Booker T. Washington and the GI generation

I'm reading Gil Rendle's engaging book on "The Multigenerational Congregation." His general thesis is that our congregations have large clusters of members of the "GI" generation, and large clusters of (late) baby boomers, and very few folks in-between those two groups. This leads to a creative tension that can sometimes turn into disconnects in the congregation as the pre-1946 (people 63 and over) act based on their values and assumptions and the post-1946 generation (post '56 are who you'll mostly find in a congregation) act based on their values and assumptions.

If you think about the disagreements you've witnessed in your congregation you may find that this fits.

I haven't gotten to the part where he explains how to overcome these disconnects (though I have some ideas), but I got to thinking about the health care debates, the racial sub-text (and sometimes main-text) in our national dialogues now.

Are we having the same generational disconnect around health care, environmental protection, equal marriage, etc? and are we having the debates, all over again, that raged between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Dubois?

There may be more parallels (and I invite folks' contributions) but what struck me first was the three characteristics of the "GI" generation named by Rendle (paraphrasing mine):
1) Delayed gratification: the idea is that if you keep your own nose clean, hunker down, and just work hard, it will come right in the end. Washington advocated this approach, even using it to postpone agitation for civil rights.
2) Identification with the group: the idea is that the group is the norm and individuals need to conform to the group. Washington demanded, and received fierce loyalty from his followers, condemning those who broke away from the 'party line.' This idea is also used to establish white middle class reality as The Reality and thus to marginalize all other people. There were epithets to refer to black people acting like white people in Booker T. Washington's day, and they were leveled at him.
3) An assumption of sameness that arose from an assumption that there was such a thing as a single truth or a single right way that all should adhere to. This 'one-size-fits-all' approach to truth prevented white americans from hearing the unique experiences of black americans, prevented people with power from recognizing the goods of diversity, and led many black americans to accept the pronouncements about truth that fell from B.T. Washington's lips.

I will leave the conclusions that may be drawn about current events, and individual congregations to my readers.

For a positive spin on delayed gratification see the T.E.D. talk on "Don't Eat the Marshmallow." I also feel very strongly that identification with the human race, across difference, and indeed with all life, is critical for the future of our survival. As with everything, there are pros and cons to the life stance of the GI generation.