Sacred Ground. Rev. Sharon Dittmar First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati 536 Linton Street Cincinnati, Ohio January 6, 2013

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Sacred Ground. Rev. Sharon Dittmar First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati 536 Linton Street Cincinnati, Ohio January 6, 2013"

Joanna Simon
5 years ago
Views:

Sacred Ground Rev. Sharon Dittmar First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati 536 Linton Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45219 513.281.

1 Sacred Ground Rev. Sharon Dittmar First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati 536 Linton Street Cincinnati, Ohio January 6, 2013 Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America Eboo Patel s book uplifts the work we can do as a congregation to advance the cause of successful pluralism in America. General Assembly June 19 23, 2013 Louisville. Go to GA first time so close in almost 20 years Youth are going We can send six delegates I am going Patel is the Ware Lecturer Dr. Eboo Patel is founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, an international nonprofit building the interfaith youth movement. He was appointed by President Obama to the Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. An American Muslim of Indian descent, he writes for The Washington Post, Harvard Divinity School Bulletin, and The Chicago Tribune. He is the author of Acts of Faith which was the UUA Common Read. Patel was chosen by Harvard's Kennedy School Review as one of five future policy leaders to watch, so he is the cheese. And, most oddly, he and I attended the same public high school, Glenbard South High School in Glen Ellyn, IL, nine years apart.

2 Patel s book cover this old territory that I have been telling you about for years, the Puritans came here for religious freedom for themselves, not for everyone else, and this in a nutshell, is the story of American religious history then and now. But we so rarely admit this to ourselves. We want to be the land of the free and the home of the brave, and well, let s not talk about a culture that grew on slavery and forced relocation of the locals. We want the myth, not these words Patel quotes from poet Langston Hughes O yes, I say it plain America never was America to me And yet I swear this oath America will be. His book begins with the wave of Islamaphobia we have been riding in America since September 11, I know that most of you here have some ideas about the positive benefits and influence of Islam. Islam teaches humility, generosity, and mercy. The Prophet s wife, Khadija, owned property and remarried Muhammad, a younger man after the death of her first husband. She was his first convert. There is much to love and admire about Islam. We just happen to be choking in negative reports so that almost the only time that Islam or Muslims appear in the news, they are attached to terrorists and extremists. An idea of or language about mainstream Islam has lost its place in the public domain. Patel notes the observation by the Dalia Lama that Islamic terrorists and Christian fundamentalist American news reporters oddly share a similar goal, to spread the story of a violent Islam, and they have succeeded. Recently our member, Krista Taylor, invited me to teach a world religions class to 7 th and 8 th graders at Gamble Montessori. In my slide show presentation I intentionally included a

3 picture of a traditional Sikh man near the Golden Temple in Amritsar. If you remember my sermon from October you will remember that a traditional Sikh man must carry with him a short brandished sword, and of course, his hair, uncut, is wound in a turban. This gentleman was wearing a short sword in his turban (as is traditional). The picture was barely up two seconds before a boy in the front blurted out Is he an Islamic terrorist?! This is the story in the public domain, turban + sword = Islamic terrorist. The first person killed in a hate crime after 9/11 was a Sikh man. Religious freedom for me, not for everyone else. America never was America to me. Patel explains that pluralism is not a birthright, but a responsibility. We have to work at it and for it. Our history of Puritan homogeneity constantly wars with our ideas of democracy and freedom of religion. The religious history of America includes repeated demonization of whatever is considered other. Moreover, pluralism requires work beyond diversity. Patel explains In her work on interfaith cooperation, Harvard University scholar, Diana Eck had made a crucial distinction between diversity and pluralism: diversity is simply the fact of people from different backgrounds living in close quarters. Baghdad is diverse; Belfast is diverse; Bosnia is diverse. Each of these places, in recent memory, had also experienced serious interreligious violence. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, Baghdad had effectively become the site of a civil war fought between various groups of Iraqi Muslims wielding weapons and different interpretations of Islam. Where diversity is a fact, pluralism is an achievement it means deliberate and positive engagement of diversity; it means building strong bonds between people from different backgrounds. Patel tells the story of his utter depression in summer 2010 when anti-islamic rhetoric was at a high pitch following the announcement of a planned Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero in New York City. Conservative networks and commentators had a field day. I never understood the high pitch. The mosque proposing the cultural center, had been near the World Trade Centers before it became ground zero. They wanted to build a cultural

