This roundtable addresses the urgent matter of decolonizing health care practices and advancing Indigenous methods of healing justice reform. This interdisciplinary discussion brings together the fields of Indigenous Studies, Africana Studies, and Women's Studies by employing historical, sociology, and theological methods of study. Presenters examine Rastafari women's ritual work and healing justice initiatives, Indigenous spiritual practices to address the historic trauma of white supremacy, Indigenous youth's religious engagement as a measure of health outcomes, Mujerista Theology to advocate for Latina women facing Covid-19, Pagan theology of relational-hedonism to better hospital health care, and a Theology of Powers in safety-net hospitals. Ultimately, this roundtable illuminates Indigenous methods as an ongoing decolonial practice to fight for marginalized religious communities, which propose their own solutions for global health inequities.
Rastafari, as a technology of healing for Black women, has been an under-articulated area of analysis in Rastafari Studies and Religious Studies because sistren were often excluded from chalice reasoning rituals that brethren sanctioned and that anthropologists witnessed. Despite such exclusions, Rastafari women have cultivated rituals of healing, which recover them from the triple negation of being Rastafari, Black, and women and achieve justice. This paper explores Rastafari women’s healing justice as central to Rastafari philosophy and integral to innovating healing technologies for more equitable futures.
Following the model of Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, this paper examines spiritual practices that might provide grounding necessary for US institutions to aid in the healing of national, historic trauma inflicted by ideologies and practices of White supremacy. Brave Heart’s model addresses historic trauma through (1) truth-telling (2) understanding the trauma (3) releasing the pain and (4) transcending the trauma. While Brave Heart’s spiraling steps are guided by the centrifugal pull of Return to the Sacred Path for indigenous communities, her model has been adapted by institutions like Jesuit-run Red Cloud Indian Boarding School to address the historic trauma of those who also have been perpetrators and beneficiaries of the sins of White supremacy. Identifying spiritual capital in the archives, this paper presents a grounding that might sustain our efforts to name White supremacy as a national trauma perpetrated through White Christian institutions, and to hold those institutions accountable.
The ways in which the association between religiosity and measures of personal and social well-being differs between groups, in particular for immigrant and indigenous adolescents, needs further investigation in the scholarly literature. Using data from Wave I (n = 14,384) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent and Adult Health, we investigate the impact of religious engagement (religious affiliation and religious participation) on measures of health and well-being (physical, social, and psychological health) for adolescents aged 11-19 in the United States. Using regression techniques, and indigeneity and nativity as moderators, we demonstrate the impact of cultural identity on the relationship between religion and health. While there is a robust overall relationship between religious engagement and perceptions of well-being, it is partially moderated by an individual’s identification as indigenous or foreign born. Thus, the varied dimensions of situated religiosity rooted in social identity frame one’s experience of health and well-being.
Intersectional perspectives of people within historically marginalized communities are challenging mainstream narratives and the lessons found within Mujerista Theology allow for the contextualization of modern Latina experiences in the United States. Through the case study of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this paper will look at lo cotidiano of the everyday for a Latina in the U.S through Ada Maria Isasi-Díaz’s five main form of injustices: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and systemic violence. Providing examples of how the COVID-19 pandemic and other accompanying crisis support the theological arguments laid out for many decades, this paper hopes to highlight the importance of Mujerista perspectives that advocate for the advancement and protection of Latinas. Mujerista theology will be applied through a lens of policy, economics and health disparities in hopes of both naming and resisting la injustia experienced by Latinas while also celebrating las luchadoras que son las mujeres Latinas.
At present medical decisions made across the spectrum of modern healthcare are obliged to fit a provider’s understanding of idealized human longevity to find support. As witnessed during the depths of the pandemic, the longevity stance crumbles when there is no ideal patient outcome, leading to disproportionate amounts of moral injury, burnout, and disconnection. This paper introduces an alternative philosophical structure into the American healthcare system, something I call relational-hedonism, modeled on the ethical and theological framework of contemporary Paganism. Changing the underlying philosophical motivation that defines America’s medical system will be the most substantial and sustainable intervention we can undertake to combat the inequalities seen today. By prioritizing a relational form of pleasure where patients and workers forge mutual joy instead of longevity or utility within our “post” pandemic era of healthcare we can actively re-invigorate our damaged sense of common humanity and salvage the soul of American medicine.
Theology of the Powers can inform spiritual care at safety net hospitals by providing a framework for understanding the spiritual dimensions of these issues, and for addressing them in a holistic and compassionate manner. This paper reflects on a mixed-methods study conducted at safety net hospitals. Based on findings, strengthening spiritual care at safety net hospitals requires a multidisciplinary approach involving collaboration between healthcare providers, chaplains, social workers, administrators and community organizations to confront gaps in spiritual care provision as well as identify mechanisms to transform challenges and barriers to increasing the resources, capacity, and support for spiritual care services in low-resourced healthcare settings. A Theology of the Powers at safety-net hospitals can provide a powerful and transformative perspective for strengthening spiritual care, helping to support patients and families through the complex social and cultural forces that shape their lives and working to promote healing and justice in our communities.