Islamaphobia: Fear verses Love

Islamophobia is a new term, invented in the twentieth century to describe unreasoning prejudice or fear of Muslims. That's right; we need to invent new vocabulary to describe "an outlook or world-view involving an unfounded dread and dislike of Muslims, which results in practices of exclusion and discrimination." 

Yet, every Sunday morning at my church we begin service with our welcome message. The welcome message is a call and response that verbally says who we mean by all when we say all are welcome. The fourth call and response says: “Leader: You are welcome here if your people are from this place, or a different place. Congregation: For our God is both here and everywhere.”

Today, as Christians we need to live into that call even more powerfully.

I often don’t want to be called a Christian because of what that word can mean to many people, words that I certainly am not. Words like anti-gay, money hungry and judgmental. And now, Islamophobic.

Following the 9/11 attacks, Islamaphobia made its appearance and is once again in full force with the rise of ISIS. Some people associate ISIS with all people of the Muslim faith. That is a stereotype that is far misguided. The internet and social media now make it difficult to stop Islamaphobia because it gives a “voice” to those opinions. It is considered freedom of speech because there are no laws that prevent religious hatred.

The fear of Muslims is generated by ISIS using the media to promote its message.  The fear they encourage then generates hate. But hate does not solve anything, it just creates more hate. And they do it because fear works.

As a Christian pluralist, I believe we can only fight fear with love. 1 John 4:18: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” We can search for more answers, but to put it simply all God asks of us is to love. And God means everyone. Though it may seem simple, it is not. Because everyone means the people that are not like you, that do not think like you and do not believe the same things you believe. 1 John 4:21: “The commandment is we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”

The good news is there is still love in the world.

Earlier this month Tasnim Nazeer, a Muslim freelance journalist wrote an article about how she was encouraged by a Canadian social experiment. The experiment consisted of two actors who were secretly being recorded at a bus stop doing a scene where the Islamophobe actor was asking the Muslim actor to not get on the bus because he might have bombs strapped to him. The other people came to the actor’s defense telling the man that he couldn’t judge someone by their clothes, religion or nationality. The social experiment ended with the Islamophobe actor getting punched in the face by a Canadian sticking up for the Muslim actor. 

Now, punching people in the face is not the best way to express one's defense to the persecuted. We need to be passionate defenders, without the violence, in order to turn our societies around. 

As a Christian, it is my job to speak up for justice; would you?

The Voice of Silenced Women

At family dinner tonight my seven-year-old son started a conversation about a story he read that he never knew the character’s names. “I read the whole thing and all they said was he and she.” As an exhausted seminary student I chimed in, “It sounds like the Bible. Half the women don’t get names.” My nine-year-old son asks “They don’t get names in the Bible?” My father-in-law chimes in “Women didn’t get much respect in the Bible. Well the women didn’t get to vote until the 1920’s in this country.” My nine-year-old says, “I thought this was supposed to be a free country.”

So much truth out of the mouth of a child and unfortunately women continue to be silenced and unnamed.

In my class, I am studying the book of Chronicles this week and we are discussing the ways in which the Chronicler retold the stories from Samuel and Kings but edited almost all of the stories with women in them out; that basically the Chronicler silenced the women.

This week a story by Melanie Curtain entitled I was Sexually Harassed. Here is How I Responded was in my inbox. She described the harassment that took place while waiting in line at CVS to get a prescription. She described how trying to keep silent and just ignoring the man felt like it was causing the incident to escalate. So she named it. She said “This is harassment.” “What is happening here is harassment.”

Yes, it is and the silencing is not just in line at CVS, it is in our churches too.

Not only have nameless women in the Bible been silenced, the issue of violence against women have been silenced in our churches. It is not common for issues of domestic violence to be addressed in the pulpit. Women and children have been told to keep quiet, even by clergy. And many denominations continue to silence women as they do not allow them in their pulpits. And even women in those particular denominations believe that they should be kept in their place because that is why God created women, to serve the man.  

Men and women were equally created in God’s image. It was men who decided that they needed to exercise power and that is why the war on woman began and is still accepted to this day. And this war on women goes beyond sexual harassment. It is rape, it is pornography and it is human trafficking.

As a religious leader it is my responsibility to give a voice to women. It is my responsibility to name harassment, to name rape and to name trafficking. It is my job to restore morals into a desensitized, obviously not free country.

And as a mother, it is my job to teach my sons about respect. It is my job to teach my sons that women are not and never will be sex objects. It is my job to teach them that clothing does not give them permission to make assumptions about anyone. It is my job to teach them about what harassment and rape is.

We can change the way men think about women. It starts with our sons.   

Quarantined or in the Closet?

