An encounter between the Murid and Mennonite faiths

The Anabaptist World of January 31, 2024 has an interesting article by Lynda Hollinger-Janzen on an encounter between the Murid and Mennonite faiths in Paris on November 25. We generally think of Murids as part of the Sufi tradition, although the article in The Anabaptist World describes them as a  "Muslim renewal movement." The Mennonites self-describe as being "an Anabaptist, Christian denomination with roots in the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe." I want to recommend that you red the short article and prayerfully consider what is being said there and the implications of the encounter.

Photo from The Anabaptist World

I believe that the Holy Spirit leads people of faith to such work as this. I also believe that people who attempt this work have to be prepared for it by the Holy Spirit. The article points out that both Murids and Mennonites

— Practice nonviolence, which grows out of a belief that all people are children of God and are called to forgive their enemies rather than take revenge.

— Have histories of migration and establishing self-supporting faith communities wherever they go.

— Tend to be inwardly focused on sustaining religious life and practice yet have made positive contributions to the societies in which they have settled. For example, Infinity Mennonite Church and the Murid Islamic Community in America — each unaware of the other’s work — both contributed to the revitalization of Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City, in the 1990s and early 2000s.

In a sense, then, preparation for this encounter began decades or centuries ago and proceeded through times of difficult struggles, violence and persecutions and then entered into community building. The "heat" of the past made people malleable and (I think) then cleansed and sharpened them so that they could approach one another within democratic and non-violent contexts and begin conversations that allowed the participants to "talk respectfully about what separates us" and not "risk falling into squishy dialogue that isn’t fruitful.” From that "atmosphere of confidence and trust" something "wholesome and solid" might be constructed "that we can offer our religious communities and the societies in which we live.” This paraphrasing is taken from the article.

My point in looking at this in the framework that I am is to recall that the hard and difficult times come to us as tests and that they create possibilities that we cannot imagine in the moment. Also, these possibilities often blossom into their full beauty under conditions of democracy and relationship-based trust and non-violence. Political conditions and political consciousness matters because they interact with our spirituality, each shaping the other. And if the Holy Spirit is indeed guiding us to encounter and love one another through tearing down the walls that separate us, then the Holy Spirit desires democracy and peace. These encounters strengthen my universalism in the sense that they help me better see and appreciate how Spirit-led movements function across time, countries and cultures.  Finally, I am mourning for the lost opportunities over the centuries and for our unwillingness to encounter others as equals and as partners. We are making "the work of making God real" incredibly difficult by allowing unreasonable and ill-advised competition, violence, exploitation, offenses against creation, racism and sexism and national chauvinism.

Thank you to the Murids and Mennonites for stepping forward!

100 Days of Genocide: A Theological Reflection

The following post comes from Sabeel, Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem and was authored by the Center's Executive Director Jonathan Kuttab. This post raises important questions about where Christians stand in relation to the war in Palestine/Israel. To raise the questions of where are the prophetic Christian voices in the United States at this moment and where are the actions that God demands of us in moments such as these is to begin to take on the damage done to our faith and belief by living in a relatively well-off country and the damage done to our faith and belief as well by Christian Zionism (and see this). 

We need to reframe things, but where do we start? We tend to think that the Israel that we are hearing about in the news descends from the Israel that we encounter in our reading of the Hebrew Bible (the "Old Testament") and we tend to accept the logic that God gave that Israel victories and that He is doing so again and that those who "curse" Israel will be cursed by God and that those who support Israel will be loved by God. We go further by linking that to our Christianity, and then linking our Christianity to Americanism. It takes a nuanced and close read of the texts to see where this has gone off the tracks and how thinking like this has taken us off the tracks as well. And it is a difficult discussion to have with people who accept this thinking and who don't believe that they're off the tracks.

Please keep trying to have those conversations if you're having them, and know that you're going to make some mistakes along the way as you go. Those conversations are vital. We do need pastors and clergy to step up and take some risks here, and we need to be sensitive to the risks we're asking them to take and support them. 

I think that where this is heading is towards a time where right-thinking and justice-and-peace-minded people are going to have to take prophetic action in order to arouse the church and fellow Christians to action. That might mean doing more of what a dedicated group of Mennonites recently did in Washington in support of a ceasefire or it might mean less dramatic forms of witnessing that draw attention to what is going on---wearing a kuffiyah and being prepared to explain to others what it is and why it matters, letter-writing events, a fundraising dinner for Anera or another worthy organization, sending the money you will save if you observe Lent as a fasting period to one of those organizations, going to pro-ceasefire rallies. My point is that whatever Christians do at this moment should be seen and done in light of the prophetic thinking and action that are needed and that we learn how to do our theology as an analysis of present-day conditions, as a means of grasping what God wants us to do now, and as a means of understanding the Kairos moment that we're in. 

