Those Could Have Been My Neighbors; That Could Have Been My Child

These are the names of the people who were targeted and shot in a Buffalo Tops grocery store this past Saturday:

• Roberta A. Drury of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 32
• Margus D. Morrison of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 52
• Andre Mackneil of Auburn, N.Y. – age 53
• Aaron Salter of Lockport, N.Y. – age 55
• Geraldine Talley of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 62
• Celestine Chaney of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 65
• Heyward Patterson of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 67
• Katherine Massey of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 72
• Pearl Young of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 77
• Ruth Whitfield of Buffalo, N.Y. – age 86

That could have been my grocery store, my neighbors. I live in a neighborhood which is still one of the few places in Seattle that is minority white, in which a majority are Black folks and other people of color. But maybe more terrifyingly, the young man who perpetrated this act of terror could have been my child.

The teen who committed this horrifying violence - and live-streamed it for others to see! - was scarcely older than the children who live in many of our homes. He was influenced by the same social media and streaming platforms that many of our children use. How are we countering the influence of white nationalism and white supremacy with the white children in our homes? Especially the white boys.

I found Britt Hawthorne's comments in an Instagram Live video very inspiring and practical. She is an Anti-Racism educator who, in response to the Buffalo shooting, shared specifics tips about how to talk to children about this or any act of racist violence. It's about 15 minutes long and worth watching in its entirety, but she provides a brief written summary if you don't want to/have time to watch.

What I found particularly helpful was the way she shared the conversation she had with her 15-year-old son about her boundaries and expectations related to how he engages with this or other violent content he encounters on social media. She invited him to consider the way viewing this violence would affect him, how the families of victims would feel about having people viewing it and why the shooter might want others to see it. She also told him very clearly that if he did encounter this or other violent images like in in social media that he disclose it to her so that she could help process it.


Hawthorn's child is not white. He is not going to be a target on social media for the white nationalism that the Buffalo shooter was influenced by, but he will absolutely be harmed by it. For those of you who love children of color your conversation may sound more like hers. My child is in the demographic of young people who will be recruited to white nationalist. Many of our children are. They too need to know our boundaries and values. We need to give them the tools that they need to counter supremacist thinking. They may already know more than we think they do and our silence will not protect them.

Here are a few resources that I've found that I hope will help you (and me!) start or continue the conversation. I started with the first link at Embrace Race (where there are many other great resources) and found the next three there.Four Steps for helping kids push back against white supremacy

• Common beliefs and understanding of white nationalists, including how its spread online and in schools
• Dos and Don'ts of talking to kids about white supremacy - written after the attacks in Charlottesville, but extremely relevant to today
• How White Nationalism sneaks in through social media, calling out specific YouTubers and streamers.

Hawthorne starts her IG live with the encouragement to resist the ostrich effect, a strong temptation for those of us who are white and can easily give in to the overwhelm and stick our heads in the sand. But she ends with ideas for action and advocacy. This is where I find the most hope: taking action as an individual, as a family and in my community to identify and resist the ideas pit our differences against each other.

May God give us the strength and wisdom to be conspirators for love and justice.

Does God Fight?

I grew up with Bible stories in a way I'm not repeating with my own children.  We sometimes will a story or two from Desmond Tutu's Children of God Storybook Bible.  But I'm not systematic and don't, as my parents did, have multiple additional bible story books or do a daily family devotional.  I'll admit that in part it's because I don't want to have to deal with some of the problematic Old Testament stories of conquest, war and (not to put too fine a point on it) genocide.  I can't even remember how my parents dealt with that.  I think maybe we just breezed over those many other people that Israel conquered and killed to enter Canaan or somehow I saw that land as empty (besides the rivers of milk and honey, that is).  I didn't see those conquered people as people.

I'm not willing to do that now - let the conquered be invisible or non human; there are too many contemporary and historical examples of oppression based in these texts for me to let it go.  So how do I approach this?  For one, I think Desmond Tutu has it right - in his retellings of the Biblical stories, he focuses on love and justice.  And many stories of the Old Testament left out altogether.  The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, a Montessori based Sunday school program our congregation used at one time, didn't introduce the Hebrew Bible until children are at least nine - and then began with the prophets.  Early focus is on Jesus' care, welcome and love.

In the high school Sunday school class this fall we're looking at some of the stories of war and violence.  Together we're trying to examine them with some nuance.  I'm using as my starting place a curriculum called Does God Fight? from the Mennonite publisher Faith and Life Press.  Some of my takeaways from that and from my experience with these stories are these:

1. The Bible is written by people who had a particular understanding of God.  Oppressed themselves, their God was one who delivered and did so absolutely. 
2. The God of these war stories is the one who delivers.  The people are to depend not on their own power but on the God who fights for them.
3. Jesus has priority.  We believe Jesus to be the most clear interpreter of God's desire for humanity and model for how we are to be followers of God's will.  And when Jesus interpreted scripture he did so in a way that pointed to non-violence, compassion and God's love for all nations and peoples.

Do does God fight?  Well, in the Biblical narrative, yes.  If children and teens can understand the nuance of historical context and the human need to describe a God who completely and totally has their backs then maybe these stories can still have some meaning.  There are still communities of oppressed people for whom a story of a God who leads people into safety and to a home of their own is important.  I absolutely do not count myself as a part of such a community.  Instead I lean into Jesus.  Jesus who loves and blesses the the imprisoned and the weak.  Jesus who welcomes his disciples questions and chooses little ones so sit beside him.