I believe that fear is the root of evil doing in this world. That if we can let go of fear we can begin to experience a life of peace.

Kaci Hickox, the Maine nurse that refused to stay home after she was on “volunteer quarantine” has been given the OK by a Maine judge. Hickox has no symptoms and tested negative for Ebola after she returned home from volunteering in West Africa with Doctors Without Borders.

Hickox stated that her quarantine had no merit 

and was a “violation of her human rights” and was merely “putting fear over science.” After the judge gave her the OK she said it was the first step to “overcome the fear” of Ebola. “There are so many aid workers coming back. It scares me to think how they’re going to be treated and how they’re going to feel” Hickox said.

Isaiah 41:10 "do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand." The prophet Isaiah wrote during a time of political upheaval. The nations were seeking an answer from God on who controls history. This scripture is significant in showing that God protects and provides for God's people. 

Fear-mongering and putting people in quarantine is an all too common experience for many LGBT people. A recent survey by the Human Rights Campaign says fifty-three percent of LGBT workers in the country hide their sexual identity at work and thirty-five percent feel compelled to lie about their sexual identity at work.

Those LGBT people who are forced to live a closeted life for one reason or the other now have a glimpse of hope.

This week, Apple CEO, Tim Cook publically acknowledged that he was gay: “While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven’t publicly acknowledged it either, until now. So let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.”

As a woman of faith, I continually find it amazing how often I hear about God from the mouths of those who are LGBT.  It reminds me that it is not God who causes the pain. It is Christians who cause the pain. The horrific comments that are written as “representing God” are just sickening. We must remind ourselves that we are all God's people and are protected and provided for. We do not need to live in fear. When we wait for God, our strength will be renewed.

Religion is most likely the main reason why LGBT people remain in the closet. Last month an article titled, Keeping it Real in the Closet explains why Downtown Boy cannot tell his mother. Downtown Boy is a pseudonym for a thirty-something gay man. In his article he says he is “in the closet but not hiding.” He is not trying to be someone he is not, but he explains that religion prevents him from causing his mom guilt. “My mother is a religious woman who comes from an entirely different generation. She would look at homosexuality through religious lenses, rather than science and logic. She’s the most unselfish woman I know and she would never disown me. Nonetheless, she would blame herself for who I am today.”  

Guilt along with fear is yet another way religion can control the belief systems of the people. And guilt plays a role in why Downtown Boy is known only as Downtown Boy.

Similarly, we find the same story from the nurse in Maine.  “It is a violation of human rights” and it is “putting fear over science.” And why do LGBT people live a life in the closet? Just ask the nurse, “It scares me to think how they’re going to be treated and how there are going to feel.”

LGBT “issues” are not really religious issues. It is a fear issue; it is fear that is backed up by a couple of misused Bible scriptures.  None of us as human beings should be forced to live life in a closet; quarantined from the rest of society.  Live without fear for God will uphold you. 

War, Rape and the Spirit of the Lord

I believe that God does not lead us into war, and I believe that God does not condone rape as a weapon of war. I find that faith is challenging at times, especially this week.

As a seminary student, I have been immersed in the book of Judges this week, and I have been swallowed by despair. 

   

The story of Gibeah’s Crime found in chapter 19 verse 22 of Judges is the most brutal story of rape in the Bible. A man only identified as a Levite from Ephraim and his concubine were traveling and stayed in a town called Gibeah. While staying there, the men of the city wanted to rape the Levite, so the Levite seized his concubine and gave her to them instead. So they brutally gang raped her and let her go. She died at the doorstep of where they had stayed. The Levite brought her back home where he cut her up and sent her body parts to each of the territories of Israel to declare war against the Benjaminites.

The type of sexual violence in conflict is not ancient history.

In South Sudan, a civil war has been going on between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and opposition forces. SPLM, the dominant party in Sudan has split into three causing a divide among ethnic and regional fault lines. At least 10,000 people have died. 

Yesterday we learned that rape is being used as weapon of war in Sudan. U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Zaineb Hawa Bangura says that the people there are living in a U.N. compound in Bentiu City in Unity State among unimaginable living conditions.

“The women when they go out to get firewood, etc. have to go through several checkpoints where you have the SPLA [Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army] and in the course of that they are raped continuously.  And, the men do not get out of the camp because the men have to make a choice.  ‘If I go out, I get killed.  So, I rather send my wife, my daughter or my mother out because the most they can do is rape her.  She will come back alive.’  So men have to make that difficult decision of either being killed or female members of the family being raped," said Bangura.

In Judges, the men of the town wanted to rape the Levite in order to take his man hood away from him; to lower his status to that of a woman.  He gave them his “woman” instead. Her death was a message to the Levite and the Israelites.

