Keeping Perspective/Staying Engaged

 

If you think at all these days, it's really hard not to be overwhelmed.  The continuing catastrophe in Japan – what can we do?  How much was a the result of nature (the earthquake and tsunami), and how much came from human error, before and after nature struck?  The continuing struggle in Libya – when is force justified, and how much force is justified?  What should our involvement be, and who should be in charge?  The continuing tragedy that is Israeli/Palestinian “relations” – what can we do; what should we do?  What  can anyone do when both sides are truly aggrieved and both sides are truly aggressors?  And within our own country, there remains hunger, homelessness, and a disappearing middle class – who can be held accountable and what should we do about it?  And these are just a few of the daily assaults upon our sensibilities.

 

It’s true that there are many who can’t see the forest for the trees.  They become so involved in one or two specific ideas or issues that they are unable see the “big picture.”  Their vision becomes myopic.

 

It is just as true that there are many who can’t see the trees for the forest.  They become so involved with a “big picture” that while they can “see forever” they can lose sight of the very real people and lives around them – their concerns, their needs.

 

I would like to put in a good word for some balance: keeping the forest in mind while also dealing with what trees we can.  For me, personally, it means picking a few trees that mean something to me and trying to care for them, while keeping the forest in view and not losing track that the forest as a whole must be tended.

 

Sounds great (maybe).  But what on earth am I talking about!?? 

 

For one thing it means acknowledging that I can’t be involved in every issue.  I don’t have the time, or the resources, or, frankly, the energy.  It most assuredly does not mean that the issues I don’t deal with are unimportant.  But it does mean, as example, that while I deeply and genuinely support those who are trying to help bring sanity to the moral and ethical tangle that is Palestinian/Israeli relations (and some are dear friends), I don’t get directly involved.  NOT because the work isn’t important.  But because I can’t be everywhere.

 

But, as many are fond of saying, the fact that I can’t do everything, should not get in the way of my doing something!  For me there are two “somethings.”  I don’t share them my here in order to convince you to give yourself to the same ones.  Rather, I share them as an example of staying engaged, on a daily basis, with concrete things that can be done.

 

Anyone who knows me knows that one of these is chocolate.  Harvesting chocolate (as with coffee) is labor intensive.  Much of the available chocolate gets to us cheaply because it is harvested by slave labor, or child labor, or oppressed labor or some combination.  The only way to be sure that your chocolate isn’t tainted, is to buy Fair Traded (or Fairly Traded) chocolate. 

 

If there’s something at the market that looks good and has chocolate, I will ask if it’s fair traded and explain why it’s important.  The other day some friends took me to a Hagen Daz store for some chocolate.  But it wasn’t fair traded.  I explained to the guy behind the counter why I was going to pass on it.  He wrote some notes and promised to talk to his boss.  At least once a week, and some weeks three or four times, I’m calling or e-mailing a company and checking to see if their chocolate is fair traded, and explaining why I won’t buy it if it isn’t.  I’m constantly reminding the good folks at Trader Joe’s that they need to be using fair traded chocolate – always good naturedly, and always explaining why. 

 

This is a small something.  But I can do it.  And I can keep doing it. 

 

I am also committed to supporting the local food bank.  I always ask folks to bring food bank contributions to our services.  I’ve been doing it for the five years I’ve been a minister.  Again, it’s small, but being small it’s doable.  Day in, day out, week in, week out.

 

All the while, I continue my work on Interfaith.  I see Interfaith as “forest” work.  It’s big picture stuff.  Interfaith involves a paradigm shift.  Interfaith involves mutual respect, and a reaching out to one another with compassion and a truly internalized understanding that we are all brothers and sisters.  This is a life’s work and probably more than that. 

 

But in the meantime I can continue to try to help chip away at hunger, and strive for an end to exploitation of other people just so I can get my food “cheap.”  Cheap comes at much too high a cost.  I am determined no longer to pay it.

 

If we have a clear sense of the forest, and in the meantime, we have a few trees we can nurture, day to day, I think we’ll find the chaos that is the human condition a bit more manageable.  Not a walk in the park, but more manageable. 

A Clear and Present Danger

 

Islamophobia.  This is not a political issue.  It’s a spiritual one.  And it is pointedly not a question of “political correctness.”  It’s a question of moral integrity.  Yet because a politician, Representative Peter King, of NY, is at the forefront of  the issue, we all gravitate to our political corners.  And that itself is a part of the problem. 

 

We are human beings, first and foremost.  All of our spiritual paths make this clear – crystal clear.  And yet we’ve somehow lost this fundamental touchstone.  And without it as a reference point, pretty much everything else will be lost as well.

 

Representative Peter King, in his hearings, wants to explore radical Islam and its dangers.  This is the same Peter King who remains unashamed of supporting the Irish Republican Army.  His answer: the IRA wasn’t a “domestic” terrorist group, they only blew up innocents on the other side of the Atlantic!  Clearly, as far as King is concerned, the only people we should worry about are Americans.  This is on its face absurd and morally bankrupt.

 

But let’s play King’s game.  Let’s talk about America, just the good old U.S.A..  That’s our topic.  Homegrown terrorism.

 

To my knowledge, Representative King has asked no questions about the radicalization of white Christian terrorists in the U.S..  The latest example is the arrest of Kevin William Harpham, who has been arrested and charged with the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction at a MLK Day parade near Spokane, Washington.  He appears to be of the same mold, and radicalized by the same homegrown U.S. terrorist movement  as Timothy McVeigh.   And there’s Andrew Joseph Stack, who flew his plane into an IRS building.   This not to mention the on-going activities of the KKK.  These radicalized white Christian males became terrorists, American terrorists, killing or trying to kill people on American soil.  So where’s the investigation?  If Representative King cares about homegrown American terrorists, where is the investigation?

