Over here at bethel some of the required reading that we have for students is a paper called "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh. Leon Rodrigues the Chief Diversity Officer/ and a person who lived through and fought against apartheid in South Africa, highly recommends reading this paper, so i thought i would pass it along. Here is where you can find it: http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/~mcisaac/emc598ge/U...

Thanks for the reading material. I think that all the advantages that we may have by belonging to one racial or ethnic group or another (this changes depending on where in the world one finds themself) is a test from God. It is like a rope. We can use it to help others by throwing a line to those in need or we can use it to hang ourselves.

I hesitated to post anything here for a while because this is a sensitive subject. But... here it goes.

Just a little background about myself first so you all can see the position I am coming from. I am white. But I did not grow up with everything just handed to me. I grew up eating govt. cheese and wearing 2nd hand clothing because we couldn't afford better. I never was able to attend any college to get a degree. Even community college was out of my reach. I have also spent a number of years living in a foreign country where whites (all foreigners really) were discriminated against. It was perfectly legal there to discriminate against foreigners.

Now, having said that, I want to leave the issue of race behind us. If we are christians, we should look upon each other in a Christ-like way. That means that we are simply brothers and sisters, regardless of the color of our skin. To accept anything less is wrong. I read a lot of talk in the posts here about fault and guilt. We have to remember that we all have been forgiven because Christ took our punishment. Once again, to accept anything less is wrong.

Now, we need to talk a bit about responsibility. We all have a responsibility to help each other and ease each others burdens. This is a two way street. Those who have much have a responsibility to help those who have little. But on the same token, a person who has little may also be able to ease the burdens of one who has much. We all have gifts that we are expected to use to help each other out in times of need, regardless of the position that society has put us in.

One final point... We need to be content with our position, regardless of what that position is. This may seem to be a bitter pill for some, but it is the truth. Whatever our position, be that one of prosperity or one of poverty, God has put us there for a reason. We should be content to be where God wants us to be. God has put each one of us in the place where He knows we can do the most good. To reject the position He has put us in is to reject His plan for our lives. Some who are rich will become poor. Some who are poor will become rich. God's plan for us is ever changing. We just have to remember that God blesses us all and He blesses with more than simply material and worldly possesions. Many of His greatest gifts to us have no monetary value.

Joel,

on your final point, i would respectfully encourage you to put some serious thought and meditation into the idea that God has willed / planned some to be poor/ have a position of suffering that leads to death. Viewing God as the creator of suffering and pain is a very bitter pill for me, and I don't see that in the life of Jesus.

I guess I am justing asking you to sit with the question "If God desires people to suffer and die, then what does that say about who God is?"

I don't want to impy that God "desires" for us to suffer. Simply that He places us in positions where we can do the work that He desires us to do in a fallen world where suffering is an inevitable reality. All people suffer. Suffering doesn't care if you are rich, poor, or something in between. In fact, much of the suffering people experience is in their desire for "things" that they don't have. Most of the time, those "things" are best classified as "wants" rather than "needs". In North America, we really don't have many people who are truly poor, that is, people who aren't getting their needs met (food, shelter, clothing). In our society, there are enough help and resources available out there. Sometimes our pride stops us from getting the help we need. Our pride isn't God's fault. Which brings us back to my point about being content with the position we find ourselves in. I know families who survive on $600/ month or less. They are some of the happiest people I know because they are content with their position. That is not to say that they don't desire to be in a better position someday. They just don't let that desire run their lives and cause them to imagine that they suffer more than they really do. They live lives that are much richer than most of us do because they have a great family life and live in the moment.

Maria and Mark also make good points.

Interesting thoughts yall. I'd agree, the Christian Tradition has a very robust response historically and biblically to suffering, and how one encounters God in its midst. But as in the Black Church context of my heritage, it is always followed by a theology of Hope. As the old slave spiritual says, "Trouble don't last always." Suffering from a place of fear and not hope is a distortion of Christian theology. So when I think of the willfull or unconscious oppression that Mark referred to, I think of suffering (economically or otherwise) as taking place in the context of fear. How worse is that fear and how little the hope when you find out the brother or sister you have in Christ is somehow behind it! So when I hear us reflexively accepting or encouraging vulnerable people to just be content with their position, I think it lets us as Christians alittle off the hook as we then neglect to ask how we contribute to their circumstance for better or worse.

