Generation We

h/t to Alexandra Billings

Privilege

Texts: Philippians 3 and The Gospel of Mary

Paul is working out what it means to have privilege. He knows who he is in his society, what it gains him, and how to use it. He also knows that his privilege is a contrived notion of his religious, political, and civic culture. His Christian belief leads him to the conclusion that all his perceived superiority is bunk - it's meaningless. But he acknowledges it's there and he knows where he fits into the system.

Andrew and Peter seem clueless. They don't get that they are speaking out of their privilege as a men in their culture. They might not realize just what that gains them because unlike Paul, they don't have pedigrees and education and wealth. I'm sure they had many of the things that Paul cites as his own, such as circumcision and being born a Hebrew of Hebrews, but they do not have everything. That doesn't let them off the hook though. Being mindless about where you fit into society and how that works for you is not what Jesus taught. Peter and Andrew seem to believe that Jesus abides by the hierarchy that is in place. That Jesus might have confided in a woman is simply unthinkable. It offends them. It confuses them. And it makes them mad.

Levi gets it, that there is no harm done to him as a man if the Savior confided in Mary and not in him. He speaks up for Mary. He uses his voice as a man to confront another man. He hears the words of Mary, honors them, does not add to them or make excuses for her having them instead of him, and he calls out Peter specifically and Andrew by implication, on their privilege and their oppression.

Mary, although she cried, did not discount what she said. She did not apologize or imply that maybe she hadn't got it right. She seems a little baffled that Peter and Andrew are attacking her relationship with Jesus and the knowledge that she has. She's upset, and she may not be responding as assertively as I wish she was, but she isn't backing down.

Paul is not backing down either. There are people who are cutting him down, lying about him, and doing so, apparently, based on their claims of who they are compared with who he is. Paul cites all the reasons that he could be given more status, or at least equal status, with his challengers, and then he says that all that stuff doesn't really matter. It is easier for a person with privilege to call themselves out and be heard by someone of their same privilege than it is for a person without privilege to call out someone who has privilege. Those of us who have privilege of any kind need to acknowledge what it is and then lay it down like Paul does here, and like Paul said Jesus did. Back in the 2nd chapter of this letter to the Philippians Paul wrote this:

Phil 2:4 - 8 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross.

It is not the responsibility of the oppressed to teach the oppressor that they are being exploited and abused because of privilege. The responsibility usually lands on the oppressed to teach this, but it isn't right. According to Paul, Jesus knew he was "in the form of God" and yet Jesus did not act like God. He sought out solidarity with those who were being oppressed and he chose to fight on their behalf that way. Paul is taking a stab to do the same thing.

I think it's important to look at the difference between the solidarity model of action and the saviour model of action. Jesus is called the Saviour, but his action plan was more that of solidarity. He didn't swoop into a situation, taking away the agency of the person being oppressed and "save" them. He asked the oppressed person what they wanted and he provided what he could. When he stuck up for people that the system was crushing, he did so not by fixing the situation but by revealing the nature of the oppression. Jesus was a really smart guy. I don't know that I can attain to that level of insight or strength. I do know that the way he modeled being a saviour was unlike the way it is usually done.

When it is said that someone has a messiah complex or a saviour complex it means that a person is out to fix everything, using their own power and being willing to destroy themselves in the process. I don't actually think this is what Jesus did. Yes, he died for what he believed and for what he did, but he did so not because he was out to fix everything, but because he was out to reveal what we wrong.

Let's take an account of our privilege, in the spirit of Paul. List all the ways in which you can claim some kind of status. Are you white? Are you a man? Do you have an education? Are you able-bodied? Are you straight? Do you have money?

If you are white, don't not be white, but be white differently. If you are a man, don't not be a man, but be a man differently. If you have an education, don't give up your education, but be educated differently. How can we live differently - mindfully - knowing who we are and where we plug in to the system; not denounce or be ashamed of the advantages that we have, but instead seek solidarity with those we could easily oppress just by the shear fact of some accident of birth.

The privileges that we have here are manufactured. Paul knew that. Jesus knew that. So while the privileges that we experience, even enjoy, are not real on any essential level, they are real in the fundamental working out of our every day lives. By virtue of my white skin I have access to shopping in stores of all kinds, walking alone in parks, and attaining services without a hitch. By virtue of my being female-bodied, most of the time I do not have access to walking alone in a park at night or getting the same pay for the same work as a male-bodied person.

Think about who you are and where you fit in. This is not an exercise for shame or arrogance. This is a way to follow Jesus. Recognizing that I am white and listening to the stories of people of colour help me to be in solidarity with my siblings of colour because I know better what privileges I gain by virtue of my skin and I know more what my siblings are denied by virtue of their skin. This is important.

Too often we don't notice how concerned we are with losing our status. Like Peter we become confounded when someone who is clearly not at our level knows something or can do something that should be ours to know or do. How can we be more like Levi than Peter? How can we be a voice to speak up against those who are fighting for their own status and power?

