How do we gain this kind of shift in our perception and understanding? For me in my experience, this shift came through a forced shift in proximity. Jim Wallis, in his recent book The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy, writes that proximity enables us to expand our understanding and empathy:
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(Read this series from the beginning at Part 1 and Part 2.)
“I’ve learned it is proximity that changes us, that teaches us white people the work that we must do in our own communities” (Jim Wallis, The False White Gospel, p. 8).
Proximity doen’t guarantee change. But it does provide the opportunity for change. Crossing lines that we have created and defined by our differences is the doorway to relationship. Our relationships have the potential, if we allow them, to help us understand more of the experiences of others who are different from us. As these relationships grow, we learn how others live in our society and have experiences different from our own. If we choose to respond to this awareness with empathy, we begin to discern, perceive, and understand broader realities. We begin to look at our world differently.
We create so many lines based on social differences that we must learn to step across.
Whether these lines are gender, social class, education, race or culture, or sexuality, when we choose to enter into relationship with those who are different from us, we experience that proximity which has the power to change the way we perceive and act.
For me, as a theologian, my journey began through exploring theological perspectives from communities that experience life differently than I do: from Christian feminist theologians to womanist perspectives, to Black liberation, Latin liberation, Mujerista liberation, and Indigenous liberation perspectives. LGBTQ justice, queer liberation, and disability justice perspectives changed how I look at the world forever.
Today, the work of learning to listen continues.
Evolving our society into a richly diverse and genuinely multi-racial democracy is prophetic work, and it’s work we are all invited to join. As Jesus followers today, we all have choices to make, especially those of us who live in more privileged social locations. Will we, because our privilege and status, walk away sad like the rich man, because we, too, have great possessions? Or will we, like Bartimaeus, simply say, “we just want to see”?
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