A Different View of Privilege

Privilege has become a dirty word these days. One of the issues that swirls around this word is inequality, which slaps every South African in the face every day – to the point that many of us become numb to it. South African inequality meets you at every traffic light, where beggars stand next to luxury vehicles. Most of our cities are surrounded by shacks where people huddle together for shelter, while the wealthier suburbs consist of large houses, beautiful gardens and high security fences.

Namibia is not much better in this respect. There is a small village in southern Namibia where around 90% of the population are unemployed – alcoholism and malnutrition are rampant. The shacks are growing around Namibian cities, too, as people coming in from rural areas find nowhere affordable to stay. Away from the densely populated informal settlements are large estates just close enough to Windhoek for convenience’ sake, but far enough away for total peace and quiet. Some of the houses on these estates are spectacular – the garage is larger than a decent-sized shack elsewhere in Windhoek.

When we lived in Botswana, we knew of some lodges where the cost of staying a single night was more than what many people in that country would earn in a year. The mind boggles when thinking just how much someone must earn to stay in one of those lodges for a week. I could go on, but you get the picture – inequality is a sad reality of every country I have lived in. I can understand why the people who live in dire poverty and whose chances of employment are slim to none are upset with the status quo. Poverty in these countries can be a vicious cycle, and very few who are born into poverty manage to get out of it.

In the face of all this we feel helpless and hopeless. For my part, I often feel helpless. Even some of the wealthiest people I know who have done much to help the poor in their own capacities or through their businesses seem to be fighting against enormous odds. My own financial capacity is minuscule compared to what is needed to help the millions of poor people in southern Africa. What can I do?

Meanwhile hopelessness pervades the small villages and urban shacks. This is particularly evident in places where alcoholism has taken hold – even when someone gets a job that might help them support their families, it is not long before they lose it again due to alcohol consumption. Foreign aid programmes and grants often fail too, because no real hope comes with the money or the opportunities that these initiatives create.

I have barely scratched the surface of the problem, and there are many other issues and nuances to this enormous topic that I have not touched. But take a moment to consider the various aspects of inequality you have come across in your own life and country. Perhaps you feel helpless or hopeless yourself.

Let’s move beyond our reaction to inequality and explore the cause instead. Like every other intractable problem in the world today, inequality flows from the state of the human heart. In this case, the root issues are greed and envy. No matter what financial status we find ourselves in, we always want more (greed) and when we see others that are getting more, yet do not seem to “deserve” it as much as we do, we envy them. We will go to great lengths to defend whatever degree of wealth we have accumulated, even if it comes at the expense of others. These two things go hand-in-hand and both help to create inequality itself and the social issues surrounding inequality. The important point here is that greed and envy are common amongst all humans – neither of them is unique to either rich or poor people.

Many have suggested economic solutions to inequality, and no doubt there are things that could be done to ease the situation economically. But this issue goes far beyond economics. It reaches right into the very heart of human beings. This is why even prosperous countries aren’t perfect countries, and why wealthy people are not necessarily happy people. Even if we manage to engineer an equal society (which has been tried before, mostly to disastrous effect), we will never create a perfectly contented one.

Looking at my own life reveals that I have privilege – in the sense that I was born into a society where the colour of my skin gave me more opportunities than someone born at the same time with a darker skin tone. The conditions in South Africa in 1987 were most certainly rigged in my favour. Besides that, I had a sheltered upbringing, an excellent education, and a wholesome family life – a great start that many others did not have. This set me on a trajectory towards success, as the world sees it.

Yet all of these privileges (plus many others I have omitted) are really nothing compared to my blessings. I would give up every one of those privileges just to keep the blessing, and I would not swap my level of privilege for something much higher (e.g. being born to a billionaire) if it meant giving up the blessing. This blessing has done for me what privilege could never do – it has set me free. To say that this blessing is priceless is to undervalue it; the blessing is so wonderful that even angels want a glimpse of it (1 Pet. 1:12).

I have referred to the blessing as both singular and plural, because it is a composite – one blessing that comprises and delivers countless others. The one blessing can be described simply as salvation, which in itself is a deep and wonderful thing, but the other blessings that flow from it are ever more beautiful and glorious. The word ‘salvation’ poses the question – saved from what? Saved from the very thing that causes inequality, injustice, misery, suffering, and every other evil we find in this world. Saved from sin.

