Expansive inclusion or Group Advantage?

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

Expansive Inclusion or Group Advantage?  

November 28, 2018

Today is the feast day of the Holy Sovereigns, Blessed Kamehameha IV and Blessed Emma, King and Queen of the Hawaiians, who died, respectively, in 1864 and 1885.    Kamehameha as a young man traveled to England, and was struck by the beautiful worship and gentle teaching of the Church of England, and thought that it was better adapted to the spirit of Hawaiians than was the dour Calvinism being pushed on them by missionaries from North America.  He invited Anglican missionaries to establish the Anglican Church of Hawaii; Kamahameha and Emma helped found St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Honolulu.  The Hawaiian people loved both of them deeply because they worked tirelessly for the wellbeing, dignity, and security of Hawaiians.  Emma was instrumental in establishing hospitals and schools (still in operation) for the benefit of native Hawaiians, who were rapidly becoming outcasts and wanderers in their own land.  But in so doing, she specified that these institutions should never exclude non-Hawaiians.  What she called “the strangers in our midst” were also to be served. Such “Aloha” is the glue that binds all the people of the islands together.   In building these institutions to support the oppressed, Emma never made it a zero-sum game by excluding non-Hawaiians. 

Emma’s expansive inclusion is an example of a teaching at the heart of our faith.  There is a profound difference between how the world sees things and how Jesus does.   A secular view often takes humanity as exclusive groups competing for a limited pool of resources, with clear winners and losers.  Regardless of whether they are based in economic interest, race or ethnicity, nationality, religion, party, or gender or other identities, such groups in this view are in a life and death struggle: your gain is my loss, and vice versa.  Jesus teaches that we should love our enemies because God gives blessing indiscriminately to various groups: the rain and sunshine falls on wicked and righteous alike.  “And that’s how you should be,” says Jesus (Matt. 5: 43-48).  In his view, God increases blessings as we share them with others and welcome those not in our own tribe.  “Who is the neighbor whom I should love?” asks the lawyer; Jesus replies with the story of the Samaritan who makes a neighbor of his enemy by showing compassion across such divisions. 

In a world where we are all in this together, there is little room for exclusion and stingy hoarding of resources.  There is absolutely no room for demonizing and dehumanizing others.  The solidarity Jesus calls us to fosters the common good, equal opportunity, fair and reasonable distribution of the fruits of our economic life, equity among people and nations, and peace in the world.  It includes all the other principles and values that are necessary to create and sustain a truly good society.  It is at the heart of what it means to be human, since we humans are essentially social beings, not isolated monads.  It is more than a vague feeling of compassion, common cause, or shallow sympathy.   It is in fact a commitment to our common life, a sign that we accept responsibility for each other. 

Emma’s inclusiveness has applications for us today.   In welcoming and opening things up to this expansive solidarity, we must be careful to not fall back into the trap of zero-sum exclusion, this time of the other side of the tribal divide.  One example is this:  many of our parishioners, myself included, love to be addressed as sisters and brothers:  identifying each other as siblings and members of the family marks us as personally belonging to each other, and including women on an equal footing as men broadens the welcome.  Calling us sisters and brothers touches us personally, because it connects to our identity.  But I recently received a request from a dear friend in the Church who self-identifies as gender non-binary (neither male nor female, or maybe a little of each):  using “sisters and brothers” doesn’t include them, and feels like a micro-aggression.   “Don’t use this way of excluding me” they asked, “use ‘siblings, friends, beloved,’ or some other way of intimate inclusion that actually does not exclude those of us who do not share in the cis-hetero binary gendering of the world given us by Patriarchy.” 

While this request is heartfelt and sincere, it focuses only on the exclusion experienced by enbies (non-binaries) and not the inclusion (and personal intimacy) experienced by most men and women in the Church when they hear “sisters and brothers.”   By never using “sisters and brothers,” we end up distancing most of those who hear us.  I hear my friend, and want to include them in my speech habits.  I will use the pronouns they choose for themself.  I also want to respect the truth that inclusiveness is expansive, not reductionist.  It opens us for broader expressions of love, and does not demand narrower or less personal ones.  So in the spirit of blessed Queen Emma and trying to pursue Jesus’ vision of a non-zero sum Reign of God, I will still use “sisters and brothers,” and occasionally add “and all my siblings.”  This is the basic theological reason I intend to continue using masculine images for God (“Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”) when rooted in scripture and tradition, but also will add similarly rooted gender neutral and feminine images as well.    

Grace and Peace

Fr. Tony+ 

 Stained glass at The Cathedral of St. Andrew in Honolulu. It depicts the arrival of Thomas Nettleship Staley, received by King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma. Staley was appointed the first Bishop of Hawai'i in 1862.