It’s hard to fit your feet into someone else’s shoes. It’s even harder to try walking in them.
An old saying refers to walking a mile (1.6 km) in someone else’s shoes. That’s when you discover that your feet are wider than hers, or longer than his.
Of course, the saying is meant metaphorically. You cannot know how someone else feels, it suggests, until you have shared their experience.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about “white privilege” – about how white, educated, and relatively affluent people like me cannot know what it’s like to be a part of a minority who are constantly considered harassed because they’re not white, not Christian, not well educated.
Black people in the U.S. Indigenous people in Canada. Jews in Germany, during Nazi rule. Japanese on the west coast during WII. Doukhobors in the 1950s.
If you’re not one of them, it’s almost impossible to imagine what it’s like to be one of them.
Closer to home
But suppose people who share your faith and your beliefs were being persecuted? Could you identify with them?
Such as Christians in India.
In Canada, we treat Christianity as the norm. Four national holidays -- Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Hallowe’en – all have Christian roots.
None of our holidays have roots in other religions. No one’s lobbying to have Yom Kippur or Holi established as statutory holidays. I would expect a huge backlash if the federal government ever made Islam’s Eid al-Adha made a national holiday.
But what would it feel like if the Christian culture you take for granted turned you into a persecuted minority
Specific instances
An organization in India called Persecution Relief recently published two reports.
In one, two Indian men burst into a Christian pastor’s home. There were no prayer meetings going on at the time, but the two men had seen a sign outside that invited people to come in and experience healing in Christ. “Take that sign down right away,” they demanded. “We don’t ever want to see it again.”
Previously, a neighbour had asked that pastor to lend him a Bible, so he could read it. The neighbour then took the Bible to the police as evidence that the pastor was trying to convert him to Christianity. The police arrested the pastor, but later released him.
In a second and much more graphic incident, a police inspector dragged a visiting pastor and his friend to the police station, and beat them for two hours with a wooden rod and with the inspector’s own belt. The pastor had been visiting a sick uncle in his home.
According to Persecution Relief, the officer said, “I am sick of trying to stop you Christians… You have no business but to convert people. I am warning you to stop this nonsense, or you will pay a huge price.”
Technically, the pastor was arrested for taking part “in any assembly of five or more persons likely to cause a disturbance of public peace…” The penalty for failing to disperse such an assembly can be imprisonment for up to six months, or a fine, or both.
Persistent pattern
These are not exceptional cases. Last year, Persecution Relief recorded 527 instances of hostile actions against Christian minorities; over the last four years, 2067 hate crimes against Christians.
Some of that hostility is based on money. Early missions, backed by the wealth of American and British churches, bought up large tracts of land. The Indian church today suffers from property poverty – big assets but no money to maintain them.
Hinduism used to be called the world’s most tolerant religion. Hindu gods had so many avatars they might as well include Jesus.
But Hinduism has become vehemently nationalistic. Christians are viewed as trying to convert Hindus to a foreign faith. In both cases I cited, the pastors had to defend themselves by denying that they were trying to convert anyone. Which, ironically, repudiates Jesus’ specific command (according to Matthew’s gospel) to “go and make disciples of all nations.”
In considering your reaction to these stories, don’t focus on abstract issues of law and justice. Focus on feelings. What would it be like for you, to be part of a minority group, who have done nothing wrong, worked within the laws, but are picked on anyway just for being who you are?
Another old saying asks, “If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
Or would it feel like persecution just to be asked that question?
*******************************************************
Copyright © 2020 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To send comments, to subscribe, or to unsubscribe, write jimt@quixotic.ca
********************************************************
YOUR TURN
The title for last week’s column on the Republican and Democratic conventions obviously borrowed from Charles Dicken’s “Tale of Two Cities.”
Dick Best continued that theme: “The first [convention] may not have been ‘The best of times’ -- I would have preferred a more progressive agenda -- but I think the second rates high on the list for having been ‘The worst of times’ -- so much hate, so many provable lies, so much longing for a dictatorship. A Democratic sweep of House, Senate and Presidency will not bring on Wonder, Beauty and Truth, but a Republican win (make that a Trumpian win; the Republican Party no longer exists) will initiate a political Armageddon.”
John Shaffer wrote from Washington state: “I refused to watch the Republican convention. My wife did. I retreated to the bedroom. Then she discovered she could hear it on her cell phone quietly with her new hearing aids and I could watch something else!”
Tom Watson noted my reference to Stephen Pinker’s book ”The Better Angels of Our Nature,” and commented, “I would hope that Pinker’s ‘better angels’ prevail. However, when I see a black man get shot seven times in the back and the policeman who shot him isn't yet charged with attempted murder, and a 17-year-old who shot and killed two people at a later protest is hailed as a "hero," I have to wonder how many better angels it will take.”
Bob Rollwagen: “American politics provides an interesting study. A people that came together from poverty and oppression create a society that lives to advance the strong and take advantage of the weak.
“If Sanders had won the nomination, Trump would have been guaranteed re-election. Even if the Democrats win majorities in November, it will be difficult to continue social reforms given the power of key lobby groups behind the wealthy in both parties. The ability to see truth is very narrow and seldom deviates from the need for power and self-interest.