I also want to express a semantic preference for contentment "in" suffering rather than "with" it. To add my own experience to the mix, of all people I know with little or no economic means, in my family, the US, and globally, few would describe themselves as content with having so little. They are not content with being unable to properly feed and nourish their households. They worry, and necessarily so, about their future or that of their children if they have them. The ability to have joy in such dire straits is only I think part of the resiliency of the human spirit as a gift given of the Holy Spirit. Also, so many people in poverty have a stoic quality to them that masks pains, worries and concerns that they are often relunctant to share with outsiders. All this being said, I think its difficult to make a direct correlation between poverty and contentment or to pinpoint what human beings should feel about their particular distress. What is worth seriously considering, I believe, is how I am either helping, neglecting or hurting their situation as an ambassador of Christ.

There is a tension here, I think. I know that the vast majority of Christians...especially before modern times, had a robust theology of suffering. Maybe not as a thing caused by God, but at least as a valuable and sometimes necessary place for meeting God.

After all...James instructs us to consider trials a joy. And when the apostles were persecuted, they considered it an honor. This at least opens the door for a way of understanding suffering as potentially useful for making us holy and Christlike.

Jesus' sufferings accomplished something in service to God...and in that place we see God demonstrated in a powerfully horrific way. And later, Paul tells us that his own sufferings complete the work of Christ.

I think my problem happens when a theology of suffering is used to justify oppression...or at least tolerate oppression...among Christians.

"If God desires people to suffer and die, then what does that say about who God is?"

This question implies that suffering and dying are things that might not be consistent with God's character. I don't see anything wrong or evil with either one. I see God leading by example. Pain is not any less holy than happiness. There are times when reading the Bible when I get the opposite impression. That having pain, contemplating death, living with the dying, etc. is the means by which we become holy. I see God as desiring us to become holy. I don't associate this desire with the same kind of psychotic pleasure that some humans get from seeing others in pain. God the Father doesn't have human emotions, and God the Son was the most compassionate person there ever was. Compassionate persons don't get pleasure from other's pain. Good parents desire their children to grow up well. They understand that sometimes their children need to suffer in order to grow up properly. It may even be necessary for the parent to orchestrate such an environment. The parent knows that if the child learns an important lesson with a little bit of pain now, it can save the child having to learn the lesson later with a lot more pain later. And while any parent would like to protect their children from pain, humans seem to learn a lot quicker when there is some pain involved.

I wanted to point out that William Wilburforce could not have eliminated slave trade without his privilege position, which I'm sure had its fair share of bones.

There have been land reallocation policies in Africa, where the land was taken away from the white "colonists" and given back to the native tribes, which actually caused more suffering for the Africans than if there had been no "justice". The persons who received the land did not know how to make it productive which resulted in famine and economic collapse. We cannot support our current population on the agricultural practices of a pre-European era.

It seems to me that the vast majority of "ministry" to the poor gives the gospel of capitalism, or is an avenue where those who have can show how much more they have than those who have not. St Francis is a personal hero to me. He brought the message of joy in Jesus to the poor because he was poor. There wasn't any double message like "you can be happy in Jesus if you give your heart to him AND GET A JOB". I think capitalism is the way the economy works, but its not the same thing as the gospel message.

If you want your church to be culturally diverse, then you have to be pro-active about it. You have to play culturally diverse music, invite culturally diverse speakers, have culturally diverse art, be willing to periodically change the format of the service, serve culturally diverse food at church functions. Even doing all those things won't make you culturally diverse, but it opens the doors to seeing and experiencing life in a different way. It makes for a welcoming environment for those who are "different" to fit in. We all ache to belong. It is easier to belong when are differences are celebrated.

Maria,

I like where your comments are going. The privileges we have can serve as gifts if we allow them to do so. The biblical story of Ester is a good example of this as well as Wilberforce. Privilege can also be a curse as well as a gift if it is a zero sum game in which someone else has to needlessly suffer or have their opportunities limited for the sake of your gain or inheritance. The Israelite prophets are continually speaking to this, and its I believe the reason behind Mark's original post.

As a Christian, I'm always weary of the ways in which political powers institute reconciliation in broken societies, often the measures regress into a series of "paybacks" I think Christians involved in development work with poor throughout the globe have to say on the one hand, we can't simply return to the pre-industrial past, but on the other hand, we can't do things as they would be done in Europe or the US. You can't xerox development or reconciliation, rather it has to be a contextual process that gives the people you work with dignity, and value in their own culture.

As for cultural diversity in the Western Church, having engaged in some of that ministry I think the first step before offering things which "appeal" to different cultural groups is to learn about their stories and ask them about their needs and desires. There is so much assumption that goes on about how to engage with or reconcile with different cultural groups. It's often based on anecdotal information from the few people we know, and then projected over the entire group. Listening, I believe is the first prescription for dealing with the Mountain of Bones.

