Jesus Vs Racism

If most racists, homophobes, and general bigots are nice people – how do you know you are not one?

Privilege blinds us. The good news of Jesus is good news for the downtrodden, despised, and excluded. It is usually bad news for those of us privileged to have done well at school, have good jobs and a comfortable way of life. To have never had to question what is normal.

Since privilege blinds us, we are often unaware that we have it.

• Do the people you see on TV look like you?
• Do you flinch every time you walk past a uniform?
• Have you been stopped and searched because you were young, the wrong colour, or out late?
• Did you grow up assuming that you would be able to get married in a church building with the person you love surrounded by your worshiping community?
• If you have never been branded an illegal immigrant why would you question whose interests UK law protects?

Universalism

When you speak in public, or read the opinions of a public figure are they described as “black”, “queer”, “Scottish” or is it assumed that they are “normal” and no label is required to identify their perspective?

If it is assumed that someone can speak for all people, that they perceive the world through objective eyes, then this ignores the process of socialisation we all grow up through. We have been socialised to have similar expectations to the majority and develop common sense. This is why Jesus’ disciples were so surprised when he says that it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. It wasn’t the Jewish law that was failing, privilege was blinding people to the Way of the kingdom. Our legacy of Christendom and global success mean we inherit the same challenge. We need to unload an impossible (metaphorical) wealth of baggage before we can pass through the narrow gate.

How can this be done?

Superiority

When you reckon yourself to be normal, you seldom worry about thinking yourself as superior to others. If the socialisation you have gone through to define your normal is institutionally biased though, then it doesn’t require active thought to dismiss people as inferior. This venom invisibly permeates society. It clouds people’s perception of those escaping persecution. They start to describe human beings as a swarm, influx, or use other de-humanising language. When someone is called a ned or chav, the poison takes form and the rot in society can be seen. When we call someone a fool we position ourselves as their judge and condemn them. In doing this we also condemn ourselves.

The frustrating thing is that it is in the small everyday things like the word “fool” that the venom spreads. Our body language when someone sits next to us, offhand words over coffee or the ways in which we discuss the news at prayer meetings. Large expressions of islamophobia make the news when a mosque is attacked, but they are the offspring of comments which equate “sharia law” with “terrorist code”, same “sex couple” with “sexual deviants”, or “ned” with “someone who hasn’t valued the education our taxes have paid for”. Our meaty brains also need many positive encounters to heal one shared experience which confirms the negative stereotype. In what ways can we be salt and light and an antidote to the venom?

Saved or Lost?

When the scales fell from the eyes of Saul did his neural networks immediately reconfigure? There are metanoia moments in everyone’s lives, but most of the time we grow and learn slowly. A shift in perspective, exposure to the light, marks when change begins but the process of co-creating with God takes a lifetime. When the gospel is reduced to a saved/unsaved binary state this nuance is lost.

In a similar way the transformation of prejudice takes time. Our hearts and minds can travel at different speeds and although our thinking about an issue might change rationally, how long do you think it would take before a new-born “Paul” would be able to comfortably eat a bacon butty with a migrant woman worker in a shellfish factory?

If we think of a prejudice such as racism as simply being something you are or you aren’t, then obviously nice people are not racist. We excuse small slip ups for many reasons and overlook them. After all, nice people are not complicit with racism. How could they be? When a particular statement or point of view is challenged all our valid feelings of friendship and loyalty are hijacked to defend our character or that of our friends, or congregation. To do otherwise would be to condemn them, and that doesn’t fit with the rest of our experience.

Walking the Way

There is no simple answer, and we will all probably be prejudiced until the day we die. We can however embrace the flaws and chaos of the process. We can stop defending, denying, deflecting and putting our heads in the sand. Not only do we have the power to transform, it is our responsibility to work it out as part of our community. We should not rely on rulers and policy makers. It is the rich and powerful, those who define normal, who can be most afflicted with blindness!

It is not as easy as simply following the rules. To walk the Way means being mindful of the moment and to judge your own mind. If everything is permissible, then we have the harder challenge of working out what is most beneficial and not just what is most beneficial for us.

The cultural baggage we have inherited can become a store of worked examples to be learned from. It might mean following the example of many saints and choosing actual voluntary poverty. It might mean using your wealth to become a mother to a new generation. It might mean standing alongside people who have been defined as illegal, deviant, alien and actively seeking out discomfort when Love commands.

Whatever you do, do it in the company of all who walk the way and seek out those who support you when we confess our failings and seek to restore broken relationships.