Listening
Instead of Othering
by
Scott Stoner
“Othering”
may be a new word for you, but it describes a human tendency that has been
around for all of time. Othering is when we choose to prejudge someone because
we believe them to be completely other than us, and therefore not of equal
value. We can other people based on their race, politics, gender, sexual
orientation, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or disability—just to name a few
conditions for othering.
Jesus was scandalous to many, including the religious
authorities of his day, because he challenged the barriers created by othering
in his culture. For example, when Jesus meets a Samaritan woman drawing water
from a well and is willing to enter into a conversation with her. The woman,
shocked, asks “How is it that you, a Jew, has a drink with me, a woman of
Samaria?” (John 4:9). It was common practice then that Jews and Samaritans
othered each other, and thus chose not to interact with one another.
Who among us has not prejudged someone because they are
different from us? The remedy for this kind of prejudice, this kind of
othering, is to commit instead to listening to our neighbor even, or
especially, when this kind of listening stretches us. Jesus is our model for
doing this. Time and time again we see that when Jesus befriends the “other,”
what follows is some kind of profound healing and transformation. Imagine the
healing that could happen in our world if we all strove to do the same.
Making It Personal:
What speaks to you
most in this reflection?
Are you aware of
ways in which you fall short of loving a neighbor in your life because of
prejudice or othering?
If so, what steps might you take to change this?
Living
Well Through Lent 2021
Copyright
©2021 Scott Stoner.
All rights reserved
Please take a moment to comment as I monitor my post during Lent
to see if I should continue my blog postings. Thank you!
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