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| Swaggart And Sororit ...
Swaggart And Sororities: Too Tempting To Resist
by
Lisa Earle McLeod
SUMMARY:
What do Jimmy Swaggart, a beer-guzzling frat boy, and Hootie Johnson have in common? They¹ll let you into... |
What do Jimmy Swaggart, a beer-guzzling frat boy, and Hootie Johnson have in common?
They'll let you into their club - but don't invite any of "those people" to come along.
Just as Chip from Delta Tau Delta keeps the math geeks at bay, Hootie, the Augusta National Golf Club chair, keeps golfers safe from the likes of blacks and women.
You can call it racist, sexist, bigoted or elitist, and it doesn't matter whether it's a coming from a religious leader, a guy with a green jacket or a 19-year-old who just spilled Hunch Punch all over his khakis - telling your associates that membership in your club as proof of their superiority is one of the most effective recruiting and retention techniques around.
In a recent AARP magazine article, author Karen Armstrong, a former nun-turned-religious scholar says, "There are some people, I suspect, who would feel obscurely cheated, if when they finally arrived in heaven, they found everybody else there as well."
"Heaven would not be heaven unless those who reached it could peer over the celestial parapets and watch other unfortunates roasting below."
After I fell over laughing, I realized that this thought process shows up everywhere from middle school cliques to world affairs. The better part of our nature wants to belong, but then once we get in, our evil twin takes over and tries to keep everybody else out.
For some reason it's hard to feel good about ourselves, or our group, unless we think we've got one up on the rest of the world.
Try to imagine the Kappa Gammas telling a prospective pledge, "Yes, we are fine group of young women, but we're actually no better the Zetas or the Tri-Delts down the way. And for that matter, all the girls who didn't pledge a sorority are equally valued human beings as well."
We all want to feel special and to think that we've been chosen - whether it was by God or the rush chairman. We want to believe that somebody important looked out over the whole universe and picked us to be part of their club.
Yet as much as we may crave love and acceptance, a little part of us can't believe we deserve it just for being ourselves. If we want to get in, we've think we've got to earn it.
So we jump through all kinds of hoops to prove we're worthy.
If you have to wear a red lacy thong on your head for a week or drive all the senior sisters to class every day, it seems like a small price to pay to be part of the cool crowd. And if you're looking for eternal bliss, it's only natural to assume the standards are even higher.
Yet once a club or group gives us the coveted two thumbs up, we often feel the only way we can continue to keep it special is by keeping others out.
If they open the doors and let everybody else in, we'll be right back to square one - just another one of the bungling masses.
But is our faith in ourselves and our fellow people so limited that we require a group stamp of approval just to feel like we belong? And are our minds so small that we think specialness is enhanced by limiting it to a small group of people?
It might be nice to believe that a religion, country club or social group chose you because you're better than everybody else - or that you choose them and earned your way in because you are a superior human being.
Nice as they may be, the Zeta Tau Alphas don't have a lock on partying and sisterhood anymore than one religion has exclusive rights to morality and spiritual truths.
The truth is most of our group affiliations - be they religious or social - reflect more about our economic status, geography and upbringing than they do the core of who we really are.
It's tempting to buy into it when someone tells you that becoming one of them will make you special, particularly if you don't believe you already are.
Being part of a group can be a wonderful thing, whether it's people to worship with, a community to support you as face life on your own or folks who share your favorite hobby. But if the main motivation of an organization is to maintain its exclusivity, that rotten foundation eventually will eat away at the very feeling of camaraderie groups are meant to create.
Augusta National Golf Course finally did let some blacks in, and it looks like women may be next. I have no doubt the barriers we've erected to separate us are gradually coming down, But I have to wonder if our imagery of heaven as a gated community will ever go away.
As long as we're convinced that Saint Peter is sitting in a guard shack, checking off names before he lets people in, we're never going to be completely confident of our own ability to get through.
But at a certain point, doing background checks and raising and lowering the gate so much becomes more trouble than it's worth. God has better things to do with her time than protecting the exclusivity of her community.
She's got some big news to share with Brother Swaggart and Pledge Class President Chip. Now if only she could track down Hootie to set up a tee time, she could invite all her friends come up to the club and play.
Article Source: http://www.elrincondelantropologo.com/
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| About the Author |
Lisa Earle McLeod - Inspirational Humorist
Lisa Earle McLeod is a syndicated columnist, a nationally recognized speaker and the author of Forget Perfect: Finding Joy, Meaning, and Satisfaction in the Life Youve Already Got and the YOU You Already Are. (Penguin/Putnam) She has been featured in Real Simple, Essence, and The New York Times and seen on Good Morning America, Lifetime and FOX.
Lisa has been called "Erma Bombeck with an edge." Her unique combination of wicked cultural commentary, insightful advice and laugh-till- you-wet-your pants humor delights audiences and readers.
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