Thanks, Joseph.

WRT cultural diversity, the suggestions that I proposed while they might "appeal" to other cultures, I think the the biggest reason to strive for diversity isn't as much for the out reach possibilities as it is our own enrichment. (Although if they work that way, great!) We can't force relationships with other cultures, but we can prepare ourselves for those relationships by making use and exposing our selves to elements of other cultures that are easily accessible. If we start the enrichment process before developing relationships with other cultures, we have the chance to take a few of our own cultural blinders off first and rub off a few of our own cultural rough edges and insensitivities before we become blockheads in a cross-cultural relationship. We might have lost enough of our assumptions to actually have ears to hear another person's story without lots of cultural baggage that may or may not apply.

I like this post, mainly the last paragraph. When you want others to live "something", you should live this "something". And having a more open mind (what doesn't mean "heresy") is an important way to share our faith.

I totally agree, Joel. I think the more we make an issue of racial/ethnic divisions, the worse the tensions between them become. I wanted to comment on that great satire about the church "Not in Virginia", too, which is along the same lines. I live in South Carolina (though I grew up in the North), a state that is still recovering in some areas from the awful crimes of the War of Northern Aggression. Slavery was a terrible evil, but the war was more about expanding the empire of America than anything else, and most of the victims here were not slave owners, but poor farmers. There are still old families who carry a lot of anger. But most of the people have moved on, and don't look at me funnily for having a Yankee accent. And in everyday public life, I see blacks and whites interacting and intermingling as if there were no differences between them. I mentioned that I was of both white and Native American lineage. I am also the direct product of a union between a northern and southern family. Perhaps, though, I am more a product of an identity and faith where race and ethnicity are rendered irrelevant, and the past is forgiven and forgotten in a love that covers over a multitude of wrongs.

Breaking the barriers is really, really hard. My father, a middle-class, white-collar, Canadian of English/Norwegian ancestry and raised on a farm in rural Canada, thrust himself and us into the ethnic salad of Kuwait. In his offices were Kuwaitis who treated everyone else as below them, Brits, Canadians and Americans who despised and ridiculed their Kuwaiti 'overlords' and trod upon everyone beneath, and so on down.

There were some Bangladeshi and Indian 'teaboys' they were called; men, not boys, whose sole job was to fetch tea and refreshments for the engineers and managers.

After months of deliberately going into conversation with them, learning cricket scoring and rivalries and sub-continental geography, my father convinced one to join our family for dinner.

It was horribly awkward for the fellow. As kids, we tried to say hello and make conversation, but his English was limited and we didn't understand the invisible barriers that truly separated us.

The same went for the Sri-Lankan grandmother that we permitted to clean our house twice a week. We didn't need the cleaning, but she needed the work and preferred it to a handout. After years she became like a grandmother to us, and the relationship became close, but it took years and initially there was a strong master-servant dimension no matter what we did; even to us as kids.

Racist and classist subtext underlies our realities, whether we admit it or not. Recognizing them is one step, and beginning the walk down the mountain is the next, but expect resistance, and not always from who you expect. The status quo is the status quo for a reason, and like Israel yearning for Egypt, the uncertainty of creating a new, loving and equal 'status quo' is often more frightening and uncertain than sticking to what you know, whoever you are.

I still struggle with this constantly, but if I wasn't struggling I would be concerned.

2 thoughts: In my studies of Marxist thought and theory I find the argument against private property really interesting. One of the strongest proponents against property rights I think is the idea that "it" is not mine. Whatever "it" is, it was made possible because of the thousands of years of consecutive labor by other people, natural life support systems (Mother Nature), and although Marx omits God, I think for us it would be a given that God provides us all. Previous labor, nature, and God have made possible everything I will ever touch. As I continually keep trying to remind myself that everything I have is not really mine, and it was provided for me least of all by my own efforts, it becomes a lot easier to break the stranglehold that "things" have over me, to share what I have and inherit, and to consciously climb down the Mountain of Bones.

The problem is this doesn't really account for "privilege" all of the time, especially the the privilege I was born into being white, middle-class, and American. Another problem I have is seeing where my parents fit in this. My parents worked their asses off, my dad working all the way through college to graduate, get a job, put three kids through school with another on the way, etc. etc. I am really proud of my parents for doing their best, working honestly, and sacrificing their wants to provide a "better life" for us. They innocently provided privilege for us, their kids. How do I deal with this? Does anyone else have similar issues? How do I respectfully accept their efforts while still trying to "level the field"? I'm having trouble...

