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Obama's Peacemaking
If nothing else, Barack Hussein Obama is consistent in his quest to bring people together. His speech at Cairo University was nothing short of courageous, ambitious and honest. Surely, someone in the Muslim world was touched as never before.
There was a sadness I felt when I visited the Holy Land some years back. There, where all three major world religions are represented, people praying to God, to Yahweh, to Allah. Still there was no peace.
The most profound irony I find in religion is that, in spite of sound scripture urging people to love each other as they love themselves, or to do to others as they would have done to themselves, the reality is that religious people are so intolerant, so unwilling to listen to and to respect each other.
The sense that some religion has to be "the" religion has tainted those very scriptures and has turned people away from religion and from God.
As I listened to the President, I recalled my own love of the scriptures, especially of the Sermon on the Mount found in the Gospel of Matthew. As the President quoted the Beatitude that says "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God," I felt myself welling up.
Peacemakers are rare. They do what nobody else will do. They put the scriptures in front of the people who claim to be religious and they challenge the religious to DO religion, to DO "the word," not just talk about it.
Peacemakers step out on a limb and frequently make enemies, because nobody wants to hear "the word," and nobody wants to do "the word."
Making peace is not about guns and war. It is about God, God's people and the relationships between God's people. Peace lovers go with the flow; peacemakers challenge that flow as an affront to the very will of God.
The President is a peacemaker. He is approaching chasms that have been sacrosanct for far too long. Apologizing for the wrongs done by America. Recognizing that all God's people count; that God has no favorites. Talking with Muslims like they are as special to God as the most devout Roman Catholic or Evangelical Christian.
Jesus did that. Jesus made people mad by focusing on relationships and showing his own people what God was all about.
No, I am not comparing the President to Jesus, or putting him on the same plane as Jesus, but I am saying that the President "gets it," as did Mother Teresa and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Was Egypt the right place for this speech? Yes, absolutely. Egypt, right about now, is not particularly enamored with the United States. In fact, not much of the Arab world is.
All the more reason to get out of our comfort zone and go to them.
Some Arabs, some Palestinians, Jews, and Americans will scoff at the President's words. They will say that he was not exact enough or penitent enough or accurate enough. Something.
That's what religious people do, far too often.
But I won't be in that number. This title of "peacemaker" is what I think of when I think of this president, trying so hard to get people who have been at each other's throats for far too long to stop for a moment and appreciate the beauty of God's holiness.
At the end of his term, I don't know what the world will say about Barack Obama.
But I think God will say, "Thank you for getting it."
By
Susan K. Smith
|
June 4, 2009; 12:45 PM ET
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Posted by: scott1164 | June 11, 2009 12:51 PM
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Yes, where is a God in times like this? Still, I remember the Jews praying the Shema Yisrael walking through fire to appear on the other side.
Sheheḥeyanu ("Who has kept us alive")
I remember African Americans walked
past death and emerging as president of the U.S.
God of our Weary Years, God of our Silent Tears
I believe liberation is coming for the Jews, Palentistinians, Catholis, Muslim the world over...but it's understandle to be bitter while you're in the middle of such intense struggle.
Posted by: scott1164 | June 11, 2009 12:49 PM
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farnaz writes to ms. smith:
"You write:
Reverend Smith: "Recognizing that all God's people count; that God has no favorites. Talking with Muslims like they are as special to God as the most devout Roman Catholic or Evangelical Christian."
Me: I did not know that a Jew is not as "special to God as [is a] Roman Catholic or Evangelical Christian" "
_____________________________
because ms. smith did not list "jew", you think she excludes jewish people from that sentiment?
jeez, farnaz, i'd accuse you of being a little hyper-sensitive, but i'm afraid it would offend you...
Posted by: walter-in-fallschurch | June 5, 2009 10:45 AM
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Reverend Smith:
You instruct me, mostly about you, and in ways I would have liked not to be edified.
You write:
Reverend Smith: "Recognizing that all God's people count; that God has no favorites. Talking with Muslims like they are as special to God as the most devout Roman Catholic or Evangelical Christian."
Me: I did not know that a Jew is not as "special to God as [is a] Roman Catholic or Evangelical Christian"
Reverend Smith: "Some Arabs, some Palestinians, Jews, and Americans will scoff at the President's words."
But no Muslims, no Christians, no Roman Catholics?
Reverend Smith: "That's what religious people do, far too often."
If, by this, you mean to dissociate yourself from "the religious," I commend you, although there is something hypocritical in your continuing on as "Reverend." Legitimate criticism must never be stifled.
Bigotry, such as that which you evince, must never be countenanced.
Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | June 4, 2009 8:14 PM
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Ms Smith;
You write;
"There was a sadness I felt when I visited the Holy Land some years back. There, where all three major world religions are represented, people praying to God, to Yahweh, to Allah. Still there was no peace."
If only it were that easy! And when did prayer EVER work? If prayer worked the world would be a totally different place. And, you might say the world would be better place if there really was a god. I mean a real one, not this imaginary one that everyone pretends is real.(Hence the eternal squabbling about whose god is the real true one).
Frankly the world will be a better place when we admit that we don't know either way about God's existence, but realistically speaking,it seems very unlikely.
You also say;
"The sense that some religion has to be 'the' religion has tainted those very scriptures and has turned people away from religion and from God."
Well yes, we're sick of all the fighting, but most of us are coming to the realization on our own - that there are no gods, or other supernatural thingies, simply because they do not appear to actually exist, outside of the imagination, that is.
Ancient fairy tales are a hard sell in these enlightened times. We have to learn to live without them. They do more harm than good. Remember 9/11.
Posted by: colinnicholas | June 4, 2009 7:13 PM
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hopelessness is as dangerous as 9/11 was.