Response to recent attacks on places of worship
By Letter to the Editor on May 4, 2019.
In the last several weeks the world has seen a rash of attacks on places of worship. There was the shooting in the mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand; the bombing of churches (and hotels) in Sri Lanka; and then the shooting in the synagogue in Poway, Calif. Places intended to be sanctuaries in which one might worship God in the way they choose have instead become places of violence and murder. What is going on? And how can we as people of faith – or no faith – respond? I have three suggestions: 1. We can seek to understand and to teach the younger generations who we are and that we have a greater purpose in life. Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, of the Chabad Community Center, the site of the horrific events said: “How does a 19-year-old have the audacity, the sickness, the hatred to publicize such anti-Semitism in his manifesto? How does he come here to our house of worship and do what he did? Perhaps we need to go back a little earlier and think about what are we teaching our children? What are we educating our children? We need to perhaps think about reintroducing in our public-school system a moment of silence where children can start the day pausing and thinking, ‘Why am I created? Why am I here? And what am I going to do?'” Whether or not this is the right answer is for others to decide. I, however, believe the questions are the right ones. We are more than animals. We are not mere consumers. We are humans created in the image of God. 2. Political leaders need to ratchet down religiophobia. The recent attempt to outlaw religious symbols worn by public employees such as crosses, hijabs, or turbans is a clear infringement of free speech. In our own province an MLA spent six minutes mocking the holy book of Christians and Jews, the Bible. The governing party went out of its way in the recent campaign to mock people of faith and their beliefs. 3. We need to counteract darkness with light. The rabbi said, “We need to battle darkness with light, no matter how dark the world is we need to think of a little bit of light pushes away a lot of darkness … There’s so much darkness now in the world but you and I have the ability to change.” As a Christian, I believe “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” This is something that all of us whether we are people of faith or not can engage in. I call upon all of us, Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Muslims, and people of no faith to work together to help our young people understand that they have a greater purpose in life. And, to lead the way to a more peaceful future, by turning off the hate and turning up love and understanding. James Bredeson Medicine Hat (The writer is senior pastor at Victory Lutheran Church) 10-9
