Introducing the Beached White Male

OK – I’m stealing this phrase, “Beached White Male,” admittedly, from Newsweek Magazine.

On April 17, 2011, the cover story featured the photograph of a middle-aged, graying white male in a black suit, fashionable white shirt cuffs exposed at the wrists, face down. He’s drenched in salt water, barely hanging on to a leather briefcase, also drenched, and lying helplessly on the sand, ocean waves lapping at the soles of his polished black leather shoes.

The headline screamed: “BEACHED WHITE MALE – He had a Big Job, a Big Office, a Big House. Now he’s all washed up and doesn’t have a freakin’ prayer.”

Talk about a truth bomb. Ka-Boom!

These are not particularly good days for the White Anglo Saxon Protestant Male. Especially those who have reached my age

• Baby Boomers are officially old school
• Our careers are either winding down or on the shelf.
• Most of us have less retirement income than expected.
• The organizations we started and/or ran have either disappeared or experienced re-invention by forty-year-olds or younger.
• Our prejudices (collective wisdom) and assumptions are either challenged or dismissed.
• We can no longer assume that we will win the election, land the job, remain in the corner office, or have the last word simply because we are tall, Caucasian, articulate, well read and crisply dressed. God-talk doesn’t help, either.
• The 60s and 70s seem like yesterday. But for most, they are dust-covered history.
• Sadly, we have left behind too many embarrassing messes in our wake.
• We have plenty of time to get philosophical – but no one is listening.

All that said, borrowing Dickens’ contradictory sentiment, in reverse order, my paraphrase: “These are the worst of times. [and] These are the best of times.”

I spent nearly ten years blogging weekly, never missing a post. My goal was 1,500 words (too many) per week. I had the freedom to write about anything that moved me. It’s time to pick it up again.

This time, I want to be more candid. More open. It doesn’t really matter anymore, because really, no one is listening anyway. So here are some of the things you may not have known about me back in the LeaderFOCUS days, mainly because I kept them to myself.

Confessions of a Beached White Male:

• I voted for Barack Obama in both Presidential elections. I have no regrets.
• My identification with conservative Republican politics came to an abrupt end when Gabby Gifford was shot in the face while addressing her supporters in an open-air meeting.
• I switched off conservative talk when Jeremiah Wright became the whipping boy of the movement. I now prefer public broadcasting.
• Changing one’s mind is OK. It’s a sign of intellectual health.
• I do not share the need to “win my country back.”
• In the 2016 election, I voted for Hillary Clinton. Neither the Evangelical spin-machine (Fox News) nor the ubiquitous Russian spawned fake news convinced me otherwise. My only regret is my failure to campaign with more vigor.
• Words/phrases like liberal, tolerant, diversity, social justice, equality and access are not pejoratives.
• My heart still beats for pastoral ministry, but not the American Evangelicalism that takes the form of the “religious right.”

There. I said it. In writing. I’m sorry if some of my readers find these admissions offensive. I take full responsibility for my failure to disclose them all to you sooner. Many if not most of my friends still live in that conservative world. In my way of thinking, friendship transcends party politics, philosophical leanings, theological nit-picking, religious intolerance, economic status, ethnic and cultural boundaries… well, I think you get the point. I’ve never been a great debater. I am not energized by point-counterpoint discussions that simply polarize. I prefer dialogue. I would much rather tell stories than make the case.

So, here I am. A Beached White Male. Exposed. But do I have a freakin’ prayer?

There is something else: powerful values that make these, yes, the best days of our lives.

Another Beached Male

There was another beached male, certainly not white, who landed himself in mythology’s pantheon of universally known characters. A great fish puked up Jonah on the beach mainly because he was running away from his true calling. At least that’s the way the story goes. (Come to think of it, the literalist preachers of my upbringing indicated that Jonah’s skin must have been bleached white from exposure to all those digestive chemicals.)

But then, covered in vomit and sand, Jonah got up. He took his message straight to Nineveh (side note: the same place renovated by Saddam Hussein, and recently crushed into dust by shameless, wanton ISIS ideologues).

So have I. Like Jonah, I got up, too.

It’s taken some time, but I’m back in business. I want to talk about it; write about it.

Technology enables all of us to create and contribute to the public dialogue. There is still time to pour our lives into an emerging generation.

We come from a tradition that taught us the values of reconciliation, empowerment, tolerance, self-sacrifice, grace, justice, mercy and love. It all needs application. Everywhere. Don’t forget to throw in truth and beauty.

We have unprecedented access to information, connectedness, progress, democratic process and formal education. There is no excuse to stop learning.

Even the BWM still has a place, but I have to earn it. Like everyone else.

Those of us (including me) who have been branded “evangelical” still have time to correct the record without abandoning ship.

So, I will proceed. I don’t believe I am alone. I won’t disguise my intent: I want to build a reader base of 10,000, at which time, I will publish my book, “The Beached White Male.”

If you resonate with what I’ve said, help me out. Share the blog – I’ll be utilizing all the tools: Facebook. Twitter. Email alerts.

Let’s pick ourselves up out of the sand, dump the soiled, drenched, dated business suit, toss the briefcase to the waves, tuck away our smartphones in a dry place, and head out into the new millennium, embracing all the benefits and opportunity while at the same time, addressing all those real needs.

Are you with me?

THE BEACHED WHITE MALE