May we always have Jesus at our side
as we struggle to be a people
who says no to violence and oppression.
Amen.

--

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

Palms and Marches

Hosanna, loud hosanna, the little children sang. These are kinds of images and songs we like on Palm Sunday. Cute kids waving palm leaves while adults look on from their seats. A party or parade atmosphere. But Palm Sunday is not and has never been cute. And what I've been dwelling on this week is concurrence of Palm Sunday with the March for our Lives the day before. A march to protest the use of guns in this country and specifically they way they've been used to kill children.

When you look at images from palm processions from parts of the world where it's kind of a big deal, they look a lot like protest marches. People en mass holding up palm leaves like protest signs. That is likely closer to the original procession than having children traipse around the sanctuary half-heartedly singing a hymn they don't know. The first procession, in which Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey was an act of prophesy and a political send-up of the Caesar-worship of the time. With boldness and courage, Jesus and his followers took to the street to perform some radical street theater. To protest the domination powers that occupied them and would later kill Jesus.

Our marches to protest violence against black lives, to protest the violence wrought by guns against our children, to protest the power of the state - I believe that is very much in line with the protest that Jesus had in mind when he mounted a donkey and invited his followers to name their allegiance not to Caesar and the Roman Empire but to the Prince of Peace,

You may or may not be participating in the March 24 March for Our Lives. But I pray that we all may be invited - along with our children - not to cute-ify the procession. That we may be bold and courageous in our prophesy. That we may walk in the way of Jesus.

*fabric palms above created by the Seattle Mennonite Church junior youth

To Remember is to Work for Peace

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day in the United States.  I grew up in Canada, where my experience was with Remembrance Day, also celebrated on November 11.  Similarly, it is a day to celebrate and give thanks for those who gave their lives in war, particularly in the World Wars.  In Canada it is traditional to wear a red poppy as a sign of remembrance and respect.  You may have noticed these poppies if you've been following the recent news of the Canadian elections; all the newly elected officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, are wearing poppies.

The symbol comes from the poem "In Flanders Fields," by John McCrae.  It speaks of the poppies growing between the cross-marked graves of soldiers killed in the trenches of WWI Belgium.  It's a poem I copied and decorated with red poppies along with "Lest We Forget" posters. I actually gave this very little thought as a child, but now revisiting it, I realize that it calls those who live to ‘take up our quarrel with the foe’!

It is appropriate to remember deaths as a result of war.  It is in fact important to remember: war kills.  Our remembering should be an act of saying ‘no’ war, to loving our enemies, to reconciling rather than to continuing the ‘quarrel’! Jesus' way is the way of peace and we, his followers, remember so that we can work and walk in that way.  Mennonite Central Committee Canada has for years been offering red poppy-alternate buttons for peace-minded followers of Jesus to wear.  They are a witness and a reminder of exactly this call on our lives.  “To remember is to work for peace.”

Many schools have assemblies that offer stories about war 'heroes', or invite military recruiters to make presentations during this week.  What alternative narratives are we offering?  What peacemakers can we remember who worked during times of war or who make peace in our communities?  What stories can we tell and celebrate?  Who are the people in our lives and in our families who have said no to violence and embraced peace instead?  What small acts of peace-making can we do this Veteran’s Day?  

Check out One Thousand Acts of Peace for small acts of peace you could do this day and ever day.  And this video from MCC Canada.

God Loves People with Guns

The current issue of Geez magazine is all about stereotypes.  What kinds of assumptions do we make about people based on gender, skin tone, age, country of origin, religious affiliation?  The magazine examines all these and more.  The first piece in the magazine is a list of 'Contradictions: 10 stereotypes held by one of more Geez editors.'  Number 4 reads as follows, "People who regularly read the Bible are unredemptively lost to a conservative worldview that oppresses everybody, including themselves. Of course, Jesus loves them anyway." This made me chuckle and Naomi asked me what I was laughing at so I read it out loud.  

I’m sure she didn’t even understand half of those words, but she said, “Really?” 

So, I answered in all seriousness, “Yes, of course.  Jesus loves everyone.”

She looked at me skeptically.  “Does Jesus even love people with guns?” 

Busted.  We’ve worked pretty intentionally at talking about how guns hurt people, about how Jesus wants us to be peacemakers, about being a family that doesn't even play at or pretend to hurt or kill.  I thought that we’d also talked about God’s love for everyone, even the person who hurts others or does bad things.  But it seems that in all our intentionality with teaching peace, we neglected to teach about God’s forgiveness and expansive grace.

“You know that song we sing sometimes, ‘God’s love is for everybody?’” I sang the chorus.  Naomi nodded.  “Well, that’s what it’s about.  God loves people everywhere, all over the world, no matter what they’re like.  Even if they do bad things.  Even people with guns.  Doing a bad thing doesn’t make you a bad person – you’re still God’s child.”

Naomi was making an assumption – one that we had taught her – that people with guns are unlovable and that Jesus wants nothing to do with them.  The Gospel is different than that.  Peacemakers are indeed blessed, but Jesus doesn’t turn anyone away – his healing is for the daughter of a soldier as much as for the child of a temple leader.  Not to say he doesn't have critiques and biases himself (see Mark 7) but his arms are open to for everyone, 'Atheist and charlatans and communists and lesbians and even old Pat Robertson, God loves us all.  Catholic or Protestant, terrorist or president, everybody!'  God is love.