Leprosy is an infectious disease. It physically disfigures and disables a person. In biblical times lepers were ordered by priests to be cast out of society. In today’s Gospel a leper violates that priestly order by approaching Jesus. Jesus violates it too by caring for the man; he touches him and heals him. When Jesus touches the leper he is also healing another infectious disease. It is a psychological and sociological disease. It also disfigures and disables a person and whole societies. It is the disease of privilege. It is spread by the priestly class.
The disease of privilege is caused by certain people claiming the right of supremacy to cast out other people. Those cast out are not cared for but discriminated against, perhaps killed. Rich cast out poor; men cast out women; straight cast out gay, gun lovers cast out gun victims and so forth. Privilege is a personally bad habit and an infectious social disease. Privilege breeds within supremacy groups and across cultures in patterns. People in privileged groups are entitled to be dominating, use those they cast out, and do violence to them, while they are conversely coerced into being dominated, cast out, and violated by people of privilege. People in privileged groups thus judge others appropriate inclusions and exclusions whereas those cast out are influenced to judge the appropriateness of their humanity. People in privileged groups judge their culture as normal, desirable and coerce those cast out into judging their own culture as abnormal, undesirable. People in privileged groups think their view of reality is the only view whereas those cast out know at least two views; their own and that of the privileged group. People in privileged groups see problems that arise between their group and those left out as personality differences whereas those cast out know the privileged benefit from maintaining a system of inequality that leaves them out. People of privileged groups see solutions to problems as promoting better feelings between people whereas those cast out see solutions as changing their left out condition & the system that arranges it. People in privileged groups are trained to speak, interrupt, threaten violence, be violent, and institutionalize violence while they train those cast out to listen, be interrupted, be threatened with violence, have violence inflicted upon them, and accept that they are the just recipients of institutionalized violence. Lastly, people of privileged groups take all these actions across history and across cultures and yet claim ignorance of the discriminatory effects on outcasts while the privileged claim they are victims of discrimination. They do this at the same time they coerce the outcasts into accepting injustices as their personal fault and to be ashamed, hindering knowledge of privilege’s deadly social effects. We who are poor are trained to defer to rich, women to men, blacks to whites, gay to straight, gunshot victims to gun owners. We are trained to defer to the privileged people who produce the problems and the infectious system.
“Dear People of Privilege, we don’t want you to apologize for your ancestors. We need you to dismantle the privilege system they built that benefits you and oppresses others.”
Prayer: Spirit of Humility, with your guidance may we always live as One.
Question: Who are the people I need to be aware I’m leaving out.
February 11, 2018 Gospel Mark 1:40-45 Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time