Because sometimes even Leviticus catches up with me…
True story, y’all, this is me reading the daily office:
Leviticus 19:9-10, “When
you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your
field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest.
You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of
your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord
your God” (NRSV).
“YES! GO GOD! STICK IT TO’EM (whoever ‘em is)!!!”
Also me, still reading:
Leviticus 19:15, “You
shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or
defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor” (NRSV).
“WAIT! WHAT?”
And to be fair, I started saying that about halfway through
these words.
It is not difficult for me to over-correct, and to be
completely honest, I think we need
to. However, I am cautioned, today,
about the importance of loving even those who are privileged, in ways that are
just. The truth is, most the time I don’t
want to do this. It’s weighing
particularly heavily on me right now, because I had an encounter a few days
back that made me frustrated and furious to the point of tears… in public… and
of course that just made me even more frustrated and furious, because I don’t
do that ugly crying in front of people I don’t even know thing.
Every personality profile, temperament indicator, etc. in
which a person can participate indicates that I am an advocate by nature. Most of the time, I won’t fight for myself,
but if you even think about offending, insulting, abusing, neglecting, or
harming a weaker person in my presence, I will fight harder than anyone, and I
will not stop until I win. Unless I can’t
win. And then I will break down and
cry. Because I cry when I’m angry.
Unjust practices aimed at the marginalized make me
angry! I think they should. You can disagree if you want, but then I’ll
probably start crying. Vicious cycle.
Unjust practices aimed at the elite (or even advantaged) are
not as hard for me to accept. And, oh
crap, that might be a problem!
So I think we have to define what truly just practices look
like. I think after centuries of racism,
sexism, classism, all the isms, there
is a place for over-correction, but I sometimes fear we will create new groups
of marginalized people as we do this.
For example, as much as I want to smash the patriarchy, I don’t want to
lose the legitimate important insights that are available to us from the work
of ethical, educated, middle-aged, white guys who live in the suburbs. There goes my readership…
But seriously, how do we level the playing field without obliterating
entire ‘teams?’ I mean, hasn’t that been
the problem from the beginning? Do we
need more empowerment? More
partnership? More basic respect for all
of humanity (and the rest of creation)?
Yes. I would certainly say
so. But I’m starting to fear there might
not be as much space as we think… as we hope…
And people get really ugly when they think they’re going to be
eliminated.
And then one more:
Leviticus 19:18b, “…
you shall love your neighbor as yourself…” (NRSV).
What an interesting origin for the second greatest
commandment.
Can we create space? Thinking out loud…
L.
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