europe could keep in touch with one another. Among those summer co-workers was a German teacher from Omaha. Before the mission asked me to increase the amount I was raising for my support I thought I'd be in Vienna around February 1987. So when this friend and I agreed she could bring her junior high students to me we didn't know that I would be arriving in Vienna just a month before she and her students. Also, I didn't know what my living arrangements exactly would be and when I found I was going to be in a studio apartment I had to find someone else to house the male students. So I recruited the other missionary who went to the Austrian church I was going to.

(Also, as an aside, this means I must have started going there before this, because my relationship with this other worker was founded a lot on us going to the same church, since otherwise we worked in completely different aspects of the ministry and I wouldn't have gotten to know him much otherwise. So this means that I was probably attending the Austrian church by July 11 - two weeks prior to the students coming.)

So there I was, barely settled in myself, when all of a sudden I'm actually hosting a group of junior high students! I'm sure the mission was very unhappy about this, which would account for the timing of how they treated me later on, too, because I was in the States again when this same friend came back to town and people from the mission let her in the apartment. That is, if I had been there my friend might have become privy to what was going on there - how the mission was treating me - and she would have been a credible witness.

My friend and her kids were in Vienna from July 23 to July 25. My friend had already planned out things for them to do during the day, but my colleague, who housed the male students, and I did things like take them places for authentic (cheap) Austrian food. I remember fixing breakfast for the girls, muffins and the like. Since I just had a studio apartment there wasn't a lot of room and at night the floor was literally covered with sleeping bags, so that you'd think that it was a slumber party or something. It was cozy but I think it worked out okay. My colleague was the one who suggested where to eat and otherwise helped with logistical information more than I did because even thought I could get to Ikea by myself I didn't really know the city that well yet and he had lived there for a few years by then.

In the top picture I'm on the far left in front and my colleague is the one in the far back wearing a striped shirt and glasses. In the lower picture my friend is on the far right. The last I knew she had married a German professor and moved to the Carolinas or somewhere in there. After my Vienna years I began losing touch with a lot of my former friends because it was hard to explain what I'd been through and it was hard to relate to old friends in the same way any more. So she was one of those casualties. I think I tried to explain to her about my not being there when she came by the second time, but I don't remember what I told her and it took too much effort to try to make people understand, especially when I was so confused about it myself even. So we just sort of lost touch.

242. Vienna Mission Years, Pt. 3

"One effect of education and the media and the ideologies pertains in a special way to distribution: A general and unchallengeable conviction is created that those who do certain kinds of work ought to receive lower incomes and be content with lower levels of consumption than those who do other kinds of work. A classist society is thereby, in people's minds, canonized as something morally correct, as a situation demanded by justice. Although both ideas are equally false, this conviction should not be confused with the medieval belief that the son of a shoemaker should also be a shoemaker and the son of a prince should be a prince; sociologists call this situation a lack of capillarity or social mobility. Today one can indeed 'ascend' the classist ladder and it is even ideal to do so. The depravity to which I refer is the conviction apparently ineradicable although entirely mythological, that certain work is forever destined to receive low income and other work is 'in itself' worthy of greater remuneration. This conviction is one of the worst violences inflicted on the workers to force them, in the labor contract (and in its indispensable complement, the multiple contract of bargain and sale of consumer goods and services), to submit to the conditions which are favorable to the capitalist class."

Miranda, José. (1974). Marx and the Bible: A Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression. (John Eagleson, Trans.). Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, p. 9.

[Note: I have this book because I wanted to understand how some Christians can accommodate Marxist thinking into their theology, which is known as liberation theology.]

***

I have to backtrack some because I decided to look through the human rights report I wrote while living in Russia, and there is something I missed, so I'm just going to quote it here:

"Before I left for Vienna my Father told me that I might be requested to undergo a security briefing at his work. He had already told me that he had a security clearance through the Pentagon (not through Boeing, per se, as I understand it). I didn't think anything of this, that it was anything to worry about. Dad was always very supportive of me going into mission work. Nothing ever came of the possible briefing, but Dad did also mention that it was possible that in a communist country someone might try to kidnap me in exchange for information from Dad. (That was the only concern I ever heard about to this point.) I got the impression that everyone thought that I was trustworthy on that regard - although it wasn't until much later that I thought about it like that.

Actually it never occurred to me till several years later that it was even possible for me to have problems on account of Dad's work. But after my Vienna years, back in Seattle, [D. B.] of Campus Crusade for Christ told me that many people whose parents are in military work aren't even allowed into East European Mission work. That certainly had never even crossed my mind as being a possibility. By that point I had lived through enough that it didn't matter. I had already decided that I had to obey God rather than man (i.e., government) and I felt called by God to work in those countries, especially the Soviet Union. No one had ever told me not to study Russian, work with emigrants, etc., anyways. I had already spent several years of my life in preparation for that kind of work and it was the primary professional training I had received.

