Not The Privileged Few

In Ephesians 2, we read about the unity that Jesus has brought about - erasing the dividing line between Jews and Gentiles, and challenging us to live in harmony with our brothers and sisters in
Christ.
18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone...

We have to take steps, led by the Spirit, to be in unity with one another.  Fortunately, we have access to the greatest unifier of all, the Spirit of God, and He has called us "fellow citizens" with one another.  Believers in unity can be a powerful force in this world, but Christians in disarray can be a weak witness.  So, we have to guard against the words and actions that will divide us and seek to build a sense of commonality - in purpose and practice.  When we come together, great things can happen!

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Christian believers are called to pursue a path of unity, recognizing that the same God lives in us.
Galatians 3 paints a picture of that type of agreement:
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

A new poster campaign at the University of San Francisco encourages Christian students to acknowledge that they are privileged, according to a piece on the ChristianHeadlines.com, based on a Breitbart story.

That campaign is receiving criticism from other universities. The posters, which is pictured on the Breitbart site, say “if you can expect time off from work to celebrate your religious holidays, you have Christian privilege.” The posters identify categories of so-called "privilege," which include being a Christian, as well as being "cisgender" (which the posters explain means "a person whose gender identity, gender expression and biological sex all align").

A student at Virginia Tech commented that, "Virginia Tech deciding who does and does not have privilege is not okay. Going up to a sign and reading that you should ‘check your privilege’ just because of the situations you were born into, and paths you have chosen for your life, is categorizing and dividing people further.” 

Another student and U.S. Marine Corps veteran from Southern Oregon University said the posters “are segregating and dividing the population by targeting certain groups.”

The Breitbart story refers to "evidence to suggest that university faculty are often hostile to Christian students and their perspectives." It says that, "The 2014 film, God’s Not Dead, resonated with Christians with its story of a philosophy professor who coerced his students into concluding that 'God is dead.'"

The article goes on to say:

Not only have faculty been accused of treating Christians unfairly, but university administrators have allegedly engaged in discriminatory practices as well. In 2015, National Review columnist David French detailed his experience with the university practice of “ideological cleansing,” which he claimed almost cost a Christian applicant a spot on the faculty at Cornell Law School: “the committee almost rejected an extraordinarily qualified applicant because of his obvious Christian faith (he’d attended a Christian college, a conservative seminary, and worked for religious conservative causes). In writing, committee members questioned whether they wanted his “Bible-thumping” or “God-squadding” on campus.”

French has been outspoken in identifying areas in which Christians have encountered opposition on college campuses and has been a proponent of campus free speech, in an age where certain opinions are not tolerated in that setting.

So, this is the landscape in which we find ourselves.  People tend to gravitate toward division, and radical intolerance is masked as "tolerance."   We are in the age of extreme labeling, and labels can lead to wedges, leading to deep division and hostile speech and actions.  It's certainly not good for our culture.   And, God's Word provides a better way.

But, we do have to check ourselves, but in a different way than the posters at this University of San Francisco suggest.  In the body of Christ, the enemy would want us to gravitate to our labels - those we paste upon ourselves, as well as those we place on others.  God wants us to put aside the labels that divide and move toward love that unites.   Are subsets of Christianity necessarily bad - absolutely not, unless they are used to generate an "us vs. them" mentality.

Surely, there will be disagreements between believers, but rather than hide behind our labels our allow our speech to degenerate into name-calling and judgmentalism, we can see those areas of difference as opportunities - for dialogue, for understanding, for pursuit of common solutions that will glorify God.

And, as this poster I referred to points out, Christians are going to be labelled, we are going to be stereotyped and even ridiculed - that's part of the territory.  We just have to make sure that we are not giving those who have such a viewpoint more ammunition to criticize us - that's why our lives should be marked by Christian conviction that is infused with Biblical compassion.  The Holy Spirit can help us to build bridges and pursue God-honoring relationships.