Standing For "the Others"
As a white cis gendered economically blessed American man this statement serves as a steady reminder to count or evaluate my blessings. Not so I can rest in them but to ensure I recognize any advantage as something I must leverage for the benefit of those oppressed or forced to the margins by the majority culture.
Just as Paul challenged the Philippians to have the mind of Christ it is imperative that as a Pastor I challenge people to live in the same way. You can’t get any more majority than being God, the creator of the universe, but astoundingly in Christ we see the ultimate setting aside or leveraging of advantage for the benefit of “the others”.
A casual survey of our social media or newsfeeds alongside what we are witnessing in much of modern day American Christianity reveals a much different vision for the church in America today. We see a vision filled with the idol of Christian nationalism, leading to an unholy theocracy built on a foundation of exclusion of any who are viewed as “the others” among us.
The Gospel I see proclaimed by Christ is the opposite of what we are currently witnessing. When I look to my savior I observe someone who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or attained. I see a savior who laid aside his rights, power, prestige, and comfort to benefit “the others”. This is the model I choose to follow as I live in the messy middle. If I have advantages or rights then my assumption is that these have been entrusted to me solely for the benefit of others above myself.
Living in the messy middle requires that we come to the realization that in America the church is not the persecuted but rather oftentimes acts as the persecutor. When we operate under a false Gospel of power acquisition, greed, & wholesale abuse we fail to see “the others” as value filled dignified masterpieces created by a loving God with a plan for their lives.
Therefore, as a disciple of Christ, a husband, a father, a friend, a Pastor, and an American I boldly stand against the idols of racism, christian nationalism, facism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, misogyny, xenophobia, and greed.
To my fellow American majority culture christians, I believe we stand at a pivotal space in church history where we can once & for all truly follow our Jewish dark skinned sinner loving King from Palestine into the kingdom established by the costly Gospel of hope, grace, love, and inclusion He sacrificially laid His life down to proclaim.
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