Last fall, I was labelled a “radical,” and my name was added to a list of “college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” As I’ve written elsewhere, this was surprising to me. I teach at Calvin College, in the heart of the Midwest. I am a Christian in the social work department at Calvin. At many points in my own academic career, I was the conservative student in the classroom. I consider what I teach to be evidence based and in line with the truth of the gospel, not “leftist propaganda.”
Nevertheless, myself and around 200 other academics were profiled on a website called Professor Watchlist. The list was compiled by the conservative non-profit Turning Point USA. Turning Point says it is simply trying to advance free speech and protect conservative students on college campuses, but the watch list has been compared to George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984, and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s “Red Scare” in the 1950s.
My inclusion on the list was largely the result of an Op-Ed I wrote for my campus newspaper, The Chimes. That piece explored themes of white privilege and white supremacy in response to an incident where a student had drawn a swastika and wrote “white power” in the fresh snow on the rear window of a parked car on campus. Somehow, my campus newspaper article was picked up by Tucker Carlson’s website The Daily Caller under the headline “Professor Blames White Privilege For The Existence Of Michigan.” From there, it went viral around the alt-right and hard right web.
Christianity is often discussed as counter-cultural. That’s certainly true. Against our culture of consumerism Christianity claims it is the poor who are blessed (Matthew 5:3) and that we ought not worry about what we will eat or drink or wear (Matthew 6:25). In a nation that often exalts the affluent and the powerful, we hear Mary sing in Luke 1:52-53 that:
“He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.”
These are, of course, also some of the ideas at the heart of social work as a profession. Social workers are concerned about vulnerable and marginalized populations, seek social justice for the oppressed, and believe that every human has inherent dignity and worth. Social work is counter cultural as well.
What this list has made clearer to me is the extent to which the ideas of Christianity and social work are not only counter-cultural but also dangerous. As I wrote on Sojourner’s website, this list “is part of a long and violent history of power trying to silence prophetic voices.”
Within both social work and Christianity there are pressures to tone it down, to avoid speaking hard truths. As the people say to the prophets in Isaiah 30:10, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions.” All too often in the Bible the prophets are exiled or killed and the people return to Baal or to Babylon.
Social work has faced similar pressures. Social work, a profession that has sprung from the social gospel and other progressive social movements of the late 19th and early 20th century, is often accused of amounting to little more than social control. As Saul Alinsky once observed:
“They come to the people of the slums not to help them rebel or to fight their way out of the muck……most social work does not even reach the sub-merged masses. Social work is largely a middle class activity and guided by a middle class psychology. In the rare instances where it reaches the slum dwellers it seeks to get them adjusted to their environment so they will live in hell and like it. A higher form of social treason would be difficult to conceive.”
I should note that I’m proud to be a social worker. I think Alinksy, in true Alinsky fashion, is being a little hyperbolic, but I’m sympathetic to his argument. Social work has sometimes lost its radical edge. When I was working on my MSW at the University of Michigan, my advisor was Dr. Michael Reisch, co-author with Janice Andrews of “The Road Not Taken: A History of Radical Social Work in the United States.” As Reisch outlines, many of the earliest heroines (and some heroes) of the profession were labelled “radicals.”
Most prominently, Jane Addams was once declared “the most dangerous woman in America” by J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime head of the FBI. Addams was labelled dangerous because of her strident pacifism, and her refusal to put the politics of corrupt Chicago aldermen before the interests of the immigrants in her community. One page of her FBI file, ironically a report on a lecture she gave in Toledo, Ohio to a women’s group on issues facing children in Europe, is stamped “RADICAL” with the date underneath it, “Jul 21, 1920.” Social work was seen as a threat to law and order.
Under Hoover’s direction, the FBI would go on to brutally harass one of our great modern day prophets, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., calling him in a letter an “evil, abnormal beast,” and giving him 34 days “before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation.” In a pretty clear reference to suicide, the final paragraph includes “There is only one thing left for you to do… You know what it is.”
Both King and Addams were working towards similar ends. They were pacifists who wanted to break the bonds that held the poor, to work towards the common good, the justice and shalom of the Beloved Community – in other words, “to proclaim good news to the poor” and “to set the oppressed free,” as Jesus states it in Luke 4:18. I include King and Addams here not to compare myself to them in any way, but to point out that when both Christianity and social work are at their best, they tend to be labelled radical and dangerous by the powers, by the empire.
Indeed, having just come through Christmas, it is worth remembering that the coming of the son Mary sang about in the passage from Luke above was so threatening to the Roman collaborator Herod that he was said to have had every male child under two around Bethlehem killed.
As we enter into an uncertain new year, may we as Christians in the social work profession have the courage to boldly speak truth to power. May we work for the common good, for shalom. May we embrace the danger that comes from challenging the empire. This may get us labelled dangerous, or radical, but we serve the Triune God, who tells us through the prophet Isaiah (41:10), “do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.”
Joseph Kuilema, PhD, teaches in the social work program at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. He has been a member of NACSW since 2009, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of NACSW.
Way to go, Joe. Insightful and courageous.