“So, by doing some of the worst atrocities against women, you are sending messages to the men.  It is a way of punishing them.  So, women have become victims of the conflict as a way of actually destroying communities and families.  Survivors and health care workers told me heartbreaking stories of rape, gang rape, abduction, sexual slavery and forced marriage ... I was astonished in the extent in which both parties seem to have declared war on their own people," Bangura said.

I suspect the stories in the Bible have been interpreted to give “permission” to continue with the violence. We must end the barbaric treatment of others. The wars must stop.

I have struggled these past seven weeks in the Old Testament, trying to come up with the answers to my own questions. This week in Judges, it is a common phrase “and the spirit of the lord came upon (insert battle leader here).” In reading Judges and other commentaries I have come to my understanding of the foundation of the Old Testament. 

My conclusion is this: God is always with us, among our doings and among our sufferings.  No matter how many times we turn our back on God, God will still offer us grace.  God’s spirit may be upon us, but it doesn't mean that we are then God like, we are still human. It does not mean that God approves of our actions and leads us in war. It means that God is with us when we declare war and God is with us when we are victims of violence. God is with us when a woman is raped and God is with us when we offer grace….so please, offer grace.

Ebola and Racism

I have only walked in white shoes.  They may be a little dirty, but they will never be black.

Forty-nine years ago the “separate but equal” laws were found unconstitutional in an attempt to move beyond racism.  I want to know when we are finally going to embrace one another? When are we going to accept one another? When are we going to love one another? When are we going to be human? Yet, in 50 years the United States has not "moved beyond" racism but deepened and broadened it.

Unless and until white Americans like myself realize this is a faith struggle and a justice struggle for all of us, we will continue to fail.

My faith guides my actions on a daily basis as I encounter others each day. Do you use your Bible to justify slavery or do you use your Bible to say “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) We are all human beings that need one another for companionship and to care for one another, yet we let fear divide us. 

I get it, there are still people alive who drank from the white only water fountain and used the white only bathroom. And we live in an us versus them country; conservatives verses liberals, men verses women, the rich verses the poor. We need to to end an exclusivist America and begin to work together.

It is exhausting living in this morally bankrupt country, but I bet it sure is nice for those who are blissfully unaware of the issues. Especially for those who believe that racism is the thing of the past.

Racism rolls on its lethal way, however as happened to Thomas Eric Duncan.

On Wednesday, October 8^th, Duncan, the first Ebola patient in the U.S. died. Despite having a 103 degree temperature, despite telling the nurse he’d been in Africa, despite severe pain, he was tested for everything else but Ebola. He was prescribed antibiotics, told to take Tylenol and then sent home. It wasn't until his condition worsened and he was taken by ambulance back to the hospital, that he was treated properly.

Duncan’s nephew, Joseph Weeks said that the care was “either incompetence or negligence.” He wants to know why all the white Ebola patients in the U.S. survived “and the one black man died.”

John Wiley Price the Dallas county commissioner agrees, “It is historical what has happened in this community,” said Mr. Price, who is black. “If a person who looks like me shows up without any insurance, they don’t get the same treatment.”

The Reverend Jessie Jackson wrote in his blog last Tuesday, “Duncan has a foreign accent, black skin, and no health insurance. From a theological perspective, Thomas Eric Duncan is one of our brothers described by Jesus as the ‘least of these.’ What role did his lack of privilege play in the treatment he received? He is being treated as a criminal rather than as a patient.”

The fact is there are many health care issues beyond this one that many white people of privilege are probably not aware of because they believe that treatment is readily available to everyone. And white people of privilege only know what they experience to be true.

For this to really change white Christians like myself need not only to believe the scriptures like Galatians 3:28 but also act as though we believe them.

LGBT Youth: The New Face of Homelessness

As the sister of a gay man, and a religious leader, I ask you to please pick up your Bible and read it from your heart.

When you read the Bible from your heart, you will come to know how wrong it is to persecute gay people just for being who they are.  

Matthew 5:11-12 "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

It is heartbreaking how the persecution of gay youth drives them into homelessness. 

About ten years ago I bought my husband a lifetime subscription to Rolling Stone Magazine for $100. Yesterday, for the first time in ten years he asked me to read an article. The article, The Forsaken was a story of the rapidly rising number of LGBT homeless youth.

“I don’t know what we could have done for God to have given us a fag as a child,” her mother said before hanging up. 

I have sat next to the pain of being LGBT.  My oldest brother, who was 19 when I was born, was half-way out of the closet. He was blessed that he could tell his family and close friends, but he didn't want to be completely out because of how he would be treated.  He did want kids, so he and I became very close because I was his substitute child.  As I grew up, I got to know him on a sister level. He so wanted to love and be loved in a way I couldn't love him. And it was heartbreaking to see him not be able to find that love.  Before he died, he said he wasn't afraid to die; that he was alright with God, but he made me promise that he would not die alone. That I could do; and he definitely did not.