Here is the Sabeel reflection by Jonathan Kuttab:        

As we have now passed 100 days of ongoing genocide and the number of named victims exceeds 25,000 (not counting those still buried under the rubble), the scale human suffering has long reached unbearable dimensions. Over ten thousand children have been killed and continue to be killed at the rate of about 100 per day; over 1,000 children suffered amputations, many without anesthesia. 50,000 pregnant women struggle to survive and give birth, sometimes by cesarean section, without enough milk, food, or water, much less sanitary conditions. An entire population is being starved, 90% of them are homeless, within just a few miles of a full convoy of trucks filled with supplies not being allowed in to provide food and water. Entire neighborhoods are razed to the ground. The continuous bombardment has exceeded within three months the entire tonnage of bombs used by the US in Iraq over six years. Meanwhile, the people of Gaza have no air defenses, bomb shelters, or escape. For people of faith, this agonizing reality forces us to confront serious theological challenges.

The Holocaust in Germany generated a crisis of faith for many Jewish individuals and theologians. Recurring questions include:Where was God during the holocaust?
Why did God allow these atrocities to occur?
How could a just God allow such evil to persist?
How can God abandon innocents facing genocide?

Many individuals lost their faith in God altogether. Similar questions are being raised by people of faith these days in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

I must be honest, Muslim Palestinians have shocked me with their response to the atrocities. Even ordinary people recount their losses and suffering yet always end up with the same phrase: “I have lost my father and two children. My home is destroyed. I have no food or water and nowhere to go: Alhamdulillah, May God be praised.” Despite destruction, untold suffering, and pain, there is a resignation to God’s will and acceptance of his ultimate sovereignty, echoing the position of Job in the Old Testament. Perhaps this, as much as anything, explains Palestinian resilience in the face of insurmountable odds. We thank God, anyway, and in all situations.

The expression, “Allahu Akbar,” repeated often by Muslims, should not be translated as “God is Great,” but more accurately, “God is Greater than . . . ” Indeed God is greater than the awesome might of the Israeli army, its massive destructive weaponry, and the full force of the United States and Western countries marshaled against the hapless people of Gaza. God is greater, indeed, than Tel Aviv and Washington, than the Sixth Fleet and its aircraft carriers, than Israel’s technology of destruction, or its high tech wall and surveillance equipment. God is greater than the silence and complicity of international institutions in the face of well-documented massacres and is greater than the failure of Palestinian leadership or their supposed Arab allies. The deep and genuine faith in God’s ultimate sovereignty over the affairs of this world puts to shame all the rest of us monotheists, who believe the same things but seem to forget when catastrophes and genuine losses occur.

As I reflect on the current situation, my own question as a Christian is not, “Where is God during the Gaza Genocide,” but rather, “Where are God’s People?” With a few notable exceptions, the response of the American church has been utterly disappointing. A few tepid statements from church leaders, expressing some humanitarian concern, but reluctant to even call for an end to the fighting, for fear of upsetting Israelis, who have made annihilation and the utter destruction of Gaza their legitimate and openly stated goal. The reasons for this failure are many: Guilt over past anti-Jewish antisemitism, which has morphed into giving Israel a pass no matter what it does today;
Confused end-times theology among many evangelicals, which also transfers into uncritical support of Israel; but mostly,
A comfortable acceptance of a dominant narrative, which isolates, punishes, ridicules and sanctions those who dare to deviate from it.

Hamas, this narrative tells us, is an evil that needs to be eradicated. All civilian suffering involved, therefore, is a collateral by-product that in all cases should be blamed on Hamas. There is a near-total absence or willingness to take a prophetic stance or even an independent outlook that may run against the prevailing views promulgated in the mainstream corporate media.

To be sure, there have been strong Christian voices calling for an end to the genocide, for an end to occupation and Israeli apartheid, and for the implementation of a just solution. I am encouraged by such groups as the newly formed Mennonite Action that has been very active in taking a prophetic position on this issue. In addition, the Catholic Pax Christi has been vocal in their opposition since the very beginning, as well as the multiple denomination-based grassroots Palestine-Israel Networks (PINs), which have been amazing in their principled witness. Local and regional FOSNA, Kairos, as well as independent groups have been active in their communities demanding action and accountability from local leadership. On social media, numerous new Christian pages advocating for a ceasefire and an end to genocide have been established. And, activist-influencers like Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Walton, and of course Dr. Cornel West, as well as many leaders in the black church have been phenomenal. But, the shameful silence and timidity of most of Christian leaders at this time of crisis is something the Church will have to come to terms with for many years to come.

