Musings on Privilege
This is very long.
How long? Well, it's onto a seventh page in the original manuscript, single-spaced except for paragraphs (double). Almost 2700 words.
Some of these things I've said before. Some I was discovering as I wrote. I still don't know where I fall on some of the issues the PCC is facing, but I'm pretty sure I know how I would vote if I was pushed to it. I may be wrong. God may be disappointed in me for coming to that conclusion... although I'm pretty sure I have disappointed him in other ways already.
In any case, you have been warned...
One of the words that gets tossed around a lot these days is “privilege.” That is to say, certain folks have the “privilege” of discussing the rights and wrongs of a given situation and having an opinion on the matter that may not actually impact upon them at all. They express an opinion or take actions or a theological / philosophical position for someone they can remotely class as “other” in their minds.
Consider the situation General Assembly finds itself facing, regarding the question of ordaining or marrying same-sex attracted individuals or couples. Those who will be debating the issue will, by and large, be heterosexual individuals, judging the sexuality of others and whether or not it is “moral”, let alone biblically acceptable. Most SSA individuals in this debate are fervently (and Biblically) fighting for full inclusion, though there are a few out there who, surprisingly, are not - they call themselves “Side B” and are almost as roundly reviled by other SSA individuals as they are by many heterosexuals, despite the fact that they fit into the heterosexual “do it this way and we’ll let you in” demands. The “privilege” is the heterosexuals making decisions for the SSA’s… or, as in my case, opting out of the root debate because if it’s a question of morality, I think we have to cast our net wider and rein in a little tighter! As I’m *not* SSA, I apparently have that privilege…
I also have the privilege of not concerning myself with the demands of groups like Black Lives Matters because, of course, I am white.
I have the privilege of not getting involved in the matter of missing and murdered aboriginal women because I am both white and male.
I have the privilege of not necessarily caring about or understanding the needs of the poor because my household has a six-figure income.
I have the privilege of turning the other way when asked to support refugees because my country is not at war.
I have the privilege of talking about God and His love because (apparently) I’m not struggling with how he doesn’t seem to care about much at all, but have a blissful existence far from problems and issues of life.
I have the privilege of considering the reformation of prison and jail sentencing from a remote position, seeing as I’ve never been *in* jail.
Yes, I even have the privilege of uninformed opinions, because so many things in my life are informed by *other* things.
I have the privilege of watching my children make mistakes that may cost them money, their lives, their comforts, their freedoms, and so much more. But this is not a great privilege - it’s a great helplessness in many ways, where there’s often nothing we can do but watch, and hope, and pray.
I have the privilege of dealing with first-world problems. My iPhone occasionally runs out of memory. Our house ‘server’ computer (as opposed to the three laptops used by the three main residents) occasionally struggles to connect to video streaming sites in Hong Kong or Argentina. We complain that, once in a while, the cable TV package we subscribe to *still* shows “nothing we want to watch. We have to decide which car to fill with gas so that we can face our two-hour drive tomorrow - the one with better mileage, or the one with better displays and sound quality. The fridge is cluttered with leftovers that need to be eaten because we are out of storage containers. (Work that last one through from the perspective of a child in Africa or Sri Lanka) Our living room is filled with items headed to a yard sale because the items are of no use to us any longer.
Long story short, I have privileges. Privileges of birth. Privileges I have no control over. Privileges I don’t even recognize. Privileges that blind me to needs and hopes and wants and desires and attitudes all around me.
I have the privilege of being loved by God.
Even though I’m a sinner.
Even though I spend much of my time blind to and ignorant of the world around me.
Even though I get lost in my problems, so full of “me” that I have nothing to offer to others…
Even though I’m one of seven billion people on the face of this planet, each trying to make their own way and do their own things…
God loves me.
And God has forgiven me for my sins.
And God showed this to me by sending Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice for sin on the cross of Calvary, and then by raising Him from death as a promise to those who would listen and believe, a promise that death is not the end if we have put our faith and trust in Jesus, the Christ!
It’s liberating! It’s freeing! It is so unbelievably wonderful to know that I have been forgiven my sins by the God who created heaven and earth and who, though no doubt disappointed by my sins, nevertheless has provided salvation for them!
And yet, it is also onerous.
Onerous? What, as in, a burden? Something laid upon me?