No. There is no condemnation for us, we are Christ's. Awareness is a great first step. But not just some sort of one-time awareness. We have to always be aware of injustices when we see them and seek to bring transformation, freely sharing all the good things we have as we seek to serve those around us.

When most folks become aware of their white privilege, they tend to want to rush off to the brown parts of a city. To move into a black neighborhood or go to a black church. Sometimes they do this with a colonialist attitude of wanting to improve the neighborhood or the church. Other times they do it as an act of penance for being white. Both miss the mark.

I think the goal is to live simply, being humble as we share our resources with a submissive attitude. In other words, going into a city to help them the way we want to help is bad. But to go into the city and submitting to the brothers and sisters there and taking time to listen and learn...that is a good step.

It all comes down, in my mind, to find ways to actually and tangibly submit to non-white brothers and sisters. We are commanded to submit to one another anyways. And our problem is that for far too long we have asked the world to submit to us.

I think the real key is starting with your neighbors. I'm reminded of the story Jesus told when he was faced with the very slick question, "who is my neighbor" in response to "love your neighbor in the same way that you love yourself." He told a story about a Samaritan—an outcast in Jewish society—who leaned over to help a Jew who was hurt on the road. Why? Because he was there, and the man needed help.

Mark, you are absolutely right, that the tendency is to pick up and "rush off to the brown parts of a city." And there's nothing wrong with that, but I would argue that we are called to simply treat everyone we meet with the kind of gentleness, mercy, and love that Jesus has shown us. And short of that, we should be willing to give them what we are willing to give ourselves. If we do that—and I'm not positive that we can in this world, but we should try for it with everything we've got—i really believe all the rest of this just falls away.

i guess i still like to hear step one, step two and so on. i have been on other blogs that dont need to mentioned here that have made me feel like a complete jerk for not fully understanding or for just being a white male. michael and somasoul have already touched on that. i like the discussion here. my goal is to find ways to move past blogoknowledge and live it out. i am making small steps. its a good pace for me and my family.

I think small steps are good. Sometimes that's all a person can do is take small steps. And the process is going to look different for everyone depending on their own unique situation. I guess the point is to be looking for what the next step might be for you, and trying to connect with others who are on the same journey.

I hear this and I believe you are right Mark. I have read all the comments so far. This question I ask now is my struggle. Me, as a white middle class male, born and raised in the ol' US of A, what do I do about this? Is it enough to just acknowledge this? Do I live in this perpetual guilt of who I am? Guilt by being born? What is the correct response? Because I acknowledge this privilage. I am understanding it more and more, but what actions do I take?

JMorrow, your comments are right on in my opinion. The Church should be the leader is "rewriting the rules of giving and receiving." Biblically, wasn't this one (of many) points of the Jubilee celebrated by the Jews? I've been encouraged on the scholarly and lay work done on bringing the practice of Jubilee and hospitality back into the minds of so many of us. As you point out, it's foolishness to the world where "inalienable rights" has come to mean "I'm entitled to prosperity," but so was the Cross. It's the absurdity of Christian love that needs to run smack into the side of this mountain of privilege.

Dave, I too have had thoughts like yours, so I don't want you to think you are alone and the rest of Jesus Manifesto is a bunch of crazy Affirmative Action pushers. Privilege and power is about more than race--there is a certain socio-economic phenomenon that can create disenfranchised whites just as much as other groups. The color of your skin alone does not necessarily determine your place on this mountain. It's more complicated than that. Thanks for the reminder that "fault" is shared, and that scapegoats are getting old.

Micheal, your right about the complications of race and socio-economic class. but at the same time it needs to be noted that it is often coming from whites that we should move beyond race and talk about class. Where people of color what us to sit for a while with race and talk about race before we jump to class.

Note taken.

I just wanted Dave to know that just because he was "white," the inequality he experienced wasn't any less a result of sin and power hording than it would be for an ethnic minority. Race is a difficult issue that has to be dealt with in a sensitive manner, especially by people like myself, who is a part of the majority and privileged group more often than not. A lot of this is new to me, and I'm just now in the stage where I can monitor my reactions and inner anxiety on the topic before popping off and saying something unproductive and damaging. Right now, for instance, I'm experiencing some anxiety over the statement "it is often coming from whites that we should move beyond race and talk about class..." We would all do good to monitory our anxiety in these conversations, and admit where we are uncomfortable and where we are ignorant. I think that is a big key to any progress in this area in the Church.

