As America and the world face a major crisis, this verse comes to mind: “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). For God’s sake, let us all swallow our pride. Let us love and respect our neighbors by wearing masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Just do it! ~ Samuel Shropshire, www.mvpr.org
I went to Myanmar 6 years ago to investigate for my self. These confessions are both sad and a relief to all my Rohingya friends. “But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream” (Amos 5:4).
As we remember the Holocaust and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Berkinau concentration camps, we must not forget that history is repeating itself at this very moment.
I grew up in the deep South (South Carolina and Georgia) and graduated with honors from Bob Jones Academy, a fundamentalist Christian boarding school in Greenville, South Carolina. I learned many fine things at the school that have inspired me throughout life. I was taught to sing with great joy and from the bottom of my heart “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world! Red and yellow, black and white—they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
At the same time I was taught that racial segregation in America was God’s will. When I questioned separate schools for “whites” and “colored,” separate bathrooms for “whites” and “colored” or separate water fountains (“whites” and “colored”) or the signs above the restaurant entrances (“whites only”), I was always told it was God’s will for races to live separately.
Often southern Christians justified their beliefs with a single Bible passage describing “the curse of Ham.” (The curse of Ham [actually placed upon Ham’s son Canaan] occurs in the Book of Genesis, imposed by the patriarch Noah. It occurs in the context of “Noah’s drunkenness” and is provoked by a shameful act perpetrated by Noah’s son Ham, who “saw the nakedness of his father.” The exact nature of Ham’s transgression and the reason Noah cursed Canaan when it was Ham who had sinned have been debated for more than 2,000 years.
The story’s original purpose may have been to justify the subjection of the Canaanite people to the Israelites, but in later centuries, the narrative was interpreted by some Christians and Jews as an explanation for black skin, as well as a justification for slavery. Nevertheless, most Christians and Jews now disagree with such interpretations, because in the biblical text, Ham himself is not cursed, and race or skin color is never mentioned.)
Civil rights leader the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr who sought to end segregation was pictured on billboards throughout the south, branded as a “Communist”—a patently derogatory term I found to be applied liberally by the John Birch Society, fundamentalist Christians and others to anyone who sought to end segregation or stood against the unjust war in Vietnam. The title “un-American” was applied to the same people. Bumperstickers were seen on the backs of cars everywhere “America–Love it or leave it!” Although King’s civil rights movement met with success, he would be assassinated. A US national holiday honoring King’s life was made possible by an act of Congress, but it was met with great opposition by many of the same organizations and associations that have brought Trump to power.
Today, Trump supporters (many claiming to be Evangelical Christians and loving followers of Jesus Christ) have fallen back into the same decades-old trap of their southern parents and grandparents—seeking to justify their hateful rhetoric. They seek to demean anyone who disagrees with their world view as a “Communist” and “un-American.” We are fed the line that Hispanics are rapists and drug smugglers, African Americans who disagree with Trump are said to be lazy and unwilling to work, Jews are said to be a part of a world conspiracy while Muslims are terrorists who follow a “false prophet.” And now, once again, come the alienating chants, loud and clear “Go back to where you’re from!”
We Jews, Christians and Muslims dare not fall again into this trap of hate-mongering; destabilizing the world’s nations and societies through fear, hatred and prejudice. Let’s be reconcilers in our broken world. While speaking truth to the world, may God use us as His peacemakers–behaving as we know Jesus would behave–loving, not hating; reconciling, not dividing.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that” (Dr Martin Luther King Jr).
“Allahu Akbar!” The most beautiful, yet most understood words on planet earth!
Leaving the isha evening prayer service Taqwa Mosque here in Jeddah last evening, a friend walked up to me and said, “Allahu akbar! It’s great to see you, Uncle Sam!”
Many in the West might find it hard to believe that this beautiful greeting Allahu akbar could be anything other than a frightening war cry!
