I confess my privilege

It was when we moved back from a small island in Lake Erie, and in starting Junior High School that I realized my privilege as a while male.  I wondered why other children who did not look like me were treated differently than was I.  I wondered why I heard such hateful things spewed out about them with schoolmates, adults and at our dinner table.  I did not believe any of it, but still what I heard was that "we take care of our own", and I knew I was privileged, and by no merit or positive attributes of my own.

My education on bigotry continued over the years and I became aware that being straight gave me privilege in this culture as well.  Eventually, my being employed and middle class added to my privilege in the society.

Now, I am proud that I worked my own way through school.  My parents could not and did not help me financially, except by their poverty to make me eligible for some grants - even that eligibility for me, I would find out later was a product of being a white male in the 70's, for while there were some regulations on inclusion with minorities, still a good percentage of white recipients were guaranteed.

I did not ask for my privilege, but...
I had doors opened to me that were not opened for women in society.
I had doors opened to me that were not opened for people of color.
I had doors opened to me that were not opened for my LGBTQ sisters and brothers.
I had doors opened to me that were not opened to people not born in this country.
I had doors opened to me that were not opened to people who were not Protestant Christians.
All of that, just because I happened to be born a straight, white, Protestant male in America.
The unfairness of that has sunk in over the last 46 of my 58 years of life.

The tangibles of family name, schools attended, degrees and my picture and voice on the phone have
     opened doors.
The intangibles of people in positions of power, even unaware of their own biases and prejudices in
     making decisions that affected my life, have opened doors.

None of that was due to the quality of my character, my moral make up or work ethic.  Some of what I have achieved hopefully has been due to that, but my gaining position, power and wealth have most often been simply because I was born a straight, white, Protestant male in America.

I cannot change what has been.
I have become aware of it, however.
I am aware that this is a system intricately woven into the fabric of the nation I call home.
I am aware that the systemic racism, classism, homophobia, misogyny and religious xenophobia has
     benefitted me and still hurts others around me - people who I love and who God loves.
I am aware that internalized, even subliminal racism, homophobia, misogyny and religious
     xenophobia are very powerful and very real among people who either know and deny it or have
     had it so internalized that they truly believe, falsely that they have grown beyond it.  I know and
     love people like that.
We live in a culture that has normalized Greed as an upright value to be embraced.
We live in a culture that has made progress on our bigotries, but that is now again normalizing them
     as either virtuous values or necessary ideologies.
We live in a culture that has made status everything for those who can attain it.
We live in Empire.  The very few have all the power, wealth and status and will work to keep it.  They gain it at the expense of everyone else, especially those not white, male (or submissive to
     males), straight and Protestant in this country.  This, as in 1920 and 1950 is true in 2018, partly
     due to the new embrace of abject greed, lust for power and desire for status of straight, white,
     protestant males in 1981 and following (the desolating sacrilege of the religious "right" (Falwell)
     and the political "right" (Reagan) working together).  It was further promoted under George W.
     Bush and is now coming into full hateful and greedy expression under DT.

Jesus lived under Empire, too.
Jesus' message of Agape Love and Grace is in RESISTENCE to Empire.
Paul picked up the mantle with the other Apostles.
What you had in the First Century, then was a movement of Radical Love (Agape) that led to Radical
     Community, which valued Radical Inclusion, even in leadership, radical Advocacy by those who
     had some power toward the Radical Liberation of those who were oppressed under Empire, and
     the Radical Sharing of resources with those who were most vulnerable as victims of Empire's
     oppression.  (Read the book of ACTS sometime, as a direct application of what Jesus taught.)
    
As a straight, white, Protestant male in this culture I have been privileged.
I believe that I must work diligently to end a system that benefits people like me just by virtue of how
      we were born, and end the ignorant xenophobia that keeps it going.
I believe that I must share of the abundance that I have attained by virtue of society's privilege given
      to me.
I believe that I must stand with (advocate) those who have been harmed by this system toward the
      benefit of a few.
I believe that I must lend my voice and my power to those who have none.
I believe that I must lend my presence and NOT speak or act in power at times, but affirm those who
      are finding or expressing their voice and power, and submit to their leadership.
I believe that I must speak truth to power and strive to enlighten those like me about the
      unfaithfulness, injustice, insanity and immorality of their greed, lust for power, desire for status
      and hatred (intolerance, exploitation, false belief in superiority over others) of those not like them.
I believe that I must lift up those not like me, even as others are working to hold them down, back
      and out from justice, sustainable living and equality of opportunity.

I am driven by my faith in Jesus and what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled in the Gospels. 
I am guided by the love I have been privileged to receive for those not like me, which has blessed me.
I am determined to positively affect the lives of those I love who are not like me.
I am committed to resisting Empire in all its expressions and working toward a culture, a society
     more centered on the Agape Love at the center of the Gospel of Jesus.
I confess my privilege.  I will use whatever power or status it has given me to eliminate it, so that
     I can walk with sisters and brothers in equitability, justice, love, peace and joy.
If I don't, I am in collusion with Empire that hurts people I love and God loves; therefore, I must.

What will you do with your privilege?

Pastor Jamie