An “opinionator” who consistently teaches and challenges me is David Brooks, a conservative columnist for the NY Times.
In his January 24 column (The Great Migration) Brooks takes a look at equality. He draws from Enrico Moretti’s book – The New Geography of Jobs – to inform his own discussion of the influences that make for “success” in America. One statistic that is alarming for what it tells us specifically and for what it implies generally, is this: Half of the jobs in university political science programs went to graduates of the top 11 schools. The other 100 universities who offer the degree are complicit in this statistic – they don’t hire their own.[1] The larger picture shows us that successful folks cluster in a few places, reinforce their successes, and leave the rest in the dust.
Brooks points out that the Obama Administration draws heavily on the Harvard/ Stanford/Princeton crowd. For all the talk and, to give them credit, a lot of effort, to level the playing field (see Isaiah 40:4), they might be missing something important. If everyone who can, leaves where they are to go where they can have it better, the better places will get better and the less “successful” places will stay where they are or get worse. Brooks is not making a partisan point. “The meritocracy is overwhelming the liberal project,” he writes. “Pumping a few dollars into San Joaquin, Calif., where 2.9 percent of the residents have bachelor’s degrees and 20.6 percent have high school degrees, may ease suffering, but it won’t alter the dynamic.”
Jesus came to “alter the dynamic”. At its heart, the Christian doctrine of “Incarnation” is about privilege in the extreme (God) entering into an environment to live. Jesus came to proclaim: God lives among us. This might be where politics differs most dramatically from what Christians call “mission”. “Politics” looks for how things can be better; “mission” is about “being with”. While it is true that the Gospels tell us of numerous times when Jesus made life better for folks, neither hunger nor physical pain were eradicated by the presence of the Christ. Jesus challenged power structures; but apart from one time in the temple, he did not overturn them.
The power of the Gospel is God with us. Reinhold Niebuhr points out that no matter how well-intentioned, politics is always tainted with self-interest. No one ever wins the point without others losing.[2] The heartbeat of the Gospel is not “You win”. It is “I am with you always.”
We can politic for justice and equality. But how often do we end up altering the surface of things without addressing the undertow that drives things? The well-off and well-heeled cluster in Washington, DC, San Jose, Raleigh-Durham. They might intend to improve the lot of those they have left behind in Merced, Calif., Yuma, Ariz., Flint, Mich., and Vineland, NJ. What is just as likely to happen is this: having arrived at the place of power, we don’t want to leave our enclaves of success.
The “dynamic” (dunamis – δύναμις) of the Gospel is presence. The “I am with you” message of Jesus means we don’t have to leave home to find success. Edwin Friedman says it loud and clear – we don’t change the world because of where we are. We change it because of who we are. “Mission” is knowing God is with us; and that changes everything.
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