Creating Enemies

This is a sermon I preached for Calvary UMC in Frederick.

Scripture: Matthew 5:38-48 (NRSV)
 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Sermon: Did Jesus stutter?*

One of the variants of the meme.

There is a meme that I see from time to time that shows Jesus sitting beneath a tree, surrounded by people. He's teaching, and he says, “Love one another.” Another speech bubble appears from the crowd; “but what if,” the crowd asks, “what if they are gay or Muslim or have less money than me or don't have a home or have a different skin color or were born in a different country or voted for someone I don't like?”  And Jesus answers, “Did I stutter?”  Jesus tells us in our scripture reading today from Matthew’s Gospel to love our enemies. He tells us to pray for those who persecute us! And he doesn’t stutter when he says it.    

But we can still get around the difficulty of this scripture because, really, who are our enemies? After all, we are not superheroes. Most of us anyway. We aren’t fighting shadowy villains in spandex bent on taking over the world. Nor are we feudal kings fighting other lords for land, even though we might be side-eyeing our next-door neighbor for planting an ugly bush on our side of the property line. While there may be plenty of people we don’t like, enemy is probably not a word we use in our daily vocabulary.  But we do have enemies. And some of them are taught to us.

Some of you remember the Cold War, right? My dad loves bad 1970s action movies, so I have seen many many movies in which all the bad guys have terrible Russian accents. The epitome of evil, such movies teach us, can be found in Soviet Russia. It seemed so silly to me, but remember, I was two when the Wall between East and West Berlin came down. I never had duck and cover bombing drills in school. But I have experienced the creation of an enemy. When I was in ninth grade, we huddled in Health class and watched the news when the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City came down on September 11, 2001. I was taught pretty quickly that I had enemies after all. At first, it was just learning about this terrorist group called Al Qaeda. But eventually, through news reports that constantly used the word “Muslim” to describe the word “terrorist,” I forgot about white domestic terrorists like Timothy McVeigh, and learned that Muslims were the real terrorists. And terrorists were my enemy.

No one ever said to me, “Shannon, Muslims are your enemy.” But through media and people’s fear, that notion kind of sunk into me. So imagine three years after 9/11, when I went on my first trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and I found myself surrounded by Muslims. It was a little confusing. They were not very scary. We went to a big international event one evening when we on that first mission trip and I saw people wearing shirts in English that playfully, or snarkily, read: “I am a Muslim. Do not panic.” In fact, the Muslims I met had undergone far worse terror at the hands of Christians during the genocide in the 1990s than I had experienced on 9/11. But how easily we create these universally bad people in our imaginations.   If it had not been for Muslims, I might not be the Christian I am today. You may have heard me tell this story or read about it because I talk about it a lot: Ðana was one of our translators on that first trip to Bosnia, and she is who I visited earlier last month when I was on vacation. She is a Muslim; her father was killed near the community mosque by Christian soldiers when she was a child. One day, our host Saja took me and my sister with her and Ðana to a friend's house for a dinner. Being on a strange continent with strange people who didn’t speak our language eating strange, but surprisingly tasty, food in front of a house that was still stained with bullet holes should have been terrifying. But my sister and I sat thigh to thigh on a tiny bench and ate, listening to the drone of the huge beetles that zoomed around the porch light as well as the music of the almost-guttural Bosnian language. And in the midst of this, Ðana reached over and hugged us to her. “I love you,” she said. 

Ðana, a Muslim woman who had grown up during a war in a country that most USAmericans cannot locate on a map, a woman I had only known for something like two days at this point, told me and my sister, white Christian Americans who had idyllic childhoods but whose country was waging a war against Muslims in the Middle East, that she loved us. And it was in that moment of her telling us that she loved us that I felt God telling me that God loved me.   Love your enemies, Jesus said. He doesn’t tell us why. But in my life, loving someone I was taught was my enemy opened up new worlds for me. It was one of the most transformative experiences of my Christian journey. 

Now you might not get a chance to go someplace like Bosnia to test out Jesus’ command to love our enemies. But Muslims are not the only enemies that have been offered to us. Throughout history and in every culture, we demonize and marginalize.   And right now our culture seems to be all about the creation of enemies, along religious, racial, and political lines especially. Two weeks ago, I went to a preaching conference where two senators were also invited to speak. One of those senators was Cory Booker from New Jersey. He shared a lot about how we are in a moral moment as a country, one that should transcend political parties and he shared what he called the Tale of Two Hugs.

