Interfaith Insight - 2022
Permanent link for "Our faiths shape our prejudices and our ideals" by Doug Kindschi on March 22, 2022
How do our faiths shape our prejudices as well as our ideals?
Whether it be the motivations of Christian white supremacist groups or violent acts of anti-Semitism, these prejudices and attitudes have a long history. Each of our religious scriptures and texts are read in multiple ways leading to different actions. These interpretations have been centuries in the making and understanding this history can help us understand why some prejudices as well as some of our ideals persist today.
Fortunately, we have a distinguished historian coming to help us sort this out. Dr. David Nirenberg is known for his wide-ranging scholarship on the interaction of Christians, Jews and Muslims that has led to multiple books and major awards. His first book, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages , published in 1996 by Princeton University Press, explored the ways conflict shaped the interactions among the various religious communities of that time. His book Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, Medieval and Modern , published by the University of Chicago Press in 2014, draws direct connection between the relationships of the faiths of that period and and their relations in the present.
In this latter book he pays “close attention to how Muslim, Jewish, and Christian neighbors loved, tolerated, massacred, and expelled each other – all in the name of God – in periods and places both long ago and far away.” But he continues, “No matter how wrongheaded or bizarre these ways of a distant past may seem, they have something to teach us about how we think and act today.”
Nirenberg describes how the three religions are interdependent and constantly transforming themselves by interacting with each other. He warns against what he calls a dangerous fantasy, that “if only all converted to the truth we could live together in peace.” He also believes that it is a false hope to think merely knowing more about each other would necessarily lead to loving each other more. He presents a more realistic “hope that we can become a bit more self-aware, more critical of the ways we have learned to think with and about our neighbors, and that this critical awareness can have an impact on how we then act in the world.”
He calls it a neighborliness “in thought,” meaning “that believers in all three faiths define themselves and their place in this world and the one to come by thinking in terms of the other faiths.” He shows how throughout history “Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities have imagined and reimagined themselves by thinking about and living with each other.” Our faith traditions “have never been independent of each other,” he adds, but “have constantly transformed themselves, reinterpreting both their scriptures and their histories.”
Nirenberg’s other books illustrate the breadth of his scholarship, dealing with aesthetic theology and the understanding of Judaism in Christian painting and poetry, as well as the history of anti-Semitism. He even co-authored a book with his mathematician father on a philosophical history of number and being human.
His career at the University of Chicago has included faculty appointments in social science, history, and the Divinity School. He held an endowed chair as a Distinguished Service Professor, and was the founding director of a center for Culture and Society. Nirenberg has also held administrative positions as Dean of Social Sciences, Executive Vice Provost, and most recently as Dean of the Divinity School.
Nirenberg was recently selected to lead the prestigious Advanced Study Institute for in Princeton, N.J, whose founding professor was Albert Einstein and has included many other famous scientists and scholars. He began his new appointment in February this year as its Director and Leon Levy Professor. We are so honored that he will be returning to our community to present this year’s lectures for the Interfaith Academic Consortium. He was here previously in 2008 speaking on the theme One God, Three Scriptures: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam at the Consortium conference held at Aquinas College.
The Interfaith Academic Consortium was created in 2000 by Sylvia Kaufman with memberships from eight area colleges, universities, and theological seminaries. It holds conferences annually in the years when there is not a major triennial Jewish-Christian-Muslim Dialogue.
Permanent link for When Hate Vents its Fury by Rob Franciosi on March 15, 2022
Imagine a conversation between two murdered teenagers, victims of hatred who meet in a place called Memory, a place where they are no longer pursued by the brutal forces that stole their lives.
What might they talk about? And more importantly, what might we learn by eavesdropping on their conversation?
These questions and many others are posed by playwright Jane Langhart Cohen in Anne and Emmett, her provocative drama which stages an imaginary meeting between Anne Frank and Emmett Till -- two young victims of hatred who died in obscurity, yet whose lives are today remembered all across the globe.
Nearly everyone has some understanding of Anne Frank’s story and, at least among the generation that fills my classrooms, where many know the outline of what was perpetrated against Emmett Till. His murder in August 1955 at the hands of two Southern racists became a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement of the 1950s, one comparable in its effects to the arrest of Rosa Parks on a Montgomery bus several months later.
Anne and Emmett succeeds because it imagines the Chicago boy and the Amsterdam girl on the same stage for ninety minutes, allowing us to engage them together, to contemplate just how these two young people were enveloped by history’s maelstrom.
