Social Alienation

Resentment and bitterness are like dark glasses that filter natural light. When the heart is filled with anger and hatred his/her perceptions will be warped. The bitter person will not recognize this until God in His faithfulness brings him up short to realize that his evaluation of a situation or an individual is askew. A deeply bitter person believes he is excluded from groups he wants to be a part of because of his own alienation.

Individuals become who they are because of their reaction to where they live, who they know, and what they experience or struggle with. So many Americans feel disconnected and lack deep obligations to community and society because of dehumanizing institutions where spiritual isolation and lack of community are enforced. Neurotic problems and resentment are promoted. On the other hand, the disenfranchised oversimplify and distort their experience to promote conflict by drawing their own exclusive little circle, and label others as outsiders. This is common in multiethnic environments. When I taught in China, the Chinese preferred their own society and preferred that the many nationals from other countries gather in their own little circles. They were unhappy when young people from America and Russia, for example, became friends. They especially could not accept Japanese or Korean youth mixing freely with their own Chinese youth; after all, during World War II the Japanese brutalized the Chinese right on Chinese soil. Americans experienced something of this prejudice during the 1940s concerning German immigrants. And this is pronounced among African-Americans in our own society.

The willingness to commit violence against someone who has disrespected you (or that you imagined disrespected you) is regarded as courageous. I have been spit on, sworn at, driven off the sidewalks, forced off long-distance buses far from the city, stepped on in China, mostly by Chinese, but also by some African-Americans who believed they could get away with it. Of course, they got away with it in that I made no response. But the wound they intended for me was inflicted with a double-edged sword. A violent action polarizes and hardens the perpetrator; however, I have a choice of reaction – to forgive with no constraints. I personally believe that my salvation and welfare rests on my forgiveness of those who trespass against me (Matt.6:14-15; Luke 6: 27-28; 1 Peter 3:9). That is a solemn statement that I take seriously, though I confess I struggle with it often. It is as applicable to races and ethnic groups as it is to individuals. I must hold myself responsible for my potential spiritual growth and for positively impacting those around me. The truth is, there is no real individualism without relationship to others. There is no self, no personhood apart from relationship to others. People who don’t contribute to community and criticize others diminish themselves. This is a secular truth although my relationship to Jesus enables me to refuse the destruction of rejection and chose to enlarge my circle to include others of every race, color, creed, gender, socioeconomic class. I may not choose to be African-American or Hispanic, male or female, rich or poor, but I can choose to be loving and inclusive. This is freedom, indeed!