4 center and mosque for the whole community to use swimming pool, parenting classes, the works. The imam, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, is an articulate, outspoken, and moderate Muslim. He has two degrees in physics. It was his idea, with his wife, to create an Islamic cultural center where everyone can gather to try to create the American that will be. In the aftermath of devastation, violence, and a misuse of Islam, he wanted to reach for pluralism to help us heal. He and his moderate pluralism were met with a firestorm of anti-islamic rhetoric that I still do not understand. I don t understand the problem, mostly because I don t see the terrorists who destroyed the Twin Towers as average Muslims. I don t see them as representative of Islam. Or rather, I see them as representative of Islam as Scott Roeder is representative of Christianity. Roeder, a Christian, murdered Dr. Tiller in the foyer of Dr. Tiller s Kansas church because Dr. Tiller performed late term abortions. That s not Christian. That is violent extremism. Same with 9/11. Religion can always be misused to foment extremism. But that is not the purpose of religion, or how it is used by the average believer. It s like America preferred to live in fear rather than pluralism. Over the course of two chapters Patel reminds us that this is not new. For example, in the 20 th century Americans feared and discriminated against Catholicism. Candidate Al Smith could not win the presidential election in 1928 due to his Catholic faith. And President Kennedy ran a gauntlet of anti-catholicism in order to get elected in Since I was born in 1966 I don t have any memory or understanding of the worst anti-catholicism of the 20 th century. Perhaps someday our children or grandchildren will feel this way when they read about our Islamaphobia. We can only hope. I am always stunned when I read about it, who caucused against Kennedy, what they said, etc. Last year I facilitated a class here on a PBS series that outlined how the Cold War raised nationalistic and evangelistic fervor in the United States. Evangelical preacher Billy Graham did all he could to railroad Kennedy out of the election and replace him with a more Protestant candidate. Graham and the evangelical Protestants were utterly dismayed when Kennedy won the election.

5 Patel compares anti-catholicism with Islamaphobia noting even that Graham and others worried the Pope would rule the President while today some Americans worry that shariah law will overwhelm our democracy. We have a fear of a minority religious power overwhelming the status quo. If I could shrink America a moment, this fear is a projection of our own shadow, because of course our Puritan ancestors were powerful, homogenous (or at least attempted to remain that way), and inflexible, ousting Quakers and Baptists and forcing everyone to pay for pew rentals. This is the American legacy, and as much as we honor religious freedom, we attempt to erode it at every turn. Pluralism is not a right. It does take work. Patel spends a chapter explaining how Newt Gingrich, newly Catholicized after his most recent marriage to a Catholic, actually became one of the fiercest critics of the proposed lower Manhattan mosque and cultural center. He notes the incredible irony that just fifty years ago Catholics were on the run. My guess is that fifty years of racial mobility in America have brought Protestants and Catholics closer than ever before. The new lower people on the immigration pole are Muslims, Hindus and undocumented residents from Mexico. Note that most Muslims, Hindus, and Mexicans have brown skin. There is a racial element that leads old school, white Protestants and Catholics to greet each other with open arms. Fifty years ago they were fighting each other for the White House. Recently many united just to keep a white man in the White House. Pluralism is not a right. Eck s distinction between diversity and pluralism reminds me of toddlers at play. First they engage in silo play (diversity), and only later when they are more mature can they interact and play with one another. According to Patel and others, Americans are stuck at diversity and diversity is not an easy place to remain. Patel refers to the work of Robert Putnam who coined the phrase social capital. According to Putnam, social capital includes activities that unite society, such as volunteering and community work. Most people organize social capital around their religious communities. And this is the problem, because as Whitney Young said, Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America.