Anne’s famous diary convinces many young readers that they know the author, though her life and death in Europe remains alien to them, so that transforming her into a “relatable” American teen seems a disservice to her memory. Similarly, Emmett Till’s fate in the Jim Crow South requires a leap of imagination for those with no memory, let alone experience, of legal segregation, though studying American history or reading To Kill a Mockingbird may lessen the gap between their knowledge and Till’s story.
Yet for all the distance between the worlds of Anne and Emmett and our own, the continuing stains of racism and anti-Semitism which destroyed them add a measure of urgency to setting their stories side by side.
No doubt some viewers of the play will object to drawing parallels between genocide and 1950s Mississippi barbarism, but asserting the Holocaust’s incomparability has not prevented its misuse. To link it to another event, I think, is justified when the connection enhances understanding of both, providing what critic Michael Rothberg calls instances of “multi-directional memory.”
Aligning the crimes of Nazi Germany to those of the Jim Crow South can in fact deepen our understanding of the larger forces which engulfed both Anne Frank and Emmett Till.
The Nazis, for example, often cited lynching in the South as evidence of the need for a more “orderly” and legal solution to the so-called Jewish question. And when W.E.B. Dubois, noted author of The Souls of Black Folk, who had declared “the color line” as the issue of the 20th century, visited the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto, he came away with a new view of the race problem, “one that cut across lines of color and physique and belief and status and was a matter of cultural patterns, perverted teaching, and human hate and prejudice.”
While watching the streamed version of Anne and Emmett last year, I was especially struck by their youth.
Maybe it’s the sophistication of Anne’s prose, or the alleged sexual affront that enraged Emmett’s murderers, but we too easily forget that both were just children when they died.
For decades Anne Frank has signified all Holocaust victims. But a small memorial in the conservatory at Meijer Gardens, dedicated to her memory and to the 1.5 million murdered Jewish children, poignantly reminds us that in the hells of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, she was only 15 years old. Similarly, the slaying of Emmett Till, though often placed within the larger pattern of lynching across the South, obscures that he had just turned 14 the month before his murder.
Anne Frank alone amidst the dead and the cold winds at Bergen-Belsen. Young Emmett Till facing the adults about to drag him into the suffocating heat of an endless night. These haunting scenes not only warrant comparison, but warn us of a human evil which cuts across matters of race, religion, gender, and ethnicity — when hate vents its fury upon children.
Anne and Emmett will be staged on March 24, 2022, at 7 p.m. in the Loosemore Auditorium on GVSU’s downtown Pew Campus. Admission is free and no tickets are required.
Rob Franciosi is a professor of English and Honors at GVSU where he teaches courses on the Holocaust and American Literature
Posted on Permanent link for When Hate Vents its Fury by Rob Franciosi on March 15, 2022.
Permanent link for "Ukraine, also a religious battle" by Doug Kindschi on March 8, 2022
“Putin is after more than land — he wants the religious soul of Ukraine. Make no mistake, Putin is seeking full capitulation from Ukraine — both physical and spiritual.”
This was the lead for an article last week published by Religion News Service, written by Knox Thames, former special envoy for religious minorities at the U.S. Department of State, serving during the Obama and Trump administrations. He notes that if Russia’s aggression succeeds then “religious freedom will be one of the many causalities.”
The predominant religion of Ukraine is Eastern Orthodox Christianity. It is traced back to the 10th Century when Prince Vladimir (Volodymyr in Ukrainian) the Great brought it to Kyiv from the Byzantine Empire. Legend has it that he made this decision after sending his envoys to Constantinople. They visited Hagia Sophia, observed the Orthodox liturgy, noted its engagement of the physical senses, and felt God’s holy presence. They responded, “We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth.” Vladimir, his family and associates were baptized in the Dnieper River in Kyiv and he installed it as the state religion.
Orthodoxy in Ukraine is divided into two sides, the Orthodox church under the Moscow Patriarch and the Ukrainian Orthodox, which was recognized by the patriarch of Constantinople as an independent church. This recognition made them considered to be “autocephalous,” or self-governing and able to appoint their own patriarch. This was protested and not recognized by the Patriarch of Moscow and became one of Putin’s excuses for invading Ukraine in order to “unite the church.” Should Russia win this war it will likely lead to persecution not only of the Ukrainian Orthodox church but also of other religious bodies that are currently recognized in Ukraine, such as Roman Catholics, Protestants and various evangelical denominations, as well as non-Christian minority groups such as the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu populations. It should be noted that Ukraine has in its constitution the freedom of religion.
Of particular note is the experience of the Jewish people in Ukraine who experienced the killing of between 1.2 million and 1.6 million people under Hitler’s Nazi rule. Since Ukraine’s independence in 1991, annual events commemorating that tragedy take place at the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial in Kyiv, recognizing the site where 33,771 of the city’s Jews were systematically killed by machine-gun fire in a two-day massacre in 1941.