I later had to study some about professional espionage workings in order to make sense of what was happening to me...

I left for Vienna via Holland and train from there in June of 1987. Sure enough I was put up with [the secretary from Alaska] in another girl's apartment (she lived alone because she was in women's ministry) who was in Dallas for the summer working on her Master's degree.

It quickly became clear that this was a very clickish [sic] group. It is quite contrary to any theory of Christian missions or Biblical example or teaching of the same to operate as they did...

Here I am going to unabashadly reveal what to these mission groups are great secrets. The purpose is to expose their unjustice since neither the churches in America or [sic] the Russia have proven themselves inclined to do anything about them which is how it should Biblically be handled. It's a shame and disgrace for 'the world' to have to be judges of the Church, but if the Church won't do it, then someone should.

I figured that since I was told I'd be a secretary and that I, in this position, probably wouldn't travel much (i.e., into Eastern Europe), that I would be able to work with/amongst the Austrians in my free time.

As it turned out, almost everyone except those who specialized in E. Germany and a few exceptions (such as.... ) attended one of two English speaking Evangelical churches and had little contact with the Austrians. Although one month of German language training was technically promised all this was rarely realized in fact. It seemed to me that as workers could be 'trusted' they were allowed this 'privilege,' but the stated reason was that there was too much work to do. However, this logic didn't really seem to match the circumstances a lot of times, as in my case.

I was 'allowed' to attend church with ... (that church was the nearest where I lived). I was accepted well by the believers and was invited to teach a Sunday School class, even in my early months in Vienna.

We "found" an apartment for me within walking distance of the ... office. It was a studio apartment which was already furnished. The owner, ... a young veterinarian attended the Vienna International Chapel and was a friend of some of the [mission] workers. A former [mission] worker... had also lived there a few months before I came."

So that fills in some gaps. I had forgotten that they didn't have the apartment for me right away and also about the part about dad. The part about dad, I think, is especially important because there will be some things that happen in Vienna that apart from influence from his work would be hard to understand... and things are hard enough to understand anyway.

***

I think this is enough for this post, so next time we'll start where we left off, which is July 10, 1987.

241. Vienna Mission Years, Pt. 2

"Die Mitteilungen aus dem Leben des Bundes der Evangeliumschristen, aus den einzelnen Gemeinden fügen sich in den Rahmen dessen ein, was über die Entwicklung der anderen christlichen Kirchen seit dem Erlaß des Dekrets der Russischen Föderativen Sozialistischen Sovetrepublik <Über religiöse Vereinegungen> vom April 1929 bekannt geworden ist. Dazu gehören die schnell voranschreitende Auflösung der kirchlichen Organisation, die Behinderung des Zusammentretens, übergreifender kirchlicher Konferenzen, die Behinderungen auf örtlicher Ebene, die Zweckentfremdung kirchlicher Gebäude, die Pressionen, denen durch Meldepflicht, Reisebeschränkungen und Entzug der Lebensmittelkarten ausgesetzt wurden. Diese Entwicklung hat die evangeliumschristlichen Gemeinden zwar nicht unerwarted, aber doch überraschend getroffen...

Die notvolle Entwicklung der Gemeinden nahm ihren Fortgäng. Nicht überall in der gesamten Union wurden die das kirchliche Leben beeinträchtigenden Maßnahmen mit gleicher Schärfe und gleichzeitig durchgefürt. Während in einzelnen Regionen die Gemeinden frühzeitig zusammenbrachen, Presbyter und Prediger verhaftet wurden, war andernorts noch eine Arbeit möglich."

Kahle, Wilhelm. (1978). Evangelische Christen in Rußland und der Sovetunion: Ivan Stepanovič Prochanov (1869-1935) und der Weg der Evangeliumschristen und Baptisten. Wuppertal: Oncken Verlag, p. 260, 261.

***

My calendar is blank from July 1 to July 10, 1987, so I'm not sure what social engagement or other commitments I might have had. On July 1 I apparently began to write something, because it says "dinner w/." So I don't know who I had dinner with, if I did have dinner with someone that day.

I think I must have received my shipped belongings around the end of June/beginning of July, however, because I think I had planned it so that everything would arrive one or two weeks after I did and I know that I was unpacked by July 23 when I had guests come. So I suspect that the first one to two weeks in July I was unpacking everything and trying to get things set up.

When my things came I was notified of this and we arranged a delivery date and time when several of the men on staff could help carry my things up to my apartment. Since the delivery truck could only drive about halfway up the hill to my apartment (because after that there was only stairs and a foot path), there was a fair amount of carrying things. But with all the help I don't think it took much more that two or three hours. This was probably during work hours though.

***

Also, I'd been told that there was an Ikea on the other side of town (I don't think I'd ever heard of Ikea before then), and my apartment lacked a desk of any sort and also a garderobe for the entryway, and I know I got them from Ikea. I measured everything meticulously and got myself there with no problems. I ordered a ready-made garderobe, but because of the small space in my studio apartment and the organization of things, I had to order a specially made desk, which I worked with a salesperson to get what I needed.

