Marginal

I have experienced in a small way what is is to be marginalized.  Living as a foreigner in Indonesia, Cambodia and Kuwait gave me a taste of what many have to deal with on an ongoing, lifetime basis.  Despite these experiences I don't profess to identify with the deep pain and isolation of systemic marginalization.

The experience of marginalization emerged again while a pilgrim on the El Camino Norte in the summer of 2017. I walked exclusively through Spanish towns and cities where few spoke English.  Fellow pilgrims on my route were also largely Spanish speaking.   Since I did not speak their language I could not join in conversations or  experience the amazing Spanish community many others on the Camino enjoyed.

Foreigner.
Isolated.
Marginal to the dominant culture. 

I was keenly aware how much I was an observer and not a participant.  Always an outsider, knowing that until I knew their language and took steps to move into their world, I would never find acceptance.  So, I stayed at the margins and largely walked alone.

How cool and refreshing then when someone who knew English (even a little) spoke to me.  My face lit up with the hope of connection and community.  Perhaps even acceptance.

I have a question for those of you who are part of a dominant culture:

Must the marginalized around us (which includes the ones we have kept at the margins) learn our 'language & ways' as the dominant culture?  

Is it incumbent on them to 'come our way' or is it we, who hold the dominant power relationships, and social capital , who need to be the initiative takers?  Ideally we all become 'multi-lingual' and cross each others' cultural and psycho-social bridges.  However its my contention that the chief responsibility lies with the dominant culture to learn the others' 'language' first.  That means to know their story and seek to understand their world, not with the goal of assimilating them and making them into our image, but to create a new inter-human experience where acceptance is practiced as a way of being.

We who are the 'new humans in Christ' in particular must resist the natural, human gravitational pull to only associate with those who are like us.  Our role is to demonstrate a new 'multi-lingual' community where all people find a place of love and acceptance.

Let no one be left out of the love of God for all.  No none.