I think the whole idea of 'race' is racism. I prefer to judge, and be judged, on character. The mere discussion of 'oppression' and 'repentance' does nothing to forward anybody. All it does is allow people to remain victims. As long as people are making an issue of it, it's going to be a problem. Recently we've seen examples in the media of churches that preach adherence to race rather that Christ. Whether it's White Supremacy, Black Supremacy, what ever, the Supremacy of Christ and Christian character should be first and foremost. Perhaps I'm naive? I just really get irritated by folks who think we owe something to somebody because of what somebody did hundreds of years ago, and more angry at those who think they are owed something. Today is the day we live in, with one eye on the future.

I think it is interesting that you are more angry with the ones who have been wronged then you are with the ones that did the wrong.

I had 5 people of color read your blog and they think that you need to be welcomed into a conversation with a person of color.

I happen to have friends 'of color'. One is a talented musician who has quit going to church because the black churches tell him he is a victim, and the white churches he's gone to bend over to constantly fawn over him: Repenting for the past, talking about 'diversity' now that they had their token black person. He wants to be treated like a Christian, like a man, not a poor victimized black.

To quote MLK: The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand in times of challenge and controversy.

So, do you make the stand on what has been done wrong, or do you 'man up'? Do you let life pass you by, or fall to show up, because your waiting for someone to come along and...what, give you a free ride? Or do you forgive and move on? If I waited for the people who have done me wrong to come around and 'repent', I'd have never grown as a Christian.

I really don't know what the MLK quote has to do with what you are saying.

I live in a nieghborhood where the average family of 3 lives on $13,000 or less a year. so these issues are not just some issue to me but they are peronal and real. It is not about us wanting a free ride but us wanting those who have to do the right thing.

And to be honest with you, as you continue to tell us to just work harder to just move on, we will move on, we will grow, we will continue to love each other and try to make ends meet. the question for those who have is where they are going to grow and start doing the right thing.

Doing the 'right thing' is the key. People are all "Down With Wal-Mart", but the real hope for change is in the board of directors hearts, not laws. Instead of picketing, we should pray for them and continue to live Christ before them.

Those who have need a change of heart. Period. You can't force them to change. Same with those who are 'down and out'.

I have a friend from Mexico who is a pastor of a Church in Washington state. He taught me that spiritual well being has nothing to do with money, status, jobs...I learned to be happy (joyous even) while working in a saw mill for 'the man'. It was dirty, dangerous work with no benefits in a poor, depressed town filled with a few rich people who ran the politics of the community and were set on making sure that nobody prospered except them. If somebody wanted to open a business, they'd make it impossible to do it. If it was a good idea, they would steal it. They all went to the same church!

But Raul, who also worked at the saw mill, and an illegal immigrant to boot, invited me into his home, prayed for me when I had pneumonia and couldn't afford to go to the hospital (I was healed, by the way)...He told me in Mexico you either had faith, or people died.

I know poverty. I know oppression. I've lived on the wrong side of the tracks. I also know that pulling yourself up by your boot straps isn't the answer as well. The answer is Christ: Living Him, Breathing Him. I'm probably too simplistic for this discussion because I see Jesus as the Answer for everything.

There is certainly a whole lot of truth in what you say, Dave. But it doesn't contain all the truth. I'd really like to hear how you reconcile what you are saying (which is true as far as it goes) with the six things markvans shared above.

To be honest, I think what you are saying comes off as a bit caloused.

Let me make an analogy. Let me say my grandfather killed your grandparents and then took over your farm, forcing your father and his family to make it on their own.

The farm passes to my father, and then to me. And let's assume that the farm is worth millions. Do you or your family have any claim? If so, when do we draw the line that says that descendants have no claim on any of that wealth?

Let us take it a step further. Let us say that you go to church with me. I am the farm owner. And let us say that because of the wrong done to your grandfather, your father's weakness and sin grabbed a hold of him and he became an alcoholic. And let us say that that resulted in a shitty upbringing for you to the extent that you had the deck stacked against you?

What are the obligations I have to you? Which are based upon the wrongs of the past? Which are based upon my kinship to you now as a fellow Christian in the present? Which are based upon common decency?

My hope is that this analogy will help to get some clarity on the issue. Maybe not much, but hopefully some.

Is there a place for the Bill Cosby-esque message of: "Don't stay a victim; take a hold of the situation and make it better for yourself?" Yes. There is. But that message isn't the whole story. And, I'm not trying to pick on you, but it doesn't mean a lot coming from you. Your statements tend towards justifying your views and defending yourself. Not once have you seemed to recognize anything worthwhile in anything else anyone has said in this whole conversation. That is, by definition, "knee-jerk." There is wisdom in what you say, but it isn't the full wisdom. One can realize taht there is more at play than a person's character. The Bible is chock-filled with all sorts of stories where the descendants pay for the sins of the ancestor. Nations are wiped out. Sin comes to fruit. Debts are collected.

