Favoritism, revisited.

Read: James 2: 1-13

James is quite straightforward as a book, and for that reason, I’ll try to be straightforward in this entry.

Favoritism sucks, and the issue resonates strongly with me because it has damaged my family. Like the traditional Chinese grandfather, mine valued grandsons. He also has 2 granddaughters, but he pretty much ignores them. My brothers and I were the only grandsons in the entire Kuo family. So, at every dinner, my parents (who did not want my grandfather’s favoritism to destroy the family) often asked me and my brothers to sit far away from my grandfather, and let my uncles and dad sit next to him (the privileged seats). But my grandfather would always want his grandsons sitting next to him, in the seats of privilege. My parents, by Chinese custom, are not allowed to disagree, so they kept quiet. Not so surprisingly, our entire family remains rather fragmented to this day (repaired somewhat through my dad’s battle with cancer and later, his passing away).

But that’s exactly, as you noticed, what James was warning against. The thing is that in the olden days, the congregations met at the wealthy Christians’ homes. After church, there’d be dinner and stuff, and according to cultural mores, the homeowner sits at the front of the table. Now, the temptation is obvious - you want your best buddies to sit next to you and... well, those newcomers (and most often the poor) can sit far, far away from me at the other end of the table. James says, “No!” If there’s an empty sit next to you, and a poor guy walked in, the seat is his. You don’t like the poor guy? Tough - go and repent. In the church, there is no favoritism.

And the same applies at WCAC as well. Oftentimes we gather in cliques because they comprise of people we like. But what about those not like us? What about those who are not Chinese and are from the inner-city church? What about those who are not from an Alliance church? What about the people who are not destined to be engineers, doctors, lawyers, and professors?

Let me go further: what kinds of people come to church? Let’s just focus on WCAC. What kinds of people show up? Well, if I’m correct, most of you have the following characteristics:
 99% of you have GPAs in the range of 3.5 - 5.0 (out of 4).
 most of you are involved with some sport.
 most of you intend to go to college to major something in medicine, law, engineering, or business.
 And most of you intend to graduate college intending to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, or CEOs.
 most of your friends are in the above categories.

True? Let me ask you, what place does a grossly-obese Latino with a 2.3 GPA who wants to be an artist have in youth group? I know, we’re a Chinese church, and we are equipped to reach out to a particular demographic, but that doesn’t mean we’re restricted to reach out to that demographic. If someone like what I described can’t find a home in WCAC, aren’t we playing favorites? Let me go further - do YOU play favorites at school? Are there people you just don’t talk to because they’re black? Or they’re from the inner city? Or their GPA is below 3.0? Or because they’re just really weird?

So let us be wary of the favoritism that sometimes we don’t watch out for. Let us take to heart Jesus’ second command to love our neighbors as ourselves, and love everyone, even those we don’t like.