You would never think sorority rush at the University of Alabama would make national news, but last week it did. Apparently the active members of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority (full disclosure: my wife was a member back in the day) wanted to offer a bid to join the sorority to one whom they considered a stellar candidate. The candidate happened to be black. One brave member of the sorority went to the Crimson and White the school newspaper and told them that the alumni, who apparently exercise excessive control in the rush and bid process in the sorority system, refused to allow the chapter to offer this young woman a bid. They ‘black balled’ her, as it were. The story went viral, and a large number of the student population wrote a letter to the president of the university demanding that racism not be tolerated at the university. Amazingly, the school was integrated fifty years ago….and the greek system is still segregated. Dr. Bonner the university chancellor and president has made a public statement that discrimination in the greek system will not be tolerated.
Relative to the aforementioned candidate being black balled one alumna was quoted as saying that “life is unfair” presumably in defense of their decision. That phrase with which we are all familiar always rings hollow with me…a way to avoid the real heart of a matter….a flippant dismissal of a larger question. My reply to that is….then let us make it fair, or to say it another way, if indeed life is unjust, then it is for us people of goodwill to make it just. We can’t as people of faith tolerate injustice in whatever form it takes.
This issue has caused me yet again to ponder the theological premise of atonement. The secular definition of atonement is: the reparation of an injury or wrong. The religious definition is: reconciliation between God and humankind. Throughout the majority of Christendom the atonement has been interpreted as Jesus through his death paid the price for the vast collective sin of humankind; that rather than God wiping out the human species for their sins, God would substitute his son in their stead.
There are many theologians who counter this idea of atonement. Some assert, with whom I agree, that the atoning sacrifice was not the death of Jesus convicted of sedition, but that the atoning sacrifice was Jesus’ very life and ministry itself; a life devoted to healing, compassion and inclusion and mercy and justice…a life of love in short. Certainly his martyrdom evoked a massive response. Christ’s death and resurrection engendered a movement to carry out what Jesus and those who followed him had done: to bring healing dignity and well being to a world that was and is lost in less than full personhood. To those who say, “life is not fair” I say to them then let us work as people of God to make it fair and just for all…all races, creeds, rich and poor, the powerful, and the weak alike. let us work to bring about God’s gracious egalitarian commonweal until life will be fair and atonement a reality.
I am so proud to have been a part of All Saints and to have a rector who speaks so forcefully this way. (I guess I am a member emeritus, but I still feel like a part of the church.) Way back in about 1950 I spoke out at Ole Miss in favor of in-tegrating the law school there just after the courts had decreed that LSU must integrate its law school. A “few choice words” were addressed to me anonymously on the post office bulletin board and in signed letters to the editor of the university newspaper, but I never would have thought discriminatory sentiments would have lasted this long. Jim’s statements are right on target. If life is unjust, it is up to us to work to make it just.
JIm, nIce job…the New York Times today had a huge article on the issue (Thursday-9/19) I am sure between the Times and being called out-this is not playing well in the larger arena
Wish the national news had reported the entire story including the student body’s reaction and that of the university president. All we saw on the news was the ‘black ball’.