God's Affirmative Action

“In a fractured decision that revealed deep divisions over what role the judiciary should play in protecting racial and ethnic minorities, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a Michigan constitutional amendment that bans affirmative action in admissions to the state’s public universities.”   --- N.Y. Times April 22, 2014

“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us . . .” --- Paul to the Romans 5:8

God believes in affirmative action.  This is a theological truth before it is public policy.  But because it is a theological truth it eventually has political consequences.  The whole purpose of being a God-person/Christian is to try to the best of our ability to imitate the things that God does. 

The Biblical narrative is the story of God taking affirmative action on behalf of God’s people.  God chooses Israel, not because they were a great nation and had proven themselves worthy, but because God loved them, simple as that (Deuteronomy 7:7-8).  God’s choice is an affirmative action, unrelated to merit.  The same is true in God’s incarnation in Jesus Christ, extending God’s affirmative action to all the nations, “God so loved the world . . .” (John 3:16).  And so, Paul is able to make the most concise statement about God’s affirmative action, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  Regardless of our credentials, or lack of them, we have been chosen by God.  God has acted affirmatively toward us.

In public policy, affirmative action seeks to do what God does, to choose someone regardless of accepted standards.  There are indications that “accepted standards” are not race- or culture-neutral so that affirmative action is an artificial but necessary means of providing more opportunity for some in our society who have been denied such opportunity because the weight of historical prejudice has been their burden to carry.

So much of the opportunities I have had in my life have been mine simply because I was white and born to highly-educated parents.  I could easily claim that I have worked for everything I have achieved; but by virtue of my birth I was given a preferential option, an automatic “leg up” according to societal standards.  In a sense, because of my whiteness, society was offering me an affirmative action, a preferential position that had nothing to do with what I merited.  This preferential position gave me opportunities that my more ethnically diverse fellow citizens do not enjoy.  When schools are required by law to correct this cultural bias by offering a preferential option for ethnic diversity, this seems like a valuable counter-balance to the entrenched and systemic racism that continues to be a part of our society.

If affirmative action seems inequitable, it does so only if we believe our society is a pure meritocracy, which it is not.  We are born with great differences in opportunity.  Affirmative action as public policy is one means of expanding those opportunities to a wider spectrum of people.  Such preferential options might be among the more god-like things we humans might do.

God Does Not Lie

I guess she took exception to my article last week.  She was respectful, but her message on my answering machine can be summed up in these words, “God does not lie.”  I take it that she thought I was suggesting otherwise.  She must have misunderstood me.  What I had actually written was that our understanding of the Bible is not made clear by authoritative pronouncements but by respectful dialogue.  In a local church that means a Wednesday evening Bible study is more enlightening the more people feel free to express their own interpretations.  And interpretation of scripture that takes place ecumenically is probably more wholesome and closer to the truth than any one denomination can claim on its own.  In other words, the church together arrives at Biblical truth much better than any one of us does alone.

Still, the Bible does speak to individuals.  It was through my own reading of the Bible that I became convinced of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Word that became flesh.  Yet, I was helped along in my understanding of Jesus by other books I read, along with conversations with my father.  The Bible gained clarity as I listened to the opinions of others.

Opinions vary, for sure.  And there is no end to the varieties of Biblical interpretation on the World Wide Web.  Sometimes I grieve how much error there is floating around in cyberspace.  Of course, error is in the eye of the beholder.  By and large I agree with the Pope who is reported to have said that the internet is a gift from God.

While there are differences of opinion on how to interpret the Bible I am amazed at the amount of consensus there is regarding its basic message.  For all the extremes on either end of the interpretative spectrum most Christians agree on the essentials – God loves the creation enough to send us Jesus Christ to show us the way of salvation and continues abiding with us through God’s Spirit.  John 3:16 comes to mind.  I am also reminded of something my father said to me when my faith was in its infancy, “It’s not the parts of the Bible that I don’t understand that bother me; it’s the parts that I do understand.”

For all our difficulty in interpretation, the Bible is nevertheless clear enough for us to know when we are missing the mark (“Turn the other cheek.”).  And clear enough to give comfort to the troubled mind (“The Lord is my shepherd . . .”).

Fred Craddock is a famous preacher who taught preaching at the Candler School of Theology for many years.  He tells the story of coming into his office to discover his granddaughter with his Bible in her hands, holding it upside down and singing, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

She may have had the Bible upside down.  But she had it right.

My caller last week was right.  God does not lie.

Unconditional

          What sets Jesus apart from the rest of humanity was his capacity to love unconditionally.  This is (along with some additional points), indeed, why we Christians say he was the Son of God.  Jesus loved in a way the rest of us only occasionally do, thus there was something fundamentally different about him --- he was Other than we are. 

He had compassion for the crowds.  He showed kindness to the prostitute.  He offered hospitality to the tax collector as well as the poor.  He showed no favoritism among those of different social strata.  He loved all equally, and fully, with no conditions, no strings attached.  Even as he was crucified he loved them all – loved us all – pronouncing no curses on his persecutors.

          One caveat here:  Jesus did reserve some choice words of judgment for folks who were self-righteously religious.  The 23^rd Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel offers us a stark picture of Jesus as one who could not condone the hypocrisy of the overly-religious Pharisees of his own day.  He was appalled at the way they made their religion not a joy but a burden on the people.  I suspect Jesus was upset because these semi-professional religious folks were implying that God’s love was conditional.  One telling quote is verse 15, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”

          My colleague, Rich Irwin, once said to me that he keeps that verse handy as a reminder that his ministry to people is not to trip them up in have-to’s, ought-to’s, and musts, but to release them for joyful living. 

          As a pastor I must remind myself daily to love people for who they are, not for what they can do for me, or even for what they can do for the church.  That we are loved unconditionally, as Jesus loved, is at the heart of the Christian message, and to love in that way is the essence of Christian discipleship.  Everything else is just decoration.

          Obedience to certain principles of morality and ethics is helpful, of course, but I believe we find our true, authentic selves, not by following principles (no matter how high-sounding), but by responding to being loved unconditionally. 

          Theologian Douglas Adams likens it to his experience of his grandparents.  Parents expect their children to toe the line, to follow the rules, which is all well and good.  But when children fail to measure up, as happens to all of us, grandparents will take them in their arms and love them in spite of their shortcomings.  And when any of us are loved in this way it sets us free to be our best selves.  When we believe there is nothing we can do that will prevent us from being loved, then we are liberated to attempt living at its best, and fullest. 

          God loves, unconditionally, every one of us.  That is the message that Jesus incarnates.  There is nothing we can do to make God love us more than God already does, AND there is nothing we can do to make God love us any less.  Go, therefore, and live . . . and love.  That’s why God made you.  This is the way Jesus saves you.