Religious People Ought to Know Better

I was watching a news report the other day about some protesting going on in the United States over the situation in Gaza. I was not surprised; there is much anger about the civilians being massacred and that anger is growing.

But in that report, I heard a young woman, a young Islamic woman, say to protesting Jews, "Go back to where you belong. You belong in an oven. Go back to the oven...where you belong."

Her words stopped me cold. I am still angry, as angry over her words as I am about the situation overall.

The words and the sentiment bothered me, in and of themselves, but what bothered me even more was that this woman, dressed in the clothes mandated by her religion, would utter such hateful words.

Someone will say, "but you didn't hear what the Jews were saying." No, I didn't. But whatever they were saying, it is no excuse for a religious person to spew hatred.

This protest of religious people acting badly is what has me upset about the entire Middle East situation in the first place. In my article the other day, my point was that I could not understand how people who say they love God can have such disregard for other people. God made all people; all people are the children of God. God is love; God wants love ...so what are religious people missing? Why don't we get it?

In the comments that people offer after reading my pieces, someone has protested my "God is love" sentiment, saying that I cannot mean that and be a "black liberationist." I don't know what that person's definition is of "black liberationist," nor do I know how that person can presume to know me that well.

For the record, I believe in, and preach, liberation theology. I do not adhere to the belief that religion is supposed to be the tool to oppress people, but should rather be the vehicle through which people are liberated from the things that keep us cut off from God. Not liking yourself because of your color or religion keeps one separated from God.

I preach that the "Good News" is good for everyone, not just some people, and I point out how religion has been used as the basis for the most hateful actions. People who lynched others thought they were doing God's will. Hitler believed he was doing God's will.

That is poppycock! Either God is good or God is not good, and if God is good, and if God created all people, which we all say God did, then all people are worthy of God's attention. God did not make bad people; God did not mistakenly make anybody. That's what I preach.

Having said that, I preach that oppression of anyone is not of God. That would include women, gays, Palestinians, Jewish people ... anyone, because all people belong to God.

The Palestinians belong to God just as much as do the Christians and the Jews and the Muslims. They are as precious to God as is anyone else. The sight of them being killed mercilessly ought to make any person who loves God cringe and protest. It is not right.

But the second part of my protestation is that I cannot understand how anyone who has been oppressed, or who is being oppressed, can in turn oppress others. That young Islamic woman knows what it is to be oppressed, no doubt. She knows the pain and the horror of it all.

So how could she, in good conscience, say to her Jewish brothers and sisters that they ought to go back to where they belong, back to their "home," the "oven?"

The more violence there is, the more violence there is going to be. The strife between the Jews and the Palestinians is not going to go away because the hatred is moving people to do and say hateful things that only fuel the resentment and make it burst into flames of anger. Watching the situation is like watching a married couple who really cannot reconcile; by the time they get to me, counseling is of no use. Too many harsh words have been spoken, and the bitterness is too deep.

The wounds left in their spirits are too deep to heal, and by the time they get to me, those wounds have become hopelessly infected.

There might be a cease-fire in Gaza; I hope there is, but if the hateful words do not stop, the violence will only be a breath away from restarting. If what is being said in the trenches in Gaza are as horrific as the words that young woman said, then I am afraid there will never be an end to the violence in the Middle East.

Religious people ought to stop; religious people ought to know better.

By Susan K. Smith  |  January 9, 2009; 9:46 AM ET
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