The first hug was between President Obama and Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. Senator Booker joked about how it was an awkward man hug, but pointed out that no matter how awkward it was, it was used as a political weapon against Governor Christie. How dare a good Republican hug that terrible President Obama! But Senator Booker reminded us how awful the devastation was after the hurricane, how exhausted and upset Governor Christie was. And how in that pain, the president reached out in compassion and the governor received it. Similarly, after Senator John McCain’s cancer diagnosis, when he came back to the floor of the senate, Senator Booker crossed the aisle to hug him. And he immediately received hate tweets. How dare he, a progressive, hug a terrible Republican! But Senator Booker said he saw a brother, one he disagreed with often but one who was a fellow human being, in pain, and so he reached out in love. 

Now in some ways, these men are enemies. Unlike me and Ðana who, when we first met, were teenage girls who liked the things all teenage girls liked despite the differences of our backgrounds, Republicans and Democrats often have competing agendas. And those agendas matter. Often, when we read the Gospel lesson to love our enemies, we use it to mean that we ought to just let people take advantage of us, that turning the other cheek when we are wronged means let ourselves be abused over and over again. We pray for those who persecute us and neglect voting against that persecution or marching in the street to speak out against it. I don’t think that’s what the scripture means at all. What Jesus is telling us to do is to recognize one another as human beings, as people in need of love and prayer even when we come from different backgrounds. Even if we disagree with one another. And that love and prayer can be transformational and draw us closer to God.

Jesus explains, For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?...And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Jesus tells us that there is a reward in loving even those enemies. That there is more to the abundant life he calls us to than us only hanging out with people who look like us and act like us and think like us. Instead, God intends a more beautiful world, one of real relationships and transformed hearts--- not only our enemies’ hearts, but our own hearts as well.

Now, I admit that I am preaching to myself this week. Not because society has created new enemies for me, or because some have been constructed when disagree with people, but because some of my friends were deeply wronged. You may be in a similar situation, sometimes seeing enemies at work or at family gatherings or even here at church. And you may see them as enemies because they are simply different from you and you don’t understand them, because they disagree with you, or maybe because they deeply wronged you. This scripture gives us direction to liberate us from the fear and anger with which having enemies burdens us. It reminds us that we don’t have to live this way; that instead we can choose to see one another as human and call one another to live in a new way together. 

Because Jesus doesn’t stutter. He says we are to love one another. Even when we disagree. Even when we are angry. Even while we keep working for justice. Even then we love. And we pray. My prayer for us is that we take this scripture to heart and learn to expect transformation.




*The original title of the sermon and refrain throughout that reference a meme perpetuate ableism. Rather than stuttering, we should be asking if Jesus misspoke. I am committed to reeducating myself about the ableism I've internalized and will work to not make such thoughtless mistakes in the future!

Iman Means Faith

This is the answer I gave to our Board of Ordained Ministry about an experience with peace with justice ministries I've had as a pastor. I wanted to write about my experience of Islam to counter the hate-speech that seems to be acceptable today, but, without the time during Advent, I thought I would recycle this:

A group of women from a church were sitting in a restaurant during Advent, and talking about how Mary of Nazareth, Jesus' mother, has been represented across cultures, including an Arabic representation. Mary is revered in some Muslim communities and is mentioned more in the Qu'ran than she is in the Bible. Except in the middle of this conversation,  one of the women said, “Well, if that's true, then it's too bad they [Muslims] all are still so violent.” 

Comments like this, willfully ignorant, incorrect, and even hateful, about Islam are too common in our churches. I have served congregations in Harford County, a largely white county, overwhelmingly Christian, and also woefully illiterate on other faiths. Some Christians do not see why such illiteracy is a problem, but the reality is that illiteracy breeds violence and intolerance. In his book on Christian identity in a multi-faith world, Brian McLaren writes, “Our root problem is the hostility that we often employ to make and keep our identities strong--- and whether those identities are political, economic, philosophical, scientific, or religious.”¹ If I wanted to interrupt the hostility, I would need to engage in peace and justice ministries that fostered interfaith relationships.

