I was thinking recently about the phrase, “accident of birth.” The moral philosopher Martha Nussbaum referred to it in the following paragraph:
“All human beings are worthy of equal respect and concern. The accident of where one is born is just that—an accident; any human being might have been born in any nation. Recognizing this, we should not allow differences of nationality or class or ethnic membership or even gender to erect barriers between us and our fellow human beings.” (The Cosmopolitan Tradition)
Having traveled to many other nations and lived in a few for various periods of time, I have sometimes wondered what my life would have been like if I’d been born in Europe or Africa or New Zealand. I wouldn’t have been an American citizen. I possibly wouldn’t have spoken English as my first language. I may have had a totally different career and family life. I might not have been raised as a Christian or as part of a church. It is unsettling to imagine a world in which so many of the things I take for granted might not have existed at all for me.
This type of “thought experiment” is initially worrying because I find so much joy and comfort in my life as it is—my vocation, my family, my citizenship here. Yet all these things that give me joy, also are accidents of birth and location. Some of them have come to me as a result of white privilege or by living in a First World nation. Some of them have come by chance or luck or old-fashioned hard work. They are how I’ve learned to define my life from my own perspective, but thankfully God’s perspective is wider and deeper and richer than my own.
If I’d been born in another nation, I would still have been just as much a recipient of God’s love and mercy as I am now. If my first language wasn’t English, I would still have the ability to learn of God, pray to God, and discover in Christ the “logos”/Word made flesh. If I had a different career, I would still be a child of God. And I’d wager to say that even if my faith upbringing had not been Christian, I would have hopefully learned about “loving one’s neighbors as I wish to be loved” in a way that included me in God’s welcoming covenant grace for all creation.
I guess all this is to say that I don’t believe there are “accidents of birth” from God’s perspective. Whoever and wherever we are, we are born into God’s world and thus benefit from God’s eternal love. This Lenten season, listen to the world news and consider your own life trajectory as you ponder the wonder of your own “non-accidental” birth.
—Randy Bush