Levi said, "Peter, you always angry." Levi called out Peter on his anger and his assumptions. He did so without taking away Mary's agency. This is something that is a challenge to learn how to do. It's much more automatic to be ashamed of our privilege, to try to deny it, or to swoop in and save someone who is being ridiculed or hated. It takes more thought to act simply and without an investment in the self. Calling out Peter was a simple act, but a profound one.

As we go through our days we hear people saying all kinds of things and doing all kinds of things. We can learn to listen to the prevalent speech and action patterns of those who have privilege and also learn to listen and believe the words of those who are oppressed in our world. When we do this, we have a better chance of learning how to live in solidarity with our siblings who endure oppression, to notice the systematic way in which we are divided from one another, and the inroads to calling out oppression when we see it. We can be like Levi. It will take thought and compassion, but we can do it.

Ferron Writing Workshop

Over the weekend I went to The Gathering, which is the yearly, well, gathering of the Brethren Mennonite Council for LGBT Interests. I had a great time.

One of the workshop leaders was Ferron. She performed some of her songs for us Friday night and then on Saturday she lead a writing workshop.

I wrote this poem there.

Ghost of the Fire

I watch them make a ring
Sitting on the stones
Laying on each other
Taking off their shoes

I watch them in the ring
Playing their guitars
Singing many songs
Tapping tambourines

I watch them in the ring
Laughing at jokes
Cuddling real close
Whispering secrets

I watch them in the ring
Warmed by the fire
Comforted by the magic
Crackling of the fire

I watch them in the ring
Leaving for their homes
Filled with the night
Walking from the fire

I am alone
Memories of the music
Tingling with their energy
Tending to the fire

I bring the sand
Pouring it on the fire
Noticing the ashes
Causing sparks to fly

I am the one
Summoning the night
Calling forth the dark
Releasing the sacred ghost

I stay behind
Dancing with the smoke
Embrace the sacred ghost
The ghost of the fire

Legacy

The texts: Philippians 2 and the story of the Caterpillar from Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

Last week we read that Paul didn’t care why preachers were preaching about Christ, whether it was from selfish ambition or from a pure heart. This week we read that Paul requests those in the church at Philippi, and by extension us as well, to not do anything from selfish ambition. Neither should we do things from conceit. Paul teaches that we also shouldn’t murmur or argue. This description of having a good attitude and maintaining harmonious relationships with each other Paul summarizes as “holding fast to the word of life.” This legacy that he leaves will enable him to boast on the day of Christ that he did not run or labor in vain. Even though this legacy is what is causing him to be imprisoned, he says it is what makes him rejoice.

October is Queer History month. October wasn’t always a month to commemorate the history of queer people in the United States. It was established in the early 1990’s, in part due to October 11th already being Coming Out Day. Coming Out Day was instituted in 1989. What preceded all of this, though, were the Stonewall Riots and a gay rights movement led in many ways by Sylvia Rivera. Ms. Rivera was a genderqueer drag queen who threw one of the first bottles at the cops who were invading their sanctuary, a bar called the Stonewall Inn. Sylvia suffered for the freedom of queers, especially the youth.

Paul and Sylvia – an unlikely combination to some, but a natural one for me - both helped to spearhead a movement of rag-tag people trying to figure out the best way to live life. Both were ridiculed by people both in the movement and outside of the movement. We are the legacy of both these pioneers. How we handle ourselves now reflects on the work they did then. What we do today leaves a legacy for those who follow us.

Sylvia and Paul both knew that people had to change. The people they were speaking to had to change from being weak to being strong and they had to change from being selfish to being selfless. I struggle with how to talk about how we can be meek and not weak. I know that we need to be self assertive and not selfish. I believe we need to put others first while we make sure to take care of ourselves. The revolutions that Sylvia and Paul were leading required people to walk this line. Knowing who you were was the only way to be able to truly put others first.

Jesus knew who he was. He took care of himself by stealing away to the mountains to pray so that when the throng pressed he could be strong. When he didn’t have an answer to a question, he would say he didn’t know. He was grounded in his faith and in the reality of who he was and in his mission. People called him King, but he knew his title, whatever it was that they decided to call him on any given day, did not and could not dictate the choices he made or the way he moved through the world. If he was a King, it was not as the world understood Kingship. If he was a bringer of Peace, it was not as the world knew peace. He was reconstructing ideals and expectations.

This is the legacy that Jesus left Paul. Paul taught this radical restructuring to the Philippians. Sylvia taught her radical restructuring of what it meant to be a queer person of value to the homeless queer youth in New York City. She was, by most accounts, considered to be a freak. She was not defined by the heterosexist society outside or inside of her sub-culture. Paul and Sylvia wanted to see change. They left us a legacy of walking in the tension between being confident in themselves and what they knew to be true, and giving all they had for the sake of the radical restructuring they knew needed to happen.

