Spirituality and Privilege

It was aired on NPR sometime on Sunday, but I cannot be sure of the time or the place that I heard it. I think that I was in the car with my wife, Lisa, driving down to Shiloh's 7:00 p.m. worship service on Sunday evening. It may have been after worship, however. I just can't remember.

I remember the comment, though. It was something like this, "The level of vitriolic anger and rhetorical divisiveness in our culture can be traced to one source. It's white power and privilege being stripped of its hegemony."

Wow! The speaker equates all the anger and divisiveness in our culture with whites who sense that they are losing their advantage over others. What had been taken for granted, claimed as a 'natural' position of privilege, is diminishing. As the culture grows more and more accepting of diversity of every sort, the 'natural' advantage of some over others diminishes and, eventually, disappears. The speaker claimed that this direction is frightening to those who have always held the advantage.

The concept is not new. We have seen the tendency throughout history, even during many of our own lifetimes. As cultures change, there are always factions of the population who see the change as a threat to their privileged position. In my own lifetime, I have seen the religious right (of every religion, by the way) respond negatively to the rise of diversity, acceptance and affirmation of those who differ from the privileged class. Theologies of privilege have grown around the fear of lost position, and culture has been demonized for the diminishing advantage of the former privileged class.

The culture in which we live is changing in ways that alter the foundations upon which some have built position and power. Of course, the changes also affect those who had been victimized by the systems under which we have lived. The course of the developing culture seems to be toward acceptance of diverse races, clans, creeds, religions, sizes, looks, practices and lives. If there had ever been a 'normal' person of power and privilege, that position is now no longer safely grounded in any particular description. The hegemony of certain types, kinds, clans, colors, races, origins, sexual preferences, opinions, values or traditions is disappearing.

The NPR speaker noticed that those who had been privileged are reacting with anger, hatred and violence. The sounds mark the death knell of white privilege and the rise of genuine diversity. It seems to me that this is not far afield of something that the spirituality of Christianity could easily embrace. I think of it as something that we might applaud. This is a positive cultural evolution. The vitriolic anger and rhetorical divisiveness call for cultural reversal. Those voices want the old privilege, position and power back.

Cultural evolution will not be deterred, however. This is becoming a diverse culture, wherein all persons are radically equal in nature. There is no more 'natural' advantage. There is no type, kind, clan or ilk that naturally deserved privileged position.

I believe that we could be celebrating this great good news instead of calling persons names, claiming political correctness run amok, diminishing persons for their opinions or values, or rejecting persons out of hand for their social and political stances. Maybe it has been counter to the presence of God's Spirit all along. Maybe culture is leading our spiritual evolution.