Introduction

This week, we read Ch 1 “Understanding Privilege and Its Power” from Subversive Witness: Scripture's Call to Leverage Privilege. While we have no power over the forces that made us who we are, we do have the power to do something with the privilege that has been given to us (Gilliard 19).

Understanding Privilege

According to Gilliard, different contexts stack privilege differently:

Privilege comes in many forms, and not every manifestation holds the same social currency. In the United States, race, gender, citizenship, class, education, sexual orientation, and able-bodiedness have been the chief expressions of privilege, with race, gender, citizenship, and class historically holding the most weight. Privilege is also stackable, meaning a person can possess multiple privileges at once. For example, initially only free, landowning, white men could be US citizens. Individuals who possessed five privileges—status (freedom), class, race, gender, and citizenship—were politically valued and socioeconomically subsidized over and against all others. That means that from its inception the US gave wealthy white men access to property, power, resources, and wealth that all other people were denied for nearly 144 years (Gilliard 6).

In the contexts where you grew up, or where you currently live, what privileges are valued? Were these privileges given by God or by society?

Sin corrupts privilege such that some people are more protected than others:

Privilege connected to embodiment how our bodies are constructed--race, gender, health, and more) slowly but surely negates the fundamental biblical truth that we all are made equally in the image of God. It therefore subtly creates a sliding scale of humanity, where some lives are respected, protected, and valued over and against others. Privilege is the offspring of hardened hearts and unrepentant spirits. It shrewdly sustains and frequently expands systemic injustice, social inequities, and targeted oppression. Privilege is not just something certain individuals are endowed with; it also becomes institutionalized, perverting a society's customs, education, laws, and practices (Gilliard 9).

What might be the difference between a “blessing” and a “privilege”?

“Having privilege is not a sin, though sin has perverted our systems and structures in ways that engender sinful disparities” (Gilliard 14). Do you see how sin has lifted up some people over other people in our society?

Gilliard concludes with this challenge:

While we often do not commit the sins that induce privilege, we are responsible for mending the wounds these transgressions continue to cause. We cannot passively benefit from sin and faithfully follow Jesus (Gilliard 19).

Do you feel conviction over this, or guilt? What is the difference?