Wisdom Training on Gatekeeping
Who Should Hold the Gate?
Gatekeeping is not automatically good or bad. Wisdom means looking at who controls the gate, what they are protecting, who they are stopping, why they are stopping them, and what happens when the gate is opened.
Is gatekeeping wrong in general?
Gatekeeping is bad when it’s done by bad people to stop good people from getting resources.
Bad people using bad things/ underhanded methods and blocking the way of good people and good things is wrong.
Bad people putting bad things in the way or stopping good people from accessing good things is what’s wrong.
Sometimes somebody has to guard access, protect standards, or stop abuse.
A bad gatekeeper uses control to hoard opportunity, protect their own status, punish outsiders, or keep capable people away from land, knowledge, tools, institutions, funding, publication, food, housing, or other resources they could put to good use.
Gatekeeping becomes evil when bad people control the gate and use it to stop good, capable people from reaching resources they could use to create life, solve problems, and help others.
Good gatekeeping
Good gatekeeping can protect good resources from people who would destroy, waste, exploit, or corrupt them.
Bad gatekeeping
Bad gatekeeping can keep good people away from resources, opportunities, knowledge, land, tools, or institutions they could use well.
Do not judge only the existence of the gate.
A gate can be good while the thing behind it is bad, or a gate can be bad while the thing behind it is good.
Look at what is behind the gate, who is being stopped, who controls access, and why.
A locked medicine cabinet keeps a small child from getting dangerous drugs. The drugs can harm the child, so the gate is good.
Requiring prescriptions for certain strong drugs can also be a good gate. The rule limits access because the thing being controlled can cause serious harm if used wrongly.
A corrupt official could stop a capable family from accessing safe land because they do not have the right connections, even though they could use that land to build a home, grow food, and create something good.
The land is good. The gatekeeping is bad.
When is it okay for a good person to block another good person from a good thing?
If I have something good and giving it to you would seriously impact me, my husband or wife, my children, or my household, I have the right to say no if I decide that is necessary.
A good person does not become bad simply because they protect the well-being of their own household.
The good thing does not become bad either. The issue is whether giving access to it would seriously deplete the person being asked to give, or seriously harm the people they are responsible for.
There is always the dynamic voice of God. There may be times when God calls a person to give sacrificially.
But in general, God does not require good people to be good to other good people at the expense of their own well-being or the well-being of their family. God is a person of abundance and people having more than enough so that situations like these won’t have to occur. That is the greater aim and focus to achieve rather than worry about one off cases like these ever occurring. I just mentioned it in here because it came to mind, lest you be guilted into doing something you don’t want to do just because you like or admire another person. Finally once you state your reason clearly to another good person, a good person would not press the issue because they too have a family that they love, so they can understand how you feel and they wouldn’t want you to cause your family troubles. This is way good people think.
Is money the only gatekeeping method?
Rules, credentials, permits, social status, ownership, bureaucracy, technology, geography, language, connections, discrimination, information control, waiting lists, institutional approval, and even physical barriers can all be used to gatekeep access to good things.
