Religion and Ridicule (1999)

One Muslim boy was laughed at and scolded for mispronouncing ‘Christ’ during a Grade 4 Christmas pageant, a former student has testified.

“Everyone laughed at him and the teacher told him if he didn’t have respect for our religion, he would be taken out of the Christmas,” Megan Williams 17, recalled.

Williams who was a student at Brunskill and Greystone elementary schools, was testifying at a tribunal hearing a complaint from a group of parents protesting religious practices at Saskatoon public schools...

In the city’s 550 public elementary classrooms, 108 started the day with the Lord’s Prayer in 1996. Some teachers also include Bible readings during the school day.

In other testimony, a rabbi and religious scholar said that forcing children to recite the Lord’s Prayer in school is indoctrination, not education...”All religious groups have within them strands of intolerance, but most people are offended by this idea. We are not in the Ayatollah’s Iran, I hope,” said the rabbi, who has studied Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

“Prayer as an act of worship has to be engaged, in order to be meaningful, as a voluntary act of faith. Here it is a coercive act of worship, which is meaningless.”

The school board allows non-Christian children to leave the room during prayers and readings or to simply not participate or quietly say their own prayers...

The Board has been considering a new policy to allow multi-faith prayer in schools, but the change can’t happen under current provincial law.

‘Right now it’s the Lord’s Prayer or nothing,’ said the Board’s lawyer outside the hearing...

quoted from Canadian Press-Saskatoon July14, 1999.

Having read the article ‘Religion and Ridicule’ (Toronto Star, July 14, 1999) regarding the use of the Lord’s Prayer in some of Saskatoon’s public schools, I was immediately sympathetic to those in protest. Freedom of worship is a freedom that Canadians of various religious persuasions have laboured hard to institute and preserve, including those well versed in the Lord’s Prayer.

But in considering the matter further I think it important to rightly identify the crime.

That a child could be ridiculed for having beliefs which differ from the majority of his classmates is indeed criminal, if not in law, at least in principle. It is bad behaviour and indeed bad religion if that is what the religion teaches. But when ridicule runs contrary to what the religion teaches, is the religion or in this case, the Lord’s Prayer to blame?

A good thing used badly does not make it bad. Just because Johnny ‘the browner’ gets ridiculed by his classmates for getting an ‘A’ in a math test is no reason to rid our schools of testing. No doubt our children would prefer such measures, but it is possible to deal with the ridicule without eliminating exams. Otherwise the remedy could prove worse than the ailment it was intended to cure.

The same thing holds true for a good thing coerced. A message badly delivered can cast aspersions on the message itself, but it need not invalidate it. For those of us who sat through English literature badly taught or Social Studies fraught with political bias, we had to learn to separate the message from the messenger. 

(No doubt, those who taught us were convinced that but for strong arm tactics, there was no other way we’d learn!) Wisdom necessitates we differentiate the two.

But what if the message itself is to blame? Is the Lord’s Prayer too Christian ‘specific’ to be of benefit to those of non-Christian belief? Specifically, does its content strengthen or undermine good relations within schools, especially among those of different faiths? Does it compliment or negate the noble goal of education to foster good relations within its diverse population?

Looking at the text, I think it fosters good relations:

Our Father in heaven

Hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day, our daily bread 

Forgive us our sins as we forgive everyone who sins against us. 

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil.

Openly I confess to not knowing as much about Islam, Judaism and Christianity as does the rabbi who takes issue with the use of this prayer. However, the prayer is seemingly built on common ground. It makes no mention of the two bones of contention that Islam and Judaism both have with Christianity, namely Jesus’ divinity and his resurrection from the dead. 

Instead it reinforces shared essentials: God our Father, whose name is holy; the appeal to His good will being done; our common need for daily bread; the imperative to forgive; and the need for His help in our struggle against evil. 

From an educational standpoint, it means learning what is common to religious activity regardless of the religion, i.e. God and good behaviour. To appreciate religious diversity begins with an appreciation of what we share, which the Lord’s Prayer does not contravene.

This makes me sympathetic to the Saskatoon education board’s unwillingness to pursue the ‘no prayer’ option, which is the only alternative they have under current provincial law.

Anyone who raises children these days can’t help but be overwhelmed by the flood of images our children are exposed to, too many of which are violent, inhuman and profane. Image after image, at a speed and intensity too overwhelming to curb, are wearing down the infrastructure of our children’s resistance to wrongdoing and the results are distressingly obvious.

If we continue to shelter our children from the divine imperatives of forgiving one another and resisting evil, of giving thanks for daily bread and giving heed to God’s will; we really can’t be surprised when they are unforgiving, ungrateful and self obsessed.