Last week’s Russian bombing near that site of the nearby Kyiv main television tower reminded the Jewish community worldwide of that terrible tragedy, leading to condemnation by the Yad Vashem Memorial Museum in Israel as well as from leaders of the American Jewish Committee and from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was also a reminder of the way Jews were treated under Russian rule in the Soviet Union when thousands fled to the United States and to Israel.
It was an insult as well to the entire Ukrainian community who heard Putin claim he went into their country to rid it of Nazi influence, when they had just recently elected, by over 70%, a Jewish president. Volodymyr Zelensky has never denied his Jewish identity and three of his great uncles were executed by the Nazis. Shortly after the strike he tweeted, “what is the point of saying ‘never again’ for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar?”
Recent surveys by the Pew Research organization have found that Ukraine is the most accepting of Jews among all Central and Eastern European countries. While nowhere near the number prior to Hitler, there are estimated to be between 50,000 and 100,000 Jews currently living in Ukraine, and the Jewish religious, cultural, and educational institutions are being rebuilt and expanded.
Russian victory in this invasion would again be difficult for the Jewish community in Ukraine as it was during the Soviet days. In 2017 the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom listed Russia as a “country of particular concern” for creating an increasingly repressive environment for religious minorities. The Washington Post reported on a letter it obtained from the U.S. to the United Nations warning of further Russian human rights abuses against vulnerable groups in Ukraine. Religious minorities would be targeted, officials said, and they reported that Russian forces were creating lists of Ukrainians who would be killed or sent to camps following a military occupation.
In a recent commentary, David French, senior editor for the online conservative news source The Dispatch, wrote of Zelensky that he “was an ordinary man caught in extraordinary times, because evil often leaves virtue with few good choices.” He also noted the strong and deep bonds that have grown between evangelical churches (with which he identifies) and Ukrainian churches. He refers to these deep bonds and not yet knowing “the long-term political or cultural impact of those ties, but they’re very real, and they’re one reason why this war (and Zelensky’s courage) is hitting so very many Americans straight in the heart.”
The tragedy of war is always disturbing and protection of the rights of religious minorities is often the litmus test for democracy. It is a test that the region cannot fail without dire consequences. It is incumbent on all persons of good will to protect the freedom of religion and the security of democracy. Much is at stake.
Posted on Permanent link for "Ukraine, also a religious battle" by Doug Kindschi on March 8, 2022.
Permanent link for "Living in a world of lies, violence, war, and evil" by Doug Kindschi on March 1, 2022
“What begins in lies tends to end in carnage.”
This is the way columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. concluded his column that appeared in Sunday’s Detroit Free Press. Titled, How America’s disdain for truth emboldened Putin, he compared the lies of the Russian dictator to those of Adolf Hitler, who when preparing to cross the border into Poland began with a big lie. Hitler justified his actions, Pitts writes, “on the pretext that ethnic Germans were being persecuted. German operatives, disguised as Poles, even staged an attack on a German radio station, yelling anti-German threats into the microphone. With that lie, the most devastating war in the history of the world began.”
We don’t know where the current invasion of Ukraine will lead, but we do know it has begun with lies. Lies by Putin that he had no intention to invade even as he massed over 100,000 troops and military weapons near the border, lies that his effort was “peacekeeping,” lies that he was protecting Russians who lived in the eastern part of the independent country, lies about evicting Nazis from Ukraine which had democratically elected a Jewish person as its president. As with Hitler, he began with lies. Where will it end?
But Pitts doesn’t end with historical comparisons to Nazi Germany, he shines the light on the more recent history in our own country where a systematic pattern of lies led to the “Big Lie” that sought to destroy our own democracy.
Many innocent citizens of Ukraine have already been killed. Where will it end? Pitts can only conclude, “What begins in lies tends to end in carnage.”
A recent webinar from the Religion & Society program at the Aspen Institute focused on the lie that led to the insurrection on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Religion was essential to what happened on Jan. 6. Religious imagery, biblical passages, and religious symbols gave permission and validation for those who supported the lie. This has all been documented by a project at the University of Alabama Department of Religious Studies, and Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. It was reported by the Baptist News Global and can be accessed at: https://baptistnews.com/tag/capitolsiegereligion/
One of the webinar speakers, Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, is the dean of the Episcopal Divinity School and Professor of Theology at Union Theological Seminary. She gave a powerful analysis of where we are as a country in our path to a truly democratic nation with respect for all members. At our country’s founding it was only white, landowning males who were allowed to vote, yet the goal was to create a democracy for all. It took a long time to arrive where we are today, and there is still much to be accomplished in order to reach the goal. Democracy was not and is not a full reality, but it has been an aspiration to be that. And we are all responsible to work toward that goal.
