This post is a digression. Usually I write happy things about how I try out green recipes and green products and have a good time doing so. But right now, my mind is full of a lot of questions. And honestly, a lot of disbelief.
It seems to me that there's a new storm brewing in America right now.
Many would like us to believe that this is a storm from without, that we are being threatened by invaders from other countries -- that immigrant women come here to drop jihadist anchor babies that will be raised to be terrorists; that mosques are being built so that America can become a theocracy (while these same critics state that America should base its laws on Judeo-Christian tradition, hence advocating a theocracy); that if we're not careful we will all be speaking Spanish; that our president is a Muslim born in Kenya (yes, 1 in 5 Americans apparently believe that our Christian president is a Muslim).
These statements, almost always, come with some sort of disclaimer, like ...
"I'm not a racist, but ..."
"I'm don't hate Muslims, but ..."
"I'm not against immigration, but ..."
These disclaimers, with their transparent dishonesty, lead me to believe that this is not a storm from without, but a storm that's brewing within (especially white, middle class) Americans. We feel threatened (by the economy? by the fact that we won't be the majority any longer? by the sounds of words we don't understand?). Because of the threat, we draw up and try to protect ourselves from "the other", and we find that the kind of open hate and hostility that we thought had been driven underground, is now out in the open once more.
Take for example, building of mosques in America. No, not that mosque. Just any old mosque. Our constitution guarantees freedom of worship, and yet as America's growing Muslim community seeks to build houses of worship that will accommodate them, they are met by protests -- often from the same people who espouse strict constructionism in other circumstances. How then, can these Constitution-loving folk protest anyone's freedom to worship or congregate? By claiming that Islam is not a religion. Seriously? Are you kidding me? We're talking about people who pray five times a day, and the response of those who protest is "not a religion"?
It's nonsense, because it's not good form anymore to admit that you hate another group of people. And so the haters find crazier and crazier arguments to couch their hate in a thin scrim of validity.
They make me so angry. Lately, when I watch The Daily Show, I can feel Jon Stewart's rage at their hatred coming right through the screen and I think, right on, Jon! This open hatred, which we thought we'd pushed down (though never buried) fills me with rage as well. And yet, I'm going to refuse to hate them. My goodness, I want to hate them. But I can't. Even if I did want to, I can turn to the words of this guy named Jesus, which remind me that I shouldn't:
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Matthew 5:7-9.
All those questions from the beginning of the post? I can't begin to answer them.
What's going on? I don't know, but it scares me.
Where is the love? It's become hidden. I'm pretty sure it's still there, but those of us who feel it are being kind of wimpy about showing it.
Is America Islamophobic? It seems like it, right now, but I think that those of us who are committed to freedom can rise above it.
Is Fox News a terrorist command center? Most definitely, if you consider terror to be the fear-mongering that they perpetrate on a daily basis, the hate that they stir up, and the blatant lies that they spew in the name of freedom of speech (okay, I'm still working on that not-hating thing).
Because this is the land of the free, I have to let the haters say these things. And because I want that freedom to remain, I have to speak up against those who would take freedom away in the name of hate.
... I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds. ...
But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ..." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime---the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists. (From MLK's "Letter From A Birmingham Jail")
