Cleaning off my desk—I came across some wonderful articles that I wanted
to share. I have a file in my mind called: “Wish I’d Said That.” The following
writings are superb and looking back they all deal with inclusion, in
community, in trying to discover the all-ness that this country has always
dreamed about. Let’s face it—we have not lived up to it by a long shot—for the
fiftieth anniversary of Martin King’s “Letters to Birmingham Jail” reminded us
how very far we were (and are) from the American dream. We all know that we are
living today in a fractured society. We cannot continue this way. To segment
any group—even if they are Muslim—and isolate them and say they are not
welcome is certainly at counter purpose with what it means to be a United
America. The Boston attack has left us all heartsick. But we must not make the
terrible mistake as we care for the wounded and bury our dying to take actions
that would make us more like the terrorists than the free people we are
supposed to be.
The New York Times reported this morning just underneath the
sad picture of the chaos and maiming in Boston should give us pause to think.
The headline reads: "U.S. Practiced
Torture After 9/11 Nonpartisan Review Concludes.” A nonpartisan independent
review of interrogation and detention practices after September 11, 2001
concludes, “It is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice
of torture.” And that the nation’s highest officials bore ultimate
responsibility for it. It is a 577-page report and hammers the point that brutality
is not to be the American way. Surely we need to ponder this report as we
search for terrorists once again.
The three articles I recommend all deal with community and
the challenge of inclusion. Wendell Berry has written a splendid article “Caught
in the Middle,” about his troubled feelings about abortion and homosexuality. He takes on the right and the left and says that we must come to some agreement
on these issues and live together. He talks about the difficulties raised by
both abortion and homosexuality and in a fair manner calls for us to move beyond the politics of
mutual estrangement.
Mark Schloneger is Pastor of a Mennonite Church in Goshen,
Indiana. He writes an article entitled, “Altar Politics.” On the eve of the
national election for President he planned what he called an Election Day
Communion service. He had the strange idea that the table of the Lord ought to
bring us together despite however we vote or do not vote. This Pastor has caught a vision of the way Church is to be. A safe place for everyone. The Church
everywhere needs to consider the wideness of God’s mercy for all God’s people.
The last article found in the secular Harper’s Magazine
deals with the thorny problem of immigration. Ted Genoways has written a piece
asking how do we decide who belongs in America. It is a question we have
struggled with from the beginning of our nation. In telling terms, Mr. Genoways points to
where we are today.
I wish I had written each of these articles. In a dark
time—we still have those that hold up the candles in the dark.
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