Religion, identity and dialogue

I am the boy with his hands raised over his head
in Warsaw

I am the soldier whose rifle is trained
on the boy with his hands raised over his head
in Warsaw

I am the woman with lowered gaze
who fears the soldier whose rifle is trained
on the boy with his hands raised over his head
in Warsaw

I am the man in the overcoat
who loves the woman with lowered gaze
who fears the soldier whose rifle is trained
on the boy with his hands raised over his head
in Warsaw

I am the stranger who photographs
the man in the overcoat
who loves the woman with lowered gaze
who fears the soldier whose rifle is trained
on the boy with his hands raised over his head
in Warsaw

The crowd, of which I am each part, moves on
beneath my window, for I am the crone too
who shakes her sheets
over every street in the world
muttering
What’s this? What’s this?

'The House that Fear Built: Warsaw, 1943'

This seemingly simple poem by Jane Flanders, with its incremental pair of witnessing eyes, captures for the modern reader a cluster of multi-layered, multi-perspective, and inter-locked realities, seen through a panoptic vision. This poem is also a visual mnemonic grid for the historical burden laid on a reader, in a given time in history. It is a photograph in words etched in memory, in an age where photo opportunities often replace points of view, with pictures dominating words because they sell and are even cheap to produce (Fore, 2001:13).

However, a multi-perspective, word-picture of an innocent victim or a scapegoat is a mnemonic prism, through which a witness can see how shared lines of visions as well as differing lines of visions constitute multiple realities.

Attendant, also, are questions for communications in general, and Christian communication, in particular. If you see many sides, what do you do? If you see only two sides, what do you do?

The German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, seems to posit another angle. That is 'Living the questions.'

To name an enemy has not been easy, as it has been evident in the U.S. communication context. The phrase, 'War on Terror', used for some time, does not any longer make a distinction between the method and the user of the method. Is the name of the enemy terror? Terror is a method used by an enemy, and not the enemy itself. It is rather 'an amorphous idea of intimidation rather than a specific, belligerent nation or a hostile people' (Safire, 2006: 9).
Some thinkers posit the current times as transition period. That is, we are moving away from a traditional concept of a world with 'individual enemies for individual countries' to that of 'multifaceted enemies for all'. It is incumbent on communication to catch this sight of a larger canvass of the real 'multifacetedness' of the enemies, identify them, and confront the hydra-headed monster, while demolishing an ongoing 'construction' of enemies who do not exist at all. Totalizing the enemy has to be avoided at all costs.

Seeing each other into a composite vision of realities

Issues and struggles under analysis, namely, religion and identity, are fluid notions, caught up in the rigidity in their representations, while the solutions need to be pragmatic with short-term and long-term goals.

Interconnected realities of our times demand interconnected, intercultural, integrated visions. Nelle Morton popularized the notion of women 'hearing each other into speech'. It is time for all of us, not only to hear each other into speech, but also to see each other into a composite vision. In other words, interconnectivity of stories is a key need in communication as well as mission theology.
For the church in the United States, simultaneously, I long for a theology of interstices: a theology that seeks to discover God’s presence through the experiences of those who live in the cracks or narrow spaces of church and society, and build bridges between and among them. A theology of interstices that would lift up the voices and experiences of persons who are struggling for life, as members of marginalized groups, without interconnectedness between their realities reflected in a bridge-building theology.

Communication, whose core is interconnectivity, and theology, whose core is connecting across the interstices in God’s presence, can explore the invisible threads of systemic and deep-rooted causes. For example, is there a connection between violence in the bedroom and the violence against women in armed conflict and militarization? Are there connections between deep-rooted issues such as unequal distribution of resources, structural marginalization of peoples, and lack of equal access to political power? Isolated representations of these, without exploring the deeper connections among these continue to create a 'culture of violence', here and worldwide.

On March 30, 2006, I coordinated a media monitoring of peace across the country for the United Methodist Women. The media monitoring for images of peace was designed on the model of global media monitoring of the images and representation of women in media, sponsored by the World Association for Christian Communication.

In the content analysis, among many others, I asked questions such as:

• How is the story of peace and conflict treated?
• How does violence occur?
• What is the conflict about?
• Why does it happen?
• How are race, class, gender, sexual orientation or other forms of exclusion a factor in the conflict?
• How are economic and/or religious interests a factor in the conflict>
• Who is being violent? Who is the victim?
• How are the aggressor and the victim presented?
• What is the role of women in the conflict?
• What is their role in peace efforts?

I distributed 128 monitoring forms to monitor the first page or the lead page of newspapers across the country. I received 76 completed responses, with a total number of 76 different newspapers monitored.

