Today we have an essay by Elaine Bayless, President-elect of AEC. Her opinions are, of course, her own.
A common complaint, often phrased as feedback, is that DEI programming creates division and harms community. People in the majority often feel uncomfortable when they face the oppression or harm done by members of their “group” to other groups. I believe this is the blind spot of privilege. Pointing out differences, or talking about current and past events, is not inherently divisive. You might as well say that a colonoscopy causes colon cancer. When we acknowledge events in the past, we are illuminating the ignorance of the past. As a 20th century white woman, I did not participate in the US slave trade. However, I did benefit from it. Understanding how I benefited from it can cause all sorts of feelings, many of them uncomfortable. Feelings like guilt, sorrow, self-doubt and anger. But having to face uncomfortable feelings is not divisive. It does not place a barrier between me and a Black person for me to acknowledge that I have benefited today from the suffering of their ancestors in the past. It gives me a glimpse into their story, and how it intersects with my story. What can create the barrier is how I chose to handle my uncomfortable feelings. I hear many people scoff at the idea of white privilege, saying they earned their degrees, their jobs, their health, their homes. And it is true that I worked hard to earn high grades, to be responsible with my money, to make healthy decisions. But I had free time to spend studying, because my parents provided for me financially out of their own success. I had a safe home to study in because they were the children of homeowners and could borrow money from their family instead of a bank. I could afford to make healthy choices because my parents always could find and afford fresh fruits and vegetables. And where did my parents’ wealth come from? Their parents, who, despite the Depression, had stable housing and enough food to eat. My ancestors never had their neighborhoods razed to the ground by the city they lived in. My ancestors were never thrown in jail for voting. My ancestors were free to attend any college they chose. We can choose to numb our discomfort by claiming that all we have came from our own hard work. But even if this is true, what about the Christian principle of stewardship? As a Christian, can I really say that my blessings and successes are not from God? I don’t believe that I can. God gave me gifts and talents, and God placed me in my family, at this time. And the Bible is clear that tithing is an act of worship and faith. My former pastor, Mark Batterson, used to say that when we tithe, we are saying that God can do more with 90% than we can do with 100%: in other words, when we only have 90% of our money, God can bless us far better than we can bless ourselves if we kept 100%. So then, how can I claim that my success is only from my hard work? We are taught to prioritize individual success and hard work, often to the detriment of community. And this leads to the blind spot of privilege: when we are not aware of how deeply community and our ancestors have contributed to our success, we reject the idea that discrimination against one’s ancestors and communities have contributed to a person’s lack of success. And so we fight back against DEI programming because it makes us uncomfortable by challenging our individualistic concept of success. But Christianity pushes back just as hard against this concept. Christianity says that obedience to parents will bless one thousand generations! Stewardship should make Christians as uncomfortable as DEI programming: our success or failure is not our own, as even our lives and our bodies are not our own: we belong to the Body of Christ. DEI programming shows us how we have failed to follow our Christian ideals. It shows us the deep illness of prejudice in our society, and how complicit we, the majority group, have been in that prejudice. To paraphrase Paul, does this mean that DEI is bad? No, not any more than the ideal of stewardship is bad! At the end of the day, truth is a tool of liberation. DEI programs often reveal truths that we have been content to remain ignorant about. But the Christian message also reveals truths that we would like to remain ignorant about. As Christians, whether it is the Bible or DEI programming, we are not meant to be comfortable in the world. We are meant to be liberated by the truth, and to bring that liberation to everyone. Elaine F. Bayless, MA, MDiv, BCC Clinical Chaplain, Pastoral Care Services UNC REX Healthcare
1 Comment
Barbara
8/3/2024 10:30:48 am
Elaine,
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