I want to share with you a poetic reflection shared by Aisea Taimani, one of the leaders in the 99 Collective, a young adult led movement of the Church that seeks to practice and struggle for radical hospitality for all people. Aisea was providing some perspective on the Kony 2012 controversy, with a link to this excellent piece on the Sojourners blog, titled “Who’s Telling the Story.” Here is Aisea’s comment:
if you simplify my story…
you miss out on the beauty of its complexity.
if you sensationalize my story…
you miss out on…
me.
BE QUICK TO LISTEN!
s l o w t o s p e a k.
and if you tell my story,
please tell my version, my narrative, my truth.
when you do, you give meaning to my existence.
The Kony controversy and Aisea’s poetic plea is important for a broad variety of engagements with our complex world. Those of us outside the Middle East who have become involved in efforts to respond to the Israeli-Palestinian situation must take time to reflect on the question of who speaks for whom.
Palestinian boys engaged by the International Day for Sharing Life Stories
This question came to the fore over the past week or so with the Wall Street Journal’s publication of an editorial by Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States. The piece, titled “Israel and the Plight of Mideast Christians,” asserted, in effect, that Muslims are targeting Christians for persecution throughout the Middle East, including in the West Bank and Gaza. The editorial then pivoted to suggest that this Islamic persecution, rather than the policies and practices of the Government of Israel, is the primary cause of Palestinian Christian suffering.
The next week, the Journal published four letters responding to Oren (including one from me). The basic theme of the letters—two of which were from Palestinian Christians—was that Oren had neglected the perspectives of Palestinian Christians themselves. Oren seeks to establish his standing to share Palestinian Christian perspectives by noting his past work as an Israeli government adviser on inter-religious affairs and his encounters with Christians in that role. As the content of the letters attest, however, these experiences in Oren’s past have not led him to communicate in ways that, according to Aisea, “give meaning to” Palestinian Christian existence.
As a representative of the Government of Israel, Oren carries immense power. In his attempts to shape American perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian situation (the Journal regularly publishes his editorials), Oren is assisted by the best researchers and the most sophisticated wordsmiths within the government and an array of organizations committed to defending the prerogatives of his state. These “experts” work assiduously to frame the boundaries of acceptable inquiry, even as they appropriate Palestinian Christian research and perspectives to their own cause (even to the point of ultimately silencing excellent Palestinian Christian studies on their community’s demographics like those found here and here. Oren’s editorial is an exercise of state power against the interests of a population made more vulnerable by that state’s own actions.
While not as obvious as that held by a state ambassador, most of us involved with the Peace Not Walls campaign are tempted to wield power in similar ways. Every time we tell the story of Israelis or Palestinians (or, for that matter, Syrians or Egyptians) most of us are representing another person’s story. And that representation is an exercise of power.
To work toward justice, it is often necessary to tell another person’s story. As Proverbs tells us, those who have power are called to “Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute” (31:8). The three pillars of the Peace Not Walls campaign—Accompaniment, Awareness-building, and Advocacy—each depend on building solidarity and empathy through engagement with human stories. Telling other people’s stories is necessary. The question, though, is HOW those of us who have power choose (and the ability to choose is the essence of power) to tell that story.
Are we telling their story to advance our own agendas? Are we telling the stories to help ourselves feel better about ourselves, so we can distance ourselves from other forms of power? Are we placing our companions (the ones who have asked us to share their stories) at the center of our narrative? Are we doing justice to them and their suffering?
Our news media are filled with examples of those who hold power using other people’s narratives to advance agendas aimed at preserving power. Even if we are not accustomed to acknowledging our power, our efforts to engage in solidarity with persons more vulnerable than ourselves must practice the discipline of being “quick to listen and slow to speak.” And in this we will see glimpses of the New Heavens and the New Earth.
I encourage you to read this report from a recent meeting in Washington, DC, hosted by the World Evangelical Alliance. Two of the quoted speakers, Dr. Atef Gendy and Dr. Andrea Zaki, are close companions of the ELCA in Egypt.
These words are taken from the Christmas Eve sermon from Pastor Fred Strickert, the ELCA missionary who serves at the English-speaking Redeemer Lutheran Church in Jerusalem. On Christmas Eve, the Arabic, German and English-speaking congregations join together at Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem (below) for an international service. Pastor Fred preached this year’s sermon:
‘And so the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’ (John 1:14) Among us in our world filled with refugees and immigrants.
The child of a refugee family finding hospitality and welcome in Bethlehem, just as the church today accepts the challenge of welcoming the stranger today. Fred Otieno, from the Church in Nairobi, recently said reflecting on his 18 hour a day, seven day a week position as camp coordinator at the Dadaab Refugee Camp, ‘God has a purpose for us being here to make a difference in the lives of these people, so we must try and help them enjoy their stay, because at the end of the day we all need one another.’
