Middle East Work Group

INTERFAITH RELATIONS – William G. Gepford, American-Arab Relations
“What is an Evangelical?”

A recent “Evangelical Manifesto” has attempted to define the Evangelical identity (“Evangelical Manifesto,” May 7, 2008, Washington, D.C.). To its credit it has emphasized its religious origins.

The term evangelical is not new. It has been around since at least the time of Christ. The term comes from the Greek word for good news or gospel, which suggests a radically new view of human life. To define in this way what is meant by Evangelical, is not to say that we don’t appreciate other major traditions, or that other traditions do not have something of substance to contribute, or that we are not open to working with them on many ethical and social issues of common concern. Rather, it is to distinguish its particular contributions from those of other faiths.

The Evangelical tradition is distinct as it holds to truths to be found in the Bible, which the Protestant Reformation recovered, beliefs that are true to the Good News of Jesus.

Evangelicals should not be defined politically, socially or culturally, but theologically. Evangelicals may be found in most political parties, cultures and societies.

Among other things, Evangelicals believe that being disciples of Jesus means serving him as Lord in every sphere of life, secular as well as spiritual, public as well as private, in deeds as well as in words, always reaching out to the poor, the sick, the hungry, and the oppressed. It also means being faithful stewards of all creation.

As a non-hierarchical community, Evangelicalism provides a unity that holds together a wide range of diversity.

During a term of service in Lebanon (with the Presbyterian branch of the Evangelical community) the church with whom we worked was identified as the “Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon,” the term Evangelical intending to distinguish this religious group from those who identified themselves as Catholics or Orthodox.

This identity, calling its adherents to faithfulness to Jesus, not to a political, secular or social system, made it possible to work with the vast religious variety that also was a part of the larger religious “family of God.” It was from them that I first learned how to be true to our unity in Jesus that underlies all lesser differences and to practice the “reconciliation in the church that is so needed in the world.”

In this time of renewing our government leadership, it is important that our witness be one to seek freedom, justice, peace, and well being for all peoples that are at the heart of the kingdom of God.

This means that Evangelicals must invite Muslims, Sikhs, and others to join with them to embody and be the good news to our world and to our generation.

With God’s help, and a common witness we can meet the challenges of our time for a “greater human flourishing.”

INTERFAITH RELATIONS – William G. Gepford, American-Arab Relations
“Seeing New Capacities in People”

Some ten years ago I was flying back from a meeting in Washington and noticed a young man working on his lap top. He was developing a way to engage his counterparts in China on new economic ventures, all the more remarkable as, at that time, China was still not everyone’s best friend.

The media was already running articles on how China would become our next likely outlet for American products. Others have noted that “The world asks that we focus less on how we can coerce something to make it conform to our designs and focus more on how we can engage with one another” (from A Simpler Way, Margaret Wheatly and Myron Kellner-Rogers, 1996). Today China is more than just an outlet for American products. It is also one of our largest financial backers. Then, few people would have believed this could ever happen! What led to this change seems to have been the newly discovered capacity of people.

This discovery of “people capacity” has very powerful religious dimensions. It infused much of Jesus’ own ministry, especially his approach to others. He was aware that certain people had been “left out” by the religious heritage from which he came. So he went out of the way to include them in the kingdom of divine love.

In his teaching ministry, women, lepers, Samaritans, tax collectors, and others deemed unfit for salvation, the “untouchables of his time,” were engaged in healing conversations that tapped their unique capacities. His ministry showed that God’s justice and love are extended to and include all people, not just people of the book, Jews, Christians and Muslims, as we might say today.

The story of Noah, in biblical literature, was the first testimony, by the religious folk of the time that God’s concerns go well beyond any one people or any religion. Since Noah and his family represent the whole human family, the flood story emphasizes the universal extent of God’s concern. “The circle of divine love is wide” (The Wide, Wide Circle of Divine Love, Eugene March, 2005).

The story of the prophet Isaiah also rings with God’s concern for all people. Although the context of Isaiah’s prophecy is the nation of Judah, all the foreigners, the nations, and others, were included in the written remembrances of the covenant people (Isaiah 55-56).

Today, we are challenged by the universalism of God’s concern for the whole human family. In the particularity of our upcoming election, do those who claim to have the best interests of this nation at heart, also have the best interest of the rest of God’s creation uppermost in their minds? Isaiah, Noah and Jesus certainly did.

We need to talk with others in a way that evinces not only our basic assumptions and understandings about God and life but also to tap the innate capacities of all of God’s people.

INTERFAITH RELATIONS – William G. Gepford, American-Arab Relations
“Sources of Hope”

In a recent issue of one of the metropolitan newspapers, there was a reference to the American writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “Earth laughs in flowers.” He was not a theologian, but what a powerful way to see hope in the everyday things along the way.

In our very busy lives we often fail to stop to contemplate the wonderful similes in nature that can brighten our lives and at the same time give us Hope.

Over the past months I have been reading the writings of those evaluating the chance for peace in several parts of the world, especially the Middle East. Almost without exception they cited all the things that militated against the possibilities for peace. To say the least it was depressing: examples were given of conflict, separation of families, loss of basic necessities to sustain life, and even loss of life itself. There wasn’t much in their analyses one could find to brighten Hope, resembling that given in Jesus’ parable of the “lilies of the fields,” in Matthew 6:28. But, the first Christians also were not without their challenges.

