Inter-Culturalism

Donna Schaper on Gates & Crowley, Right & Wrong

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Donna Schaper sent us this rumination on the way we liberals are dealing with right and wrong over the Gates Crowley affair, or Gatesgate as people are having fun with calling it on the web. Donna writes “When anti-racists figure out how to have less fun with this story, we could begin the business of opening doors.” She also says, in her self-deprecating and visionary way, “When I figure out how to stop hating Lou Dobbs for the hate he promulgates, we will have found our way through the door of the house we’d like to live in.” (Note: Valerie Elverton-Dixon also wrote on this here last week)
Opening Doors
by Rev. Donna Schaper
For many people, God is not still speaking. God is still spanking.

Culture

Religious pluralism in today's Muslim world

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In his 4 June speech to the Muslim world from Cairo, US President Barack Obama started his discussion of religious freedom by pointing out that “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance”. Citing its long history of protecting religious minorities as well as his own experience growing up in overwhelmingly Muslim Indonesia where Christians worshipped freely, he then drew upon the present, turning his attention to those vocal Muslims among whom “there is a disturbing tendency to measure one’s own faith by the rejection of another’s”. He urged his Muslim listeners to continue the spirit of tolerance that is reflected throughout their history. The rejectionist Muslims whom Obama referred to are but one part of the vast Muslim world. Surveys conducted in 44 countries as part of the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project show that people in Muslim countries place a high value on free speech, free press, multi-party systems and equal protection under the law.

Inter-Culturalism

No Faith–on Gates and Crowley, two stunned men

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The incident between Professor Henry Louis Gates and Sgt James Crowley of the Cambridge police department is an example of our lack of faith in each other, especially the lack of faith that we African-Americans have in the police. When I was a little girl, one of the first sentences I remember learning to read in my elementary school reader was: “The policeman is my friend.” Pictures of a friendly white police officer with happy white children accompanied the sentence. As time passed and I learned African-American history, had my own experiences with the police, became the mother of a son and a daughter, and read the news of police behavior in the African-American community, I knew that this sentence in the reader was not always true. Let me hasten to say that my experiences with the police, for the most part, have been positive.

Inter-Culturalism

Resources to Help Build Relationships Based on Success Between Palestinians and Jews

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Two amazing people with whom we have luckily connected along our journey at Reach And Teach are Len and Libby Traubman. Their dedication to building a more peaceful and just world through dialogue and engagement has inspired us immensely. Here’s how they describe themselves on their web site:
The Traubman family resides in San Mateo, California. Len is a pediatric dentist, retired after 35 years in his practice of dentistry for children in San Francisco. Libby, a retired clinical social worker, is a trustee of the Foundation for Global Community – formerly Beyond War – which they helped launch in 1982.

Inter-Culturalism

American Muslims Challenge China

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Wajahat Ali, playwright and friend of this blog, sent us this press release today. My eye was caught by the phrase “American Muslims thrive because of the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom,” which I am sure Thomas Jefferson would be happy to hear if he could:
American Muslims Call on Chinese Govt’ to Protect Religious Freedom
In response to the outbreak of violence in Xinjiang, China, in early July, 2009, American Muslims across the country will speak out for religious freedom in China during their July 31, 2009 Friday sermon
SAN FRANCISCO – A collection of American Muslim professionals, journalists and community and religious leaders, are calling for American Muslim leaders and religious figures to speak up during their Friday, July 31, sermon for religious freedom in light of the brutal crackdown by the Chinese on Uyghur Muslims in July and a history of repression of religious groups including Christians and the Falun Gong.In response to the collective concern of the American Muslim community, imams and religious leaders across America have been asked to speak out for religious freedom in China and promote awareness of the plight of Uyghur Muslims to their congregations. Members of this collection of the American Muslim community are currently contacting imams and religious leaders at major religious centers and mosques, and are encouraging sermons addressing the importance of bringing attention and support to this embattled community. They are encouraging sermons that bring attention and support to this embattled community while also addressing the importance of religious freedom for all people, including Uyghur Muslims, and the right of all Chinese religious communities to enjoy self-determination and the preservation of cultural identity. Resources to promote awareness about the struggle for religious freedom in China, the repressive situation of Uyghur Muslims, and the difficult situation in Xinjiangare available at the facebook group “American Muslims Support the Uyghurs on July 31.”

