“She can preach for a woman.” It is something that has never been said about me and I have been preaching for over 30 years. I am a man. I know, “Duh!” right? However, what that means is, whenever I stand in front of a new congregation, I don’t have to worry about my speaking abilities being doubted because of my gender. In fact, because most people have grown up hearing men give sermons, they develop an expectation and often even develop a preference for men to preach. This is not because there have not been men that have given bad speeches or preached horrible sermons. It is because most of us have seen men preach so much that men and preaching go hand in hand. Most people who grew up in church worshipped under a male pastor, so most (if not all) sermons many have heard growing up were preached by men, in some cases, exclusively men. Pastoring and preaching is and has been a male dominated field.
Since people are used to seeing men preaching, my being a man never serves as a barrier to me connecting to an audience. There may be other factors that serve as a challenge: my height, my color, my deep Texas drawl. But I have never had to worry about an audience thinking I am too masculine to be an effective preacher. This benefit of the doubt my being a man affords me is a privilege. I did not earn it by any effort of mine, nor did I merit it by any particular striving or speaking talent. It is given to me by the society and culture where I live. It is a privilege … a male privilege. I don’t get to turn it off or opt out. I don’t get to say no or deny the advantages I am given by virtue of being a man. Every time I stand to preach as a man, I can rest assured my masculinity will not be a problem whether I like it or not. Needless to say, my sisters in ministry are not afforded the same privilege, and no matter how much I may personally be in solidarity with my sisters, I still cannot shred my personal privilege as a man.
In this highly-racialized climate we live in today, we hear a lot about “white privilege.” Often, I have heard my white brothers and sisters talk about white privilege as something they can choose to divest themselves from. Some of my friends and acquaintances have articulated this idea that they can turn white privilege on or off in their own personal world. Yet, just like I cannot earn or divest myself of my male privilege, white people cannot choose or decline white privilege. Just like male privilege is built on a long history of male domination, white privilege is built on the legacy of white domination in America. We cannot rid ourselves of the biased privileges a society steeped in discrimination afford us. Privilege is bigger than our personal choices. Privilege is found in how the masses have been trained to look at us, judge us, and give us the benefit of the doubt. We don’t get to say no to privilege. Yet we can use our privilege. We can use it to further perpetuate male domination, white supremacy, heterosexism, patriarchy, and other forms of oppression. On the other hand, we can use our privilege to resist the very domination that serves as its foundation. Since some of the “gifts” of privilege are voice and visibility, we can use our voices and visibility to educate, resist, own, and acknowledge how domination makes an oppressive, provincial, and limited world. In short, instead of wasting time denying that privilege exists in our world, or in our behavior, the best thing we can do with our privilege is to own it and use it … for good.
Humbly in Christ’s Love,
Pastor B.A. Jackson