Being devalued and discriminated against due to age is extremely common in the U.S. It can
run the gamut from young adults not being taken seriously, to older adults being seen as “too
old” to employ. Older persons in particular become the brunt of jokes, and are treated with
impatience or even disdain for not being “current enough” with technology. Let’s do what we
can to counter ageism and celebrate our human potentials as creations of God!
1. Be able to articulate what ageism is. “Like racism and sexism, ageism serves a social and
economic purpose: to legitimize and sustain inequalities between groups. It’s not about how we
look. It’s about how people in power assign meaning to how we look.”
https://thischairrocks.com/what-is-ageism/.
2. Learn from leaders in the field. Visit https://thischairrocks.com/, gateway to a wealth of
anti-ageism tools. Read their April 20, 2019 blogpost by a U.S. nun about age-shame.
https://thischairrocks.com/blog/
3. Make good use of great tools. Treasure houses of resources – such as LPF’s – are meant to
be explored and revisited. Another site to bookmark and share on your Facebook page is the
Old School clearinghouse of free and carefully vetted resources on ageism:
https://oldschool.info/#campaigns (Note: Old School is “explicitly about ageism, not positive,
productive, healthy, conscious, or creative aging.)
4. Make anti-ageism visible in an existing church or community forum. “Faith, Relationships
and Technology” was the theme of an ELCA Asian Lutheran Association Assembly.
Intergenerational issues were highlighted in panels and discussions.
5. Organize an anti-ageism day/event/forum. This could be as modest as an after-worship
discussion hour, or as far-reaching as a larger event that takes more planning. Who can you
collaborate with on anti-ageism advocacy/outreach?
–– Lily R .Wu, LPF Issues Communicator, New York City