My apartment was set up such that you walked in a little entry way and then there was another door into the main room. The wall facing you as you walked in consisted mainly of a built in bed and a closet. To the left of you as you walked into the main room there was a square dining table that could fold out to fit 4. Practically the entire wall on the far left from the entry way door was a large expansive window overlooking the wooded cemetery on the hill opposite the hill my apartment was on. Between the dining table and the windowed wall was a doorway to a small kitchen which also had a fold-down table which was nice to eat breakfast at.

Well, the point is that the only place to put a desk was behind the entryway door. So I had the desk go more horizontal than vertical - sort of like why there are skyscrapers in large cities. It was wide enough to comfortably fit a typewriter, but not much more. Then I could fit a few books above the desk and the shelves that went up the wall. If my landlady still has that apartment, I suspect that desk is most likely still there and the garderobe maybe too.

So the thing is, though, that I got myself clear across town and managed this ordering, including planning the delivery as well as the dimensional specifications - and I did it all by myself. Note: Language barrier and feeling of inadequacy in the new culture was not a problem at all, not one iota.

Here's the route plan:

Time	Stop/Station	Overview map		Line / direction
08:56 08:58	from Wien Hameaustraße 34 to Salmannsdorf	PDF PDF		Walk about 2 minutes about 0,1 km
08:58 09:21	from Salmannsdorf to Spittelau S+U	PDF		Autobus 35A Spittelau S+U
				walking distance/escalator down about 4 minutes
09:27 09:32	from Spittelau to Schwedenplatz	PDF		U-Bahn U4 Hütteldorf
				escalator down/escalator down about 2 minutes
09:36 09:47	from Schwedenplatz to Kagraner Platz	PDF		U-Bahn U1 Leopoldau

So I had to make several changes and it didn't even phase me at all.

Anyway, I'm telling you about this now, because I know I did this that first summer and since my calendar is blank I needed to have something to tell you about my time in Vienna.

***

The other thing I need to keep in the front of your thoughts is that I was still working during all this, although I was maybe occasionally needing time to get this or that set up, like for the delivery of my belongings, for example.

And just what was I doing at work? Reading software manuals, of course, and occasionally typing a letter. Occasionally my boss would call me into his office to talk about something or the other, such as a letter or the like. But mostly I just sat and read software manuals, and I suppose I tried out the various things on the computer to practice what I was reading. We didn't have Internet connection, except that the reception position had something like an early version of Internet connection, but no one else did. So it was just data processing types of things.

***

The other thing was that I had been given a sort of policy manual, much as most businesses have for their employees, although I remember this one as being rather thin, that is not very many pages - maybe 20 or so.

One of the things in the manual stated that all new employees were to be given time off after arrival for language learning. We were supposed to be given one month off for language learning for every year of our term. Since I'd committed to 2 years, that meant I should be eligible to have 2 months off for language learning. But when I asked about this, I was told that they don't usually actually do that because there was too much work to do. That seemed reasonable enough at the time, but it was early enough on that I hadn't yet spent 2 months reading software manuals to know that that answer was a bunch of bunk.

I can't remember if I asked my boss about the language learning first, but I know it was the human resources director that had given me the answer about too much work to do. So there I was, not being allowed to have time off to learn German because there was too much work to do, my boss let on that he didn't know how to work with a secretary, and I was stuck with software manuals instead of regular work or German language learning.

I hope you can see that this is not starting off on the right foot. If you've been following along at all you're aware of the socialization, cult induction, and espionage recruitment literature, which is more than I had at that time. All I knew was that there was lying going on and it made me distrustful of the mission, although it didn't hit all of a sudden but grew gradually as I had more of these kinds of experiences.

The thing was, of course, that the most important thing for me there was the work. The work was the reason I came there, it was the reason I went on deputation and it was the reason I'd spent 8 years of my life in preparation. So no matter how friendly or helpful or whatever else they might be, if the work stunk, then there was no way I was going to be happy with them.

But I didn't let on any of this, what I was thinking, I mean, and, like I said it grew with time and there was enough going on that I didn't understand that I felt I needed to just sort of watch and try to figure things out. So I was very cheerful and compliant and sociable and I did what I was told. So if they wanted me to read software manuals, I did it cheerfully, without complaining, without raising a fuss.

Well, eventually this "go along with everything they throw at you cheerfully" approach to things eventually got me into hot water. I didn't know what or how much they were willing to throw at me. So eventually I got a shocker in that department, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

***

So the "take-away" from today's post is that I got along just fine in the Austrian context, but not so well in the mission context. Remember that, because you'll need it. Not that it won't come up again, though, so if you do happen to forget I'll remind you of this, and will probably do so many times before this is over.