Pain and God are on all sides in Middle East
The (Allentown) Morning Call, 11 Feb 08
I was deeply pained by Lutheran
Pastor Eric Shafer's Feb. 6 op-ed column on the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. I am a Lutheran pastor myself. I have lived in Jerusalem and spent
more than 20 years in dialogue with many people spanning the various
communities who engage that conflict. I was pained by the deep gap that
separated Shafer's good intentions from the effect of his writing and the harm
it could do when his readers fall into that gap.
I was pained for the Palestinians he describes. They indeed suffer hardships,
at least as great as Shafer describes. Few in the world can show such a sorry
record of betrayal and manipulation, and there are few people around the world
who know their whole story. Shafer is right to inform us about their
experience. The gap opens up when he tells it as a story only of Israeli
aggression and maltreatment. The Palestinian leadership itself, neighboring
Arab states, European nations and the United States all share responsibility
for the plight of the Palestinians. For all of Israel's power, Israel cannot
solve the Palestinian problem by itself, and I am pained when the Palestinians
continue to be portrayed as mere pawns of other powers.
I was pained for Israelis, whose commitment to maintain their sovereignty and
national existence was characterized as invasion, land grabs and the exile of
another people. Pastor Shafer says he admires what Israelis have done with
their country in the past 60 years, but implies that they have done so only at
the expense of Palestinians who lived on their lands ''since the time of
Christ'' (Really?) The gap opens up when there is no mention of the 1.2 million
Arab-Palestinians who are full citizens of Israel. It opens when the attacks of
1956 and 1973 by the Arab states, their war-mongering in 1967, and the two
Palestinian intifadas of the last 20 years are not counted with desert and
climate and immigration and post-traumatic stress as hurdles that Israel has
faced in its history. For better or worse, Israel was granted existence by the
United Nations, and I am pained when it is not granted the same rights of
recognition and self-defense that other nations are.
I was pained for Jews, who should have reason to believe that the season of
Lent will no longer bring Christian accusations of causing the world's worst
problems. Pastor Shafer was traveling last week in Jerusalem as a guest of
Palestinian Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan. His op-ed contribution was
coordinated with his Ash Wednesday sermon, preached in Jerusalem and beamed by
satellite back to his congregation in Lansdale. The gap opens when no account
is taken of the shameful Christian heritage of Jew-baiting and bashing in the
season that opens with Ash Wednesday and climaxes on Good Friday. Too often,
that season brought anti-Jewish attacks at the hands of Christians. For more
than 40 years, the Christian community has assured our Jewish neighbors that
such violent abuse is a thing of the past, and I am pained when an eager plea
for understanding Palestinian pain comes across as another Lenten broadside
against Israel.
I was pained for our Lutheran church. Like most American churches, we have been
traveling a long and difficult road that seeks to be faithful. We have declared
to the Jewish community our desire ''to live out our faith in Jesus Christ with
love and respect for the Jewish people.'' We also bear a commitment to
accompany our Palestinian Lutheran brothers and sisters in the reality of their
circumstances and ministry. Pastor Shafer's travel account and empathy for
Palestinians reflect that accompaniment on church-sponsored visits to the
region. The gap opens when the church's advocacy for peace in coordination with
Jewish and Muslim partners is not set alongside such accompaniment. Our
Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson has been prominent in the National Interreligious
Leadership Initiative, which implicitly accompanies all the religious and
political communities who are invested in the conflict, guiding them together
on a path toward peace. For all our solidarity with Palestinian Lutherans, I am
pained when their anecdotes of anguish are substituted for the serious analysis
that any promising approach to peace will demand.
Pastor Shafer points us to Lincoln's question about the side that God may be
on. The Lutheran heritage tells us that our greatest pitfall lies in too
confidently identifying our side with God's side. Ash Wednesday is a central
occasion when that sin should be confessed and repented in ourselves. Christian
heritage tells us that God is found where pain is, and that godly living bears
the pain of others. In the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is too much
pain on all sides, and a godly Christian response might first be to understand
and help bear that pain with all those who suffer.
Peter A. Pettit is the director of the Institute for Jewish-Christian
Understanding of Muhlenberg College and a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America.