Yes, in its way.
Jesus stripped out all the extras, all the add-ons, all the just-in-cases, all the if-this-happens-thens, all the tables of punishments for sins (often death, usually painful or at least bloody), and took the Law back to love.
God loves you. (Yay!)
Love God. (Yay! I can do that!)
Love one another. (Ya… whu?!)
Love one another.
John 13:35 - “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.”
(Yeah, okay…)
Romans 13:10 - “Love does no harm to a neighbour. Therefore, love is the fulfilment of the Law.”
(Sure, I get that…)
1 John 4:7 - “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”
(Okay…)
1 John 3:18 - “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and truth…”
(Doesn’t sound so hard…)
1 John 4:8 - “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
(Wait a sec…)
Matthew 22:37-37 - Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”
(Oh, I know that one… Or those two… or whatever…!)
Deuteronomy 10:12-19 - “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations-as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt…”
(Ummm… So what are you saying…?)
In an early episode of Call The Midwife, one of the nuns declares that, over the course of her life, she had noted that people did things based on only two motivations: love, and fear. So often, we fear the “other”. We fear the “different”. We fear the “not-us”. We judge their ways and differences with hostility, demanding that they conform to our ways, because we “know” from a lifetime of experience that our ways are better!
And we expect that God feels the same way we do, because He has so obviously blessed us for and with what is in our hearts and minds…
We have the privilege to feel this way. Privileges, however, are not “rights”, and in any case, both privileges and rights do not come free. They come with duty attached to them. With God, the duty to love is multi-faceted, nuanced, challenging and ever-present.
“Love one another.”
Now, since we’re already deeply into this, why does the issue of homosexuality promote such division within the Church? And how does it fit into a discussion on “love”? It’s no doubt a lot more complex than my thoughts make it, but here goes…
Seven Biblical passages condemn same-sex relations explicitly
Dialogue with the text or with its authors is impossible. And dialogue with God is sketchy at best, as there is an awful lot of “noise” that is getting in the way of our “signal” from Him. So, we can’t clarify context, only make assumptions and presumptions based on other things we learn or know or discover over time.
Nevertheless, these passages clearly condemn sexual “immorality” and sexual relations on a same-sex basis rather explicitly.
The argument that is gaining most traction, to my ears, is the one that holds to love being Jesus’ paramount concern, and that Jesus would have proclaimed love and forgiveness to anyone and everyone, including SSA persons. Long-term, committed SSA relationships, so the argument goes, demonstrate the same love as long-term, committed hetero relationships - if two have become one flesh, then the relationship exists. If the relationship breaks, sin has been committed (and we are well aware that multiple sins already exist long before the act of adultery is committed), but if all sins can be forgiven with a truly repentant heart, where does the sin start and the love end, or the love start and the sin end? Jesus never addressed homosexuality; He did address divorce and adultery, quite forcefully! The Church could argue, then, (and many individuals do) that because Jesus never addressed homosexuality explicitly, the opinions expressed in the other passages are merely that: opinions, of men, lacking the authority of divine utterance.
The “easy” counter to this, of course, is 2 Timothy 3:16, “all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” That Paul never wrote his letters for them to become “Scripture” is considered beside the point. Those who hold Scripture to be inerrant declare that if Scripture said it, it must, therefore, be.
But here’s what I’ve actually been working towards.
James 3 contains a caution for all who would teach about God - if you teach wrong doctrine or speak unsound words and lead others astray from the true gospel, then you are doubly at fault for the sins of those others! Jesus’ most savage words were actually for those who led others with wrong lessons about God. We’ve proclaimed that God has equal place for all races, despite obvious racial biases in the Old Testament (countered by the sending of Peter to Cornelis). We’ve proclaimed that God has equal place for both genders, despite the patriarchal nature of even some of Paul’s writings, seeing as Paul commissions and praises several women and the community of believers in their homes elsewhere in his writings. And now we are being asked to affirm long-standing same-sex relationships… what if we are wrong? What if we, this time, are caving to culture in order to try to stay relevant, trying to save our buildings and congregations at the expense of truly sound doctrine?
In most of our congregations, the question is, truly, irrelevant.
Many congregations do not have SSA individuals present in them at all. Thus, the question is academic, elsewhere, “out there,” and doesn’t apply.