Where is the balance between personal responsibility and a recognition that we all enter into the world with baggage that we did not choose for ourselves?

I a very real way, that happen to me. My family comes from Scotland where back in the late 1700's, the nobility gathered up thousands, put them on ships and scattered them all over the world. It was called the "Clearances". People where grabbed off the streets and forced onto ships with the clothes they had on their backs. Families torn apart, their home burnt, their possessions taken. On the other side on the family, the Irish. Much of the same type of treatment, and discriminated against when the came here to the states. They where called "The niggers of the north".

I don't feel defensive. My thoughts on this are long thought out. The acts of repentance required are of the class warfare variety, but of individuals and Christian communities making commitments to be Christlike.

Hey Dave. I'll agree. The concept of "race" is racist. But the term was originally created as a means of keeping certain folks down, not in trying to topple the "man."

Let's put the language of race aside and talk generally here. We live in such a world where the sins of the fathers is visited to the following generations. The past shapes the present. We shouldn't use the past as a tool in simply casting blame or trapping people in a cycle of hopelessness. But to act as though the past doesn't shape our present is not only unhelpful, it is profoundly unbiblical.

When we come to Christ, the dividing walls fall. And we, the followers of Christ, embrace one another as brothers and sisters. But any glance around the world shows us that while our kinship is secured, it doesn't really play itself out.

We live in a world divided by all sorts of walls. I agree that you and I as white dudes shouldn't be held liable for the acts of of some other white dudes in the past. But neither can I act as though we all, each human being in the world, enters the world with a clean slate. We are all born in certain places with certain cultures and certain struggles.

If we cut off the past from our understanding of why the world sucks so bad, then I have to look at Africa and its problems and the US with its success and assume that Africans are worse people than Americans. After all, we're born with a clean slate, right? I don't think so. And I don't think that you're saying that. But what you're saying comes close.

Leaving the realm of nations for a moment, and peering into the worldwide family we call the "church," I am left with a certain number of realities:

1) Some Christians are prosperous and esteemed.
2) Other Christians are suffering and treated poorly.
3) Most of the time, these Christians don't find themselves in a place of prosperity or suffering purely by their own merit (though that certainly can play a role).
4) Those in different situations tended to have inherited their situations, for the most part.. Sure, a low-income person in North America may have to work hard to become Middle class, but even a low-income person looks like a King to the average person in Madagascar or Sri Lanka or Peru. There really isn't too much mobility for the vast majority of people in the world...especially among the bottom 50%.
5) The New Testament TENDS to promote an economics of Jubilee...where the ones with much share with the ones with little.
6) The Bible TENDS to assume this economics of Jubilee regardless of the personal culpability of the ones with much, or the righteousness of the ones with little.

What we do with these realities makes all the difference. If the knee-jerk liberal response is to want to create a class war because of these six statements, the knee-jerk conservative response is to find ways to embrace the status quo. In Christ, we should move beyond both of these in order to seek ways that we can express our shared kinship in Christ. And we should also, to the watching world, invite all people into that kinship.

Mark,
I totally agree with the statements made here, and don't endorse a 'I got mine, now you get your's' attitude. I think the the Church has paid a lot of lip service to the idea of justice. There has been a lot of misguided attempts at 'reconciliation. Most of it has been to appease peoples guilt for the prosperity they have horded. The 'system' isn't set up to recognize concepts such as jubilee, and I don't believe that we as Christians are to be rooted to the system. We have a responsibility to live as Christ, and that applies to the prosperous and the poor. While hoarding wealth and privilege is wrong, living in bitterness, jealousy, and resentment is as well. So to the 'rich' I say 'spread the wealth': to the poor I say don't demand it.

I'd agree with alot of that assessment Mark. Race as a category is a problem because of the limitations it places on human identity. But also the racialized past is not divorced from the present and there is no blank slate. Put another way, "inheritance" is a normal part of life. If we can inherit a family heirloom or family business, if we can inherit genes which give us green eyes or make us prone to cancer, if we can inherit the legacy of the Saints, or without ever striving for it the Grace of Salvation, then it seems to me that we can also inherit the consequences of past sin. The tragedy of various forms of oppression is that they have been sanctioned and committed by the Church.

