Daoud Nabi was 71 years old. He stood at the door of the Al Noor mosque, ready to pray, and he welcomed the terrorist inside, "come in brother" were his last words. When the man opened fire, he threw himself in front of another worshiper and was killed. Originally from Afghanistan, the retired engineer was known for going to the airport to greet refugees and help them begin their new lives in Christchurch.
Cecil and David Rosenthal were familiar faces at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue. The brothers from Squirrel Hill sat in the back of the temple and greeted people as they came in to worship, said Suzan Hauptman, who grew up in the synagogue. Cecil, 59, was tall and gregarious, she said. His younger brother, 54-year-old David, was the serious one. "They were like the ambassadors." They were killed by a terrorist on October 27, 2018.
The Rosenthal brothers and Mr. Nabi lived 8,817 miles apart. And yet their lives of welcoming, hospitality and love are part of the fabric of our Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The hate that killed them, and so many others in the mosques in Christchurch and in the Synagogue in Pittsburgh, has linked them in a tragic way.
As one Jewish teenager from Pittsburgh put it, “"It’s actual heartache that people have so much hate for who you are. That they hate everyone you know — people who are wonderful people. And then you hear that they’re worthless, that you’re worthless. I’m not scared anymore. I’m just tired.”
Why do those terrorists have such hate? Such fear?
Why do they make such terrible plans to kill people who are made in God’s image?
Last week, we had a film discussion with my wife’s church around the issue of racial injustice and to begin to grow a community of reconcilers, justice-makers, and healer. One of the clips we watched was from a PBS series on The Brain by David Eagleman. In that clip, we met
Dr. Lasana Harris at Leiden University who has discovered that the brain can dehumanize people, registering some people as little more than objects. When he showed subjects different groups of people, including bankers, nurses, sports people, and the homeless, their social networks were deactivated when they viewed images of the homeless.
When we perceive others as less than human it’s easier to ignore them, and it’s easier to suspend the moral and social rules we normally live by. Dr Eagleman reveals that Propaganda is an important step from dehumanization to the mass atrocities of genocide. Propaganda plugs directly into circuits in the brain, dialing down the degree to which one group cares about another group. (from Episode 5: Do I Need You? From PBS’ The Brain)
And if we don’t care about another group, if we begin to see them as the enemy, as pure evil, and we lose their humanity, then it becomes too easy to switch on the kill switch. Such hate and fear is demonic. And it lead directly to the massacres in Pittsburgh and New Zealand.
Some Pharisees felt they had to warn Jesus that Herod wanted to kill him. Jesus was the enemy. Herod wants him dead. Jesus’ cousin John had already been arrested and killed. And Jesus replied to them,
"Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way."
Jesus & his ministry would not be stopped by death threats from such a distrustful and insignificant ruler. He knew that Herod Antipas had no power to stop him but he also knew there was a price to pay too…
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!"
Jesus knew he would get into trouble from the powers and principalities of the world and that it may even end his life. He challenged them directly and indirectly. But they would not interfere in his mission, in what he was called to do, in his preaching, in healings, his exorcisms, all that was part of his ministry.
He would not be held back by fear. He would not give in to hate. His ministry was love and he lamented what he saw…
“How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…”
And I think we get it right, when we follow Jesus, with fear and hate all around us, and we in our prayers and actions try to help alleviate poverty and end war, to help reconcile those torn a part, to raise the concerns of those in need and to help witness to the love that God has for all of God’s children. No matter our faith, our race, our gender or sexuality, we each bear the mark of being made in God’s image.
And we are called as disciples of Jesus to walk with him and continue his work in our world.
“Despite all of the ghastliness in the world, human beings are made for goodness. The ones that are held in high regard are not militarily powerful, nor even economically prosperous. They have a commitment to try and make the world a better place.” (Desmond Tutu)
Its too easy to distance ourselves from the hate and fear that swirls around us. It is not the internet’s fault. The root of evil and hate lies at hand for all of us. It is a choice. What are the voices we listen to? Is our perspective diverse enough?
As one speaker put it from SXSW – “The crisis we’re facing today isn’t a crisis of information or technology, it’s a crisis of meaning and ethics.” (Carey Nieuwhof)
And for us, meaning and ethics come from the way of Love of Jesus. In words of the Persian poet Rumi: “Love is the house of God and you are living in that house.”
We are called to share such love in our words and in our actions. Just as Jesus did in his time.
In the words of NZ Archbishops "All of us who live here in Aotearoa New Zealand must stand in solidarity in the face of such evil – and we call upon Anglicans throughout Aotearoa New Zealand to uphold all those affected in prayer, and to respond to this act by rejecting the rhetoric of hatred and religious intolerance, and to show compassion and kindness to all our neighbors who wish to live here in peace."
May we remember the dead and fight like hell for the living and for a better peaceful world. Amen.
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