My own faith became stronger through my friendship with Muslims who I met through a mission trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2004 (and have returned to visit at least eight times). I have always felt called to interfaith youth work, believing in the South African concept of ubuntu, that we become who we are through relationship with others. I never expected to be about to do interfaith work in homogenous Harford County, but when preparing to teach confirmation, I sought non-Christian congregations to visit, and somehow came into contact with Tasniya Sultana, an organizer for Project Iman, a Muslim Girls youth group. We met, had a great time, and began to plan ways for our youth to get together.

The first year, we met twice, starting by meeting with Project Iman during Ramadan. Their group was much bigger than our own, particularly because only my girls in youth group were invited the first time. I also ended up bringing a few younger girls with my youth (whose pictures ended up in the paper).² Some of the youth went to the same school! We began with a craft where we learned to write our names in Arabic and talked about our favorite holidays. We shared stories, explaining in very basic terms how we walk in the footsteps of many of the same giants of faith, Abraham who they call Ibrahim, or Jesus who they call Isa, for instance. They spoke of Ramadan and the sacrifice of Ishmael (Isaac in the Bible). When our craft was finished, we stood up and got in a circle for a game. One of the leaders of Project Iman read a series of statements and we were supposed to take steps into the circle if the statement was true for us. She deftly included theological and scriptural statements along with statements about our families and favorite foods. And then they prayed. We sat at the tables in our own attitude of prayer while they prayed before breaking their fast. The girls from Presbury were quiet. I didn't see suspicion or self-righteousness or anything our culture teaches us about how Christians should see Muslims; instead, I only saw wonder and openness.

The second time we met was at Presbury. We ate together and painted birdhouses as a craft to go with the scripture I shared, Luke 12:22-29, about how we should not worry for God is with us. Then I had questions about how our faith teaches us to deal with worry and fear. One of the leaders from Project Iman said she loved the scripture! But the most powerful experience of the night was when we moved to the sanctuary and shared about our worship experiences. I told the kids they could ask each other whatever they wanted, but I also asked them questions. It was fascinating to see what kinds of questions they had for us, how they noticed the colors in the sanctuary and asked about their meaning, as well as to see how excited they were when I asked them to tell me about how they worship. It was a safe space where the Muslim girls were asked questions not to put them on the defensive but just out of wonder. And we as Christians were able to model Christ's hospitality.

Rev. Emily Scott, a Lutheran pastor of a dinner church called St. Lydia's in New York, said recently: “Sometimes you are seated next to someone so different, that you don't know how to start a conversation. And then something happens. In that moment, heaven and earth overlap, and God builds a bridge between the world as it is and the world as it should be.”³ The interfaith relationships between Project Iman and Presbury are fostering those moments where God builds a bridge between the world as it is and the world as it should be, a world of peace and justice where Muslims and Christians are more interested in eating, laughing, and sharing together than fighting or using hostility to shore up our identities. Our plans for this ministry are to expand it to all our youth, as there is now a Muslim youth group for boys that Project Iman works with, and to have not just dialogue together, but to work together for justice too. For Ramadan in 2016, we are planning a 30 Hour Famine-type event to raise money and awareness about world hunger. We want to continue to create that overlap between heaven and earth, that glimpse of earth as it should be, in our little corner of Harford County.



1Brian D. McLaren, Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World (New York: Jericho Books, 2012), 63




2See Nimra Nadeem, “Muslim, Christian girls join for interfaith iftar,” The Baltimore Sun, 28 July 2014, accessed 14 July 2015, http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/fallston-joppa/ph-ag-comm-interfaith-muslim-christian-20140728-story.html.



3Emily Scott, from a talk at the ELCA's national youth gathering posted by Nadia Boltz-Weber on Facebook, 18 July 2015, https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/11752340_859677020806230_5199339091003344713_n.jpg?oh=0222e446a363352940c43655630e7477&oe=56155FCB.

Stars

This sermon was preached on Epiphany at Presbury United Methodist Church. 

Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12 (NRSV)

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Sermon: Stars

Last week we skipped ahead to when Joseph, Mary, and Jesus escaped King Herod's vicious and evil plan to kill Jesus. We spoke of dreams--- and we see in our scripture today that the wise men were dreamers too--- and we spoke of the need to pay attention to dreams. The theme of paying attention is one we can link with this story too, the story of Epiphany, when the wise men come bearing gifts for Jesus. This is a story most of us have heard many times before, yet how often do we ourselves actually look up to see how God is speaking to us?

So, as we look to hear God speaking to us anew today, let us first pray:

Patient teacher, you awoke people in the East with the brightness of a star, and stirred something within them, sending them into the unknown in search of you.

Wake us up, stir something within us, and send us into the unknown today

through the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts. Amen.

Photo by Aaron Harrington

A few years ago I got Aaron a telescope for Christmas. We set the telescope up, found a map of the stars, and began gazing. Now, most of the time, I stood outside hoping Aaron would hurry up and get tired of the night sky because it was Christmas time and it was cold outside. But then I saw Venus, a big bright star sitting up on the horizon, and then Jupiter surrounded by moons, and then Saturn crowned with rings and everything, and then the moon, so close I could see all it's dimple-like craters. I still didn't like standing around in the cold, but it was pretty cool to see the majesty of the heavens so close it was as though I could reach out and put my fingers in those moon dimples. And when the telescope wasn't set up, I would still find myself looking up at night, lost in the twinkling, in the wonder.

Saturn (photo by Aaron Harrington)

The Moon (photo by Aaron Harrington)

Since we moved here, it is harder to use the telescope with all the lights on the street. To really get some good star-gazing in, you have to go to places called dark sky locations, basically areas far from the light pollution not just of cities but of towns too. On the East Coast, dark sky locations are basically non-existent. So here, living in a neighborhood that is never completely dark, the stars are not as potent with light. Some get lost in the flood of streetlight, making the sky seem faded almost. So, I stopped paying as much attention. When I take the dog out, I find myself pulling my coat tighter around me and keep my head down, focusing on the sidewalk rather than the tapestry of the cosmos above me that is magnificent despite the slight fading caused by light pollution. 

Map of light pollution

When I read about the wise people from the East in the Gospel of Matthew, I wonder how they kept focus, rather than so easily giving up on it all. The sky is a beautiful, immense, incredible thing, but life happens; we get busy. We forget that great expanse above us and stop paying attention to God's wonders. In ways small and large, we just find it easier to look at the cracks in the sidewalk than to turn our faces back to the wonders, revelations, and guideposts around us. Particularly if looking toward that beauty requires us to do something big and even uncomfortable.

Which got me to thinking: in the Gospel of Matthew, this story of the wise men and the star is sparse in detail because it is meant to be symbolic. There are guesses as to what the star the wise men saw was, but no definitive historical evidence. Similarly, the wise people themselves are ambiguous: “The term 'magi' [that is translated as wise men] suggests [that they are from] Persia, [but] their practice of astrology indicates Babylon, and the gifts they bring point to Arabia or the Syrian Desert.”¹ The story is filled with ambiguities to get us thinking, and maybe to put ourselves more easily in the story. As I wondered how the wise people were impassioned enough to follow the star, I began to see clues for how I could lift my head and stop gazing at the sidewalk, and turn instead to wonder. I began to see how I, and perhaps how all of us, can, like these wise people, keep my eyes on the sky and my heart in the quest for Christ.

The first thing we learn about the wise people is that they are from the East, a place very different from Israel. That does not help us much at first glance. We are already living in a place much different from ancient Israel. But in that simple description, we learn that the wise people were Gentiles, people who did not worship God as we understand God. Now we are Gentiles too, but we understand God through the same lens Jesus' people did, putting us more like the inhabitants of Jerusalem than the wise people. We too may ask how could they be so moved by God to go on this incredible journey when they did not even worship God “properly”? Yet it was they, and not the religious scholars of the day in Jerusalem, who sought to pay Jesus homage.