Preliminary analysis shows that 36% of the news stories dealt with violence in the Middle East, 5% racial and religious intolerance, 7% the rising tide of protest against immigration laws, 2% crimes, 2% drug-related offence and so on. News stories of the War in Iraq,, international debate on Iranian enrichment of uranium, local disputes, fights and killings dominated the reports. One of the participants wrote, 'Will we ever have peace anywhere in the world?' Another said the 'extreme horror' of the world was 'sickening'.

When women appeared in stories involving violent conflict, they most often were portrayed as innocent victims, passive observers hoping for a better future, or the solace of husbands and children besieged by turmoil. Several women asserted that regardless of news portrayals, women’s active peace work is 'gradually increasing worldwide.'

Further, during times of crises, such as armed conflict, natural calamities, and terrorist acts, there is a likelihood of 'co-option' of communities into racial, ethnic, religious, or ideological identities. A key challenge, in particular, for most of the women in the U.S. context is balancing security and freedom, national defense and international relations, local community and world community.

While living out these contradiction-laden, often polarized claims, the concept of 'global sisterhood' is often challenged. When crises such as war, terrorist acts, and natural calamities occur, women often deny their identities, but are co-opted along lines of identity drawn by religion, race, class, and ethnicity. In short, they are caught in the oppressive discourses and dominant practices, with their contradictions and complexities, and are unable or unwilling to transcend beyond their narrow selfhood.

The role of communication, in this context, is to recover the muted voices, stifled differences, and multiple identities. I would like to suggest some strategies.

Strategy 1: Empowering the margins through communication

Early this year, Mark Fitzgerald talked about an investigatory committee of the Washington Post staffers finding a management emphasis on celebrity reporters. Fitzgerald found a paucity of non-minorities among the 'celebrity reporters'. Nearly half of the newsroom jobs filled between 2003 and October 2005 were never posted. He went on to say, 'Of these unposted jobs, 74% went to non-minorities'. The result has been, in his words, 'an exodus' of black, Asian, and Latino journalists (Fitzgerald: 2006).

In the U.S. media monitoring done in 2005, women were more visible in news media, but their perspectives were not. Gender identity is still a complex one in relation to media. While identity as a concept is contradiction-ridden, racial profiling has been used in order to address the issue of terrorist acts.

Strategy 2: Creating safe spaces for Civil Rights

As a response to the tragedy of September 11, the Patriot Act (HR 3162) was signed into law 'to deter and punish terrorist acts in the U.S. and around the world, and to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools.' While those who commit terrorist acts must be brought to justice, the balance between security and civil rights has been at stake because of the arrest of innocent immigrants.

In 'Little Pakistan' in Brooklyn, New York, out of more than 120,000 Pakistanis, 15,000 fled to Canada, Europe, and Pakistan, due to massive arrests in that area. According to a story in the Washington Post (May 29, 2003), federal agents stopped and detained hundreds of Pakistanis in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. The Department of Homeland Security also required that every male Pakistani visa holder age sixteen and above register with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Some 13,000 of those who voluntarily registered were placed into deportation proceedings because of irregularities in their immigration status. Such irregularities would have required basic legal corrections before September 11. While the Special Registration has ended, some people are still under threat of deportation. Detainees have suffered 24 hours of illumination of cells, lack of proper medical care, racial slurs by guards. In many instances, neither the detainees nor their families have been notified of their status or their rights. People who come under racial profiling in this are South Asian men, especially Arab and Muslim men. Most of them are guilty until proven innocent.

But a woman responded to Patriot Act by co-founding a committee on the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. Nancy Talanian came up with the idea of establishing 'civil liberty zones' in communities across the United States. A national grassroots movement to protect innocent people who come under racial profiling was started by a woman.

As of August 2, 2006, grassroots opposition to the USA Patriot Act, there are 408 resolutions, including 8 states, 400 cities, and counties, encompassing 85 million people. Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana and Vermont have come up with statewide resolutions. Faith-based grassroots men and women have engaged in creating these safe spaces, creating a climate for communication for civil rights (Women’s Division: 2006).

Strategy 3: Communication as enabler of 'inter-regionality'

Communication is not just sending and receiving messages and images. As Mikhail Bakhtin, a Russian formalist, would say, communication is taking into consideration the potential response of the receiver and intended audience.

Recently Riad Jarjour, the President of the Middle East Regional Association of WACC reported:

'One can observe the growth of different types of religious "fundamentalisms" in the Middle East, many of which promote use of violence to address grievances _ somemething which no religion justifies. This violence causes Western nations to have an adverse reaction to Islam, particularly to Muslims who live in Western countries. Moreover, this type of fundamentalism gives rise to and promotes an ever-increasing and militant interpretation of both Western and Eastern Christian fundamentalism. In this context, the American/Western war against terrorism has not succeeded in curbing this latter type of fundamentalism. On the contrary, this war appears as if it is responding to terrorism by counter-terrorism tactics, both of which are unacceptable and must be condemned' (Jarjour: 2006).