 

Why isn’t Christianity under scrutiny?  After all, this is the same religion that brought us the Spanish Inquisition.  And this is the same religion that literally divided up the “New World” into “spheres” for exploitation and conversion.  Christianity, thus, has a history of violence, torture and terrorism.  Clearly Christianity is a religion that encourages and indeed foments terrorists.  Don’t we need a congressional committee to probe what there is about this religion that makes its followers so susceptible to the siren call of terrorism?

 

I hope you are saying, and loudly, that it would be incredibly mindless and spiritually bankrupt to assert any such thing about Christianity.  You can’t tar an entire religion based on its fanatics.  It would be false, as well as stupid and a bigoted thing to do.

 

But this is precisely what Representative Peter King and those who would support him are doing to Islam.  It is a mindless, bigoted, and spiritually bankrupt attack.  And I hope and pray that Representative King will be called on it.  I salute and welcome the reaction by some in the Japanese-American community.  I would hope for more across the board condemnations of what Representative King is trying to do.

 

Beyond the bigoted slander he works against Muslim-Americans, what Representative King is doing undercuts the very fabric of our nation and our democracy.  It is a clear and present danger to every group who can somehow be fashioned by some bigot into a “them” as opposed to “us.”  I would hope that fairness to Muslims would motivate us enough.  But if it doesn’t, then perhaps realizing that Representative King’s actions are a direct assault on our country will do the trick. 

 

Every American, of every spiritual tradition and no spiritual tradition, has a stake in this. 

 

Them and us.  Them and us.  If we are going to survive, literally as well a spiritually, we need to learn and understand that there is no them.  There is only us. 

Amnesia Can Be Deadly

 

Of all the problems besetting America, and Lord knows we have our share of problems, I think very possibly the most dangerous is our lack of memory.

 

We experience it every day in our politics.  Politicians feel completely comfortable in being strongly “for” something one day and strongly “against” it the next, without the slightest shame (which is their problem) or any fear of consequences (which is ours). 

 

I really don’t know if it has always been this way, but certainly recently, perhaps because so much is happening and we are being inundated with so much information, that we rarely remember yesterday, let alone a week ago, let alone a whole entire month!

 

And what passes for news is of no help, because the people who pass for reporters these days have no memory.  Perhaps it’s not in their interest to remember anything from “the past.”  But whatever, reporters happily report what is being said today, with no regard to what was said the day before.  [The exception to this rule is, of course, Jon Stewart and his stalwart band of writers at the Daily Show.]

 

And nowhere is this mass amnesia more evident than in the current hysteria and fear-mongering centered upon Islam.  Folks, we’ve been all through this before.  I know because it’s happened in my lifetime.  Just change out the word “Muslim” or “Islam” and substitute “Jew” or “Zionist” and you have the fear and hatred sweeping much of the U.S. just fifty years ago.

 

All Jews are Communists, and out to take over the world.  This was seriously put forward as a “clear and present danger.”  Those Jews have infiltrated our government.  The Zionist/Communist conspiracy must be exposed before it’s too late!  Crank up the Congressional investigating committees!  Don’t let “them” build a synagogue anywhere near you, let alone your children!

 

When do we learn??  We don’t learn.  And that’s the problem.  It used to be Christians, warning us about “those Jews.”  Now it’s Christians and Jews warning us about “those Muslims.” 

 

The greatest thing we have to fear … are the fear-mongers.  They are death to a democracy.  Not to mention the “minor” fact that fear-mongers are morally and spiritually bankrupt.

 

Brian Williams.  You’re a friend of Jon Stewart’s.  Has any of his curiosity and intelligence rubbed off on you?  How about a special on religious fear-mongering in the United States?  You could start with , oh, how about witch-burnings?  And then walk us through the joys of defamation, discrimination and outright hate up to and including today’s witch-hunt for Muslims. 

 

But what about Scripture?  Yeah, what about Scripture?

 

I have heard Muslims quoting the Qur’an, cherry-picking quotes to show love or hatred, peace or war, compassion or intolerance.  You can find it all in the Qur’an, if you look for it.

 

I have heard Jews quoting Hebrew Scripture, cherry-picking quotes to show love or hatred, peace or war, compassion or intolerance.  You can find it all in Hebrew Scripture, if you look for it.

 

I have hear Christians quoting Christian Scripture, cherry-picking quotes to show love or hatred, peace or war, compassion or intolerance.  You can find it all in Christian Scripture, if you look for it.

 

All of our spiritual paths have within them both love and hate, war and peace, hierarchy and shared humanity.  The question cannot be which path contains truth.  They all do.  The question cannot be which path contains a plea for love and compassion.  They all do.  The question cannot be which path contains the seeds of violence and intolerance.  They all do.

 

The relevant question is not what spiritual path do you walk?  The relevant question is, how are you walking your path?

 

Muslims, Jews, Christians, Humanists, Buddhists, Hindus, Baha’i, whatever your path, what are you doing with it?  Are you walking your path with love and compassion?  Or are you walking your path filled with hate and intolerance, mixed with arrogant feelings of superiority and fear.  If it’s the latter, then if you want to find the purveyor of evil,  I would suggest you stop looking under the covers.  Instead, look in the mirror.