Many others may have a small number, and as long as they aren’t blatantly flamingly flamboyant about their sexuality, it’s not an issue. They participate in the life and work of a congregation, are welcomed with perhaps a couple of unspoken questions and a raised eyebrow or two, but if they try to adapt to and become part of the congregation and its work, come on in! The congregation will close their eyes to what they suspect, or even know, just as they close them to Billy Bob’s drinking (he’s a great guy if you can keep him off the sauce) and the fact that the pastor ran here with the organist from his past congregation (he’s repented for that, and we’ve accepted him despite his flaws and faults and past transgressions, and besides, we’ve met his ex-wife and… well, let’s just say that we’ll pray for her!).
Others are trying to reach into the community, actively, proclaiming the love of God for all people - these are the ‘activist’ congregations or individuals, suspected of false doctrine and “hedonistic liberality” because of who they let in their doors. They proclaim that Jesus would have attended a congregation like theirs and would have done the work they are trying to do. And I’d say yes, and no.
Jesus wouldn’t have stopped with the gays. He’d have brought in the prostitutes. He’d have welcomed in the thieves and the liars. He would have thrown the doors open to the homeless and the addicted. He would have faced round condemnation on all sides for not only welcoming these people but participating in their immorality (because, of course, if you accept it, you must be part of it - they hear Paul say, “But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.” (1 Corinthians 5:11) rather than Jesus, “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.” (Matthew 11:18-19)).
We can’t win.
All we can do is pray. And try.
And love.
I have the privilege of being a child of God.
I have the duty to love, as I have been loved in the first place.
All else, then, becomes commentary.
How long? Well, it's onto a seventh page in the original manuscript, single-spaced except for paragraphs (double). Almost 2700 words.
Some of these things I've said before. Some I was discovering as I wrote. I still don't know where I fall on some of the issues the PCC is facing, but I'm pretty sure I know how I would vote if I was pushed to it. I may be wrong. God may be disappointed in me for coming to that conclusion... although I'm pretty sure I have disappointed him in other ways already.
In any case, you have been warned...
One of the words that gets tossed around a lot these days is “privilege.” That is to say, certain folks have the “privilege” of discussing the rights and wrongs of a given situation and having an opinion on the matter that may not actually impact upon them at all. They express an opinion or take actions or a theological / philosophical position for someone they can remotely class as “other” in their minds.
Consider the situation General Assembly finds itself facing, regarding the question of ordaining or marrying same-sex attracted individuals or couples. Those who will be debating the issue will, by and large, be heterosexual individuals, judging the sexuality of others and whether or not it is “moral”, let alone biblically acceptable. Most SSA individuals in this debate are fervently (and Biblically) fighting for full inclusion, though there are a few out there who, surprisingly, are not - they call themselves “Side B” and are almost as roundly reviled by other SSA individuals as they are by many heterosexuals, despite the fact that they fit into the heterosexual “do it this way and we’ll let you in” demands. The “privilege” is the heterosexuals making decisions for the SSA’s… or, as in my case, opting out of the root debate because if it’s a question of morality, I think we have to cast our net wider and rein in a little tighter! As I’m *not* SSA, I apparently have that privilege…
I also have the privilege of not concerning myself with the demands of groups like Black Lives Matters because, of course, I am white.
I have the privilege of not getting involved in the matter of missing and murdered aboriginal women because I am both white and male.
I have the privilege of not necessarily caring about or understanding the needs of the poor because my household has a six-figure income.
I have the privilege of turning the other way when asked to support refugees because my country is not at war.
I have the privilege of talking about God and His love because (apparently) I’m not struggling with how he doesn’t seem to care about much at all, but have a blissful existence far from problems and issues of life.
I have the privilege of considering the reformation of prison and jail sentencing from a remote position, seeing as I’ve never been *in* jail.
Yes, I even have the privilege of uninformed opinions, because so many things in my life are informed by *other* things.
I have the privilege of watching my children make mistakes that may cost them money, their lives, their comforts, their freedoms, and so much more. But this is not a great privilege - it’s a great helplessness in many ways, where there’s often nothing we can do but watch, and hope, and pray.
