I almost named this post The Lesbian Bible Study.
I was in a Bible study on Capitol Hill about 15 years ago with a group of clergywomen about my age, and – as it turned out – I was the only heterosexual in the group. It was interesting being in the minority. I am a white woman with a good education and a privileged background in comparison to the rest of the world. I am rarely in the minority. In fact, I am almost never “the only one” of my race/age/ethnicity when I go to meetings, the grocery store, church, or the office.
How about you? Have you ever been in the minority?
I remember being in a Chick-Fil-A in rural Maryland with my kids once and they noticed that all the customers and employees were white. It was immediately noticeable to them. It wasn’t like the Chick-Fil-A back home.
My kids rarely comment when they are the only white kids in any particular situation. They’ve grown up as the minorities in their (excellent) public schools. They have every expectation of working with people, living with people, and being in church with people of different races and ethnicities from their own.
I believe this is the future of our culture and world in spite of the fact that the morning news today reported that Chicago – where I now live and work – is the most segregated city in the United States.
When was the last time you were a minority and how did it feel? It’s an excellent exercise for teaching us how to be welcoming, hospitable, and open.
A Church for Starving Artists 
I am almost always a minority, though not of race, mostly of gender. I’m an active father who prides himself in not just showing up for skating (i.e. pre-hockey) lessons, but also in being the one who dresses my daughter and braids her hair. Professionally I am almost always the only man in the room – it is as bad in my Administrative Assistant career as it is in my Youth Ministry career. The emails and conversations almost always start with “okay LADIES…” which always gets a chuckle from me and a groan from some folks who know that I’m the only one not in that category.
Where we have moved there is very little color, and I miss it. The one racial minority on our church staff is the head custodian – how very stereotyped of the midwest. It’s sure strange coming from the DC beltway to suburban St Louis, that’s for sure!
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I grew up in a nearly all-white, middle class rural community but now work and live in a 75 percent African American, single mother head of household, low to middle class neighborhood. It was a big adjustment being in the minority. It took some time to learn the culture, build trust, and find meaningful ways to communicate (and I’m definitely still learning!) It’s a wonderful stretching and challenging experience to be in the minority. And I agree with you–my hope is that our kids will be much more comfortable and adept at working with diverse groups of people–whether they’re in the majority or not.
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Living as a minority in a handful of contexts makes us compassionate towards others who are minorities in almost all their contexts. Or so we hope.
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My basic question is about how often those of us with cultural and economic power are in minority situations. I believe that we who have much need to connect with those who are in the minority – whether the context is a single Republican in a room of Democrats, a lone GBLTQ person in a church of straight people, or one Muslim in a sea of Christians. The way of Jesus is to include the excluded.
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I’m a white male who was the only white Guy in my squad on jump status in the Army..white boys can’t hang now days. I was the only person to pass an mos test in the us army one year. Only guy that doesn’t like most sports at work.Women look at me cause I’m strange because I take care of my disabled wife. But the time I always fill isolated and at alone is at church. Why does it seem no one actually knows whats in scripture and the leaders seem not to care to tell what’s really there…are they all hired sheppards.?
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De – I, sadly, imagine that you are not the only one who feels isolated and alone in your church. We are still stuck in the institutional part of community rather than the relational part. Preachers often answer questions that nobody’s asking. Pew neighbors don’t even say hello. We are invited to “coffee hour” but then no one speaks to us there. Ugh.
But there are many church communities that love people like you, people like me, people who are lonely. It would be so great if you could find even a small group to study scripture and pray with/for each other. Any chance of that?
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