I regard it as part of my "kinship in Christ" to be part of righting the wrongs. I regard it as my joyful vocation in Christ to be about redeeming the past, like the rest of creation. If we want to be judged on our own merits and not follow in the mistakes of our forebears we must remember the past. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. I've learned during my brief time in ministry that much trust is gained in the willingness to grieve with others for the wrongs of the past, whether we were the source of the pain or not. Only then can we trust one another to walk into the future, the inheritance that Christ has given us.

I'm not so sure time is as linear as we make it out to be. I mean, we certainly experience "today" as if there was no far off "yesterday," but that doesn't mean that the past doesn't circle around to effecting today. The "somebody" who screwed up hundreds of years ago is often someone I'm connected to on some level, even if it is only as part of the "great cloud of witness" like Hebrews talks about. I'm not so sure we can separate the sins of the present and the sins of the past so easily. But it's a hard topic Dave. And I appreciate your honesty

Michael, I made the comment because it was pointed out to me the other day by a African brother who works in a professional feild addressing these issues every day. it was helpful for me to hear him say that, and it sounds like it was helpful to you as well.

Know that i am right there with you with the anxiety thing. We all have a lot of work to do around this, and part of it is facing our anxieties, like you are doing.

Tanden,

I agree that there is a certain cautiousness with African Americans when issues of race are hastily pushed aside to make room for other areas of legitimate conversation, but in this case, I think a healthy attention to race will necessitate a healthy attention to class and other areas of social identity. My understanding of what is both redeeming and regrettable in black culture is informed by my social class. Even the way I tell the story of black history and culture reveals my class status in the community.

The only way you'll understand the whole of black identity and its relationship to both Christian faith and American privilege is to see how diverse those of us who hold that identity are. That is why race and class for me is not either/or but both/and.

Joseph,

the reason i made the point was to help those of who are white to slow up and not move to quickly through the issue of race.

While the YAR thread has encouraged people to identify themselves according to what privileges they enjoy, and it is a good thing to recognize that we are privileged, I think more can be done by identifying the sources of privilege and questioning their legitimacy.
Legal privileges are based on arbitrary distinctions upheld by force. In other words, they are the product of the state. Where land was taken from Native Americans by force, Europeans were acting just as pagan as the Indians. When Africans were enslaved and held in bondage, Europeans worshiped a false god, one that they fashioned in their own image, instead of recognizing the image of God in their fellow man. This is the root of the state, and its purpose, to create distinctions from differences, to create and worship false gods of our own choosing, and to legitimize force by some against others.
As Christians, it is important that we move down off the mountain. That is, we must renounce any unjust privileges we enjoy. (I am reminded of Alan Paton's "Cry, the Beloved Country" and how the white farmer reached out and down to the township, even though it was his son who was killed.) But we must also work to level the land, to dismantle the mountain. Not to practice return of the land to certain groups, which punishes innocent descendants, but to eliminate the legal distinctions which maintain privileges and exercise force against innocents. This can only mean elimination of the machine which generates these privileges, and exists primarily to create distinctions and privileges, the state.
Nathanael Snow
ndsnow@gmail.com

jurisnaturalist, we need to deeply question where we really are "innocent descendants". I grow up on a farm in Iowa and i believe that a lot of what i gained through that wealth is not innocent even though we did not particiapte directly in the taking of that land. As whites we need to really look hard at our lives and start doing down the hard road of confession. The confession idea is not mine but it is coming from an African-American brother of mine that is entering into conversation with me.

Tanden,

There is no one innocent. Everyone on this planet resides on piece of dirt that was fought over and people were killed over.

Pointing fingers is useless.

I beleive that if healing is going to happen, then i need to confess my part and admit what part i played.

It's good to be aware of what privileges you inherit, because with great privilege comes great responsibility. I don't have a problem with people who have a lot of privileges or money, I have a problem with the entitlement attitude, that somehow we deserve the privileges we have. That somehow all these privileges are there for my personal enjoyment. I admire the eighteenth and nineteenth century Lords, who used their wealth to afford time to acquire knowledge of science and further scientific knowledge. This was at a time when scientists couldn't apply for government grants for research.

I recognize how much work it is to make the most use of or benefit the most people with the resources we have. I am continually convicted about what I waste. There is so much I need to give away because I do not have the time or the energy to manage the resources God has already given me. Too bad we don't use Aesop's fables in church. The dog in the manger lesson is a good compliment to Biblical criticisms of greed and its commendations to be generous. It seems like even if I give away something I think I might need in the future, God provides what I need when the time arrives.

