Incarnation: A Reflection on Advent in Three Parts, II – Cynthia Holder Rich

I finished yesterday with this question (read the entire post here).

“How can we white people come to care as much about the survival of others in ways that feckless white people in many, many places have received care?”

The answer is not “Being Nice”

First, I must note that I am not speaking of “being nice”, which is something of a cardinal value for Midwestern white Americans.  There are subsets – Minnesota nice, for example – but all the “nice” archetypes have some things in common.  To be nice, to be understood as being nice, is to conform to societal expectations. Being nice has risen to the level of what many US youth and young adults understand as Christian belief.  Christian Smith and Kenda Creasy Dean, among others, have shown in research that American teens equate Christianity with “moralistic, therapeutic deism” – a more complex way of saying “being nice”. Christians are understood, first and foremost, as people who are “nice” in this way of thinking. Research has shown this predilection among American teens from Christian homes – and I suspect that many Christian adults would bend this way in their beliefs as well. So I need to emphasize that this is not what I am advocating.

Further, as Tim Wise has recently shared, niceness is just plain ineffective in moving a society – or a faith community – toward the justice to which Jesus calls.  Being nice does not mean that you comprehend what is going on or the forces that made things happen. One can be nice and not understand – or take the time to learn – that as research for the CNN documentary Black and Blue showed, there are policy decisions and police practices at work that build mistrust of the police among black and brown people, particularly males.  “Stop and frisk”, a policy of the New York City Police Department since 2002, has been hailed by city leaders for reducing crime. The reduction of crime is something many “nice” people would undoubtedly support. Study of the practice showed, however, that of the 5 million people stopped from 2002-2012, 83% of them were black or brown, and a full 90% of these stops of black and brown people did not lead to an arrest – or even to a summons. That is, 90% of the black and brown people stopped were doing nothing, and the police stopped them and frisked them.  People interviewed for the documentary included a college student who had been stopped 100 times – and had never been arrested, had no record, had good grades, and came from a “good home”. He was stopped in front of his home, in front of his college, in front of his classmates and professors.  That does not fit anyone’s definition of “nice” – nor of effective police practice, if the goal is to reduce crime. White people being nice will not have the power, or equip us with the power, to confront injustice at this level.

Finally, being nice cannot relate coherently with the theological truth of incarnation – the seeing of Jesus and the image of God in others sufficiently to care about their survival and welfare as we care for our own.

So if “being nice” isn’t it – how can we move toward change?

Recognition

Incarnation is a matter of identity – the identity of Jesus and the identity of humankind created by God. The question of who we are before God and who we are in relationship to each other – these are questions of our incarnational identity.  And these are wrapped up in our awareness, our capacity for seeing and finding that incarnation in those around us. Christians of like backgrounds and life experiences often struggle to see Jesus in one another. How in the world can we begin to clear our vision adequately to see Christ in the other?

Archbishop Tutu, when asked how he could be optimistic, said he was not an optimist – he was hopeful. The source of our hope is God. Through grace, all things are possible – including the transformation of hearts, minds, and vision. We who have struggled to see Christ in the other can turn to God for help, for an advent of new understanding and changed perception.

Truth-telling

Racism continues, in the society and the church. Because so much energy has been expended to deny this, seeing Jesus in the other is a prerequisite for coming to grips with the truth of racism and its impact on daily life and the church’s ministry.

Racism is sufficiently real, its impacts sufficiently well-known, that the trajectory after violence occurs to people of color has become predictable and routinized. Truth has theological weight and meaning. The inability to see truth as true is a sign of the power of sin in our lives. When we sin, the truth is not in us and we cannot see it as true (I John 1). We must open ourselves to the truth that racism continues.

Part of the truth we as white Christians must acknowledge and tell is about privilege. Privilege is hard to see because it feels normal to us – the privilege in which we live feels like the way everyone gets to live.  It feels normal.  Peggy McIntosh, who pioneered the concept, rightly called privilege “invisible”.  Continuing the theme of seeing, of vision, we must bring the invisible into the visible spectrum.  We must struggle, wrestle, and ponder deeply, with others, with ourselves, with God the truth of privilege, what it means, and how it harms us and those around us.

Tomorrow, I will share practical strategies and resources for those who seek to see more clearly, so to honor the image of God within.

Cynthia Holder Rich serves as the Sr. Pastor and Head of Staff of First Presbyterian Church, Findlay, OH, and as Director of ecclesio.com.