Former
Virginia governor Jim Gilmore (R) just declared me offended. In response to
President Obama’s comments about the presence of religious extremism and
violence in Christianity as well as Islam, Gilmore declared that, “He has
offended every believing Christian in the United States.”
I consider
myself a believing Christian, but I did not find myself becoming offended. Instead,
I felt the deep need to lament.
I need to lament the
ways my faith has been used to justify oppression; lament the ways my country
has failed to live up to its highest ideals; lament the fear and pain so many
have felt in this country at the hands of people who said they were acting in
the name of Jesus.
Of course, Christianity has also been
part of wonderful things (abolition, civil rights, development and charity
around the world), and, as a Christian, I will wholeheartedly say that those
who used the Bible and Christian teaching to justify slavery, racism, lynching,
and other forms of terrorism, were really twisting our religion. I embrace what
is reflective of our faith and reject its distortions. Just as so many are
saying that about ISIS and Islam.
At the same
time, I know that there were Christians offended by Obama’s
remarks. One good friend of mind wrote on Facebook:
Friend: “I listened to Obama's speech and I was annoyed.
Everyone wants to be politically correct and put all the religions on equal
footing. Of course there have been abuses in Christian history but Obama has a
tin ear for relating to evangelicals. I resent being implicitly compared to
ISIS. The prayer breakfast is supposed to be a bridge building moment not a
moment for the Christian religious community to be publically spanked for
really old offenses.”
I replied
and we got into a good back-and-forth on Facebook that another friend said she
appreciated. She asked if I would post it on my blog, so here’s the
somewhat-edited exchange I had with this friend. After her comment above, I
answered:
ME: Personally,
I think it is odd to say that you feel you're being compared to ISIS. You did
not own slaves or support segregation or lynch people. He's saying that people
claiming to be acting in Christ's name did these things, just as ISIS, claiming
to be acting in the name of Allah, do horrible things. I see him comparing ISIS
to lynch mobs and racists, neither of which I am (or you are.)
But if
we're going to say that ISIS is somehow representative of Islam, then we need
to be prepared to acknowledge lynchmobs and segregationists as representative
of Christianity. I think most of us are quick to say, "But that's not real
Christianity." Lynch mobs and segregationists did quote scripture and go
to church, so we need to say they're doing it wrong, no matter what they say.
But then some U.S. people are very comfortable saying that ISIS really is
representative of Islam because they're quoting the Quran and being pious. And
then we pull out Quranic verses to prove our point. Same as the KKK does to
prove racism from the Bible.
Obama is
just saying that we should be able to believe those millions of muslims who say
ISIS is not Islam, if we also want to say that the KKK is not Christianity.
Friend: I
wouldn't say ISIS is the true representation of Islam. But when Obama said,
"Lest we get on our high horse..." I felt like he was addressing the
room and contemporary Christians. (Maybe I'm wrong). Also if you're saying I
didn't have anything to do with those old offenses perpetrated in the name of
Christ, why should I need to lament? Ok- one more thing, I think that ALL
religions should have equal freedoms under the law but I don't think they
should all lumped together like they are the same thing.
Me: I think
he was addressing the room, and putting himself along the Christians there
("Lest we…"). So he was offering a caution to think that the sort of
horror done by ISIS could never be done by those claiming to be Christians.
Lament,
however, is not the same as apology or repentance. I don't believe so much in
the historical apology or giant cultural repentance, because I often think it's
kind of phony. But I do believe in acknowledging with people when horrible
things have happened - things that were done by people (so not the earthquake
sort of tragedy) - that the proper Christian response is sorrow and sharing the
pain of those who have suffered.
The
Crusades are pretty remote, but there are families around today that lost
grandfathers, uncles, grandmothers, sisters, etc. to lynch mobs. there are a
LOT of people in our country who had their land, property, and dignity taken by
people who claimed the Bible gave them the right to discriminate and oppress. I
think as a Christian, the best thing I can do is acknowledge the pain and mourn
with those who mourn.
So when Obama, or anyone, reminds us of
our nation's legacy, the pain we've caused one another, I am called to lament,
rather than try to defend those who did such things, or dismiss it as
irrelevant. (Not that I'm saying you're doing either of those thing, but I've
heard lots of outrage in the media that Obama brings these things up. I just
think outrage is not the right response.)
Friend: I'm just saying that I feel like there is an impulse
to talk about religions as if they are all equally peaceful or equally violent.
Me: As an
anthropologist, I don't think we can say religions are "peaceful" or
"violent." There's so much that could be (has been!) taken from the
Bible to justify horrible violence. Do we say that's just "not
Christianity?" I mean, Calvinists were pretty violent toward the
Anabaptists (drowning them and the like.) And Luther said it was all right for
the German princes to kill more than 100,000 peasants to crush a revolt that
Luther partly inspired. I don't think we want to say Calvinists and Lutherans
aren't Christians.
I think
it's wrong, bad exegesis, and all the rest when people use the bible to do bad
stuff, but it's still Christianity. Islam is a pretty diverse religion, with
more adherents in Indonesia than any other country. There are the Sufis
throughout the world (kind of like mystical monk types.) There are
fundamentalist Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia and Islamic Feminists in Egypt and a
lot of other folks all over the place.
Karen
Armstrong has recently published a book arguing that so-called religious
violence is really always political. People just use religion to justify their
cause. I'd have to think a bit more to see if I can think of exceptions, but
I'm inclined to think she's right.
I will
say, though, to your point about religions being the same, I totally agree.
They're not the same. I don't think Obama was implying that, but some people do
try to suggest that all religious are *actually* just saying the same thing in
different ways. And that's just silly.
Epilogue
I don’t
imagine the conversation is over, but that’s where it is for now. I’m glad to
have friends who will engage, and personally glad to have a President who says
things that are hard to hear. But whether we think his comments were made well,
or in the right venue, or just the perfect thing, I hope Christians can agree
that our faith is maligned not when someone points out historical events, but by those who have actually committed acts of hateful violence in
the name of Christ. We can agree that it has happened in the past, and will
likely happen in the future. And we can agree that whenever, and wherever it
happens, we must join those who suffer in lament.
