White Dominant Culture | Something Else |
Good friends,
Corrections are done on my book, I'm exercising five days a week, fall is finally here in New England. Most importantly, it is raining. Hopefully this Northeaster will bring a great deal of rain because we need the water.
I head off to Denver to see family, but also to teach Spiritual Neighboring. It's a course on spiritual care for people without homes, in prison, people who can't get out of their homes. I'm excited to engage with people who want to go deeper with their neighbors.
-Liz
Written in our hearts
In Jeremiah 31:33 God promises to make a covenant, not by a list of rules, but “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts." Christians often use this text to imply a less rule-bound faith, although that's not really what is says. There are still terms to the covenant, it's just that we know the covenant deep within us.
I love the image. It makes me think of that inner voice, the inner conscience, what I honestly think of as God-within. It guides me without requiring logical argument. Sometimes when I do what is wrong, or when I'm faced with a choice, I have a gut feeling about what to do. There is a feeling inside me about what is right.
It's a beautiful image. And it rings true.
And yet, there is also inside of us, something that isn't so sweet. So much of our instinct is built when we are very young. Some of that instinct comes out later in years of therapy. My husband knows that even a slightly raised voice will make him pull away as if he is hearing yelling. I know that I cover a multitude of unwanted emotions by being angry. In the knowing we can begin to do better.
One thing we learn at a very young age is the role of race in our society. Perhaps for some of you there was explicit teaching, either that black and brown people are bad, or that there is strength in black power, or that racial justice is important topic in church and in the home. But much of racism in the United States is not so much "taught" as "caught". No one tells us to have a particular way, we just have watched it, felt it, and learned it in our bones.
White Dominant Culture label given to the large number of things that we have "caught" from society at large. If we are lucky enough that our parents were resisting this, then we might see some bits of it as it happens, but most of it is unnamed and baked in to our being. The traits of white dominant culture are basically a list of things that are seen as right, true, beautiful, and normal, the opposites of these traits are seen as wrong, false, ugly, and absurd.
But no one says this! They just reward the people who successfully develop the traits, and those who don't are left wondering what they did wrong. White dominant culture affects everyone who grew up in the United States, regardless of their race or culture. The easy to see example is that it is good to raise your hand if you want to speak. The kids in school who raised their hands (and who were quick to know the answer) got praise, recognition, and support in most of our school systems. Those who take longer to consider a question, or who blurt the answer were sometimes reprimanded, but even if not, they are not rewarded.
A systemic designed for helping teachers with many students to keep order has become basic to how we engage in conversation.
In this age when White Christian Nationalism is the foundation for much of what is hurting others we must of course call out those forces. It is important that we differentiate between the christian act of following Jesus and the immigrant-hating, empathy-lacking, strong-man theory offered by nationalism.
But today I am talking about the white dominant culture embedded in our own lives, and in our progressive churches. I'm talking about the white gay priest who won't use expansive language for God. The US flag in the sanctuary. The fear of being open and affirming because some of our neighbors might disagree. The many of us (I'm talking about myself here) who are so anxious that we'll make a mistake when engaging with black and brown people that we end up with mostly white friends.
Some of the things written in our hearts are keeping us from knowing the fullness of God's covenant. The idea that there is only one right answer, the fear of making mistakes, the sense that every problem must be solved right now, paternalistic care of others, these and other ideas are baked into our culture. We don't need to feel guilty about them, but we do need to see them, so that we can let them go. For the most part no one taught us these things, so there is no one to blame for learning them. They are simply part of a culture.
On Thursday I'll delve into more about white dominant culture, and the traits that society has tried to get us to "catch". Some of them we have, and that helps us fit in. Some we do not have and they make us feel outsiders. But all of them are traits we can do differently in order to write God more fully on our hearts.
What's on your heart? Where is God's covenant pulling on you? Reply to this email to let me know what's happening.
Patty Casey's song It All Comes Down is a beautiful song about what really matters in the world. And it's not the buildings!
Robert P. Jones' book on White Christian Nationalism
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