unfriending me
Maybe one other time since October 2010, I’ve posted two blogs the same day. There was a reason for that, I don’t remember what it may have been. There’s a reason for this too. A FB friend whom I barely know but to whom I am much obliged, subscribed me to Patheos: Hearing the Conversation on Faith. The piece quoted below is in today’s edition, which I just opened.
One of many things I love about being Anglican, Episcopalian, is that inconsistencies don’t necessarily bother me, even within myself. I may get out of the pulpit only to disagree with myself as I teach the adult Sunday School class that follows. And it doesn't bother me, I rather enjoy, finding contradictions in Scripture and discussing them with people who are puzzled that they cannot be reconciled except by the most inane, outrageous rationalization. In today’s America, which has barely gotten underway into its tempest, I am as afraid for my children and grandchildren as anyone, including the most obscene nutcases, all of them claiming to be Christian. But I hope, and am trying to monitor myself even day to day as I fluctuate between sensible and insane, that I do not descend into the abyss where my solution to my fear is hatred and evil that would shame my Lord and Savior.
Here is a letter, an article, by a parent who is as scared as I am for the future of those she loves. Tragically, her source of fear and mine are the opposite. I am afraid of her. She is afraid of me. I am so ashamed that I am contemplating unfriending even myself. Here’s her piece.
#DonaldTrump: Mothering in the Time of Trump
December 8, 2015
My seven year old told me this story this morning, “A first grader was telling me why they wanted a teacher in 2nd grade, my friends said its because of how pretty they were. Mama I told them it’s not what they look like that matters it’s about how they teach and if they are kind”
Just after telling me this story she said”
“Mama, are Muslims not allowed in our country that is what I just heard.”
Usually I get my news alone while making their breakfast. She had caught the last few seconds of a report on NPR.
This weekend I had lunch with another Mama, an African American Muslim who talked to me about the conversations she is having with her teenage son. How does a Mama have that conversation about the brutality he will face as a young black Muslim man and the double burdens his life will manifest? She decided to homeschool him for that very reason of the harms he may face.
One of my dearest friends, Valarie Kaur, was harassed while traveling and was asked to show her carry on bag while flying. Valarie a nursing mother, a Sikh American activist had to show that her breast pump was not a weapon.
All week we’ve been devastated too in my family by the shootings in San Bernardino, some of my students and former students affected deeply. We are Southern California community members too and have been learning about the beautiful people lost.
I don’t have answers. I spent yesterday doing a convocation for women organizing against domestic violence and abuse of hotel workers. Many mamas there at event talking about their immigration experience and how precarious life is for their children.
I spend my life in roles of peace building and spiritual support for principles of no harm.
Mothering makes us face the deepest fears and realities of whether our children, based on their race, their religion, on other factors will our children be loved as we love them….
Will the world hate them?
Will the world hurt them?
Will the world crush them?
Will the world love them?
Will the world nurture them?
Will the world hold them?
I and many other mothers who have far more difficult struggles when their children face embodied discrimination greater than mine are asking these questions and in places where potential for harm is greater than my own context…
How do I prepare my children for a world that will hurt them?
What do I teach them about a reality that does not accept them, does not see a place for them at the table?
How do I keep their deepest love alive and most of all keep them healthy and engaged in making the world a more beautiful place for all other humans?
Najeeba Syeed is an Assistant professor at Claremont School of Theology teaching in the area of Interreligious Education. She also serves as Director of the Center For Global Peacemaking.