One-Part Harmony
Alan F.H.
Wisdom
May 5, 2008
The Rev. Dr. Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America (ELCA), proclaimed a “renewed resolve to join with others in daily
praying for, consistently advocating for, and continually working for a lasting
just Middle East peace.” Delivering the keynote address to the annual Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)
conference April 20, Bishop Hanson called on Christians of all persuasions
to join hands in common cause: “I don’t think we need more soloists when it
comes to pursuing peace in the Middle East. I think we need a multi-voiced,
full-force, four-part harmony choir.”
"[W]hen it comes to pursuing peace in the Middle East, I
think we need a multi-voiced, full-force, four-part harmony choir," ELCA
Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson told the Churches for Middle East Peace
Conference in Washington, DC. (File
photo) |
Hanson, who also serves as President of
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), spoke to a crowd of 100-150 church
activists at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. He made a strong
theological case for churches to invest themselves in peacemaking efforts. But
his specific comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fell short of the
balanced “four-part harmony” to which he aspired. Repeatedly, the bishop evinced
a partiality toward the Palestinian Authority and against Israel. The would-be
peacemaker also sharply criticized fellow U.S. Christians, including members and
pastors of his own denomination, who did not share his political commitments
regarding the Mideast.
Hanson began with theological affirmations. He worried that “[t]oo often
people hear our affirmations only about public policy issues” but “they don’t
hear how they are grounded for us in Scripture and in our faith.” So the bishop
declared:
The God who creates all things, the God of all creation, is the God of the
people and places in the land we call holy. We are bold to affirm what we
believe: that the God who makes promises is faithful to those promises . . . .
We are bold to affirm that God isn’t holding out and the land we call holy is
not now God-forsaken.
It is “God’s will to hold heaven and earth in a single shalom, a
single salaam, a single peace,” Hanson said. He reflected on how
baptism and the Eucharist show that “the finite is capable of bearing the
infinite to the world.” The top ELCA and LWF official then pivoted quickly from
Christian doctrine to Mideast politics: “On the basis of that we Christians are
bold to advocate for peace and justice in the Middle East, to stand and
accompany our Palestinian sisters and brothers in their humanitarian suffering,
and to work to alleviate that suffering because we are literally being glimpses
of the Messiah. We are being the presence of the risen Christ in the world.” He
did not explain how his universalist-tinged theology (or any Christian theology)
would justify accompanying only “our Palestinian sisters and brothers” and not
their Jewish counterparts.
‘Love Your Enemies’ = Negotiate with
Hamas
Hanson showed more balance in calling for “our continued, clear,
public, and persistent reaffirmation of our commitment to a two-state solution.”
He cited his Lutheran colleague in Jerusalem, Bishop Munib Younan, as insisting,
“A viable, contiguous, free Palestine living side-by-side in peace with a
secure, free Israel is the only solution for us to affirm.” He also advocated
“the internationalization of Jerusalem”—a proposal that Israel vehemently
rejects, and that might be difficult to implement in practice.
Hanson interpreted Jesus’ command, “Love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you,” as mandating negotiations with the Islamist Hamas movement that
seeks Israel’s destruction. “More specifically,” he asked, “doesn’t that mean
that at the same time we admonish Hamas for their unwillingness to recognize the
right of Israel to exist and their failure to clearly reject and rein in acts of
violence, we also must affirm publicly that any final status negotiations must
include and engage Hamas, since all Palestinians must be represented at the
table for there to be a reconciled, lasting peace.”
The bishop seemed to be rejecting the insistence by the United States and
other western powers that Hamas, if it wished to participate in negotiations,
would have to meet preconditions: that it recognize Israel’s right to exist,
that it accept previous Mideast peace agreements, and that it renounce terrorist
tactics. Hanson was apparently willing to “admonish” Hamas over these matters,
but not require it to change. Indeed, his admonitions seriously understated the
problems that the Islamist movement poses. It is not merely “unwilling to
recognize the right of Israel to exist”; the Hamas charter states that “Israel
will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it
obliterated others before it” and “[t]here is no solution for the Palestinian
question except through Jihad.” Hamas does more than “fail to clearly reject and
rein in acts of violence”; it prepares, orders, and carries out daily rocket
attacks against Israeli civilians.
Confronting Only Some Barriers
Hanson asserted
that the church’s “ministry of reconciliation” means that “we will publicly name
and confront the barriers that exist that cause us to stand in need of
reconciliation.” He seemed more ready to confront Israel than the Palestinian
leadership. The ELCA head called for Christians to engage in “communal lament
[that] names problems, seeks justice, and hopes for God’s deliverance.” As an
example, he cited a LWF delegation protesting the Israeli security barrier
against terrorist attacks:
On our last day, we went to the separation wall—that massive structure that
for many Israelis is at least a sign of security and for many Palestinians an
intrusive barrier, a sign of occupation. We placed our hands—hands of persons
that had come from all over the world—on the wall and with the psalmist we
prayed psalms of lament. Tears streamed down our cheeks as we recalled Jesus’
weeping over Jerusalem who knows not what makes for peace.
The bishop also recalled how he “lost it” in an angry conversation with
then-Israeli President Moshe Katsav. Katsav had made the claim that “there is no
humanitarian suffering among the Palestinian people except for the suffering
they have brought upon themselves as a consequence of their violence.” According
to Hanson:
I blurted out in a very bad bishop’s moment, “You have got to be kidding.
