Privilege is a problem

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

― Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

I sit on a man's back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible… except by getting off his back.

― Leo Tolstoy, What Then Must We Do?

 

When we identify where our privilege intersects with somebody else's oppression, we'll find our opportunities to make real change.

― Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race

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I have privilege

I have rights

I have protections

I have advantages

 

that are the result of my being white

male

educated

affluent

empowered (by role and title)

 

just call me the Rev. Dr. Father, Sir!

 

The question is not whether I have privilege,

but whether I see it and admit it

 

And what really matters is what I do with it!

 

Jesus, as he walked through the dust of Palestine,

and hung out with the poor and the outcasts,

and challenged the rich and positioned,

said in various ways,

 

if you want to be first you must be last,

if you want to be great you must serve,

if you want to experience the Kingdom in its fullness you must give it away

 

perhaps what Jesus was implying is this

 

you have to use your privilege for others

you have to release your hold on your privileges so that those who are

poor

oppressed

marginalized

minimized

excluded

and worse…

 

can be blessed

can be supported

feed

housed

included

empowered

valued

safe

and more …

 

This is the “stewardship of privilege”  (Stephanie Spellers)

 

Blessing others by giving our privilege away in love

 

One of the great tragedies of the modern “church” is that it has chosen

to use its privilege to protect itself and the status quo.  It has chosen to use its privilege to protect power and accumulate wealth,

 

rather than use privilege to give power and distribute wealth

 

we cannot hug privilege to ourselves

we must give it away

 

This Thanksgiving, I am joyfully aware of all my blessings

All the advantages that I have

 

Some have been given to me

Some I have worked for

 

I am so blessed.  So privileged

 

I am also painfully aware of the fact that I have not done as much as I could,

and that the church has not done as much as it could

to be a blessing to others

 

And so this Thanksgiving I do not simply offer prayers of thanks,

but prayers of repentance.

 

And I pray that the Holy Spirit will break me open and pour me out

so I might not only be blest

but be a blessing.