Who's "we"?

      On student papers, I'm frequently asking "Who's 'we'?" The options are more than my student writers realize when they carelessly throw the word around.  Is it "we" of the class (and I do tell them to consider the class as the audience, so that does resolve it if they are following instructions)? 
     Sometimes it's "we humans," which is pretty clear and inclusive. Sometimes it cracks me up because it's clearly "we men" or "we women," omitting at least half of their readership.  Often it's "we who live on campus," forgetting the third who commute.
     Sometimes it's a subconscious racial identification, with white, brown, or black in mind.  That one always worries me. (Reminds me of the time I quit reading a particular novel because I reached a paragraph about fifty pages into the thing when the race of one character was suddenly mentioned, irrelevantly, when no other racial identities had been mentioned and race was not an issue in the story; I'm a pretty critical reader, I guess, but "we writers" ought to be more awake.)  It's the old Lone Ranger joke, "What do you mean 'we,' kimosabe?" (How is it spelled--need to google that.)
      Much of the time it is "we Americans," and that one, too, disturbs me (see the blog on competition).  "We Americans" is a good one when the subject is how the US can best help the rest of the world, but not when it's how this nation ought to be afraid of some outside threat, or how this nation can defeat, overcome, or otherwise win in some international competition.
      Any of these uses of "we" may be needed at times, in various contexts.  But "we" needs to be clear.  Let "us" (writers) not be guilty of unwarranted assumptions about our readers.
       But the point that most disturbs me is how little of the time the "we" is us Christians, the Church.  Why do "we believers in Jesus" so often think more about what "we Americans" are doing, or "we men" or "we women" are doing, than about what the Church is doing? I've actually sat in Sunday school classes where the discussion ranged more around what "we Americans" ought to be frightened of than around what "we the Church" ought to be doing to correct the town's or the world's ills.
      "We here at DCC" are a Christian college, so in fact the phrase "we as Christians" does occur rather frequently in student writing.  I wish it occurred more often (though I can get tired of "we as"--just say "Christians," or whatever else is clear).  When "we" stretch our "we-ness" to be "we the Church," no longer are we fighting for rights or hegemony or attention.  Instead we start seeing things from the more universal perspective, insofar as that is possible for "us people."  We start thinking about becoming more like Jesus--humbler, kinder, more patient, loving, and trustworthy.  If "we Christians" will do this, not only will we learn to be unafraid, but also we'll see the world start to pay attention to what "we've" been trying to tell it for centuries.
      I'd like to see us Christians be clear about our default "we"--"We the people of the body of Christ, in order to form a more perfect universe..."