Why is it, that there are many gay Christians or LGBT people who have faith that God loves them and believe that God made them in his image, but there are many straight Christians that absolutely fear the possibility that God loves everyone?

Because of the new marriage equality laws and campaigns that state “it does get better” it makes it seem easier for youth to step out. The sad reality is that when LGBT youth come out of the closet, they are not always welcomed with open arms.  

Five percent of America’s youth are homeless 

and of that five percent, forty percent are LGBT. All of the five stories featured in The Forsaken 

were stories of youth who were banished from 

their own families in the name of their religion.

“LGBT advocacy groups do not want to talk about religion,” says Mitchell Gold, founder of Faith in America. “One, they don’t want to come across as anti-religion. And two, they just aren't familiar with it. But the number one hurdle to LGBT equality is religious-based bigotry. The face of the gay rights movement shouldn't be what I call '40-year-old well moisturized couples.' The face of the gay rights movement should be a 15-year-old kid that’s been thrown out of his house and taught that he’s a sinner.” 

The truth is I do not have a Bible verse or specific scripture passage that can solve the answer of homosexuality being a sin because the Bible simply does not address it. I can tell you that the verses that have been cherry picked to prove it is a sin have been cherry picked for a reason.  If you read the scripture verses collectively and study the context and history of which it is written, you will understand it is about something else entirely.

It’s Not Eve’s Fault

Eve was blamed for causing humanity to get kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and women and even young girls have been being blamed for actions that are not their fault ever since.

That is what originally happened when fourteen-year-old Cherice Moralez was raped by her teacher, Stacey Dean Rambold.  Rambold was originally given a shockingly light sentence for raping this student in his care, only 31 days.

Judge Baugh defended his light sentencing with a statement that Cherice Moralez was “a troubled youth” that looked and acted “older than her chronological age;” And that she was just “as much in control of the situation” as Rambold. Despite Judge Baugh’s justifications, according to Montana state law, Rambold must serve a minimum of two years.Judge Baugh was later suspended for one month without pay of his last seven months on the bench before his retirement.

And last Friday, Rambold was resentenced to 15 years with 5 years suspended for the rape of Moralez.

Faith voices should be lifted in defense of young women who have been raped, but instead carry a theological legacy of victim blaming, especially blaming women. In some churches today, the doctrine of sin leads to inherent guilt and shame and to blame the victim, especially women and girls. As a woman religious leader and a mother, I can tell you honestly that sin in the rape of a young girl by her teacher, and the original failure of the justice system, was entirely by the teacher and by a heartless judge.   Human beings sin, it is true, and the story of Adam and Eve is really about that, but we have to be clear in our schools, our homes, our churches, where to rightly place the blame and it was not with Cherice Moralez.

Early Christian theologian, Augustine introduced original sin as the blame of Eve because Eve corrupted Adam.  He viewed sex as evil and that sex was the work of the devil with women being the devil’s agents.  He said that Eve as representing women was a temptress that leads men astray. And unfortunately, some of Augustine’s views about women still hold true.

The bible in certain religions is used to blame victims. When a woman is being beaten by her husband she is often reminded that disobedience to her husband is sinful. When children are told that they are to honor thy father and mother and respect their elders, they often blame themselves in cases of sexual abuse.

When society often doesn’t believe the victim or blames the victim, it makes it difficult for people to get help and the abuse to stop. In the case of Cherice Morales, her struggles within herself ended in her suicide before the first trial of her rapist was even completed. Her mother, Auliea Hanlon stated that once the news of the assault became public, Cherice was “ostracized and bullied and that her mood became even darker.”

A small amount of justice has been done, though it comes too late for Cherice. In this particular story the societal acceptance to blame the victim was not tolerated. Hanlon was alerted to the abuse by one of Cherice’s peers at a church counseling group. The case sparked protests by activists calling for resignation of the judge. Sheena Rice, the protest organizer said, “Judges should be protecting our most vulnerable children…not enabling rapists by placing blame on the victims.” Judge Baugh tried to apologize but in the same statement defended his remarks by saying it is “horrible enough as given her age, but it wasn’t this forcible beat-up rape.” Marian Bradley, president of the Montana National Organization for Women said “such language and lenient sentences for sex crimes discourage victims of sexual violence from coming forward.”

The state of Montana has spoken: victim blaming has to stop. It is time for the church to be the leader in this fight.  The church itself needs to be transparent in its own abuse and then learn how to become an example to society.