Presbury's youth group and Project Iman

Of course, I am not saying we should all convert to another religion so we can better understand Christ. Rather, this information reminds us that there are amazing gifts to be discovered in those who seek a connection with the living God but may not know the same name for God that we do.² When we build relationships with other seekers who are from different traditions, we are turning our faces toward wonder. Last year, our church partnered with a Muslim girls youth group, meeting once in the summer and again in the fall, and it was amazing to see the beauty in just sharing the journey to understand God rather than trying to convert one another. We broke bread with them and witnessed their prayer--- and I saw the wonder on our girls faces. We brought them into our sanctuary and shared what our worship was like and learned about their worship experiences. The sky darkened with all our questions, but strong pinpricks of light shone through as we fellowshiped together. We began to lift our gaze from our isolation, focusing only on the ground ahead of us, to see the light of God in the faces of those around us.

Another way we can lift our heads to God's wonders that we find in the wise men in in their learning. We translate the term magi as wise men, which tells us something. Walter Brueggemann, a preacher and scholar, refers to these wise people as Eastern intellectuals, and argues that though they may not have been Jewish, they were familiar with Jewish scripture like the books of Isaiah and Micah.³ So they kept focus on this star through their thirst for knowledge and their love of learning. Now, before those of you who are too cool for school roll your eyes at me, I don't think this love of learning has to be book learning, though hopefully that book called the bible is involved. We turn our eyes away from the star to the sidewalk when we become complacent in what we know. We stop looking up at the metaphorical stars God sends us because we think we know all we need to know. Instead, we need to teach one another. We need to read and share articles and devotionals. We need to share testimonies and interpretations of scripture. We do this weekly in bible study and in our contemporary service. Some of our lay servants also participate in an early morning prayer phone call where they have developed relationships and deepened their prayer lives together. But it comes first from a drive to continue learning.

The story of the wise people seeking Christ by the light of the star can be our story too. We can learn from them how better to look up, away from the cracked sidewalks in our lives, from the busyness around us, to the beauty of the stars in the sky, to those moments or people or places that can point us again in the direction of God. The last lesson we learn from the wise people that I will share this morning is to follow the star. I am passing out cut-out paper stars, an idea I got from a fellow clergy woman.⁴ “On each star [is] printed a word. I invite [you] to take a star and consider how God might be speaking to [you] this year through the word printed on [your] star.” Integrate the word into your prayer life throughout the year. Figure out in what way you can follow it. May it be a way of reorienting you, of turning your faces to the beauty Christ offers us. I encourage you to join us for bible study this year and our small worship group on Wednesday night. I encourage you to engage in mission. I encourage you just to reach out to someone different from you and build a friendship, seeking Christ in the unexpected. But if those steps are uncomfortable for you, start small. Pray on this word, and let this little paper star be the place from which God shows you new wonders.

Let us not only open our eyes to the light, but also let the light within us shine forth in all we do. For we are not just to be the wise people, opening our eyes to the wonder of God and the journey on which God takes us. We are also to be the star.⁵ So let your light shine!

1Daniel J. Harrington, “Notes on the Visit of the Magi and the Flight to Egypt,” Sacra Pagina, Volume 1: The Gospel of Matthew (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2007), 42.

2Stephen Bauman, “Pastoral Perspective on Matthew 2:1-12,” Epiphany of the Lord, Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, Volume 1, eds. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 216.

3Walter Brueggemann, “Missing by Nine Miles,” Inscribing the Text: Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggeman, ed. Anna Carter Florence (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004), 133, as quoted in Kathryn Mattews Huey, “The Season of Epiphany,” Sermon Seeds: Inclusive Reflections for Preaching from the United Church of Christ, Year C (Cleveland, Ohio: The Pilgrim Press, 2012), 38.

4The paragraph that follows comes from the ideas of fellow member of the Young Clergy Women's Project, which she describes in blog under the category “STARward”: Marci Auld Glass,STARward, Glass Overflowing: The place where Marci blogs about God's abundance, http://marciglass.com/category/starward/.

5“[I]n the Gospel of Matthew discipleship is often likened to a kind of shining, which recalls the light from the star that shined on the Christ child. Jesus tells his disciples, “You are the light of the world....let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (5:14,16). That disciples are called to shine is important to remember in the season of Epiphany, for now that Christ has ascended and the Spirit has been given, we are the ones through whom this light shines forth.” William J. Danaher, Jr., “Theological Perspective on Matthew 2:1-12,” Epiphany of the Lord, Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, Volume 1, eds. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 216.

