the new slavery to sin: "whiteness"
From a recent discussion ("whiteness" here, I learned, refers to a socially constructed white racial identity utilized in the systemic oppression of those considered "non-white"):
It sounds to me that
the usage of the term "whiteness" is still being connected with
something innate, unchosen and effectively unchangeable, rather than
just an ideology or institution which can be renounced.
For example, you say "Saying 'I have white privilege' is very much a matter of confessing before God and Neighbor our complicity in a system of violence and committing our lives to challenging that system." But white privilege, as I understand it, is an aspect of our society, something we are born into and which we cannot significantly change (at least not in any immediate way, and perhaps not in our lifetime). You suggest we can confess our complicity, but nevertheless white privilege will remain for now, and we will remain white in this society, benefiting from white privilege, unable to remove ourselves from this "structural sin." Or is that mistaken?
I hear Jesus calling us not just to continual repentance (of a sin we cannot get free from), but to actual freedom from sin. And not just in some far distant future, either. It seems to me that the ideology of "structural sin" (and the guilt that necessarily accompanies it) diverges significantly from Jesus' preaching about sin and the real freedom he offers.
How is this "freedom in Christ" experienced in lived reality? You speak of resisting oppressive systems, and I agree that may indeed be a manifestation of freedom in Christ. But despite these efforts, white privilege will continue for some time in our society, and we will continue to benefit from it (by "virtue" of being white). So does that continue to make us complicit? Part of the oppressive "whiteness" as long as it exists? As you put it, "We can never stop being white so long as white privilege exists."
Must we just continue to confess this "structural sin," or is there the possibility, now, of being delivered from it in any real way?
From what I hear you (and others) saying, the answer is unavoidably no. Though perhaps we can experience "hints" of freedom? That doesn't sound like the good news of Jesus' preaching to me. Or his lived example, and he lived as a Jewish male, privileged in a society that oppressed women and Samaritans.
I like much of what you say about the reign of God. I just think you're denying the present reality of God's reign with the ideology of "structural sin" that you also seem to be preaching.
I'm not challenging the ideology of "structural sin" because it is abstract or impractical, quite the opposite. I've seen what it does to my friends that believe it. A guilt that is continually imposed on us by a structure that we did not create and did not choose and cannot change and cannot escape, that's quite something to deal with.
It may inspire activism (with the limited and piecemeal freedoms that the political struggle can achieve) but it does so by denying the present and complete freedom that Jesus offers us. How can we ever be set free from an ongoing "sin" that we don't intend or commit? Guilt can inspire a lot of practical action, but that's not the same as the truly free action inspired by love.
For example, you say "Saying 'I have white privilege' is very much a matter of confessing before God and Neighbor our complicity in a system of violence and committing our lives to challenging that system." But white privilege, as I understand it, is an aspect of our society, something we are born into and which we cannot significantly change (at least not in any immediate way, and perhaps not in our lifetime). You suggest we can confess our complicity, but nevertheless white privilege will remain for now, and we will remain white in this society, benefiting from white privilege, unable to remove ourselves from this "structural sin." Or is that mistaken?
I hear Jesus calling us not just to continual repentance (of a sin we cannot get free from), but to actual freedom from sin. And not just in some far distant future, either. It seems to me that the ideology of "structural sin" (and the guilt that necessarily accompanies it) diverges significantly from Jesus' preaching about sin and the real freedom he offers.
How is this "freedom in Christ" experienced in lived reality? You speak of resisting oppressive systems, and I agree that may indeed be a manifestation of freedom in Christ. But despite these efforts, white privilege will continue for some time in our society, and we will continue to benefit from it (by "virtue" of being white). So does that continue to make us complicit? Part of the oppressive "whiteness" as long as it exists? As you put it, "We can never stop being white so long as white privilege exists."
Must we just continue to confess this "structural sin," or is there the possibility, now, of being delivered from it in any real way?
From what I hear you (and others) saying, the answer is unavoidably no. Though perhaps we can experience "hints" of freedom? That doesn't sound like the good news of Jesus' preaching to me. Or his lived example, and he lived as a Jewish male, privileged in a society that oppressed women and Samaritans.
I like much of what you say about the reign of God. I just think you're denying the present reality of God's reign with the ideology of "structural sin" that you also seem to be preaching.
I'm not challenging the ideology of "structural sin" because it is abstract or impractical, quite the opposite. I've seen what it does to my friends that believe it. A guilt that is continually imposed on us by a structure that we did not create and did not choose and cannot change and cannot escape, that's quite something to deal with.
It may inspire activism (with the limited and piecemeal freedoms that the political struggle can achieve) but it does so by denying the present and complete freedom that Jesus offers us. How can we ever be set free from an ongoing "sin" that we don't intend or commit? Guilt can inspire a lot of practical action, but that's not the same as the truly free action inspired by love.
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