Are you and/or your church complicit in structural economic inequality?
3 thoughts on “Structural economic inequality”
I was surprised that people thought (including the Christian church) that seizing land and segregation were just “natural” and therefore acceptable. Also that “segregation was a precursor to genocide”, horrifying.
In Genesis 1 God asked his people to “steward” the earth but the earliest European settlers interpreted that God instructed them to “rule” the earth. Therefore they self-designated themselves as owners and thought God had designated them as teachers of these strange people and owners of the resources to do with as they pleased. I came to understand so much better how hasgeographic whiteness has influenced politics, religion, mission, and economic development.
Blogging to the question posed last week–Are you and/or your church complicit in structural economic inequality? I think it goes almost without saying that the answer is yes. Lest, how is it so securely and steadfastly maintained without our complicity. At a minimum, the complicity is in the failure to demand and take meaningful action to alter the structures, to insist on and build equality: exclusionary zoning, public funding disparities, red lining, educational funding and resource allocation, construction of affordable housing, access to health care and the list goes on. While our church rents space at below market rates to organizations working to create affordable housing and provide early education and safe child care in our community, it allocates the vast majority of its financial resources toward the operation and maintenance of our physical structures and staffing.
I was surprised that people thought (including the Christian church) that seizing land and segregation were just “natural” and therefore acceptable. Also that “segregation was a precursor to genocide”, horrifying.
In Genesis 1 God asked his people to “steward” the earth but the earliest European settlers interpreted that God instructed them to “rule” the earth. Therefore they self-designated themselves as owners and thought God had designated them as teachers of these strange people and owners of the resources to do with as they pleased. I came to understand so much better how hasgeographic whiteness has influenced politics, religion, mission, and economic development.
Blogging to the question posed last week–Are you and/or your church complicit in structural economic inequality? I think it goes almost without saying that the answer is yes. Lest, how is it so securely and steadfastly maintained without our complicity. At a minimum, the complicity is in the failure to demand and take meaningful action to alter the structures, to insist on and build equality: exclusionary zoning, public funding disparities, red lining, educational funding and resource allocation, construction of affordable housing, access to health care and the list goes on. While our church rents space at below market rates to organizations working to create affordable housing and provide early education and safe child care in our community, it allocates the vast majority of its financial resources toward the operation and maintenance of our physical structures and staffing.