Have you been to the refugee camps? Have you walked the streets of Gaza?” I
proceeded to lecture the president of Israel about the humanitarian suffering
that is a consequence of [Israeli] occupation, not just
violence.
The bishop did not mention any similar outbursts directed at
Palestinian officials, or any LWF protests against injustices perpetrated by the
Palestinian Authority.
No Persecution Here
The bishop certainly has
not lectured Palestinian officials about the treatment of the dwindling
Christian minority in the West Bank and Gaza. Indeed, he dismissed such
concerns, calling for “the public rejection of all attempts to turn Palestinian
Christians into political footballs, especially efforts to blame Islamists for
their supposed persecution, thus further vilifying Muslims in their Western
context.” Hanson commended CMEP for helping to “sidetrack legislation aimed at
blaming the Palestinian Authority for the systematic destruction of the oldest
Christian community in the world.”
Apparently, Hanson believes that any persecution of Christians at the hands
of Islamists is merely “supposed.” (Perhaps the bishop is unaware of sources
such as Justus Reid Weiner’s masterful monograph, Human Rights of Christians in
Palestinian Society. More recent reports are available from Compass Direct News Service.) And
even if there might be persecution, he wants to avoid saying anything that might
“vilify Muslims.”
On the contrary, the ELCA leader took care to speak highly of Islam. He
commended the 2007 “Common Word” statement from
Muslim scholars as an “invitation to find within our sacred texts that which
we can affirm together as the three Abrahamic faiths.” He added, “I think it’s
awful that we as Christian leaders in the world have not been able to give a
shared response.”
Hanson spoke glowingly of a meeting with Jordanian Prince Ghazi, one of the
signers of “A Common Word.” He remembered how the prince, “a learned man,”
expressed hope for an interfaith dialogue in which “each would have the
confidence and the freedom to speak the truth of our most deeply held
convictions and also, he contends, the truth of the heresies we hear in the most
deeply held convictions of the other.” But the Lutheran bishop did not seem
ready to discuss any false teachings that Christians might find in Islam. His
subsequent example of “speaking the truth” in interfaith dialogue was his own
outburst against the Israeli president.
Admonitions to Fellow Christians
Likewise,
Hanson did not hesitate to denounce fellow Christians who disagreed with him on
Middle East issues. “Let us as Christians admonish and challenge—publicly and
face-to-face—those fellow Christians who espouse the ideology called Christian
Zionism,” the bishop told his CMEP audience. He regretted that “[t]he
fundamentalist reading of scripture prevails as the dominant, default position
of this culture.” (It would probably surprise many fundamentalists to be
informed that they hold any “dominant position” in American culture today.)
“We’ve got to do some catch up work to teach people that there is another way to
read scripture,” Hanson said. In that endeavor he read a trenchant quote from
Lutheran theologian Barbara Rossing about how “[t]he rapture is a racket” and
“[t]his theology is not biblical.”
The ELCA head made cutting remarks about average church members and pastors
who do not share his activist agenda. “Our admonition must first be spoken to
members of our own churches who remain silent [about the Middle East] because
they believe the issues are too complex or they are afraid that if they even put
a toe in the troubled waters they immediately will be in over their heads,” he
said. Citing the ELCA rite of confirmation, he contended, “Such an attitude [of
silence] is a complete abdication of our vocation—given us in baptism—as
peacemakers.”
Hanson also wished to “admonish the leaders in our churches who think that,
given all the pressure, conflict, and uncertainties people face, tranquility in
the church is what we seek to maintain.” Referring to the ELCA standards for
ordained clergy and rostered lay leaders, he asked pointedly, “How can one say
that I am living in the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit and conclude the end
of the Christian life should be tranquility?” The bishop wanted church leaders
to engage Middle East issues even at the risk of bringing new conflicts into
their congregations.
Hanson took a similarly jaundiced view of the mass of the American people.
Here was his description of their current spiritual state: “Locked behind closed
doors in our post 9-11 world, we have been socialized, politicized, and
enculturated into being afraid.”
Holding the Bush Administration
Accountable
The bishop made positive comments about the Bush
administration’s Middle East peace initiatives. “I encourage those who are on
the Hill,” he said, “to affirm publicly the commitments of this administration
that were made in Annapolis [at the November 2007 Mideast peace conference] and
encourage Congress to hold this administration accountable to those
commitments.” Hanson added that was “thankful that Secretary [of State
Condoleezza] Rice has been willing to meet with us [religious leaders] on a
fairly regular basis.”
Toward the end of his speech, Hanson noted, “I am delighted that our 65
[ELCA] bishops are going to the Middle East, Jerusalem, and the West Bank in
January 2009 for our annual continuing education event to build awareness,
accompany, and advocate.” One wonders whether the awareness, accompaniment, and
advocacy will show a greater sense of balance.
Churches for Middle East Peace is a coalition of 22 religious bodies,
including oldline Protestant and Eastern Orthodox denominations as well as Roman
Catholic religious orders. CMEP reports that it “began its work in 1984 out of
the conviction that the policy perspectives and long Middle East experience of
our member bodies should be more widely known in the public policy
arena.”