6 So Putnam tells us social capital strengthens society, yet most people rely on social capital from a stratified and segregated group their local congregation. Is this hurting yet? It has the ring of wintry fresh truth. Apparently Americans are not very adept at social capital relationship outside of their in groups hence the demonization of others. Putnam found that diversity reduces social capital. As Patel explains In highly diverse areas in the United States, people report lower levels of confidence in local leaders, lower loves of confidence in their own influence, lower voting rates, fewer close friends and confidants, less likelihood of working on a community project, etc. OUCH. No wonder we couldn t cope with an Islamic cultural center and mosque near the former World Trade Centers. We are afraid of getting close to the other and have little experience with doing so. We lack the skill set. There is, according to Putnam, a remedy to this. He calls it bridged social capital such as getting different religious groups to work together on a project. And my friends, this is what First Church has been working at for years. I am proud of our efforts, even when the results were mixed. No one said diversity would be easy. It is like placing a mosque near the former World Trade Centers. Last October we had an exceptional bridged social capital experience when we invited clients from Su Casa to join us for worship and a meal during our Day of the Dead service. You might not have caught this, but some of our guests placed Jesus in the sanctuary that day. Meredith, our DRE, looked at me during the service and said Look, we finally have Jesus in the sanctuary. There he was in his deserved glory. And not one person complained to me about his arrival. We experienced a successful day of bridged social capital. For our work with IHN we have tried to partner with different congregations, Quaker, Muslim, Jewish, and various Protestant and Catholic congregations. Bridged social capital. When we needed more tutors at South Avondale I suggested we reach out to Corinthian Baptist Church which sent some volunteers. Bridged social capital. The upcoming MLK day ceremonies at Memorial Hall are another example.

7 There are also the misses, which are so bad they either hurt or I have to laugh. Ten years ago there was the AIDS healing service at a black church that involved an altar call to relieve the sin of homosexuality. I left that one. The Avondale clergy wanted to do voter outreach in Avondale with mixing congregations, but that never panned out. OK, I wanted to do that, but it never panned out. Too much work to coordinate. Perhaps our mission could become bridged social capital. Members of Social Justice, Adult Education, and staff are planning on another immigration service and workshop in February. We are even considering hosting a forum at First Church between immigrant communities and black communities who worry that immigrants are taking their jobs. I have been in touch with the Council on American Islamic Relations about having dialogue circles at First Church. These are small group conversations between Muslims and members of our congregation. We have been so busy that we have to postpone this until after Ramadan in 2013, but it is still on the docket. First Church could be the yenta of bridged social capital. It would be a unique niche and ministry. It would have challenges because pluralism requires hard work. But consider the benefits. Bridged social capital changes not just one congregation, but spiraling circles of people who spread changed attitudes in their various communities. We need to find safe and fun ways to get to know one another. According to Patel A 2007 Pew study found that 44 percent of people who did not know a Mormon had a positive attitude toward the Mormon community. Of people who did know a Mormon personally, 60 percent had favorable views. That s a 16-point difference... Only 32 percent of people who did not know a Muslim expressed favorable views toward the community, but of those who did know a Muslim, 56 percent had positive attitudes. That s nearly a 25-point difference. As Americans we don t know what we don t know and in our ignorance we are hurting one another and this country. As Unitarian Universalists we are primed for bridged social capital. It embodies values in our principles and sources, and reinforced in our weekly education, music, and worship. Many of us hunger for it. It is one of the reasons we are

8 here. If, as Patel suggests, all of America is sacred ground, it is time we made a bigger difference. O yes, I say it plain America never was America to me And yet I swear this oath America will be.

Sacred Spaces Rev. Bruce Taylor September 26, 2010

Sermon 9/26/2010 - Page 1 of 8 Sacred Spaces Rev. Bruce Taylor September 26, 2010 When I first planned to give this sermon, I planned to discuss how we define our sacred spaces, and what it means to designate