Change is hard. Depending on what the change is – how extreme or in what aspect of our being – we might believe, like Alice, that we don’t even know who we are anymore. The Caterpillar asks Alice, “So you think you’ve changed, do you?” She replies, “I’m afraid I am, Sir.” But there is change and there is change. The change that Alice was experiencing, or at least what she was describing to Caterpillar, was not convincing him that she was undergoing true change.

Alice feels like she’s changed so much that she doesn’t know who she is anymore. Caterpillar is suggesting that she hasn’t really changed at all. Each of them has a different definition of change. Both of them are influenced by what change has been and meant in their past. I don’t think we have the right to decide for someone else if their change is true change, however, sometimes an objective opinion is helpful when we are looking at ourselves. Regardless of what Caterpillar thinks, Alice doesn’t feel like she knows herself anymore. She has become very large and very small over and over, and when she tries to recite stories that she knows well, the words are changed and unfamiliar to her. The legacy that she knew to be hers was altering. The stories that she knew were changing. Her perspective of the world changes with her size. All that she expected, because of what she had previously known, she could not count on anymore.

Paul, I believe, is asking us to participate in a similar shift of expectations. He instructs the Philippians to not give up their joy because it results in his imprisonment, but rather to maintain their joy so that his imprisonment is not in vain. Sylvia Rivera might have played the social game better and become a charismatic leader with an influential following. But for her, true change was not buying into a system for the sake of rising higher in ego or status. She wanted to see people free to be who they really are, regardless of how they would be accepted – regardless of who the mainstream of society or even a movement wants people to be.

Alice learned how to be Alice in the world of Wonderland. Paul learned how to be Paul and Sylvia learned how to be Sylvia. Sometimes in order for us to grapple with our future, we need to look at our legacy – the one left to us and the one we are leaving for others. I think change itself is one of our most prominent legacies, both in our faith walk and in our queer social rights movement. Change in the form of evolving.

Plus, we are in a world that has a value system much different than ours. We need to constantly be evolving away from assimilating into that system and remember who we are and what we value. Paul is concerned that the Philippians will be influenced by those preaching Christ for the sake of seeking their own self interests. As much as he says he is glad that Christ is preached regardless of motive, he clearly doesn’t plan on sending these folks to minister to his flock. He is very particular about who he sends while he is away. Timothy, he says, is the only one left who he can trust to send. But then he mentions Epaphroditus, who he also trusts. Paul sometimes is given to a bit of hyperbole. The point is, though, that he doesn’t trust the legacy he is leaving to just anyone. Paul may also have a control issue. I don’t know how tight of a grip we should have on these kinds of things. I think being mindful of our legacy, the one we’ve received and the one that we are leaving, is crucial. I don’t believe in micro-managing. I think that we need to allow people to have agency and to listen with their own critical ears.

I was reading a piece from the American Baptist Church, USA’s website. It is called: 10 Facts You Should Know About American Baptists. Point number 4 is this:

American Baptists believe that the committed individual Christian can and should approach God directly, and that individual gifts of ministry should be shared. American Baptists hold that all who truly seek God are both competent and called to develop in that relationship. They have rejected creeds or other statements that might compromise each believer’s obligation to interpret Scripture under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and within the community of faith. American Baptists also celebrate the special gifts of all believers, testifying that God can use each of us in ministry.

I want to highlight two of these sentences. The first is: “American Baptists hold that all who truly seek God are both competent and called to develop in that relationship.” The second is: “American Baptists also celebrate the special gifts of all believers, testifying that God can use each of us in ministry.” I believe this. This is a part of the legacy that we are to live into. Paul speaks to this ideal often when he talks in his letters. Jesus sent his disciples out often and expected them to be competent in their ministry.

We don’t have to have any more of a special anointing or calling to share our special gifts and to cultivate our own relationship with our Divine Beloved, than the anointing of being made in the image of our Creator and the calling of our hearts to participate in community.

Paul and Sylvia did not wait to be perfect before they began their work. The truth is, most of the time we are all like Alice, not knowing who we are because we are changing so much, but we will not stay there. We must remember our legacy, and that part of our legacy is to go through these evolutions – to go through these changes. Let us be mindful of who we are, who we think we are, and who we are to become. This is our journey – our calling. We are to walk the line of being strong and being meek; of being confident and being other-centered. We need to be mindful of our needs, our weaknesses and our strengths as we “work out our own salvation,” so that we can be free to share everything that we have. This is our legacy.

Concern for Queer Homeless Youth

Recently I wrote/preached about an idea to start a garden as a way to engage queer homeless youth in Chicago. Today I came across Coffee and Gender's, Thursday, 09-25-08 post, Support the Memoirs of Homeless Queer Youth

If you are concerned about youth queer homelessness, please read the post, watch the videos (they are each less than 2 minutes), and check out the website http://kickedoutanthology.com/.

Thanks Mike, for posting this.