During the first formative decades of the church, after the death of Jesus, many social and relational problems, as well as an oppressive Roman Empire, had to be addressed. In the minds of the first followers of the Christian way, it was the birth of a “new life,” the Christian community, infused by the Holy Spirit, which was the occasion for hope. It was not perfect. It had its detractors. Yet, this community was to be inclusive, multicultural, not discriminatory, forgiving, egalitarian, compassionate, multi-linguistic and above all, prophetic.

It would be a community in which hope reigned, where “doing a new thing,” a reordering of society (Luke 1:51-53) would bring justice, peace and mercy to all. As the German theologian, Jurgen Moltmann said, “The origin of hope is birth, not death.” Thus, the new Christian community of the first and second centuries was an occasion for hope, as is every new blossom in the spring a parable of the possibility of new birth and, thus, an occasion for new hope. And so, too, is the miracle of human birth, as the foundational process of the Creator to remind us of this wonderful, sacred, and powerful potential of hope.

There are those who are convinced that the origin of hope is in the elimination of perceived enemies. I have spent much of my ministry trying to convince those who follow this conviction that it is really the other way around. The final victor is new life, a new community, “resurrection,” not death. And it can be expressed in many simple and subtle ways.

So, let us witness to the hope that is within us, and of God’s victory over death, by renewing all that is within and without.

INTERFAITH RELATIONS – William G. Gepford, American-Arab Relations
“Growing up with Diversity”

As a youth growing up in a Midwestern city, I was taught early some of the positives and negatives of living in a diverse community.

My sister and I were raised by grandmother and auntie, though our parents lived close by. They engaged an African American woman to do the household chores, so they both could work to pay the bills. I learned much talking with Beatrice about her race and learned the difficult history that is often associated with much of America’s black community.

The janitor of our apartment complex was half African American and half Chinese, the latter from the immigrants who came to this country at the turn of the last century to help build our system of railways. When I asked his name, he said, “Just call me ‘Fields.’”

The neighborhood in which I lived was mostly Catholic, and I was told that Catholics and Protestants were never to intermarry, as that was tantamount to SIN. It was difficult to understand as people I knew from both groups were quite respectable. By the time I entered high school I was sure that I knew just about all there was to know about diversity. But my education continued.

While in the Navy, in the 1940’s I was stationed on bases in the South that were segregated. Upon discharge from the military I finished college and later entered seminary where I had a Japanese American roommate who later became a candidate for moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA. Upon graduation from seminary, my diversity education literally exploded. My wife and I were accepted by our denomination and sent to Lebanon as education missionaries. Not only were we to begin a life-long journey into the history, faith, language and culture of the Middle East, but we were to learn much about ourselves. A colleague said that in order to survive, one must have an unshakable depth of belief inside, but be open and respectful to others who are different.

Our country has recently been blessed with a “forgiveness, healing and hope” visit from Pope Benedict XVI. He prayed for an end to hatred, and said on several occasions that faith must play a role in public life (if your enemy is hungry, feed him), a statement on the sacredness of the whole human family, if ever there was one. He also said, “The purpose of dialogue is to build consensus around the truth,” not an ideology or political platform. Are those negotiating peace in our world today, listening?

At the same period of time, the Dalai Lama came into our midst and, to the surprise of many, said, “Keep your traditions, and don’t convert.” What anyone does, of course, is of a deeply personal nature. But, regardless of our religious convictions, if we ignore the compassion that Buddhism teaches, the world will be worse for that neglect.

God is not limited by religion or culture, as some might think and I was taught as a child growing up. Jesus said, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?” (John 14:9) Philip was chastised because he had lost sight of the presence of God in all relationships.

INTERFAITH RELATIONS – William G. Gepford, American-Arab Relations
“How Much Do We Care?”

 
While listening to the story in the Gospel of John, I was overwhelmed with Jesus’ steadfast refusal to call upon his followers to fight to keep him from being handed over to the Jews, when he appeared before the Roman Court. (John 18-19). He said, “My kingdom is not from here” (18:36).

How easy it would have been to dispatch a militia force to prevent his being released to those who wanted to kill him! He had many loyal followers, among who were those he had healed of body, mind and spirit, brought back to life, or freed from the burden of their ritual laws. All were willing to come to their master’s defense. But Jesus’ response was to transform this potential for conflict (“put down the sword”) into the hope of peace. For His kingdom was “not from this world.”

How many people do we know who, when brought face to face with authority to account for their behavior, will be tempted to draw upon the powers of this world to defend their own interests? On the one hand, interests based in truth, need no defense. On the other, a defense of interests that are only self-serving will lead to destruction of self and community.

I remember being in Lebanon when our troops landed on its shores in 1958, presumably to protect it from a Communist incursion, that never happened. So after three months our troops left. All of the military equipment however, that had landed, was donated to the then Christian Maronite government, causing greater rifts between Lebanese Christians and Muslims. Dr. Charles Malik, an Orthodox Christian, and ambassador to the United Nations, at the time, was a signer of its Declaration of Human rights, in 1945. He told me in 1963 that this was a turning point in what used to be America’s contribution to the Middle East – from “inculcation of values to the infusion of arms.”

I recently read Eisenhower’s ‘Military Industrial Complex’ speech of 1961, sent to me upon the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the Iraq war. He said, “Down the long lane of history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a power confederation of mutual trust and respect.” He said that the military industrial complex, at that time, spent more in one year than the net income of all United States corporations.

Now, with military spending in the trillions of dollars, what is the state of our remorse; for the hundreds of thousands that have died, and the millions that have been made homeless, either in their own country or across the borders?

Are we challenged to care enough to transform the world of death and destruction, with its cruise missiles and suicide bombers into instruments of love? In so doing we can show the compassion of a God who does not seek revenge, but a kingdom not of this world into which all are welcome.