For communication in general, Christian communication, in particular, the notion of inter-regionality, or inter-regional sensitivity is vital for the promotion of peace and curbing religious fundamentalisms.

Recently in its Board meeting, the Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries came up with a resolution regarding peace in the Middle East:

• That we seek alternate perspectives on the Middle East from those disseminated by mainstream media, especially during times of war, attacks, and conflicts.
• That we critically evaluate justifications given by political, religious, and other sectarian entities to attack or declare war on other parties.
• That we contact media outlets when reports of conflict do not include all relevant parties, including civilians.
• That we engage our elected legislative representatives at the national level in ongoing discussion of the impact of conflict on women, children, and youth of the Middle East.

Strategy 4: Education on fear-based vision versus shalom based vision

Moving the faith community from a fear-based vision of security to the vision of shalom proclaimed in the Bible is an on going task. Bryan Massingdale, a Franciscan theologian, presents the competing claims of two visions. He say:

'The first is rooted in a world of fear, seeks security in military power directed to the end of defending economic privilege for a few. The other, rooted in a world view of blessing, sees security lying in the effort of assuring that the blessings of creation are enjoyed by all. How do we respond to these visions?'

Lifting up the alternative vision of shalom in the Bible and asking the difficult question why we cannot think about peace and work for just peace is one side of the story of making a difference. The other side is helping handle grief on the part of the victims and grieving communities. Jesus weeping over Jerusalem is only a partial picture. Jesus simultaneously asking why Jerusalem cannot think about things that make for peace constitutes the whole. The pastoral and the activist can be the twin strategies of the faith communities. They should not be polarized.

It is imperative to lift up the liberating passages from the Bible in order to move the faith community on the road to peace, at the grassroots level, since there are members at the pew who may not be moved by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but who are faithful to the gospel and the prophetic call to peace and justice in the Scripture.

Strategy 5: Salvation for the perpetrator and the victim

There are deep and systemic evils. As we recall, Nelson Mandela sought freedom for himself and his people first. Then, in what he termed the 'long and lonely years', he evolved a more integrated approach. Mandela said:

'My hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for all people. I know as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away (another) man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, and is locked behind the bars of prejudice…Both are robbed of their humanity. When I walked out of prison, that was my mission: to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both.'

A similar vision is currently lifted by Mitri Raheb, a Lutheran minister in Bethlehem. He is a tireless prophet of hope in the Middle East and spells out the dynamics of hope in terms of neighborliness. He says:

'What is the benefit if Israel wins the moral and financial support of the American Jewish community and the Christian right, yet loses its Palestinian Neighbors? What is the benefit if the Palestinians win the sympathy and support of most of the Arab and Islamic countries and lose their Israeli neighbors?'

Kosuke Koyama, a theologian, would have summarized it in just one phrase, 'neighborology'. Christian communities have produced much by way of theology. But what is needed, according to Koyama, is 'neighborology'. Easily understandable resources on interfaith in the hands of the faith community is of great help in times such as these.

Seeking to be faithful Christians, in a religiously plural U.S. context, calls for interdependency on each other’s religious tradition, in order to address justice issues and live a peaceful co-existence.

If you see two sides, create a third. If you see many sides, form a circle. If you see many circles, begin to dance.

References

• Fitzgerald, M. (2006). 'Star System, Tense, Newsroom Chase Away Minorities'. Internal Washington Post Report. 2/14/2006.
• Flanders, J. (1988). 'The House that Fear Built: Warsaw, 1943.' Timepieces. Pitts Poetry Series. Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburg Press.
• Fore, W.F. (2001). 'Communication, Reconciliation, and Religion in America.' In: Lee., ed., Communication and Reconciliation: Challenges Facing the 21st Century. World Association for Christian Communication.
• Gerzon, M. (2006). Leading Through Conflict. Boston, Harvard Business School Press.
• Mandela, N. (1995). Long Walk to Freedom. Boston, Back Bay.
• Messingdale, B. (2003). 'From Homeland to Biblical Security'. In: Origins 2/20/2003.
• Raheb, M. (2004). Bethlehem Besieged: Stories of Hope in Times of Trouble. Minneapolis, Fortress Press.
• Safire, W. (2006). 'On Language: Islamofascism'. In: The New York Times Magazine. 10/1/2006.

Glory E. Dharmaraj (Ph.D) is Director of Spiritual Formation and Mission Theology for the General Board of Global Ministries, the United Methodist Church and Vice-President of WACC's North American Regional Association.