We hear a lot about discrimination nowadays, both in society in general as well as in the church. Everyone is against discrimination—at least if you can believe what they say. There are certain prime targets of the anti-discrimination campaigns—such as South Africa.

But listen carefully and pay a little extra attention, and you begin to see that there is such a thing as Barbara Amiel (in her book Confessions) calls “reverse discrimination.” Says Amiel:

“All the talk about racism nowadays is not ridding society of this evil. Instead, we are creating a society that will determine all according to the colour of skin or the degree of hair wave or the arrangement of sexual organs. . . . Such is the price to be paid for those in a hurry to create absolute equality in defiance of the basic principle of equality before the rule of law. It’s no bargain.

She’s not the only one making the point. Podhorerz in his book, Breaking Banks, does the same. So does Herbert Schlossberg in Idols for Destruction (Christian Faith and its Confrontation with American Society). He writes that humanitarian literature “is almost unanimous in denying that people are unemployed because they prefer not to work …. To link the rejection of the work ethic with poverty is to invite harsh rejoinders that speak of reaction and racism.” Elsewhere he cites an author who “spreads the blame for the plight of the poor countries on those who have the effrontery not to be poor,” and the leaders of poor countries “find it convenient to play on these themes in order to extricate themselves from the consequences of their own policies.”

One hears it all the time: The U.S. is to blame for the situation in the third world countries; it is also to blame for the nuclear threat in today’s world. White Christians are to blame for the situation among the blacks, and in Canada, for the situation among the natives.

But what we have a lot of here is discrimination in reverse. The poor, the blacks , the natives, Russia, etc. become the standard by which we are judged. We are so eager, it appears, to do penance for some actual instances of discrimination that we fall into the opposite trap: reverse discrimination.

It’s even present in the church. The “poor” have God on their side. (No analysis as to who the “poor” in the Bible really are!) The rich ought to feel guilty for being rich. The 1984 synod of the CRC tried to make it more difficult for ministers from other denominations to come into the CRC, but make the way easier for those from other races and nationalities to enter it! And race appears to be more important in the appointment of college and seminary professors than Reformed orthodoxy. Reverse discrimination! But discrimination no less. One delegate to the 1984 synod told me he was almost ashamed to say that he was white, AngloSaxon and Dutch. Strange business indeed.

J. Tuininga, Lethbridge, Alberta