I have the privilege of dealing with first-world problems. My iPhone occasionally runs out of memory. Our house ‘server’ computer (as opposed to the three laptops used by the three main residents) occasionally struggles to connect to video streaming sites in Hong Kong or Argentina. We complain that, once in a while, the cable TV package we subscribe to *still* shows “nothing we want to watch. We have to decide which car to fill with gas so that we can face our two-hour drive tomorrow - the one with better mileage, or the one with better displays and sound quality. The fridge is cluttered with leftovers that need to be eaten because we are out of storage containers. (Work that last one through from the perspective of a child in Africa or Sri Lanka) Our living room is filled with items headed to a yard sale because the items are of no use to us any longer.
Long story short, I have privileges. Privileges of birth. Privileges I have no control over. Privileges I don’t even recognize. Privileges that blind me to needs and hopes and wants and desires and attitudes all around me.
I have the privilege of being loved by God.
Even though I’m a sinner.
Even though I spend much of my time blind to and ignorant of the world around me.
Even though I get lost in my problems, so full of “me” that I have nothing to offer to others…
Even though I’m one of seven billion people on the face of this planet, each trying to make their own way and do their own things…
God loves me.
And God has forgiven me for my sins.
And God showed this to me by sending Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice for sin on the cross of Calvary, and then by raising Him from death as a promise to those who would listen and believe, a promise that death is not the end if we have put our faith and trust in Jesus, the Christ!
It’s liberating! It’s freeing! It is so unbelievably wonderful to know that I have been forgiven my sins by the God who created heaven and earth and who, though no doubt disappointed by my sins, nevertheless has provided salvation for them!
And yet, it is also onerous.
Onerous? What, as in, a burden? Something laid upon me?
Yes, in its way.
Jesus stripped out all the extras, all the add-ons, all the just-in-cases, all the if-this-happens-thens, all the tables of punishments for sins (often death, usually painful or at least bloody), and took the Law back to love.
God loves you. (Yay!)
Love God. (Yay! I can do that!)
Love one another. (Ya… whu?!)
Love one another.
John 13:35 - “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.”
(Yeah, okay…)
Romans 13:10 - “Love does no harm to a neighbour. Therefore, love is the fulfilment of the Law.”
(Sure, I get that…)
1 John 4:7 - “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”
(Okay…)
1 John 3:18 - “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and truth…”
(Doesn’t sound so hard…)
1 John 4:8 - “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
(Wait a sec…)
Matthew 22:37-37 - Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”
(Oh, I know that one… Or those two… or whatever…!)
Deuteronomy 10:12-19 - “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations-as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt…”
(Ummm… So what are you saying…?)
In an early episode of Call The Midwife, one of the nuns declares that, over the course of her life, she had noted that people did things based on only two motivations: love, and fear. So often, we fear the “other”. We fear the “different”. We fear the “not-us”. We judge their ways and differences with hostility, demanding that they conform to our ways, because we “know” from a lifetime of experience that our ways are better!
And we expect that God feels the same way we do, because He has so obviously blessed us for and with what is in our hearts and minds…
We have the privilege to feel this way. Privileges, however, are not “rights”, and in any case, both privileges and rights do not come free. They come with duty attached to them. With God, the duty to love is multi-faceted, nuanced, challenging and ever-present.
“Love one another.”
Now, since we’re already deeply into this, why does the issue of homosexuality promote such division within the Church? And how does it fit into a discussion on “love”? It’s no doubt a lot more complex than my thoughts make it, but here goes…
Seven Biblical passages condemn same-sex relations explicitly
- Genesis 19 - the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah want to rape the angels (or say they want to, anyway…)
- Leviticus 18:22 - gay ritual sex in a temple or men having sex in a woman’s bed is forbidden by Law
- Leviticus 20:13 - reiteration of the above
- Romans 1:26-27 - Paul condemns same-sex behaviour as “unnatural”, with same-sex encounters occurring during ritual orgies in certain temples.
- 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 - Part of Paul’s list of those who will not inherit the kingdom of God; this passage is troublesome, however, because it is seen to condemn those whom we would call victims (i.e. the boys who were sexually ‘abused’ in the relationship Paul is describing). Besides, the list contains several other elements that would ban any who would try to get to heaven on their own righteousness.
