The Us-Them Problem, part 1...

This post has been a long time coming, but I finally feel the need after my discovery yesterday of the website called "White Whine". This site has picked up the now normal internet tradition of mocking a group of people, perhaps seen most famously in "People of Walmart."  At its best, "White Whine" is funny; at its worst it is depressing. You can say the same about People of Walmart.

Neither, however, offers any alternative. It's one thing to openly mock a group of people--and believe me, I know how much there is to mock about the entitled, middle-upper class white culture in America--but there needs to be some upshot to it, or you know what--people will react how they do to guilt.  They'll become more guilty or more angered. It's law without gospel.

This is the problem I have with racism workshops that tell us that we are racist by default if we are white in America, because we are born into a society saturated by systemic racism. OK, fair enough. But what does that actually tell us about who we are as people of God? We are all sinful. White and black have all fallen short of the glory of God. We oppress each other by our very nature.

To say that white people have power and therefore they are racist strikes me as an argumentum ad lazarum (appeal to poverty). It is a radical shift attempting to restore balance by tearing into the dominant culture. It may in fact be an accurate summation of the situation, but I also find it less than helpful.

Here's a rather pointed problem: Was Jesus racist? He was born into a Jewish culture that had power over the half-Jewish Samaritans. If we're going to claim that Jesus wasn't racist over the Samaritans because it strikes us as blasphemy than maybe we should stop throwing these words around and start searching for an alternative.

So, what do we do about sites like these? What do we do about systemic racism, feminism, sexism and the like? We change the framework for the discussion. We do this not by pointing out that white people are racist for reasons outside of their control or that white people whine about a lot of trivial things. Instead, we preach the story of the rich man as gospel. Rich football players are in financial straits because of high-risk loans because money and power simply do not give meaning. You can spend and spend, or save and save and all that will come of it are more complications. Money is the root of all evil--not just for those who have no money but primarily for those who do have it!

So we have this profound freedom to let ourselves go. Don't whine. Don't hoard. Don't cheat others and yourself to advance yourself in a broken society. Why? Because you will find well-being (which is to say, salvation) in this freedom. Without the good news I fear that their message will always be just another structure ignored by those who have found more advantageous grounds.

You are part of a situation that goes before you and will go on after you. You have created boundaries for your own self-preservation that have hindered those who need you most. You have sinned against your neighbor in thought, word and deed by what you have done and by what you have left undone. You have not loved the Lord, your God.

This is most certainly true. But it is not the end. The world needs gospel.

So here it is: Now, you are forgiven. In fact, you are liberated. You don't have to play by the rules any longer. You don't need to be a feminist to love a woman. You don't need to defeat racism to see beyond colors. You don't need to be gay to love somebody who is gay, bisexual, or straight. Your salvation is certain. Now go act like it.

I intend to follow up on this discussion sometime in the coming weeks with a different approach, and--I hope--a more well-rounded argument.