"Sit Back and Listen"

I want to tell you about a friend of mine. At least, I hope she’s a friend. I would like to think of her as a friend, but I suppose maybe she’s more of a friend of friends?

Social relationships as adults are weird.

Anyhow, whatever she is, I am very inspired by her. She speaks her mind and is unafraid to champion things that are important to her. The first time I met her, we were in a meeting together with the staff and volunteer coordinators from the shelter where I worked. I don’t remember what the issue was that everyone was discussing, but I remember her, interjecting into the conversation, and saying, "Okay, all the white people now need to sit back, be quiet, and just listen."

It was brash, and I could tell a few people were annoyed. I was surprised more than anything, but when I thought about it later, I admired her for it. After all, how many times have white people done the same to communities of color? How many times have we told people different from us to sit back? To be quiet and listen. Because we knew best.

She wasn't wrong. Sometimes we do need to sit back, be quiet, and just listen.

Again, I don't remember the exact context, but I know she spoke from her own lived experience as a Latinx woman. Every time she speaks, it seems, I learn something. As mentioned, I am a White person, so I don't know what it's like to be anything else. I can learn about but not truly understand the historical trauma that many of our BIPOC* communities have experienced in this country, not to mention the racism and marginalization that still exists today.

More recently, I was in a training where we were discussing why it was so hard to bring about societal change. In particular, why it was hard to make changes to policies and systems that are harmful. One gentleman in the group commented, "Well, we have to remember that the system we have now has worked for a lot of people for a long time." And the responding comment was, "Because it was designed to."

Our systems, our government, our country even, was founded upon, built upon, created for white, straight, primarily Christian, men of influence. And that system still works for them the majority of the time. Did you know that 90% of the Fortune 500 CEOs are white men? Or that 89% of Forbes List of Top 100 Billionaires are white men? Or that white people, all genders, in this country, have 86% of our countries' wealth while only making up 60% of the population?

If the major stakeholders, the people of power and influence, of wealth and decision-making, are operating in a system that benefits them, well, it should not be surprising then that they are not motivated to change the things that don’t work for everyone else.

One could argue that many of our churches, historically at least, were also created for white believers. Diversity in churches has increased over the past twenty to thirty years, but many denominations are still predominantly white. In a previous post I mentioned how women are underrepresented in the pulpit, but people of color are also underrepresented. According to a 2020 study, an average of 70% of pastors across Christian denominations are White. The same study notes that only 16% of faith communities across denominations can be considered truly diverse.

Could it be because we aren't listening to the diverse communities around us?

President Biden spoke recently and stated that the biggest threat to our democracy in America today was the MAGA far-right extremists. I saw a responding article, which stated that actually, the biggest threat to American democracy presently is not the far-right extremists, but rather that we are tilting towards a plutocracy.

To be honest, I had never even heard that word before. But it was defined in the article as a government by and for the wealthy. A government that by and large benefits only a small select few at the expense of the rest. And in our country, that select few are predominantly white men.

 The poor are getting poor while the rich are getting richer. The middle-class is disappearing. This ideal of the American dream where anyone can become a self-made man, anyone can become a millionaire and be successful if they just try hard enough and work hard enough . . .  it’s just not true. They’re merely lies to keep people working themselves to death while lining the pockets of those on top.

These wealthy few, the primarily white, straight men, play the religion card when it suits them. When it wins them votes or people on their side. When it has the influence that they need. Now obviously, I know nobody knows anyone’s heart, except God. But I don’t see anything in the Bible about hoarding wealth.

In fact, I see the opposite. I think about the parable Jesus told about the man who wanted to build a bigger storage silo for his so many corps coming in... and then he died, and was chastised for not building up treasures in Heaven, instead. Jesus' challenge about how we can’t serve both God and money also comes to mind.

Or, to go back further, the story of how God orchestrated Joseph in Egypt so that he could help them stock up when times were plentiful so that they would have enough when the famine came. The most striking thing about this story is that the Pharoah didn't keep all that extra to himself. Not even to himself and his family or close buddies. Not even to himself and the Egyptians. He willingly shared that extra with everyone.

Isn't that amazing? That a wealthy non-believer, who had all the power and influence in the known world, would share of his abundance to help all people in need, regardless of citizenship, regardless of race or ethnicity or culture, regardless of color, regardless of religion, . . . regardless.

Huh.

Back to the point, how can we as a church respond to the unjust and unequitable system we live in? I think it starts with listening to the voices of those who are cheated and harmed by the system - to our BIPOC communities and others who are marginalized. Here is another thing I learned from my friend - we should not say, "be the voice of the voiceless", because they are not voiceless. No one is voiceless. Rather, we need to listen to their voices. We need to create spaces and opportunities where their voices are heard. We need to create spaces and opportunities for their voices to be amplified, supported, valued.

One thing I have often said is that if you’re part of group that's planning services or interventions for a certain community, but no one from that community is in that circle of planners, you are going to do it wrong. Punto final. There is no way you will get it right because we do not know better than the communities themselves.

If we as a church want to be more relevant to the communities around us, if we want to meet the needs of the communities around us, and if we want to be involved in challenging the system that harms so many of the communities around us - then I think it's pretty clear:

We need to sit back, be quiet, and listen.

*BIPOC = Black, Indigenous, People of Color