This is the message that goes out from the Bethlehem manger, “At the end of the day we all need one another.”
Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem.
Participants of the consultation on freedom of religion with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Archbishop Alois Kothgasser and Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima. Photo from WCC website.
30 experts on religious rights from 23 different countries are attending “Freedom of Religion and Rights of Religious Minorities,” a conference sponsored by The World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of the Churches on International Affairs and hosted by the Ecumenical Patriarch. The conference will end Dec 2.
In a presentation to the gathering, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I said there must be respect for the “inherent rights of all human beings and their aspiration and rights of religious freedom should be important components to sustain tolerance among all God’s creation.”
“We are called to promote dialogue among all communities and peoples to create peace, harmony and tolerance in a world that is faced with violence, conflicts and religious hatred”, the Patriarch said.
Read more about the WCC”s activities in:
In March 2012, a unique Christian International Conference will take place in Bethlehem, Palestine, titled: Christ at the Checkpoint – Hope in the Midst of Conflict. The conference is organized by Bethlehem Bible College in Palestine, an evangelical Christian institution, and it is the second time the College has hosted such a conference. It will be one of the biggest gatherings of evangelical Christians in the Middle East ever to take place.
Among the confirmed speakers for 2012 are John Ortberg, Lynne Hybels (Willow Creek), Shane Clainbore (Simple Way), Tony Campolo, Ron Sider (Evangelicals for Social Action), Samuel Rodriguez (National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference), Chris Wright (Langham Partnership International), Chris Seiple (Institute for Global Engagement), Ken Sande (Peacemaker Ministries), Sang Bok David Kim (chairman of the Asia Evangelical Alliance and the World Evangelical Alliance), and many more.
In addition to the international speakers, local Palestinian and Messianic Jewish leaders will share their own experiences and offer diverse perspectives. Participants will meet Palestinian Christians, and be able to listen and see first-hand the realities on the ground, as seen through the eyes of the people.
The first conference generated much interest and debate and called for evangelicals to work towards peace and justice in Palestine and Israel. It also challenged the traditional stereotypical lens through which Western Christians have looked at the Middle East in general. According to the report from the conference, there was
a Biblical critique of dispensational theology and repudiation of an exclusive theology of the land that marginalizes and disenfranchises the indigenous people. The conference affirmed the strategic role of the Palestinian Evangelical Church in justice, peacemaking and reconciliation. The conference speakers repudiated both Christian Zionism and Anti-Semitism.
As Carl Medearis put it,
If your end-times theology trumps the clear commands in Scripture to love neighbours and enemies, then it is time to rethink your theology.
A symposium entitled “Bible, Land, and our Theological Challenge: A Presbyterian Conversation” was held in October with key speakers presenting views on biblical perspectives on the land and the Palestinian-Israeli situation. See the schedule of speakers below and watch the video.
| 9:00AM | Welcome, introductions, statement of purpose, prayer | |
| 9:30AM-10:20AM | “Kairos Palestine and Interfaith Relations in North America” | Rev. Dr. Said Ailabouni,ELCA Pastor, La Grange IL, Former director of ELCA office on the Middle East |
| 10:30AM-11:20AM | “Biblical interpretation and Old Testament Land Theology Today” | Rev. Dr. Eugene March,Old Testament Profesor Emeritus, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary |
| 11:30AM-12:20PM | “Biblical interpretation and New Testament Land Theology Today” | Rev. Dr. Gary Burge,Professor of New Testament, Wheaton College and Graduate School |
| 12:30PM | Lunch and discussion: catered in the Presbyterian Center. Registration includes cost of lunch. | |
| 1:45PM – 4:30PM | Panel Discussion | Moderator: Darrell Yeaney, former university Campus Minister in Kansas, California and Iowa; Founder with his wife Sue of the Congressional Accompaniment Project to Israel/PalestineSpeakers: Said Ailabouni, Gene March, Gary Burge(see above)National Staff:Rev. Dr. Christian T. Iosso, Coordinator, Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (PCUSA)Rev. Dr. Charles A. Wiley, III, Interim Director, Theology & Worship, PC(USA)IPMN members:Rev. Katherine Cunningham, Co-Executive Director, New Horizons Associates, Counseling and Consultation, New Jersey; a past moderator of the Committee on the Office of the GA; Vice Moderator of IPMN.Professor Nahida Halaby Gordon, Schools of Medicine and Nursing, moderator of the National Middle East Presbyterian Caucus, officer and member of the Steering Committee of IPMNRev. Dr. Donald Wagner, Research Professor for Interfaith Engagement, Eastern Mennonite University and former Professor and Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies North Park University, Chicago, ILRev. Raafat L. Zaki, Transitional Synod Executive, Synod of the Covenant. He was educated in the Middle East, Asia, & the USA and has held three pastorates, two GAMC positions, and two synod positions. |
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