Great post. I live in a mountain (in geomorphological terms) and the social mountain I belong to (I'm not rich, but I have studied a career and I'm not starving) has been built over the bones of others. Over the bones of indigenous tribes (mainly "chibchas"), over the bones of afro-descendants, over the bones of all those farmers who have been displaced from their crops (and it seems they won't be back for a long time), over the bones of workers...

Interesting Blog, Mark.

I am currently on a trip with bethel students visiting the civil rights sites in the south. as we have been going we are discussing and processing together. I am so thankful for my brothers and sisters of color who are showing me my white privilage. I am been facing these issues for the last 2 years as we live in north minneapolis (68% african-american) but I am still amazed at how often i don't realize my privilage or how painful my privilage is to others. I would encourage all to really listen to a person of color story, but as you do be ready to face so evil and painful stuff that is in you.

Brave and honest post Mark. I'm a newcomer to this blog, but have been genuinely impressed by the level of discussion. As an African/mixed American, I can say its helpful when people understand their own privileges, the bones of others that we, or others, have piled to ascend to highest political, economic or social tier. While European privilege will get you exceptionally far in most situations, any social group is culpable because Power is a diverse and fluid asset in our world. I certainly have privileges others of my own ethnicity don't have. I feel very uncomfortable with receiving Affirmative Action for difficulties I haven't really had to overcome. And I've known and grown up around whites who deal with the same issues that Dave presents.

I think part of the Christian response to this issue is in repudiating what needs to be left in the past, and the willful sharing of what has been brought into the present. Rather than relying on or relishing in its earthly inheritance, the Church needs to fully own its heavenly inheritance. Owning it would seem to involve a eagerness or thirst for sharing resources and rewriting the rules of giving and receiving, in ways that might be foolishly bold to the societies we inhabit.

I think its also helpful to know that the kind of solidarity, which I believe you are rightly encouraging, with those who suffer from your privilege doesn't mean not being yourself or 'going native.' It means being willing to share a piece of yourself and accept a piece of another. It is playing Adam to Eve, taking out your own rib so that it someone else may receive the gift of abundant life. It's kind of like what third culture people do.

Personally, I enjoy my status as a privileged white male. My status was evident with the fine single wide trailers I grew up in, the dirt floors and lack of running water in one of the house we lived in, my fine community college education, the fact that I didn't own a car that was less than ten years old until I hit my thirties...

When a White person prospers, he had it all handed to him. When he fails, it was his own fault. He was lazy, stupid, or any other derogatory adjective. When a "oppressed minority" fails, it was the white mans fault.

Things can be generally true without being specifically true. You can struggle to rise out of white-trashness in a society of white privilege. I can acknowledge the overall trend that benefits whites over other groups without taking away from the struggles and problems of individual whites.

Some of this stuff is dependent upon where you grow up and other things. I have to recognize, that as much as I've found success in life through my own efforts, that the system favors my whiteness. And my maleness.

Mark, as a brown brother I want to applaud your honesty and openness.

By the way just like in Ezekiel, I can hear the rumble of the drums, the songs and the dance of the bones coming back with life.

Yeah, YAR can be a weird place. There, if I don't admit to being a "White Supremacist" I am viewed upon with scorn. It went down hill quickly. My attempts to explain were cast off and I was vilified further for trying to explain my standpoint. (Now there's a post about white males being.......something or other)

I get that we've come to this point in history with slaves. And war. And genocide. I get it. Really. But so has every other culture on the face of this planet. We just had badder assed weapons then those unforntunate other cultures 200 years ago.

Sure, I blogged about how Advocacy Groups are Dumb on Young.AnabaptistRadicals.org. I used the NAACP as an example. The comments section quickly delved into a war about racism and how all whites are "white supremacists".

It got kinda ugly.

I read your post but didn't want to touch it unless I could log in under an enemies alias--there was no where for those comments to go but towards ugliness. I'm not saying you are a white supremacist or even that the point of your post was untrue, but after reading a few other posts on there and knowing the kind of place YAR has been in the past, I knew that was going to go down.

The last few posts over at YAR have forced me to remove it from my blogroll. Not my cup of tea and the rhetoric needs a healthy dose of civility.

Flame wars? I'm not sure what that means, somasoul...could you elaborate?

Great post that covers a lot of the same stuff going on in my head and life

A lot better than the *#&^@&# flame wars I've been involved in lately on the same subject.

Great post, Mark. While many do argue that socioeconomic rifts based on class/race are not their fault, if we take on a Biblical worldview, we will note that when Jews celebrate the passover meals they imagined themselves actually back in Egypt---remembering oppression. I think your remembrance here is a stark prophetic reminder to many huge churches that pride comes before the fall.