- 1 Timothy 1:9-10 - Another list of those who will not be welcomed in heaven; sex is one aspect explicitly addressed, but Paul also says, “And for whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine…”
- Jude 1:7 - As angels were banished for having sexual relationships with the women of earth, so any who engage in sexual immorality will be bound until judgement and then burned in eternal fire.
Dialogue with the text or with its authors is impossible. And dialogue with God is sketchy at best, as there is an awful lot of “noise” that is getting in the way of our “signal” from Him. So, we can’t clarify context, only make assumptions and presumptions based on other things we learn or know or discover over time.
Nevertheless, these passages clearly condemn sexual “immorality” and sexual relations on a same-sex basis rather explicitly.
The argument that is gaining most traction, to my ears, is the one that holds to love being Jesus’ paramount concern, and that Jesus would have proclaimed love and forgiveness to anyone and everyone, including SSA persons. Long-term, committed SSA relationships, so the argument goes, demonstrate the same love as long-term, committed hetero relationships - if two have become one flesh, then the relationship exists. If the relationship breaks, sin has been committed (and we are well aware that multiple sins already exist long before the act of adultery is committed), but if all sins can be forgiven with a truly repentant heart, where does the sin start and the love end, or the love start and the sin end? Jesus never addressed homosexuality; He did address divorce and adultery, quite forcefully! The Church could argue, then, (and many individuals do) that because Jesus never addressed homosexuality explicitly, the opinions expressed in the other passages are merely that: opinions, of men, lacking the authority of divine utterance.
The “easy” counter to this, of course, is 2 Timothy 3:16, “all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” That Paul never wrote his letters for them to become “Scripture” is considered beside the point. Those who hold Scripture to be inerrant declare that if Scripture said it, it must, therefore, be.
But here’s what I’ve actually been working towards.
James 3 contains a caution for all who would teach about God - if you teach wrong doctrine or speak unsound words and lead others astray from the true gospel, then you are doubly at fault for the sins of those others! Jesus’ most savage words were actually for those who led others with wrong lessons about God. We’ve proclaimed that God has equal place for all races, despite obvious racial biases in the Old Testament (countered by the sending of Peter to Cornelis). We’ve proclaimed that God has equal place for both genders, despite the patriarchal nature of even some of Paul’s writings, seeing as Paul commissions and praises several women and the community of believers in their homes elsewhere in his writings. And now we are being asked to affirm long-standing same-sex relationships… what if we are wrong? What if we, this time, are caving to culture in order to try to stay relevant, trying to save our buildings and congregations at the expense of truly sound doctrine?
In most of our congregations, the question is, truly, irrelevant.
Many congregations do not have SSA individuals present in them at all. Thus, the question is academic, elsewhere, “out there,” and doesn’t apply.
Many others may have a small number, and as long as they aren’t blatantly flamingly flamboyant about their sexuality, it’s not an issue. They participate in the life and work of a congregation, are welcomed with perhaps a couple of unspoken questions and a raised eyebrow or two, but if they try to adapt to and become part of the congregation and its work, come on in! The congregation will close their eyes to what they suspect, or even know, just as they close them to Billy Bob’s drinking (he’s a great guy if you can keep him off the sauce) and the fact that the pastor ran here with the organist from his past congregation (he’s repented for that, and we’ve accepted him despite his flaws and faults and past transgressions, and besides, we’ve met his ex-wife and… well, let’s just say that we’ll pray for her!).
Others are trying to reach into the community, actively, proclaiming the love of God for all people - these are the ‘activist’ congregations or individuals, suspected of false doctrine and “hedonistic liberality” because of who they let in their doors. They proclaim that Jesus would have attended a congregation like theirs and would have done the work they are trying to do. And I’d say yes, and no.
Jesus wouldn’t have stopped with the gays. He’d have brought in the prostitutes. He’d have welcomed in the thieves and the liars. He would have thrown the doors open to the homeless and the addicted. He would have faced round condemnation on all sides for not only welcoming these people but participating in their immorality (because, of course, if you accept it, you must be part of it - they hear Paul say, “But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.” (1 Corinthians 5:11) rather than Jesus, “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.” (Matthew 11:18-19)).
We can’t win.
All we can do is pray. And try.
And love.
I have the privilege of being a child of God.
I have the duty to love, as I have been loved in the first place.
All else, then, becomes commentary.