The events of January 6 were a wake-up call for those who believe in that goal, she said, and it is our responsibility to “speak the truth.” What kind of a nation do we want to be? Can we grow into that vision or will we be pulled back to an earlier, more limited understanding of who counts as full citizens? Faith leaders have historically been at the forefront of the challenging effort of expanding what justice means for all. We are all accountable not just for how things are, but how they should be. Citing the experience in South Africa, she noted, it was a religious leader, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was called to lead the Truth and Reconciliation effort. But it begins with Truth, and only then can we hope for Reconciliation.
Rev. Dr. Douglas concluded by urging faith communities to step forward and speak the truth: "Faith communities play a significant role in leading the way to becoming a nation where every single human being will be treated as sacred."
Reading Pitts’ column and watching the Religion & Society webinar has challenged me, as a Christian, to stand against those who would attempt to use my faith to perpetuate lies. I trust that a great many persons of faith will also step forward to “tell the truth.” We can no longer hide behind separation of church and state. That separation has already been breached, and people of faith must regain a leadership role in preventing carnage of war on the world scene as well as in the threats to our democracy. It is time to tell the truth!
Permanent link for "Diversity that surprises us with wisdom" by Doug Kindschi on February 22, 2022
“God clearly loves diversity,” writes author and Franciscan priest Richard Rohr. “All we need to do is look at the animal world, or the world under the sea, or each human being: who of us looks exactly alike? We are always different. Is there any evidence to show where, in all creation, that God prefers uniformity?” Rohr continues by questioning why we so often seek uniformity while it appears that God likes radical diversity.
We split into separate tribes around differences in belief, seeking uniformity rather than unity. It seems like we usually, if not always, seek comfort in being around people who look like us, dress like us, even think like us. Look at our racial divisions, economic separations, religious divisions, and even political polarization. Our ego is more comfortable with uniformity.
Bishop Tutu was a forceful voice in getting us to recognize that our worth is not from our race, economic standing, or our achievements, but from our very existence. “God has created us,” he writes, “providing us with our very existence … each one of us is of immense worth, of infinite value because God loved us.” In conversation with Rohr reported in his book Falling Upwards, Tutu added, “We are only the light bulbs, Richard, and our job is just to remain screwed in!”
Brian McLaren, evangelical writer, former pastor, and now colleague with Rohr at the Center for Action and Contemplation, writes that his “Christian identity is both strong and kind. By strong I mean vigorous, vital, durable, motivating, faithful, attractive, and defining. . . . By kind I mean something far more robust than mere tolerance, political correctness, or coexistence: I mean benevolent, hospitable, accepting, interested, and loving, so that the stronger our Christian faith, the more goodwill we will feel and show toward those of other faiths, seeking to understand and appreciate their religion from their point of view.”
Could it be that God’s love for diversity could also mean that God loves the diversity of religious understanding? Is God’s truth bigger than our finite human understanding?
Jonathan Sacks, a Conservative rabbi and author of the Dignity of Difference, in an interview with Krista Tippett, recounts the passage in the Torah where Moses sees the burning bush and asks God, “Who are you?” He then translates the Hebrew word response as, “I will be who or how or where I will be.” Or, as Sacks writes, “Don’t think you can predict me. I am a God who is going to surprise you.”
Sacks continues, “One of the ways God surprises us is by letting a Jew or a Christian discover the trace of God’s presence in a Buddhist monk, or a Sikh tradition of hospitality, or the graciousness of Hindu life. Don’t think we can confine God into our categories. God is bigger than religion.”
“God is bigger than religion.” Can we really believe that and then continue to divide over religious differences, or declare all beliefs different from our own as false?
Last week I wrote about how truth can divide while wisdom can unite even over differences. Unity does not require uniformity. Diversity can not only enrich, but lead to further wisdom.
In the Hebrew Scriptures it was King Solomon who was famous for his wisdom. He is reported to have asked God for “a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.” God responds: “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart.” (I Kings 3:9-12)
Let us seek this gift of wisdom in our personal and communal life together. It is found not in uniformity, but in the celebration of diversity and an even deeper unity. Let us be open to a God who can surprise us in ways “bigger than our religion.”
Posted on Permanent link for "Diversity that surprises us with wisdom" by Doug Kindschi on February 22, 2022.