A response to a cartoon

Let's consider the cartoon below. It is apparently being circulated by Christian pastors and others who may be trying to make a point about declines in church membership and active participation and engagement. But from my universalist perspective there may be a counter-argument to be made here and a reasonable explanation as to why someone might find this cartoon offensive. 

Let me say right now that I believe in joining and engaging with whatever religious or spiritual organization that you feel comfortable with after you have gone through time for discernment with God, taken some time with it, and your membership and participation have been determined to bless and benefit everyone in the circle. This is about faith, belief, and doctrine, to be sure, but it is also about how we view long-term commitment.

With commitment in mind, then, I want to lay out a few controversial points that I think the pastors and others passing this cartoon along will disagree with. Uniting oneself with a congregation or community will not work if you or that community come to the point of considering membership in a transactional way. If either side in this is thinking about some kind of exchange taking place, or in terms of a sale being made or a client-therapist-buyer-seller-sinner-preacher relationship being established, in order for things to progress then at some point someone will become dissatisfied and the relationship will suffer or end. We live in a world governed largely by competition, transactions, sales, profits and losses. Those in power often maintain their positions by encouraging dependency. People seeking the solace and strengthening that faith and faith communities can provide are often seeking an alternative to the harsh and cold world and the means of coping with and overcoming the violence that has been done to them in that world. We, all of us, need solidarity, not capitalist ethics and relationship dependencies in the pews.

Tithing has its roots in our communal religious and spiritual traditions and has come down to us as a form of fasting and as a form of generosity or charity ("solidarity lite"). But there are legitimate questions here about a proper Biblical approach to fasting in the first place. Is it Biblical to require the poor and the oppressed---the Lazaruses of our present day---to fast and to give? Is their life not already a story of fasting, faith and generosity? Yes, there are the accounts of the poor widow's offering and Christ's observations in the moment (Mark 12:41–44, Luke 21:1–4), but here I think the accent is on Christ condemning the wealthy and the powerful and not arguing that the poor must be squeezed.

We know that "people with means...are substantial givers. Middle-class Americans donate a little less. But the lower-income population surprises by giving more than the middle—and in some measures even more than the top. (As a percentage of available income, that is. In absolute dollars, those in higher income groups give much, much more money.)" The lower-income folks have an expansive definition of tithing, and one that I think is essentially correct, at least in terms of social practices. Someone may cover the mom in line at the supermarket who comes up short, or put up money for a son-in-law's tires so that he can look for work, or help someone make their rent. In my experience the people who are so generous do not often think of wat they are doing as charity, though they may not know the word "solidarity" or what it fully means or implies. Still, they model the concepts of solidarity by giving without the expectation of getting back and by giving in order to strengthen the social fabric that wraps around them as well. Instead of being transactional and talking about tithing, then, we should think about how we teach and model solidarity and where we find it in Scripture. The Bible is full of lessons on solidarity. The three that come readily to my mind are Hebrews 11, Acts 4: 32-5:11, and Christ's resurrection. Once solidarity is institutionalized and is communicated as an expectation and lived out daily, and once transactionalism is overcome,  the tithing and sacrifices will likely come.     

Well, it may be said, the folks in that cartoon are white and middle-class and seem to be squared away. I want to ask fellow Christians to seriously engage with the work of Marcus Borg and take up the project of doing economic analysis from a Christian perspective. The people in the pews may not be doing as well as fellow parishioners think they are. We live in a society that makes talk about things that matter and the struggles that we're going through uncomfortable and humiliating. Either people never talk about these hard truths of theirs or they abandon boundaries and go on as if theirs are the only and the most important problems and as if what they are suffering through is not the outcome of systemic inequities. So, in addition to not being transactional, engaging in solidarity, and doing economic analysis we also need to develop and teach healthy boundaries before we get deep into pushing church membership and tithing on folks. 

