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Jesus and the Samaritans: Towards a Christian response to the Sikh temple shooting

posted by Tim Nafziger on 08/06/12 at 03:06 AM

It's been less than 24 hours since the tragic shooting in Wisconsin. We grieve for all the victims, their family and their communities. The LA Times is reporting that the gunman had tattoos and biographical details that lead officials to conclude he had a "political agenda." While we don't know for sure what that is, the attack does fit a pattern in which Sikhs have been targeted by anti-Muslim bigots since the 9/11 attacks.

This is another opportunity for Christians in the United States to reflect on our response to the ugly Islamophobia that bubbles just beneath the surface and spills out in attacks against all people that appear Middle Eastern.

There would plenty of examples I could cite, but the prominent Christian leader Franklin Graham exemplifies this anti-Muslim trend. From 2002 through 2011, Graham consistently made comments that stoked fear and paranoia towards Muslims in the United States, saying that Islam preaches violence (2002) and is evil (2009). Last year he offered this:

"The Muslim Brotherhood is very strong and active in our country. It’s infiltrated every level of our government. Right now we have many of these people that are advising the U.S. military and State Department on how to respond in the Middle East, and it’s like asking a fox, like a farmer asking a fox, 'How do I protect my henhouse from foxes?' We've brought in Muslims to tell us how to make policy toward Muslim countries. And many of these people we've brought in, I'm afraid, are under the Muslim Brotherhood."

(all quotes from Franklin Graham and Samaritan’s Purse, Sheila Musaji)

It's no accident that these lines could just as easily have been from Joe McCarthy, with communists substituted for Muslims. When these kind of statements are made by mainstream leaders, they stretch the acceptable discourse deep into the hate zone, that becomes a jumping off point for Christian extremists. While Graham surely would not advocate violence like what happened in Wisconsin, his rhetoric nurtures the culture that feeds it. After all, if war against Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan is such a great thing (according to Graham), why not at home?

In 2006, when Franklin Graham spoke in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Mennonites publicly debated whether to support his presence, but because of his militarism, not his Islamophobia. Mennonite Central Committee Manitoba director Peter Rempel actually cited his fear of Muslim attacks on Mennonite mission workers as a reason for Mennonites not to support Graham.

"I'm thinking about the safety of our workers and Mennonites in other countries," he said (see Mennonite Weekly Review, April 17, 2006).

This is an area where I have some personal experience. On March 10, 2006, my Christian Peacemaker Teams colleague, Tom Fox, was killed by men who claimed to be Muslim extremists. I won't deny that Rempel's logic of tribal safety (whether it be CPTers or Mennonites) is compelling. But in the example of Jesus' relationship with Samaritans, we find a different model for why and how to challenge Islamophobia.

Jesus and the Samaritans

By the time of Jesus, the Jews had loathed the Samaritans (and vice versa) for several centuries―at least since the return of the Judeans exiled to Babylon. The apocryphal Wisdom of Ben Sirach 50:25-26, written around 200 B.C. notes, "There are two nations that my soul detests, and the third is not a nation at all: the inhabitants of Mount Seir, and the Philistines, and the stupid people living at Shechem [i.e. Samaritans.]"

Similarly the Mishna, the first major edited version of Jewish oral tradition (ca. 200 CE) declares: "He that eats the bread of the Samaritans is like one who eats the flesh of swine" (Mishna Shebiith 8:10). The Samaritans were publicly cursed in the synagogues, and a petition was daily offered up praying to God that the Samaritans might not be partakers of eternal life.

It's likely that the feelings went both ways. In Antiquities 18.30, Josephus tells of a Passover feast in Jerusalem nine years after the birth of Jesus. The gates of the temple were open past midnight as was the custom. A group of Samaritans snuck in through the gates and scattered human bones throughout the temple. The Jews were outraged at this act of inflammatory and deliberate desecration, and they increased security.

What would it have been like for Jesus' listeners to hear his parable of the Good Samaritan with the story of the temple desecration by the Samaritans fresh in their memory? When Jesus told his listeners, "Go and do like the Samaritan," who had lavished extravagant compassion upon the wounded man, what fears came up for them?

But even among Jesus' disciples, the hate for Samaritans was strong. In Luke 9:54, James and John ask Jesus to "call fire down from heaven to destroy" a Samaritan village that didn't welcome them in for the night. But the fact that Jesus and the disciples even stopped at a Samaritan village suggests that Samaritans were part of the Jesus movement. We can only imagine that after the Samaritan woman at the well and her village followed Jesus, many others joined in.

It's not enough just to talk about loving Muslims and opposing Islamaphobia, we need to consider what it looks like to live out Jesus' radical hospitality in our lives. In the last year Christian Peacemaker Teams has begun welcoming Muslims into our teams. This was an attempt to respond to the example of radical hospitality that we see in Jesus. How can each of our communities welcome the people who we are taught to fear most?

Post Script: I would be deeply remiss if I did not mention the witness of Al Geiser as an example of Christ-like risk taking for peace. Geiser, his Afghan business partner, Al Shukur and their employee were shot and killed on July 22, 2012. Al and his wife Gladys continued working in Afghanistan even after Geiser and his business partner, Shukur were kidnapped in 2008 and then rescued months later.

Having experienced the impact of the 2005-2006 kidnapping on CPT as a community, I am in awe of the strength and commitment of the Geisers and Al Shukur. Their commitment to working for peace together in the face of incredible risk is a testimony to all of us.

If you'd like to comment on this post, you can do so here.

Nafziger_tim_2_thumbnail Tim Nafziger is passionate about gathering people with shared values to work together for change in our communities and our world. One such space is Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) where he works as interim assistant director. Tim lives with his wife Charletta in the Ojai Valley in southern California where they connect with Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministires. Tim has written chapters in Widening the Circle: Experiments in Christian Discipleship; Fear or Freedom?: Why a Warring Church Must Change; and 118 Days: Christian Peacemaker Teams Held Hostage in Iraq. His photo portfolio is at timnafziger.com.