In which case you say the Lord’s Prayer is not enough. No it isn’t, but I’m convinced it helps.

The only year in which my classmates and I were forced to say the Lord’s Prayer was in Grade 10, when we had to say it in Latin. Conclusively it did nothing to make us either Christian or Latin. But when the adolescent impulse arose to lose patience, to retaliate, to not forgive, among those voices aligned with our collective conscience to resist, was a fledgling Latin one.

In that regard, our children don’t have it as good as we did. And they are suffering for it. More boards of education than just Saskatoon’s know it. Littleton knows it. And inwardly, I think we all do. In our angst that religion not ridicule, we have ridiculed religion. We have forbidden it from the classroom. Consequently, our children’s education is being deprived of an essential ally they need to exercise good will.

I think we can do better.

Is inter-faith dialogue even possible?

Many of the world’s religions have a variation of this doctrine: “believe this (whatever ‘this’ is) and you shall be saved," and conversely, "if you don’t believe this, whatever ‘this’ is, you are damned."

Needless to say, such doctrine can be a complicating factor in inter-faith dialogue. How can dialogue happen between people of differing beliefs, when each believe the other to be wrong, if not damned?

I have had the experience of engaging in LinkedIn discussion groups where this severity of name calling hits the roof when the topic is religion.

The worst I have ever been called in my various business related forms is ‘pinko commie’.

Pales in comparison with the worst I have been called in various religious forums, which is ‘son of Satan’. The latter kills any possibility of further dialogue which until recently convinced me that any God debate is doomed before it starts.

But what happens if the dialogue begins some place other than where we disagree? Like COVID 19 for example.

Last week a bunch of us religious types: Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist got together over ZOOM to talk about how our respective religious communities were dealing with the COVID 19 pandemic.

Some spoke of finding peace in either prayer or meditation to offset the anxieties of job loss and loss of social connection.

Others spoke of reaching out to those in need, whether in distributing food to the hungry or in connecting by phone with seniors who have been house bound and alone for weeks.

Some spoke of the inspiration their faith is to them in troubled times while others admitted to not doing so well despite their faith.

I came away from the experience wanting more, feeling more connected to my neighbour, especially the neighbour whose faith differs from mine.

The way God sees us

I can't tell you the number of times I have reflected on this photo.

The face looking out into the playground is that of a young girl who near the end of her first day at day-care sees, with sheer delight, her older sister looking in at her.

I don't care who you are, what you've done - each of you, indeed each one of us, is meant to have a face looking in on us with such unutterable delight, we are totally transfigured. What deep welcome we know, when someone finds such consolation and joy to see us.

And our reply is meant to be reciprocal. In their seeing the warmth and welcome on our faces, their world loses its strangeness and indifference. We look on their vulnerability and transparency with such tenderness, they feel special in being seen. They see they are not alone.

Then I think of the sisters and brothers separated not by glass but a wall. They see no face of welcome, no face to shatter the isolation and the cold indifference they feel.

We live in times which demand we pray and work to convert every wall into a window - whether a border wall or any other wall built by suspicion, hatred and fear - so that in the faces looking out and in the faces looking in - we discover the consolation and delight we all so desperately need.

It is the way God sees us.

Worn out shoes

Van Gogh's 'A Pair of Shoes'

Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent ... Hebrews 6:11,12

To love others for as long as life lasts is how we become spiritually alive and passionately engaged, justice oriented and hope-filled.

It is not a stand alone venture, it is fundamentally communal, where no one is left out, moving at the speed of the most vulnerable and always making room for more...

It is to move in step with those in worn out shoes...

Babylon

“You have been deceived by the fear you inspire in others and by your own pride. You live in a rock fortress and control the mountain heights. But even if you make your nest among the peaks with the eagles, I will bring you crashing down,” says the Lord.    Jeremiah 49:16

Call it my ‘Rasta’ moment, but I have been thinking a lot about Babylon these days. To Rastafarians, Babylon refers to human government and institutions that are seen in rebellion against the rule of Jah (God), beginning with the Tower of Babel.

In my case, it’s more likely that the prophet Jeremiah has something to do with my current fascination with this ancient empire. Read Jeremiah and one encounters Babylon on nearly every page. It is not only the empire that Jeremiah predicts will trample down his own people, it is the empire which will burn God’s holy city to the ground.

Jeremiah’s entire life is one of unrelenting lament, with only brief respites of consolation to his people that if they wait long enough, 70 years to be exact, the land and the holy city will again be theirs.
These respites of consolation are the only good news he has. Wait two generations and then things will get better. In the meantime, Babylon rules. And ruthless their rule is.

