Readings for today: 1 Kings 15:1-24, 2 Chronicles 13-16
There is quite a bit of conversation in our culture today about privilege. Fundamentally, it rests on the premise that we bear some kind of responsibility for the actions of past generations. For Americans, this is a tough pill to swallow. We are hyper-individualists. We do not believe we should be held accountable for something someone else has done. We especially believe we shouldn’t be held responsible for the mistakes of our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents, etc. We even turn to the Bible to back up our claim. “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die…The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” (Ezekiel 18:4, 20) And I certainly affirm this is true. We are responsible - each one of us - for our own choices in life. At the same time, we must listen to the whole counsel of God which clearly teaches that generational sin is also a reality. “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7)
Think about what we read today. Abijam takes over as king after Rehoboam dies. For three years he reigns in Jerusalem. He walks in all the sins of his father and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord. Of course, not everything he does is bad. The Chronicler paints a bit of a different picture for us. The high point of Abijam’s reign was a great victory over Israel that came about because he trusted in the Lord. But in the final analysis, Abijam is weighed and found wanting. “Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah. He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. And he walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father. Nevertheless, for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him, and establishing Jerusalem, because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” (1 Kings 15:1-5) Now if Ezekiel 18 were the only dynamic in play, Abijam would rightfully be judged for his sin and his family deposed. No son to sit on the throne. No lamp in Jerusalem. A new line would begin. But Abijam is the beneficiary of what one could call “Davidic privilege.” God choosing to overlook his sin because of His great love for David.
White privilege works similarly but in the opposite way. Whereas Abijam benefits from the righteousness of his great-grandfather, we who are white (especially men) benefit from the unrighteousness of our forefathers. The historical facts are clear. The founders of our country - even going back to the first white colonists in Jamestown - clearly set up a system to benefit wealthy, white, land-owning men. These were the only people eligible to vote. The only ones eligible to hold public office. They were the shapers of public policy. Even the phrase - “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal” - was on the face of it untrue. Those who penned those words did NOT believe such equality should extend to Native Americans or the African slaves they owned. The result was generations of systematic discrimination and oppression towards those of a different color. At the same time, our nation was in its ascendency. Wealth and resources and power and influence was being created at an astronomical rate. But again, only for those who had access. (Read: White, land-owning men) Yes, a civil war was fought and many white men gave their lives to end slavery but that didn’t mean the end to oppression or racism. See this excellent video by Phil Vischer - aka “Bob the Tomato” from VeggieTales - for more information. The point of all of this is that those of us who were born white were born into a system specifically designed for our advantage. Yes, that system has changed over the years. Yes, attempts like Affirmative Action and others have leveled the playing field to a certain extent. But the efforts have fallen too far short. There is still so far to go. The fight for justice and equality is an ongoing, generational one.
So what do we do? Should we be ashamed of the color of our skin? No. Should we feel a sense of shame over the world our forefathers created? Yes. Should we acknowledge it as a broken and sinful system and seek to dismantle it or reform it or align it with God’s justice and righteousness? Absolutely. Should we judge our ancestors harshly? Not so much. Like Abijam, each of them was a complex individual capable of great good and great evil just like every one of us. The historical context in which they lived was far different than the one we currently live in. And we should be humble enough to recognize that a hundred years from now, future generations will look back and judge us for our own blindness. Ultimately, equal access, equal opportunity, and equal treatment under the law are aspirations that will only become reality in the Kingdom of God which is why the mission to proclaim the gospel to the nations is so urgent! Only when we bow the knee and cast our privilege before the throne of King Jesus will true freedom, true justice, and true peace appear.
Readings for tomorrow: 1 Kings 15:25-16:34, 2 Chronicles 17