Dear Dr. Kuilema, Are you familiar with Dr. Walter Williams? He is an esteemed Economist – and an African American. When asked about his views on white privilege – he stated the notion is "rubbish." Does this mean that Dr. Williams is a white supremacist? The problem is the overgeneralizations that you espouse. It does not help to educate resistant people to your point of view, but, rather, alienates and triggers even more defensiveness. To say that *everything* is built on racism in an example of overgeneralization. I don't know whether or not you should be on the Professor Watchlist, but I do know I would have grave concerns about sympathizing with Saul Alisnky – who believed in the polarization of people (and who wanted to got to hell). Of course, I'm also a radical Christian social worker. I'm also a "conservative", and I will continue to stand up against abortion and in support of the biblical and historical definition of marriage despite being labeled a bigoted homophobe. I was also the conservative student in my social work courses at a state school. I'm wondering – were you ever told that you shouldn't be a social worker? Were you ever told that if you don't support abortion you should get out of the classroom? I was, on both counts. You see, conservatives are targeted, and there are few safe havens for them in higher education. Yet, we also continue to proclaim the good news – we want to help lift people out of poverty; put a stop to terrorist groups that are raping, killing, and displacing people from their own homes; and we, also, believe that "every human has inherent dignity and worth" – including the unborn, which many radicals do not recognize as such. Maybe, as a Christian, you do. I certainly hope so. However people choose to label me is on them…I answer solely to my Lord.
Joe, I've been in discussion with you at the NACSW conventions, and I sense your good hearted intensions. The things we have in common: love for God, desire to live our lives according to His will, love for our neighbors, including those who are oppressed or suffering, and willingness to advocate courageously for justice.
Things we do not have in common: how to do these items (listed above).
Have you read Michael Novak & Paul Adam's "Social Justice Isn't What You Think It Is"? The ideas are thoroughly vetted as to the calling of the Christian and the Social Worker. I'd love to chat with you regarding the differences in your approach vs a more "conservative" (for lack of a better word) approach to these pressing issues concerning not just Americans, not just the poor or oppressed among us, but your fellow humans on this Earth. Shalom!
Amen! One of my concerns in both the Christian community and the social work community is this idea that there is only one path towards social justice. I am currently reading Dr George Yancey's book "Beyond Racial Gridlock: Embracing Mutual Responsibility." (Link Below) Looking forward to working together to address various issues we are all concerned about. Blessings.
https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Racial-Gridlock-Emb…
Proud to serve on the board with you, brother!
In our fallen and finite state may we seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we try to understand and enact God's love and justice. May we have both courageous and humble hearts. May we give grace to ourselves and others in the name of Jesus Christ.
"No one ever talks about the moment you found that you were white. Or the moment you found out you were black. That's a profound revelation. The minute you find that out, something happens. You have to renegotiate everything." – Toni Morrison.
The idea that white privilege does not exist is rubbish. Unfortunately it took someone looking at me in hate and calling me a vile name, knowing nothing about me but solely assuming my Native American heritage (3/16) that forced me to question my own assumptions on that. That, and a very well-crafted study that clearly demonstrated that preschool teachers are implicitly biased to watch African American boys as troublemakers *in preschool.*
Further, policies reinforce those biases. Look at what has happened to the education of African American children in schools – they are more likely to be punished and expelled than White children, but are also more likely to have multiple compounding issues outside of school that affect school performance. Putting all of that on kids and their personal responsibility is wrong. We now know, through behavioral neuroscience, that people who are more likely to have experienced racism are more likely to have both chromosomal changes as well as neurochemical changes. This is, after all, why we do research in "social determinants"…
Ultimately the denial of white privilege is about the denial of systemic injustice, which is why a libertarian economist is not going to accept it as real; the libertarian worldview has at best limited room for a social contract and focuses nearly exclusively on personal responsibility. But even from a Biblical perspective we know systemic injustice exists because it is clearly one of the things to be obliterated during the Day of the LORD at the end of time, at the second coming. Isaiah 55-66 and Zechariah 8-14 are clear on this.
Joe is right. Even molecular and neurochemical research is coming into line: systemic racism is very likely real, and the bodies of people of color carry it – and transmit it. Denial of that reality is not in line with research.
And sorry for the shortening of my name. Apparently people don't have names over 20 characters long. But for clarity… this is Claudette Grinnell-Davis.
I can't tell you how disappointed I am that the professors that I know aren't on the list. You are to be congratulated for your achievement.
Only one thought as I scanned this, "Joe, Saul Alisnky?" You may
also sympathize with Margaret Sanger?
Biblical Truth is the only standard we need to be practicing Social Workers -our professional role is not dependent upon cultural norms.
Something to consider asking proponents of the two
mentioned above, "Have you seen 'Hillary's America'".
I do not pretend to know Dr. Kuilema's heart and any observations made are not intended to judge or label. However, I do not understand the apparent effort to distance himself from the term radical, while at the same time quoting Saul Alinsky who is famous for writing "Rules for Radicals." I do not know if the quote in the blog came from the book "Rules for Radicals," but I think it is worth noting that Mr. Alinsky dedicated that book to Lucifer.
I joined the NACSW because I felt some other organizations promoted anti-Christian ideology. I find it curious that a member of the Board of Directors of a Christian organization is quoting an author who acknowledges the efforts of Lucifer, even if it is "over-the-shoulder," in rebelling against the establishment, when the establishment was the Will of God. It may be that I am missing something. Just trying to understand.
Great Article
One of my concerns in both the Christian community and the social work community is this idea that there is only one path towards social justice.