The tragedy of 9/12

Reflecting on 9/11 and Islamophobia in this country

People say that you will never forget what you were doing when you hear about a national tragedy. I was stuck in the hallway during class change and heard about the planes crashing into the World Trade Center from the lips of immature teenage boys. I didn't believe it. When I got to health class, it was on the TV. We went to lunch early and we're allowed to sit by the windows--- in case of the probable? attack on a rural school in Maryland or something. We went home early. I was 13.

Now, I feel rather removed from the events of 9/11. I didn't know anyone in the state of New York let alone Manhattan. I didn't know anyone in the Pentagon, I didn't know anyone in the plane that crashed in Shanksville, PA. I was never one for patriotism either, particularly after the election of George W. Bush. But, especially today as we approach the anniversary of 9/11 amidst the controversy over building an Islamic cultural center a few blocks away from where the towers stood, I sum up my feelings about 9/11 using the words of slam poets Issac Miller and Christian Drake in their poem "Nine Twelve."

"To be honest, I stopped mourning 9/11 years ago. But I will never forget the tragedy of 9/12, the day we could have become a nation of outstretched hands and were asked only to shut up and salute.The moment we could have proven to our enemies that we are not what they think we are. We were almost America."

We were almost America.

I live in a country today where a "church" in Florida is burning Qu'rans in commemoration of the ninth anniversary of 9/11. Where a New York taxi driver was stabbed for being Muslim. Where a mosque in Tennessee was set on fire. Where an Islamic cultural center is part of a national debate because it has been slated to be built a few blocks from where the two towers were. And I am really struggling to understand how this Islamophobia is acceptable, how it fits with the ideals spouted in our idealistic version of USAmerican history.* The Onion, news satire, poked fun at those who equate Islam with terrorism in a joke article that actually reflects a sad truth:

"I almost gave in and listened to that guy defend Islam with words I didn't want to hear," Gentries [the man who already knows all he needs to know about Muslims] said. "But then I remembered how much easier it is to live in a world of black-and-white in which I can assign the label of 'other' to someone and use him as a vessel for all my fears and insecurities."

A sad but true commentary on what is an acceptable viewpoint among USAmericans today.

Tuesday, we had a chapel service at Drew dedicated to addressing "the mosque controversy." The Christian church bears responsibility in part for this Islamophobia, so the Drew community came together as a community asking for guidance. We sang songs of peace, looked to calls for justice, peace, and unity in the Qur'an, and saw clips from popular media interpreting this climate that we live in. We ended with a reflection from Dr. S. Wesley Ariarajah, our professor of world religions. I want to share two of his points in particular as we come up on this ninth anniversary.

First of all, we must stand up against those who use 9/11 as a tool to manipulate the public. Returning to the poem, if 9/11 could have become a tool of unity and a call for peace but instead became a rallying cry for ultranationalists, an excuse to hate Muslims and people in color in general.

Secondly, when a nation begins to identify minority communities as the enemy, as the problem, we are walking on the same slippery ground that let to the Holocaust. Ascribing collective guilt to a particular group of people is never an acceptable response to tragedy. Never. That is how genocide mentality functions! And we, particularly Christians, need to stand up voice this.

Rather, we need to welcome religious diversity, as a Christian community in Cordova has done. Let's, as Gainesville, Florida, mayor did, declare 9/11 Interfaith Solidarity Day. We need to live what God has commanded of us:

O you who believe, stand out firmly for God, as witnesses to fairness, and let not the hatred of others cause you to swerve toward wrong and depart from justice. Be just, that is closer to piety, and be conscious of God, for God is well-acquainted with all that you do.**

So as anti-Muslim sentiment climbs higher this week of 9/11, let us instead remember the tragedy of 9/12, that time when we could have used our pain for peace but instead shut up and saluted. Let us stand out firmly for God as witnesses to justice in our communities and this nation.

***

*Of course, it does fit with the reality of a USAmerican history of genocide, racism, and colonialism. But that is another post for another day.

**Qur’an 5:8. The Qur'an and Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad: Selections Annotated and Explained. Annotation by Sohaib N. Sultan. Translation by Yusuf Ali, revised by Sohaid N. Sultan. (Woodstock: Skylight Paths Publishing, 2007).