Love over hate
The need for love to vanquish hate was the focus of the “Hate or Hospitality” forum, pictured, hosted by a local Nazarene church, and a brunch hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City.
People should take personal accountability for their role in the current climate of polarization in communities across America, panelists at a recent public forum told an Oklahoma City crowd.
Then, do your part to offer empathy and hospitality to the stranger in your midst, instead of hate and divisiveness, speakers at the “Hate or Hospitality” forum said on Oct. 1 at Putnam City High School.
The event hosted by Oklahoma City First Church of the Nazarene was held in the school’s auditorium and attracted more than 300 people. The forum was part of the church’s series called “The Two Windows Project: Science and Theology in Conversation,” based around a quote by Princeton physicist Freeman Dyson about science and faith.
Panelists included Richard Beck, author, blogger and professor of psychology at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas; Lori Walke, associate pastor of Mayflower Congregational ChurchUnited Church of Christ; and Imad Enchassi, founder and senior imam of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City and chair of the Islamic studies department at Oklahoma City University. The Rev. Aaron Bolerjack, the church’s executive pastor, served as the forum moderator.
Bolarjack asked some questions and then took questions from the audience that people were allowed to text to him.
The three didn’t mince words when it came to discussing the current climate of increased distrust and stereotyping of societal groups, particularly among people with racial, religious and political differences.
Enchassi told the crowd of a Catholic nun who offered love and care to him and other children who lived in the refugee camp where he grew up in Beirut, Lebanon. He said she crossed the invisible boundary between the Christian and Islamic faiths to care for the children because they were members of the human race, even using her cab fare to purchase sugar candy for them.
He said he has been giving sermons at his mosque about putting faith over fear and he puts this into practice daily as a follower of the often maligned Islamic faith.
“I am the recipient of hate and yet, I’m a voice of interfaith in my city,” Enchassi said.
Beck said he grew up in a sectarian strain of the Churches of Christ where he learned to love Jesus and developed a passion for following Him. He said Jesus was hospitable, so he works with prison inmates and people who are economically marginalized.
He said Christians following Christ are “all on the hook here.”
“The call to hospitality is not a bland love for everyone. It is loving one’s enemy,” Beck said, noting that this is not an “intuitive” behavior but one that must be developed.
Walke said she grew up Southern Baptist and remembers the Scripture drills that helped her develop a “high biblical literacy” that she brought to her work in the United Church of Christ denomination.
She said offering hospitality is fundamental to doing the work of Christ and Scripture is brimming with stories that teach Christians how to be hospitable.
What can people of faith do to be more welcoming to those whose beliefs are different from their own?
Beck encouraged the audience to take an honest assessment of how they have contributed to the polarization of the culture. Then, he said, try empathizing with someone who has religious, economic or other differences.
“Can you empathize with that black man who is driving at night in a white suburb and is pulled over by the police? Can you empathize with that terror? What would it feel like to be a woman in a hijab walking around a store in Oklahoma?” Beck said.
He also recommended that people cultivate a “surprising friendship” to get to know someone different.
Meanwhile, both Beck and Walke said politics has played a decided role in the country’s polarization.
Beck said politics seems to have become “our religion.” He suggested that people confront their idolatry in the way they have put their faith in the next election.
“I think that’s become idolatry. We’ve seen the Veggietale about Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego, for goodness sake,” he said, drawing chuckles from the crowd.
Walke said Americans, depending on their political persuasion, have made Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders into Christ-like figures and then turned those politicians who they don’t like into “the antiChrist.”
“We have decided that we can name the anti-Christ. What? We need to stop naming Christs and anti-Christs,” she said.
Church will focus on more issues
The Rev. Jon Middendorf, senior pastor of Oklahoma City First Church of the Nazarene, said the forum was intentionally held in a neutral nonchurch setting to help nurture an open-minded community conversation about fear-based hatred and other issues that cause divisions.
The minister said he was pleased with the turnout which he noted included people of different Christian denominations, as well as people of different faiths, like Judaism and Islam.
The church will take up other hotbutton issues in the coming months.
He said the next forum in the series will be on the first Sunday in March and will focus on human sexuality. Another forum will focus on sanctity of life issues such as abortion, war and the death penalty.