Dangerous Musings About Equality (part 1)

Kathy over at the carnival in my head has been doing a great series of posts called “what could be.” One of her recent entries was about “equality practiced,” in which she shares about how the church should intentionally practice equality with one another with regard to gender, race, socio-economic standing…in all things.

I’ve been mulling over this one for days, and finally decided to post my thoughts here rather than in her comments. And this post is in two parts so as not to overwhelm the reader. 🙂

First, let me say I respect Kathy greatly and appreciate what she brings to the table; so my thoughts here are not to refute what she has said, but to enhance it, to add my two-cents to the online conversation. But as I’ve pondered this, I think that if we’re going to be true to Scripture, we’re going to have to move beyond equality (I’ll unpack that momentarily)–because there are some things about our ideas of equality that could actually lead us off course. I’m going to get a bit nuanced here, so forgive me if you start feeling like I’m splitting hairs. But I think this is important because if you are charting a course in navigation, even being a fraction of a degree off course will eventually land you in the wrong place. It’s important that we get this right, and that’s why I’m going to split hairs a little bit.

Let me begin with a rather provocative statement:

I don’t see that the Scripture specifically teaches the equality of individuals as a principle or a virtue to be practiced.

(Put down the rocks. Lemme splain.)

In our culture, even though it isn’t always practiced, we see equality as an inherent principle for mankind: “All men are created equal.” It is so ingrained in us that we almost forget that this statement is found in the Declaration of Independence, not the Scripture. In fact, the closest I see the Bible coming to matching the idea of equality is in its mandate not to practice favoritism in the church. (See James 2 for an example.)

One might say, “But aren’t these one and the same?” Not quite. As we will hopefully see…equality and favoritism are pendulum swings to opposite extremes, and both run the risk of causing oppression to somebody. And let me say right now that favoritism has caused a lot of the social ills we face, and it is wrong. When I suggest that “equality” is not specifically taught in the Bible, I am NOT saying that discrimination is okay. Racial oppression, the oppression of women (especially in the church)…these and other examples are very real, and very wrong. What I’m suggesting is that equality in itself is not enough to cure these ills.

That said…I think there’s an important reason why we don’t see equality specifically mentioned in Scripture, and it has to do with how the writers of Scripture saw the world, as opposed to our own Western cultural worldview.

You see, “equality” is actually a mathematical term–a comparative measurement of value. We are a very mathematical culture; we carry this intrinsic belief that everything can be explained or defined in mathematical/scientific terms. So in our minds, we are always measuring everything, weighing everything, comparing everything with everything else. When we say two things are equal, it means we are comparing them and determining that they have the same value.

But here’s the rub: how do you assess a specific value to things like a human life, a human soul, or human gender, talent or ability? How do you measure things like love? And even more importantly…who can compare the worth of one life with another? It’s a subtle thing that almost all of us fall into, but when we view these things in the light of equality, we begin to assess our own worth and the worth of others by…comparison. And I think this is something the Scripture does not teach. In fact, the writers of Scripture did not even try to measure these intangibles, because they didn’t see the world this way. Yes, things like prejudice existed even in Bible days, but the idea of translating the worth of people to a mathematical term like equality would not have been how they would have described it.

Now, having said that…let’s look at what the Bible does say about how we should treat one another:

“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.” (Phil. 2:3, emphasis mine)

“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.” (Rom. 12:9-10)

If I’m reading these correctly, in the light of other Scriptures, the Bible actually raises the bar as far as “equality” goes. We are not taught to see one another as equals; we are urged to voluntarily humble ourselves and regard others as more important–which is precisely what Jesus did when He came to earth as a man. This is what I mean by moving past equality. In truth, I see that the heart of God in Scripture–especially as relating to the church–is that we are not to be comparing ourselves with one another to be sure that we are equal, but rather we should be embracing and celebrating each unique life and gift for what it is, without comparison.

(Stay tuned…)