I have been saved from my own sin and set free from its controlling power over my life. Changing a heart in this way addresses the cause of evil such as inequality. Our world is not only broken by inequality, however, it is also wracked with violence, hatred, destruction, lust and deceit (to name a few). All of these things, besides many more similar evils, arise from our hearts (Rom. 1:28-32). When a heart is set free from sin through the blessing of salvation, evil is replaced by the myriad of other blessings that comes with it. These include love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23).

When I reflect on the terrible inequality around me, and I feel helpless at the sight of much hopelessness, I start contemplating ways to help people out of the poverty trap. Helping the poor is a good, virtuous thing – indeed, God is often characterised in the Old Testament as the One who helps “the fatherless and the widow”, which represent the poorest and most hopeless of society (Deut. 10:18). He also instituted several laws in Israel to reduce inequality within their society and help people out of poverty traps (e.g. Levi. 25). In the New Testament, the churches are frequently encouraged to give to the poor (Gal. 2:10) and are warned strongly against treating wealthy people preferentially (James 2:1-13). Giving to the poor around us and doing what we can to help others out of the poverty trap is therefore a godly thing to do.

Nonetheless, Christians are called to do more than just give to the poor. As I said earlier, the physical privileges I have experienced in my life are valueless when compared with the glorious blessing of salvation. One of the many blessings that flow from salvation is hope, which is a far greater blessing to bestow on anyone than help. The hope of eternity with the Lord in heaven will see you through any difficulty life can throw at you. If a church or Christian focuses solely on helping poor people without presenting the hope of eternal salvation to them, then they are really short-changing those they want to help. Help and hope must go together – you might attract someone by offering them help (e.g. a hot meal), but you should not leave them without offering hope.

Furthermore, this is a blessing that the wealthy need just as badly as the poor do. Understanding the true value of my blessing has been the greatest antidote to envy – how could I possibly envy a wealthy person who does not have the treasure I hold in my heart? They might have a gorgeous house, fancy car, and go on holidays to fantastic places that I will never see, but they are poor and wretched compared to me. The wealthy are paradoxically among the poorest of humanity, because they are harder to reach with the gospel than materially poor people (Matt. 19:24).

Another wonderful thing about this blessing is that it does not run out, which means that there are an unlimited number of people I can share it with. I do not have enough money in my bank account to give every person in Windhoek a single cent, which won’t help them at all and leave me bankrupt. Indeed, my money will do less than nothing for the rich! But if I share the gospel with them, I will not only be able to give to anyone who wants it, but I will be enriched in the process. The giver and the receiver are blessed without measure in this exchange, regardless of their relative material wealth.

Yet one more way in which the blessing is far superior to privilege – you cannot thank or blame anyone in person for your privilege, or lack thereof. The ancestors who gave my parents and, in turn, me a pale skin tone are long dead. I can neither thank nor harangue them for what they did hundreds of years ago. I can do nothing about the wars they fought, the way they thought, or the consequences of their actions – it is all entirely out of my control. Yet I can thank God for the blessing he gave to me freely, even though I certainly didn’t deserve it. I can also do something practical to thank Him for this wonderful gift: to give it to others!

In the world’s eyes, we are each measured by our “net worth”, and those that have accumulated greater net worth are listened to and valued in society more than those with low net worth. Yet in God’s eyes, we all have exactly the same value that He has attached to us by paying infinitely more for us than we are really worth. The Father sacrificed His Son for every individual human being. He did not pay a higher price for the wealthy or influential, or a lower price for the poor or enslaved. In a terribly unequal society like the one I was born into, this is a wonderful thing. It does not matter if you were born into privilege or abject poverty; the price for your salvation was exactly the same – and it has been paid in full.

If you are reading this and are deeply concerned with the terrible inequality of this world, it concerns me too. You and I will not be able to fix the whole world, however, we cannot even fix ourselves. Feeling guilty for your own privilege or angry because of your underprivileged status will certainly not change anything. Although you cannot change yourself in any meaningful way, God can. Irrespective of your earthly net worth, He paid the highest price in the universe in order to make the blessing of salvation available to you. Receiving that blessing is an infinitely more wonderful prospect than mere privilege.