Permanent link for "Logic and Doctrine divide, wisdom and love unite" by Doug Kindschi on February 15, 2022
“You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
So wrote Anne Lamott, author of over 20 books including novels and popular books on faith. Why do we humans think we know so much about who God is and who God loves and hates? It is especially puzzling when what we think we know about God is so often a reflection of our own biases and feelings, rather than what is so often very clear in the scriptures and sayings of those whom we believe to be the source of religious wisdom.
In my own faith tradition as a Christian it is instructive to note that the major creeds defining Christian doctrine, like the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, never use the word “love.” And yet when Jesus was asked about what was the greatest commandment, his response was love God and love your neighbor. When one looks at other faith traditions, we see differences in beliefs, doctrines, liturgy, and various practices. And yet, most religions and their founders taught love and principles like compassion and how to treat others.
Again, considering the divisions in Christian history, as well as in most other religions, these divisions have been about beliefs not about ethics.
Much of our problem comes from Aristotle and Greek logic. If we see life in terms of propositions, facts, and the binary choice of true or false, then logic is a valuable tool. If I am primarily interested in the truth or falsity of certain facts -- like 2+2=4; Lansing is the capital of Michigan; viruses cause colds -- then the laws of logic are important.
In logic it is called the law of the excluded middle: A proposition is either true or false. It is important to know many facts and it is important to know if they are true or false.
But when we approach important issues of love, beauty and morality, the logic of specific facts will often not serve us well. In matters of meaning and how to live, perhaps the category we need is wisdom rather than propositional or creedal truth. If as religious people we can affirm that God’s truth is beyond mere mortals’ full comprehension, then why do we think we can know with certainty what God knows or how God will interact with God’s creatures?
Wisdom is not a binary concept. We cannot say with simple logic what is the best way to resolve a dispute, counsel a distraught friend, or make a difficult moral choice. These issues will not stand up to a T/ F test. They call for wisdom.
Is it not time in our relating to a diversity of religious traditions and communities to ask the wisdom question? Not so much which proposition, creed or belief is true and which is false, but what can we learn from each other to grow in wisdom about how to live and treat each other? Are we facing a crisis of truth, or a crisis of wisdom?
Science has given us many truths about the physical world and we proudly talk of “modern science” and its accomplishments. But where is “modern wisdom”?
Jonas Salk, the scientist and creator of the polio vaccine, asked: “At one time we had wisdom, but little knowledge. Now we have a great deal of knowledge, but do we have enough wisdom to deal with that knowledge?”
It is a tragic observation that today science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
While the binary approach of logic seeks to resolve difference as either True or False, wisdom grows when we see both sides of an issue, when we learn from difference. Wisdom grows with experience and knows that a final resolution may not be possible.
The desire for uniformity of belief throughout history has led to divisions in religious communities. Imagine what would happen if we looked instead for unity in our commitment to love for God and love of our neighbor, as well as love for the stranger.
Permanent link for "Asking different questions in science and in religion" by Doug Kindschi on February 8, 2022
I once taught a course with a colleague from the GVSU Philosophy Department titled Ways of Knowing: Science, Mathematics, and Religion. We explored the science method of discovering knowledge primarily through empirical means, experiment, and measurement. Mathematics, however, does not use an empirical method or measurement. Euclid did not discover that triangles had 180 f by measuring a whole lot of them and making a conclusion. No, mathematics discovers by logical proofs. They are different ways of knowing.
Likewise, religious knowledge does not come by empirical method or logical proof, but by experience and by participation in a community. In a similar manner we learn a language, appreciate a sunset or powerful piece of music, and experience love. We don’t learn by empirical measurement, experiment, or logical proof. These are different ways of knowing.
For decades I have also been involved in science and religion dialogue and find many similarities to that in our interfaith dialogue. Some people insist that science and religion are incompatible and pursuing one necessarily involves rejecting the other. Loud voices such as Richard Dawkins, a biologist and outspoken atheist, see no possible peace between these two ways of knowing. Unfortunately, there are religious voices that also say when science discovers something that appears to conflict with religious teachings, then the science must be rejected.
This conflict position is sometimes described as the warfare between science and religion. We recognize, however, that this is just a metaphor. No one expects chemists to pick up guns and attack Congregationalists or physicists to engage in battle with Presbyterians. On the contrary, those of us who have been involved in science and religion dialogue find much benefit in looking at the ways in which these two ways of knowing can be mutually beneficial. Just because the two pursuits ask different questions does not mean that they cannot engage in fruitful dialogue and actually learn from each other. In fact the various disciplines of science themselves ask different questions and yet often learn from each other.
