Oh that you would know the Depths, and Heights and Width and Riches of his Love
You cannot drive out darkness with more darkness. It just gets darker. You need a candle to penetrate it. Light drives out darkness. You cannot drive out hate with more hate. Love penetrates it.
This was the theme of the gathering for a press conference of national interfaith leaders at the Western Presbyterian Church in DC yesterday which included IMAMs, protestant leaders, and Jewish Rabbis. The heart of God is so huge it can fill the whole world.
The alarming tide of anti-islamic sentiment is something that must be stood against. Waiting and doing nothing isn't an option. We are witnessing things that would have been considered intolerable agaisnt any other faith- in NY a cab driver had his throat slashed for merely stating he was muslim, mosques are being not only opposed but desecrated, a guy actually came into a mosque and urinated on the prayer rugs. In Gaithersburg, a Maryland DC suburb, they announced Sept. 11 as national Koran burning day . This is intolerable and unacceptable and clearly motivated by ignorant hate.
. I am a product of a "mixed" grandparentage- my grandfather was irish catholic and my grandmother lutheran protestant. In that day it was considered a scandal to marry outside the faith for a catholic, so they were not married in a catholic church. In northern ireland during that time, this marriage would have been plagued with persecutions such as firebombing of the house, social shunning everywhere, my father would have been tormented at schools, and it is unlikely I would even exist. Such was the hatred of protestants for catholics in northern ireland. Thank God my grandparents lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In this country we have seen our share of persecution of religious and ethnic minorities. Irish catholics are always cited as having born the brunt of early religious persecution but italian catholics saw their share of it as well. Catholics in general were considered a lower life form pretty much until JFK was elected by protestant majorities. The sentiment still exists in darker places.
Racial minorities were discriminated against and that story has been well told so I need not repeat it here.
There are communities, beacons - laserpoints-of light, witnesses to the Love of God and it's power to transcend petty ignorance and hatred, and demonstrate how deep, how wide, how large is the heart of God for all his people.
The Mount Airy part of Philadelphia was one of the first truly integrated communities in Philadelphia- in Pennsylvania for that part where black and white and mixed families lived side by side as neighbors developing community together and served as a laser of light to challenge the rest of Philadelphia. Google it. I am sure it ruffled a few feathers of the Chestnut Hill self-annointed aristocracy back in the day.
Western Presbyterian Church in DC is another such laser of light. It is a house of prayer for all people like the National Cathedral in Washington, where that is actually their moto as we were reminded yesterday by the Anglican Canon who visited Western Presbyterian to join in the press conference (see note below). Western houses the Friday prayer services of the GW Muslim community which has expanded to other muslims throughout the community. They are in constant inter-faith dialogue. It hosted the press conference yesterday and the pastor there announced that any assault against any faith community is an assault against us all and we all stand together in opposition against bigotry and the violence it inspires. He noted that the feeding program that Western runs in it's large basement and industrial kitchen, "Miriam's Kitchen" has Muslim volunteers and serves Muslim homeless clients. This is a model of how faith communities can work co-operatively to be God's heart and hands in the world serving the poor. A laser of light.
The Christians might say, we don't feed them because they are Christian we feed them because we are Christian. The Muslims might say, we don't feed them because they are Muslim, we feed them because we are Muslim. And here is Common Ground. Each teaches that a central tenet of their faith is to serve the poor. We can do that together.
We will be blessed to the extent that we did to the least of these.
Another laser of light is Georgetown University and it's Woodstock Center and Center for Islamic Christian understanding and the affiliated Jesuit church Holy Trinity with it's strong social justice emphasis and ministry- which recently hosted a dinner at which Drew Christiansen, S.J. Jesuit Editor in Chief of America magazine and former chief diplomat with the Bishop's conference spoke poignantly about the need to reach out to other faiths of good will, particularly moderate muslims. Georgetown has a campus in Quatar and have had a muslim chaplain on campus for years (both main campus and at the law center).
Jesuits- Lasers of Light- living the Largess of the Love of God.
Rabbis at the press conference yesterday spoke about the fact that Muslims in the US benefit from and learn from our traditions of egalitarianism, and can export that. We can learn some things from them also. They noted that the Jews were so persecuted in this country early in its founding that they were not only villified and called all manner of vile names but synagogues were so resisted that it took an act of Congress to establish the first one in DC in the early 1900s.
They noted that the American Muslims trying to build a Muslim community center at 'ground zero' come with an olive branch and are seeking reconciliation.
Each religion teaches that God requires a humility before that pierces pride and acknowledges that we are but children of God all seeking to do his will. Lest you become like children you won't see the kingdom- it is a profound humility that God is looking for. Muslims are an Abrahamic tradition that recognize aspects of Jesus' life, and they revere the Virgin Mary. There is a lot of common ground if we stop the noise long enough to listen. And it requires an intentional effort to educate ourselves better.
Hatred, hate speech, inflammatory rhetoric that inspires bigotry and a nationalistic jingoistic recreation of God in the image of a distorted Republican party or agenda isn't truly purely of God- it's out of the mindset of some seriously misguided people. It will not serve in the long run either the Republican party nor the country. It's the same sort of flash in the pan insolence defying the great Love of God as the people who hosed down the civil rights marchers, the people in Ireland who firebombed houses, the people who burned crosses and churchs in Mississippi and the people who desecrate synagogues- all in the misguided name of God.
God is Love. Would you rhetorically urinate on your brother's carpet?
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