Trouble in the Neighborhood

Our local community awoke the weekend following Easter to find a great offense committed against residents of one of its neighborhoods. An individual or small group of individuals distributed white supremacist literature in the neighborhood next to the university. The leaflet was placed in a plastic bag, weighed down with a stone and tossed in the front yard of neighborhood residents. This article describes the reaction of the residents. The mayors of Pocatello and Chubbuck and city councils condemned the incident in an official proclamation.  A coalition of community leaders, activists and local religious leaders has formed under the name of “Too Great for Hate” (Facebook group: “2great4hate”) to coordinate a community-wide response to the incident. The editor of the journal wrote a blog editorial condemning the incident.

The Social Principles of the United Methodist Church, as found in the 2004 Discipline, speak directly to this issue. Paragraph 162 states: 

The rights and privileges a society bestows upon or withholds from those who comprise it indicate the relative esteem in which that society holds particular persons and groups of persons. We affirm all persons as equally valuable in the sight of God. We therefore work toward societies in which each person’s value is recognized, maintained, and strengthened. We support the basic rights of all persons to equal access to housing, education, communication, employment, medical care, legal redress for grievances, and physical protection. We deplore acts of hate or violence against groups or persons based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, or economic status. Our respect for the inherent dignity of all persons leads us to call for the recognition, protection, and implementation of the principles of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights so that communities and individuals may claim and enjoy their universal, indivisible, and inalienable rights.

The Section goes on to address specifically the rights of Racial (Minority) and Ethnic Persons:

A) Rights of Racial and Ethnic Persons—Racism is the combination of the power to dominate by one race over other races and a value system that assumes that the dominant race is innately superior to the others. Racism includes both personal and institutional racism. Personal racism is manifested through the individual expressions, attitudes, and/or behaviors that accept the assumptions of a racist value system and that maintain the benefits of this system. Institutional racism is the established social pattern that supports implicitly or explicitly the racist value system.

Racism plagues and cripples our growth in Christ, inasmuch as it is antithetical to the gospel itself. White people are unfairly granted privileges and benefits that are denied to persons of color. Racism breeds racial discrimination. We define racial discrimination as the disparate treatment and lack of full access to resources and opportunities in the church and in society based on race or ethnicity.

Therefore, we recognize racism as sin and affirm the ultimate and temporal worth of all persons. We rejoice in the gifts that particular ethnic histories and cultures bring to our total life. We commend and encourage the self-awareness of all racial and ethnic groups and oppressed people that leads them to demand their just and equal rights as members of society.

We assert the obligation of society and groups within the society to implement compensatory programs that redress long-standing, systemic social deprivation of racial and ethnic people. We further assert the right of members of racial and ethnic groups to equal opportunities in employment and promotion; to education and training of the highest quality; to nondiscrimination in voting, in access to public accommodations, and in housing purchase or rental; to credit, financial loans, venture capital, and insurance policies; and to positions of leadership and power in all elements of our life together.

We support affirmative action as one method of addressing the inequalities and discriminatory practices within our Church and society. 

The sermon this next Sunday is entitled "All God's Children Have a Place at the Table." The scripture focus is the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. The story is perhaps one of the most famous of Jesus' parables, and has become the byword for anyone who stops and helps someone else in a disinterested fashion.  But what is particularly interesting to me in the context of what has happened in our community is the question from the lawyer that prompt's Jesus' response, "Who is my neighbor?" This question follows a prior question posed by the lawyer, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus asks for the lawyer's own summary of the law, which reflects a teaching current at the time (and is attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew): "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself." Jesus approves of his answer, but the lawyer wants to push the point: "And who is my neighbor?"

What intrigues me here is the connection Jesus is implying between inheriting eternal life and how we treat and relate to our neighbor, however that may be defined. (How we define "neighbor" is equally intriguing. More on that later.) "Eternal life," does not solely refer to what happens to us after we die. Strictly speaking, we do not ever gain eternal life. "Eternal" refers to that which has no beginning and has no end. Human beings very definitely have a beginning point. The question of an endpoint is a question that faith addresses. What "eternal life' refers to is a life that is rooted in the power and reality of Eternity, or that which is Eternal, or, even better, in the life and reality of the One who is Eternal, who is Eternity itself. We don't wait until death in order to inherit eternal life - it is available to us now, just as any inheritance becomes ours when it is made available to the rightful heirs.

So Jesus is saying, in effect, you are living the life of the Eternal One when you root and ground your thoughts, actions, intentions and devotions in love of God and love of neighbor. The reward doesn't come later, it begins now.

Fine and dandy, but that answer and possibility makes the lawyer squirm a bit. Maybe there's a loophole that can be explored and exploited here. Just how does one define "neighbor?" Is there a system of geographical proximity that can be laid out? How many houses away? A radius of how many blocks? People who belong to my social class or ethnicity, only my family or larger clan group? Only the people who follow the same religious practices as me? How about only people whose skin and eye color are the same as mine?

An online dictionary gives the following definition:

(noun)  

1. a person who lives near another
2. a person, country, or thing situated near another
3. a fellow human being ("love thy neighbor")
4. any person: used as a term of direct address

Etymology: ME neighbour < OE neahgebur (akin to Ger nachbar) < neah (see nigh) + gebur, freeholder, peasant < ge-, with + bur, farmer < buan, to live, cultivate. 

(http://www.yourdictionary.com/neighbor) 

In this dictionary definition, proximity is stressed, but there is also a recognition of this Biblical tradition of expanding the proximal to embrace the global or universal. Again, the question arises: how is closeness defined? By geography? by ethnicity? By religion? By duty? Or by the heart?

It is interesting, then, that this discussion was sparked by the fact that something negative happened in a particular neighborhood of our community. The incident has caused some people who live contiguous to one another to explore more deeply what it means to be neighbors to one another. I am going to explore that more deeply the next few blogs as well.

(Images  of good Samaritan from http://www.orthocuban.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/good_samaritan_sawyer.jpg;  http://whosgoingtobeyou.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/he_qi_good_samaritan1.jpg)