In a similar way, there are those who would insist that religions are necessarily in a conflict with each other and there can be no fruitful conversation between them, believing one requires rejection of the other. Unfortunately, the warfare term here might not be a metaphor when some extremists feel a religious duty to enforce their position through violent means. There is no question about the potential harm that can come from religion, especially when some believe that all religions can be put in one of two categories: 1) my religion and 2) all of the other, false religions.
On the other hand, to say that all religions are essentially the same can also be dangerous. Professor Stephen Prothero, from Boston University, in his book, God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World – and Why Their Differences Matter, recognizes the important differences in doctrine, ritual, mythology, experience and law. He also argues that each religion asks different questions and to ignore that reality is “dangerous, disrespectful, and untrue.” (Our interfaith book group is beginning this month to discuss Prothero’s book. See information below.)
The various sciences likewise ask different questions: Physics is interested in the fundamental concepts of matter, energy, force and motion; biology is concerned with life and living organisms; psychology seeks to understand mind and behavior; formal sciences like logic and mathematics look at the processes and conclusions from formal reasoning. Prothero suggests a similar distinction among religions and the questions they ask: Judaism is primarily concerned with how one should live; Christianity seeks salvation from the results of sin; Islam teaches submission as the response to an omnipotent God.
The sciences benefit from their various pursuits by asking different questions and developing different approaches, and yet they learn from each other. Perhaps religions can affirm their own insights while at the same time learning from the questions and practices of other faith traditions. That is the goal of our interfaith dialogue. We deepen our own beliefs when we engage with others and learn from their insights, knowledge, and experience.
Permanent link for "Women no longer strangers, now work for understanding and peace" by Kyle Kooyers on February 1, 2022
I often find myself saying, “We don’t have to wait for the worst to happen, in order to be our best toward our neighbor.”
This has become somewhat of a mantra in our interfaith efforts here in West Michigan as the Kaufman Institute strives to build bridges and foster relationships between multifaith congregations and communities. Certainly, horrific events like the hostage situation at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, illumine for us the importance of fostering understanding to combat hatred and the power of solidarity when faith communities come together in support of one another.
Our local interfaith community has grown together in large part due to the tireless efforts of women across different traditions who have committed themselves to that work of building understanding through connection. For example, Sylvia Kaufman initiated the Jewish-Christian-Muslim Triennial Dialogue in Muskegon, networked area universities and seminaries into an Interfaith Academic Consortium, and established the Kaufman Institute at Grand Valley State University.
Likewise, Ghazala Munir, Marchiene Rienstra and Lillian Sigal co-founded the Interfaith Dialogue Association, a grassroots organization that has for over three decades strived to advance knowledge, understanding, tolerance, and acceptance. Across the region, the Sisters of Faith group continues to meet in places of worship for the purpose of building bonds of friendship and sharing the beauty of each other’s traditions.
At the national level, filmmaker and producer Kirsten Kelly has been following the work of another interfaith effort led by extraordinary women, the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom. This group was established by two women, one Muslim and one Jewish, who dared to believe they could bring women together across their faith traditions to join hands in stopping the surge of white supremacy and hate crimes in our country. After seeing the Sisterhood featured in The New York Times, Kelly and film partner Katie Taber set out to learn more.
“In the first months of 2017, with the rise of hate and the Muslim ban announced, we saw the powerful response of the Sisterhood and how their work and mission were approaching hate in a new and more hopeful way,” Kelly shared. “What was so compelling was that they were NOT fighting hate with hate. They were intentionally building relationships with those across differences. They were standing up strongly in solidarity against hate.”
The Sisterhood recognized that authentic relationships built on trust were essential for advancing peace and understanding. As Kelly observes, they undertook this work “by deepening bonds of friendship, with creating opportunities for dialogue across differences, and leading by example of listening with open minds and hearts. In a world that was fast becoming about quick judgments, blame and violence, we saw this story as an antidote to the chaos and division.
“What I love about the story of the Sisterhood is that they brought this work - this hopeful activism - into their homes,” she adds. “They intentionally focused on providing the space and time to build trust and friendship. This is not done overnight. It is done with time and intention. They make room for differences of opinions and allow for sharing different perspectives which requires deep listening.”
Kelly’s 2021 documentary film, Stanger/Sister, follows the story of the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom as they work to bring people together at a time when our country couldn’t be more divided. It showcases the power and difficulty of combating hate and violence with compassion and empathy. Ultimately, it is a lesson in vulnerability.
“My favorite line in the film is ‘We must come to this with our armor down.’ To me that is a different kind of listening - it is listening without proving right or wrong,” Kelly notes. “I think it’s important to showcase these stories to show how it is possible to live together, support one another, allow for differing opinions and faiths to coexist, and this can make your own life and your own faith deeper and richer.”
