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| Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, in Washington, DC. Image source. |
So I had a blog post drafted about Matthew 23. About how the hypocrisy that Jesus calls out sounds very similar to the hypocrisy I've seen in the evangelical church. Me trying and trying and trying to find a church until I just gave up has big "you shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces" vibes.
But I'm not going to publish that post, because, it's too easy. It was easy to write, easy to say all those things, and they've been said before, by me and many other people. It's very easy for me to criticize evangelicals for being on the wrong side of the "culture wars"- for treating people's lives as nothing more than political issues to argue about. And those are all things that absolutely should be said. When you start working your way out of evangelicalism, you need to go through a phase where you say all those things. I have blogged about all those things, A LOT.
But anyway, that's not really what I want to blog about now. I don't want to just talk about the low-hanging fruit of things that are wrong with evangelical culture, that we've all already talked about. I want to talk about the Christianity I believe now.
So anyway, let's look at Matthew 23. You should read the whole thing because it's a rant against religious hypocrites. But specifically I want to talk about one section, Matthew 23:29-32.
29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!
Well... as a white person, reading this... yikes.
For those of us who are white Americans, Jesus invites us to ask, what would I have done, if I had lived back then, in the days of colonialism and slavery and Native American genocide and Jim Crow and the Chinese Exclusion Act and Japanese incarceration and the Civil Rights Movement?
Or, rather, I don't think it's useful to dwell on this hypothetical situation. If you say "uh yeah I probably wouldn't have done much..." then don't spend your time feeling guilty about it- instead, see what you can do now to help. If you say "I would have been a hero" then, okay, but it's just a hypothetical situation- you being a hero in some alternate universe timeline doesn't matter- what about what you're doing now? If you say "oh crap, I would have been on the wrong side"- well, it's good that you figured that out, now examine your ways of thinking and make changes so that you won't do the same evil your ancestors did.
So yeah, this question should push us to take action now, not to feel good or bad about what AlternateUniverse!You would have done.
I kind of have some suggestions about taking action- donate to charity, vote, protest, listen to marginalized people and learn from them, buy their books. It doesn't feel like enough, though, because none of these things require risk or sacrifice. Part of me wants to say we have an obligation to do something that requires risk/sacrifice; at the same time, the idea of "counting the cost" is important to me- the idea of seriously considering the risk and then being free to decide "no, I'm not willing to take that risk." So I'm not sure how it fits together.
But, anyway, here's an important point: It shouldn't be about whether you as a white person feel guilty or not. It shouldn't be about "how can I make sure I'm not seen as racist?" It should be about how you can actually do something that actually makes a difference in the world.
Here's an analogy: Used to be, when I was riding the subway (in Shanghai) and I was sitting in a seat and saw a pregnant woman standing, I would feel like "I should give her my seat" but also feel like "I'm not 100% sure she's pregnant, what if she's not, oh that would be so awkward for everyone." So I figured out a fantastic solution: I can stand up, but then not look at her or say anything to her, so then I don't run the risk of accidentally telling some non-pregnant woman that she looks pregnant. And even if she doesn't get the seat, and someone else does, well, at least I won't be the one in a seat, being immoral by not giving my seat to a pregnant woman.
I thought it was so brilliant.
And then, when I was pregnant... argggh. Yeah there were many times I was on the subway and everyone would just sit in the seats and pretend not to notice that I was standing there pregnant. Or someone would stand up, but then someone else would swoop in and take their seat before I could sit there. It made me realize that this "stand up but don't make it look like you're specifically giving her your seat" strategy doesn't actually help. The only thing it does is make you not feel guilty- because, if you're sitting and a pregnant woman is standing, that's bad and you should feel guilty about that. If you're not even sitting yourself, well, at least no one can blame you for not giving your seat to a pregnant woman. Yeah, then when I was pregnant, I realized it didn't matter whether the people on the subway feel guilty or whatever. If someone thinks they're so moral because they stood up but then didn't ensure that the probably-pregnant woman would get the seat, well, that doesn't help at all.
Kind of like if you move to China so you don't have to feel bad about having white privilege. That doesn't actually help anyone.
(Fact check: Okay that's not really why I moved to China, but it was one of the things I thought about back then.)
It seems to me that a lot of white people are overly concerned about whether someone is trying to make us feel "guilty" for things that happened hundreds of years ago, which obviously are not our fault. Or concerned about being accused of being racist. I think it would help a lot if we stopped being concerned about our feelings or what people think of us, and instead focus on taking action that is actually going to help people. Like what does it matter if you, personally, are meeting the minimum requirements to Not Be A Racist? Does that actually help anyone?
(Hmm, verrrryyyy interesting that white evangelical Christianity is all about if you, personally, are a sinner or not, rather than about taking real action to help people. Sort of sounds like the kind of ideology that one might invent if one wanted to convince people that slavery and segregation are fine...)
If you reassure yourself "If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets" but then you don't actually do anything to bring justice to the world, does that help anyone?
So donate your money, and vote, and listen to marginalized people. And try to do more- try to do something that also requires risk and sacrifice. I can't give a suggestion on that, because it will be different depending on your situation. Do it because it helps people, not because you want to make sure you're not a bad person.
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Related:
Yes, I Want Justice (A post about white evangelicals and #BlackLivesMatter)
Dr. King and What Taking Up the Cross Actually Looks Like
White Privilege and the Rich Young Ruler
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This post is part of a series on the gospel of Matthew.Previous post: Tipping, Fruit, and Jesus (Matthew 22:15-46)
Next post: "For Pregnant Women and Nursing Mothers" (Matthew 24)
Click here to go to the beginning of the series.
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