Although the Babylon that ravaged the Promised Land is long gone, something like it has permeated human society ever since.
Two thousand years ago it was the Roman Empire.
Now it could be any of America, Neo-liberalism, Amazon or any other entity staking claim to power over others.

Babylon is anything which exercises dominion over more than just its own. For the sake of a few within its own, it denies prosperity and freedom to many.
It is the power of the wealthy over the poor,
the leverage the privileged have over the disadvantaged,
the pulpit the esteemed have over the ridiculed and despised.

So what would be good news to those over whom Babylon rules, who have little, if any means, of getting out from under its oppressive rule? Wait two generations for something better?

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favour has come.” Luke 4:18,19

When Jesus read these words in his hometown synagogue, he insisted not only was he their fulfilment but that their fulfilment had already begun.

This is a different kind of news to those of us accustomed to believing that Jesus is about the life to come. It is the good news that is in effect right here and now. In Babylon. In these days when Babylon is smiling on the world of the 1% and merchandizing the rest.

This proclamation from Jesus is unmistakably political. Enough to overthrow any Babylon.
It is a proclamation that rings most true, not in some sepulchre or sanctuary, but where life gets real messy and congested, in refugee camps and war zones.

It is God’s good news for poor people. Everywhere. Beginning today and not tomorrow. For those who have no power and no wealth, it is through the world's poorest people God’s kingdom comes.

We may not see it coming, mired as we are in the machinations of Babylon, but in promising sight to the blind and liberty to the captive, Jesus offers us the gift of seeing things the way he does and the freedom to live that way.

Palm leaves and protest

from front page of Globe and Mail - Saturday September 28, 2019 

Connecting Palm Sunday to last Friday’s Climate Strike March...

‘Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. 

“Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.  If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”
So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. 

As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. 
When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.

“Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord!
    Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!”

But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!”
He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!” Luke 19:28...40

Those of us who went to Sunday school likely remember this story, told on the Sunday before Easter, before things for Jesus dramatically took a turn for the worse. In this high moment of exaltation, Jesus is front and centre in a parade, with crowds waving palm branches and singing the praises of their long awaited King.

I remember the story for its palm leaves and branches. And I remember Jesus riding on a donkey worshiped like a rock star just days before the crowds turned on him.

The Sunday school teacher likely made reference to how fickle crowds can be, but definitely no mention was made of Palm Sunday's being a protest march. Like the Climate Strike March last Friday which was for the care of God's creation and against our abuse of it, Palm Sunday was for Jesus and his way of peace and against all forms of oppression.

Clearly Christ’s triumphal entry into the holy city was without official sanction. To openly praise someone other than Caesar as King defied the very empire under whose thumb the city of Jerusalem had been crushed, a message reinforced by the many wooden crosses on which other well intentioned liberators had been hung.

No wonder the religious authorities begged Jesus to silence his followers. He was jeopardizing what little they had. But Jesus would not, insisting that had he, the stones themselves would cry out in protest.
Truth has a way of making itself known even when we who know it remain silent.

No doubt this defiance on Jesus’ part hastened his demise. It forced on the holy city into a referendum as to who they would really like to be in charge.

By Thursday, the same crowds who had welcomed Jesus as King on Palm Sunday were, at the authorities bidding, openly declaring: ‘we have no king but Caesar!'

When the status quo is threatened and the people are forced to choose between those in power and Jesus, Jesus rarely wins.  Not only then, but in jurisdictions since, even when the majority of the electorate are Christian.

That said, it doesn’t devalue the significance of a parade, whether the one on Palm Sunday or last Friday’s Climate Strike. It does matter when we go public for something better, even if our loyalty proves suspect at times.

Fortunately enough people stuck with Jesus to change things for the better then, and hopefully with God’s help, there will enough people to change things for the better now.

Learning to interpret the times

Some of us are prone to allow our religion to do our thinking for us.
Jesus expects otherwise...
We must learn to interpret the times.
We must learn to decide for ourselves.
We must be aware of those who have a bone to pick with us, to settle our differences promptly.

In his words:

“When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?
“Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled on the way..." Luke 12:54-57

Jesus expects us to rightly interpret the times we live in.
He expects us to judge for ourselves what is right.
He expects us to reconcile with those against us before their complaint lands us in jail.
He expects that we can sort out the confusion of letters and words and bias and grudges. He expects that we will resolve the tinder box issues of our time - immigration, abortion, violence, gun control, tribalism, drug addiction, the widening gap between the 'haves' and 'have nots, the loss of opportunity experienced by poor people.......