As a native of West Michigan, Kelly reflects on her own growth and responsibility in building bridges between religious, secular, and spiritual communities. “I think growing up in a majority white, Christian community, I have learned that we need to carry a heavier load in terms of reaching out to those of other faiths and supporting them - and to make this work crucial to our lives and faith. I have also learned that by examining other faiths, and really understanding the rituals, it makes me go deeper into my own faith.”
In hearing each other’s stories, we open our hearts to say, “This isn’t just my community. This isn’t just your community. This is our community, and it is made all the more beautiful by the life we share together.”
We invite you to join us for our upcoming screening and discussion of the Odyssey Impact film, Stranger/Sister on Feb. 9 at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. The discussion panel will feature Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom co-founders Sheryl Olitzky and Atiya Aftab along with director/producer Kelly, and will be moderated by Jennifer Howe Peace, senior advisor for the Pluralism Project at Harvard University. You can veiw the film's trailer here. Information and free registration can be found here: www.gvsu.edu/interfaith/strangersister
As we take the next step in being the best towards our neighbors, may we each follow the lead of these incredible women as we examine our own relationships and share our lives with one another. This relationship building is crucial for eliminating hate and bringing an end to violence, as we move together from fear to hope. Simply put, this work must begin at home.
Permanent link for "Kindness, terror, and remembrance" by Doug Kindschi on January 25, 2022
An act of kindness led to an act of terror.
On an unusually cold day Colleyville, Texas, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker saw a stranger outside the door of Congregation Beth Israel. It was the morning prior to the Shabbat services and the rabbi’s faith had taught him to be kind to strangers, so he let him in to get warm and made him some hot tea. Not many attended the service in person because of the COVID challenge, but many were watching on livestream. During the prayer as the rabbi’s back was turned, he heard a click and realized that it was from a gun. The act of kindness now led to an 11-hour hostage event.
As the siege continued the hostage-taker had a phone conversation from his brother in England who urged him to end the attack and return to his family and children. He refused and made it clear that he was ready to die along with the hostages he had taken. He said that he liked the rabbi and even acknowledged the kindness that had been shown to him prior to the service. Even so, his hatred of Jews prevailed. In that call, heard and recorded over livestream, he said, “Don’t cry on the (expletive) phone with me. … There are hostages in the synagogue who are going to die.”
The tension continued to rise, but Rabbi Cytron-Walker remained calm. In a later interview on CBS he was asked how could he remain calm in the presence of someone willing to kill you and die in the process. He responded that it had been a part of his training as a clergy person to always stay calm with someone in the hospital or in very difficult personal situations. Because of the increasing attacks on Jewish places of worship, he had also been trained by law enforcement and by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on how to handle such situations.
Fortunately, he was also very active with other faith groups in the area. In an article from the Religion News Service, the rabbi was described as “an interfaith champion with deep-rooted friendships not only among Christians but Muslims, too.” During the siege a group of Christian pastors, rabbis, Muslim imams and other religious leaders from the area met at a local Catholic community facility to assist the FBI team in the negotiations with the hostage-taker. Rev. Bob Roberts Jr. a pastor of nearby evangelical megachurch, Northwood Church, who has known Rabbi Cytron-Walker for 15 years, said of him, “There’s probably no one who can handle it better than him because he gets a bigger picture than just his own tribe. That’s how he lived his life in the public square — committed to his own faith but respectful of other people’s faiths.”
As the standoff went into the night, the hostage-taker became more agitated, and the rabbi realized from his training that this is the most dangerous stage. At a critical point he told the others to prepare to run to the nearby exit. He then threw a chair at the terrorist and they all ran to safety. At that point the FBI SWAT team rushed the synagogue and killed the hostage-taker.
While members of the Jewish community comprise less than 3% of the U.S. population, nearly 60% of the religion-based hate crimes are committed against them. Whatever one’s religion, we must all care about the common good and be sensitive to the threats against this group.
An important part of this caring is to never forget what can happen in a country that lets its leadership blame a group for all that is wrong in the country. The Holocaust was such a development, from which there are very few survivors still living. One way to keep the story alive is to watch a film that will be offered this week by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Muskegon. January 27 is the date in 1945 the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated. It is now recognized around the world as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On that day the Center will bring the film “Violins of Hope” via Zoom to the West Michigan community.
It is the story of violins recovered from the Holocaust, repaired, and now being used to tell the story. Professional musicians use these violins in concerts around the world. While actual survivors are few, the violins when played now serve as continuing survivors of the Holocaust keeping current the message of “Never Forget.”
