Merciful and Righteous God,
you justify the ungodly.
The poor cry out to you,
especially people of color:
“Our soul has had more than its fill
of the scorn of those who are at ease.”
The rich say they will never be moved;
Jesus said they likely will not enter heaven.
We who have benefitted from white privilege,
can we be excused by blaming it all on others?
Shall not we by our works, dear Lord,
show a desire for justice?
Lectionary Readings
Ps. 123; 146; 30; 86
Num. 16:20-35
Rom. 4:1-12
Matt. 19:23-30
Selected Verses
Ps. 123:4
Our soul has had more than its fill
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud.
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud.
Ps. 30:6
As for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I shall never be moved.”
“I shall never be moved.”
Num. 16:22
[Moses and Aaron] fell on their faces, and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one person sin and you become angry with the whole congregation?”
Rom. 4:5
But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.
Matt. 19:23
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. …”
I don’t subscribe to Critical Race Theory and its teaching on privilege. But I certainly affirm the importance of concern for the poor. That’s something everyone can agree on.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it will help if I explain my personal history. I was born in 1931. All my life as a white man I have enjoyed privileges compared to people of color. First of all, my ancestors did not endure centuries of slavery, lynching, and Jim Crow. My people in the north were able to accrue wealth on the backs of slaves in the south or, after slavery, poorly paid people of color. Even as a boy from a very poor family, I did not experience poverty like that prevalent among many poor Black families. I was not taught to fear police, nor hassled as I walked down the street. My one-room country school was well equipped compared to many Black schools. I was admitted to the University of Illinois at a time when there were few people of color in the student body and even fewer on the faculty. I was awarded a tuition scholarship because my father was a WW1 vet—I don’t think many children of Black veterans received them, because awards were decided by Illinois state assemblymen, then mostly white. After graduation I had a graduate assistantship at Cornell University. There were no African Americans or indigenous people from America in the department. When I had obtained my PhD, I was given a job in the same department—it was part of the “good old boy” system, essentially closed to people of color. We bought our first house from a WW2 vet and assumed his mortgage at a lower rate of interest because he was under the GI bill. Black veterans were largely shut out of such mortgages, and red-lining by banks put strict limits on where they could live. This deprived them access to the most prevalent means of accumulating wealth. The financial benefits are perpetuated and passed on to future generations. I could go on, but these are a few reasons I strongly believe I have been privileged as a white man. I am not proud to say so.
ReplyDeleteYes, doors opened to you that were not open to all. Yet, this doesn’t stain or diminish your achievements, of which you may be justly proud. And doors have opened more and more in your lifetime. It isn’t perfect or complete, but it never will be.
ReplyDeleteI do not adopt the privileged label because I want to define myself rather than allow myself to be defined by others. And I am wary of a social philosophy that assigns guilt to me because of the color of my skin.
I visit hospice patients of varied race, class, gender, religion, family status, and diagnosis, and in spite of their differences, death makes them all equal in the end.
I would never presume to tell you how to think about yourself, Elmer. I have much respect for you. The above is merely how I think about things. Peace to you.
Thank you for the clarification, Chris. Knowing you and the work you do with hospice, I have zero desire to shame or blame you for anything or in any way. To clarify my attitude about white privilege, I feel it is possible to be motivated by a desire for equity and justice rather than guilt in these matters. Knowing that I benefitted from the “good old boy” system of hiring gives me incentive to work to change the system in favor of affirmative action, and it seems to me that matters more than how we name what spurs us on. I think God most wants us to recognize injustice and do what we can to rectify it.
ReplyDeleteOh I know you wouldn’t try to shame me. I have long noted and admired your concern for the poor and needy. I must confess, though, that I have given up on justice. It’s too absolute, too ambitious. I will be happy to do no harm, and to do a bit of good along the way. I realized recently that the hospice patients we serve, in various ways, qualify as the six types of needy persons Jesus mentions in Matthew 25:31-40. For the first time I can read that passage and not feel guilty.
ReplyDelete