I'm coming from a place here of thinking about joining and fully engaging with a religious or spiritual community in terms of relationships---a marriage, say. You know that if you get married thinking "Well, we can always get divorced if things don't work out" then your marriage will likely not work out. The same holds true when you consider joining a religious community. You had better go into your marriage knowing your partner's faults and shortcomings, and both of you need to bend and be vulnerable to the other. Something similar happens in religious communities. Your heart will break and be broken and both you and your community will need to be flexible and take the long view. You know that if you get married but still keep up with old partners or go around looking at others as potential partners then you're not being fully faithful to the person you promised faithfulness to. Something like this applies to you joining a religious community as well; it's either a monogamous relationship or it won't last. It's okay if you can't do that now, "dating" is fine. You know that if you get married and you're not sharing the household tasks and paying the bills together and budgeting together then your marriage won't last. Most divorces start with fights over money. Again, there is a corollary with joining a religious community: plan, work, struggle and share the burdens to make it work, even if it means smaller communities made up of the blessed poor that God so loves. You don't want to marry someone who talks only about themselves, who is struggling with alcoholism or drug abuse, who is always deep in drama, who can't manage basic living skills without trouble, who can't handle their own power or work with someone else's in rational ways or who abuses their power and your trust. You also don't want to join a religious community where people with such issues proliferate and hold the keys to heaven and hell. And if you have been through a bad marriage or two you're probably not in a hurry to jump into another marriage. The same is true of joining religious communities; let God speak to you and study on how to bring that into focus, be rational about it, take your time.

Patrick Weaver Ministries grasps much of this in ways that I don't yet. See what they have to say about some of this.

For most of us, I think, the good traits and the most difficult problems that we bring to marriages and other relationships will be much the same as what we bring to any organization or effort we engage in, religious and spiritual communities included. Most of us have to work very hard to deconstruct what is negative in us and this is a lifetime project for many more of us than want to admit it. The capitalist society that we live in makes us unnaturally competitive and unable to find balance and cooperative paths to power. Churches may look at these conditions as sinful, or they may honor this with a gospel of prosperity, but neither approach finds the needed understanding. Our practical challenge is to make deconstructing ourselves and rebuilding ourselves a radical and social act of partaking with one another in the divine nature, or theosis (See Psalm 81/82, 2nd Peter 1:4. See 1 Thessalonians 5:17 and Matthew 25: 37-40 as aids). Is your religious community a place for rebuilding and healing?  

By this point I have probably lost the preachers and many readers. I'm going on too long and this is abstract. I do want to close with an additional point.

Many of the preachers who are circulating this cartoon and others like it claim in their sermons that they are swimming against the tide and say that they are risking their livelihoods and freedom by their strong teaching. I think that they are swimming very much with the tide by not taking on those in power who bring us a bit of hell (employers, banks, the prison-industrial complex, healthcare run for profit are examples), exaggerating their counter-cultural stance, and preaching an eternal hell because it is one way of preserving order in a society that jumps from crisis to crisis. Where is their attack on the systemic evils that oppress the people in the pews? 

On the other hand, there are some pretty brave Christians out there who really are challenging the oppressive powers and are paying a price for doing that and aren't posing as being counter-cultural. A committee of Mennonites led a peaceful demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Palestine/Israel last week and about 150 people were arrested at that demonstration. Where is the church in talking accurately and with love and solidarity about Palestine and supporting those who were arrested? Fellow believers cry out for justice but we're not listening. Where is the church in supporting  the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II and Repairers of the Breach when Bishop Barber says, "On March 2, our moral movement will be in Washington D.C. and at 30 statehouses across the country, launching a period of mass mobilization to the polls of the nation’s 85 million poor and low wealth voters leading up to the election in November. If mobilized around an agenda to address and end poverty and low wages, there is not a state where–if just 10 to 20 percent of poor and low-wage voters who did not vote in the last national election come to the polls this time around–they would not be able to swing the election and elect leaders who would vote for living wages, health care and voting rights."?

Pastor Jerrell Williams: Advent gives me hope that God has not abandoned us

The following lines come from an article by Pastor Jerrell Williams of Salem, Oregon's Mennonite Church. There is a link to the full article below the excerpt.

Let’s be honest: This has been a depressing few years for many of us. Through all of the sickness, financial struggles, climate disasters and political tension, I have gotten more pessimistic. I do not know how we can make things better anymore.

It seems that for every happy -moment there has been a terrible -moment. The circumstances I have gone through over the past three years have changed me.

And yet: Joy is still possible. I think of God’s people 2,000 years ago carrying God’s promise with them as they walked through the hardships of their lives. They were waiting for God to do something. God finally responded by entering their world — our world — to walk with us.

Advent gives me hope that God has not abandoned us. It gives me hope that God is moving, sometimes in mysterious ways.

Read the entire article here.