Posted on Permanent link for "Kindness, terror, and remembrance" by Doug Kindschi on January 25, 2022.
Permanent link for "Martin Luther King Jr. and Sidney Poitier" by Doug Kindschi on January 18, 2022
“I am distressed at the way the game of politics is currently being played in too many arenas. And it pains me that we have woven our social fabric from such peculiar threads: turmoil and chaos, to name a few.”
These were the words of Sidney Poitier speaking in Atlanta in August of 1967 at an event celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. They could have been spoken today, more than 50 years later. Poitier was just 40 years old and had been introduced at the occasion by his friend, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was just two years younger. King was killed only a few months later, in April 1968, while Poitier would live another nearly 55 years before dying this month at age 94.
A few years earlier, in 1963, King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington. The following year marked the passing of the Civil Rights Voting Act and King received the Nobel Peace Prize. That same year also, Poitier well known through his hit movies, became the first Black to win an Academy Award for Best Actor.
In a less well-known and but more dangerous episode that year, Poitier’s friend Harry Belafonte asked him to join in on a mission to deliver cash to the student activists working on voter registration in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer campaign. The students were running out of money and getting funds to them was critical. Belafonte had a close relationship to King, who asked him to get the money to this vital student effort.
Belafonte and Poitier arrived at the Jackson, Mississippi airport with two medical bags containing $70,000 to deliver to the students. The car picking them up had been followed by vigilantes (probably Klan members), leading to a high-speed car chase where they were fired on. The driver finally lost the chasing car, so Poitier and Belafonte were able to complete their dangerous mission unharmed. Earlier that summer in June, three civil rights workers in the Freedom Summer campaign had been murdered.
While King was leading the nation in recognizing the need for African American voting rights, Poitier was leading in establishing a very different image of Blacks portrayed in the media, especially in the movies.
He said that he would never portray a character who was immoral or cruel. His characters were dignified and ethical. Nor would he portray a Black man who would be demeaned or accept racial prejudice.
Poitier portrayed a Philadelphia detective, Virgil Tibbs, helping a small-town police chief in Mississippi solve a murder in the movie “In the Heat of the Night.” The script originally called for a rich racist white person to slap him across the face without retaliation. Poitier said that if he played that scene he would slap the white person back, which he did -- an act that shocked many and thrilled the African Americans who saw that one of their own would not take such a treatment in the South or anywhere else. In a later interview, he further told of his insisting the studio put in writing “that the film will be shown nowhere in the world, with me standing there taking the slap from the man.” He went on to explain, “I knew that I would have been insulting every black person in the world if I hadn’t.”
When King introduced Poitier at the 1967 Southern Christian Leadership Conference celebration dinner, he called him a “soul brother” and said, “I consider him a friend. I consider him a great friend of humanity.” In Poitier’s speech he praised King for his commitment to social justice and human dignity, saying, “I know as a fact that the courage of this man has made a better man of me.” He concluded by noting that he had seen much in this corrupt world, and as one “who wants to change this corrupt old world, I have decided to start with myself.”
In a 2013 interview with Leslie Stahl of CBS, he told of his living with his family in the Bahamas where he was associating with some less desirable influences, so his parents sent him to Miami to live with his older brother. At age 16 he left his brother to go to New York to pursue an acting career in spite of the fact that he had only two years schooling and a heavy accent. After a failed audition, he worked as a dishwasher where a stranger changed his life. He tells of a waiter, “a Jewish guy, elderly man” who asked him what was new in the paper he was holding. Poitier had to admit that he couldn’t read very well. The waiter offered to help him.
Then Poitier tears up as he continues, “Now let me tell you something: That man, every night, the place is closed, everyone's gone, and he sat there with me week after week after week. And he told me about punctuations. He told me where dots were and what the dots mean here between these two words, all of that stuff."
That act of kindness and the follow-through changed Poitier’s life, and he went on to an apprentice position with an acting company that eventually led to his successful career. The full CBS interview with Poitier can be seen by clicking: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPI5zev4Too
In the last chapter of Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks asks if the division in our society can be corrected. He affirms that it can, writing, “It begins with us, each of us as individuals. The moment we turn outward and concern ourselves with the welfare of others no less than with our own, we begin to change the world in the only way we can, one act at a time, one day at a time, one life at a time.”
Morality begins with our caring for others. Let us learn from King, Poitier, and the “elderly Jewish waiter.” As Poitier said, let us start with ourselves in helping others and thereby contribute to the making of a moral, caring society.
Posted on Permanent link for "Martin Luther King Jr. and Sidney Poitier" by Doug Kindschi on January 18, 2022.