Here’s a great quote about figuring out if we’re among society’s oppressors or its oppressed, and reminding us of God’s relationship to each of those groups. I’d like to pare it down to fewer paragraphs but they all build on each other so nicely that I just couldn’t.
Note to my more theologically conservative friends: the author below refers to God as “she”. While I’ve always used the pronoun “he” for God I’ve never mean that to literally mean God-with-a-penis; it’s just the pronoun that the Bible uses after translation into English. In light of what I do-and-don’t mean when I say “he” I’m going to give Sarah Moon the benefit of the doubt that she doesn’t literally mean God-with-a-vulva when Sarah says “she”. Can we agree to stay calm and just focus on her main point? Thanks.
But I have privilege, as a white, cisgender, able-bodied woman who is marrying a man. In many contexts, I am in the same category as the oppressors, not the oppressed.
Which means, unless I acknowledge my privilege and choose to stand in solidarity with the oppressed, God is not on my side. She might even be angry with me.
It’s weird, as a white, American Christian, to think that if there is a God, she might not be on my side. That’s not something they tell us in Sunday School. White America seems to think of itself as especially blessed by God and to think of God as being angry at those people.
The thought that God might be angry…with me?
That’s a thought that should knock me off my arrogance seat of privilege. It should encourage me to check my privilege, listen to the voices of those who are oppressed in different ways, and reevaluate the choices I am making in life.
It should be a call to repentance.
Maybe God’s a “bitch.” An “angry black woman.” A “bitter” abuse survivor. Maybe God’s “too sensitive” and needs to “learn to take a joke.” Maybe God is all of the dismissive words that we throw out to try to silence those who are fighting for change and for justice.
Maybe God is angry, and we should listen to her.