Discrimination

I was reading an article in the SEMI (the student paper on campus) a few minutes ago about gender discrimination in the church and it sparked this thought in my mind...

"If I were a woman, with all the exact same traits and characteristics I have now except only in female form (which I know is impossible, but it doesn't matter), and somebody told me that I couldn't do something, like be a pastor or an elder or a leader, I would probably tell them to 'suck my dick.'"

(which would contain its own irony)

It's interesting. I know that I've gotten a lot more exposure to talk about discrimination here than I have anywhere before. I've heard a lot about all forms of it (but mostly gender and race), in lots of different places (classroom, school paper, church, conversation, forums, etc). I've definately had to think more about it. But I've probably never really and truly put myself in someone else's shoes so simply and clearly as I did as noted above. I haven't really put any thought into really articulating my whole systematic framework for understanding gender bias in the world and in the church, and so the above thought is not the product of anything like that. But I do think it was a gut reaction, which holds validity too. (And it probably means I ought to conduct a more systematic study of the issue to come up with a well-informed perspective as well).

Anyways, for all of you who fall in any "reference group" (as opposed to "focal group" [new terms to replace "majority" and "minority" group, respectively, since women are not a minority but are discriminated against, also consider Blacks and Apartheid in South Africa]), I would encourage you to put yourself in the shoes of someone who (a) is discriminated against or (b) you discriminate against (!) and then say to yourself, "you can't do (whatever) because of (characteristic)". Then see how you feel. I think you'll find it an interesting exercise.