“Literacy had no impact in 2016 and it is the same people going to the polls for 2020. It will be verbal ‘bullets’ flying in Trump media during October that will cause unexpected results. Who can guess what will surface from such a troubled land.”
James Russell: “Can’t help thinking: the message is the modality. Logic v. emotion; sincerity v. showmanship; information v. entertainment. Viewed that way, it’s amazing that Biden has a chance, rather than the other way around. If it’s a ratings world, as Trump thinks it is, then it’s time to stock up the shelter.”
Isabel Gibson drew an analogy: “My mother used to say that clergy weren't the church: they were more like the icing on the cake, with the congregants being the cake.
“In America's republican system, presidents can't accomplish much without Congress. Of course presidents matter in the life of a country, as do clergy in the life of a church, but I often think we give both too much attention, at the expense of the other elements. And, maybe, at the expense of stepping up ourselves to make our contribution which will outlast any president's or clergy's term.”
Cliff Boldt reacted like me: “I watched much of the Democratic convention and was amazed at the contrast with the GOP.”
I had labelled Joe Biden as a career politician. Helen Reid disagreed: “Choosing Kamala Harris as Biden's running mate is not 'status quo'.”
Not every reader agreed with my assessments.
Steve Roney wrote, “Your column on the two U.S. conventions reinforces the general impression that leftist politics is fundamentally dishonest: all it cares about is the rhetoric. Say you are for respect, and you can treat anyone you want disrespectfully; say you are for choice, and you can limit everyone’s choices everywhere; say you are compassionate, and you can kill babies in the womb; say you are anti-fascist, and you can be fascist; say you are for peace, and you can go to war, or smash and burn in the streets.
“In short, leftist politics is a con job.”
Also, Mark Roberts: “Either Jim Taylor has a severe case of anti-Trump-syndrome or he and I were not watching the same two U.S presidential nominating conventions.
“Contrary to Taylor's assertion that the Democratic convention was filled with words of ‘love, respect, dignity, and compassion’ I saw only hate. Hate for a duly elected sitting president. I saw no new way forward, no new platform, no insight or cure for what ails the U.S., only a vitriolic diatribe of anti-Trump hysteria.
“As a right-leaning conservative I, like many others in Canada, don't consider myself as pro-Trump. We are anti-Democrat. If elected Biden will have no say in the affairs of the country. It will be his back room extreme far left advisers who will be calling the shots.
“Free speech, economic survival, law and order, and democracy is at what is stake here.”
Gloria Jorgenson: “I am not in any way a Trump supporter. He sows fear and discord every time he speaks. [So] I don't understand why having no sympathy for the shot man [in Kenosha] seems to align me with his politics. Those cops were doing their job. Jacob Blake was being arrested for ignoring a domestic restraining order. He refused to comply with an order and had wrestled with police. When he went into his car they had no idea whether he was reaching for a gun or a knife or what he had in mind. Should the cops have waited until he turned and fired on them to act? He was the master of his fate; all he had to do was comply with an order and he chose not to.
“I don't understand all this sympathy for black men who are shot by police. Would the same degree of sympathy exist if they were white? I think not.”
Vic Sedo summed it up: “It is amazing how some Canadians including seniors support Trumpf.. I suggest that they should send back their OAS cheques, half of their CPP, and other benefits including health care coverage plans…”.
Several of you offered light-hearted comfort about my follow-up “correction” about a sentence that shouldn’t have been there. Blair Galson wrote, “What a relief! I couldn’t fall asleep last night trying to figure that one out. I finally decided it was a joke about not being able to string two sentences together.”
******************************************
TECHNICAL STUFF
If you want to comment on something, write me at jimt@quixotic.ca. Or just hit the ‘Reply’ button.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send me an e-mail message at the address above. Or subscribe electronically by sending a blank e-mail (no message) to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca. Similarly, you can un-subscribe at sharpedges-unsubscribe@lists.quixotic.ca.
You can now access current columns and seven years of archives at http://quixotic.ca
I write a second column each Wednesday, called Soft Edges, which deals somewhat more gently with issues of life and faith. To sign up for Soft Edges, write to me directly at the address above, or send a blank e-mail to softedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca
And for those of you who like poetry, you might check my webpage https://quixotic.ca/My-Poetry. Recently I posted a handful of haiku, something I was experimenting with. If you’d like to receive notifications about new poems, write me at jimt@quixotic.ca, or subscribe yourself to the list by sending a blank email (no message) to poetry-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca (If it doesn’t work, please let me know.)
********************************************
PROMOTION STUFF…
To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. (This is to circumvent filters that think some of these links are spam.)
Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” is an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca. He set up my webpage, and he doesn’t charge enough.
I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom. She also runs beautiful pictures. Her Thanksgiving presentation on the old hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth, Is, well, beautiful -- https://www.traditionaliconoclast.com/2019/10/13/for/
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom (NB that’s “watso” not “watson”)
ALVA WOOD ARCHIVE
The late Alva Wood’s collection of satiric and sometimes wildly funny columns about a mythical village’s misadventures now have an archive (don’t ask how this happened) on my website: http://quixotic.ca/Alva-Wood-Archive. Feel free to browse all 550 columns.