A Concept called Righteousness Privilege

 

Hi everyone, I’m putting this topic on my theology blog though it could go on my mental health blog.  It is a topic that I have a delayed idea of but have been aware of twice in academic contexts where it really would have been valuable to share.  And the concept is basically something called “righteousness privilege.”  At social work school, our textbook mentioned “Christian privilege,” and I didn’t appreciate it and saw it mostly as an anti-religious bias. Later, in a short certificate program about medieval Christianity, I said I sometimes felt like monks were privileged. But I partially forgot about the real reasons I have for feeling that way, which mostly aren’t financial, like a lot of privilege is, but it has to do with good deeds and kindness and the circumstances that allow you to successfully keep your own moral standards and follow Jesus Christ in an effective way. Not everyone is remotely allowed to be at their best and serve others how they would want to or might if they were taught better.  I actually think that this could be a whole book and I could write about forty pages on it right now.  But this blog is not like that and I also don’t even want to do a three page rant like what is currently on my regular blog.  I just want to introduce the concept and say that within all the overlapping economies of poverty and wealth, that there is this other thing that people dearly want called being good, which can also be a form of beauty.  And that on some levels it can be bought or earned, but on many levels, it can’t, and that the way Jesus Christ made the real thing not just available to anyone but actually only available through his own sacrifice is the core gift of Christianity. It is a costly justice that in all cases is also merciful and withstands any worldly accusations of favoritism or just plain falseness. The relevant fact is that what God for us did was so precious and undeserved by anyone that you don’t call it privilege and complain when other people have it.  You ask for it yourself and then try to have some sign of it in your own life among whatever corruption there also is, whether it is just a few prideful thoughts in a very righteous life, or even the sin by negation where you let yourself be good without caring about other people being bad from either oppression or ignorance.

            I don’t know if I should add to this now but another thing to consider is situations where some people are deriving their goodness in a system where their value is based on maintaining other people’s lack of righteousness in comparison.  Think evangelism, jail settings, school and volunteering, or client work of any kind.  Also, people who didn’t bother to help anyone at all sometimes feel clean in comparison to those who find themselves with some unfair leverage.  To me, this is an interesting topic where some of the true traction of power and persecution discussions are.  And I know that it was not fair for this to be out of reach in social work school, and that very justice withheld is exactly what is hidden when people suppress the truth of Christian religion.