Culture

The American Indian Church

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Seven and a half months ago, professional photographer and educator Julia Dean and English professor A. Jay Adler rented out their apartments, traded in their cars for a motor home, and took to the road to document life on Native American reservations across the country. “It seems to us that Native Americans don’t get talked about a lot in America unless you live next to a reservation or have anything to do with Native Americans,” Dean says. “As journalists, we are just trying to do a little something about it.” Dean and Adler’s work depicts the complexities of Native American life from a variety of perspectives, changing with each reservation they visit. Each reservation has its own unique set of obstacles and successes, giving them a wide range of foci.

Inter-Culturalism

Still the two Americas

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At The Immanent Frame, Nikhil Pal Singh reflects on racism and violence, their past and their presence, noting that “the 2008 election season at times appeared to turn on exorcising the ghosts and demons of a still unfinished civil war.” An excerpt from the piece is below:
Exorcism and reparation: but at what price? As unmistakable as these subtexts are, in my view, Obama’s winning strategy was to accentuate the value of his campaign’s egalitarian racial appeal through disciplined and calculated non-reference. Invisible protective glass in this sense may be a suitable metaphor for the reigning orthodoxy of color-blindness cum post-racialism, whose architecture in politics and law becomes more durable and less assailable with every U.S. Supreme Court decision: a state sanctioned enclosure increasingly hard to perceive or identify between those who are protected from racially differentiated vulnerability and those who continue to bear its marks and suffer its consequences. Obama’s call to “choose our better history” might be read productively in this light.

Culture

You've Come a Long Way, Baby Sotomayor!

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“You’ve come a long way, baby!” I guess that’s what I keep hearing in the background of the Senate Confirmation Sessions for Sonia Sotomayor. “And once you’ve come that long way, you should act like a (white) man, and not rock the boat with your ‘difference.'” Those white, male Senators don’t ask questions about impartiality when white, male judges are being confirmed, because, by definition, those men are unbiased, the norm, hey — they look the same and act same as the Senators asking the questions, so hey — they must be impartial. But Sonia Sotomayor has bright, red toenails, which we can all see, because of her broken ankle. And she looks like she’s Hispanic.

Christianity

Boundless Love

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Painter Janet McKenzie saw Christ, and all humankind, made in the image of God. She saw a black woman standing strong and proud as the child of God. Following this vision, she fashioned her Jesus of the People, and all of her paintings, as visual prayers for equality and gender equity. Visit our art gallery to see her works. For hundreds of years, most western artists have depicted the figure of Jesus Christ as a white man.

Inter-Culturalism

Pluralism: Why “tolerance” is not enough

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The compatibility of Islam and pluralism is sometimes defended by referencing examples of Islamic “tolerance” of minorities in centuries past. Some Muslims’ interpretation of pluralism is colored by Islam’s political power in the past,[1] and they define religious tolerance in terms of how religious minorities were treated in the Islamic Empire – that is, as groups that were free to practice their religion as long as they obeyed the Islamic political order and paid taxes in return for protection by the Islamic state. As some modern Islamic thinkers argue, however, this form of religious tolerance is inadequate in light of changing human rights standards.[2] Whereas the Islamic Empire’s notion of religious tolerance may have been appropriate for that time, Muslims in the modern age must re-evaluate and realize that the historical approach to religious tolerance must be modified. Conditional and condescending “tolerance” must be redefined to include mutual respect, equal treatment, and robust pluralism. Contemporary Muslims’ effort to grapple with pluralism and their political position in relation to the religious “other” is in some ways analogous to the challenge the American religious right has faced realizing that America is not a “Christian country” – at least not in the sense that allows conservative Christianity to hold a privileged position.