"THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES"

“THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES”

            Caroline and I were blessed to join former PCUSA Moderator, the Reverend Fahed Abu-Akel,  as recipients of the Atlanta Church Women United’s Human Rights Award for 2018.  The luncheon was Saturday, and we were graced to see old friends and witnesses, especially a great turnout from Oakhurst Presbyterian Church.  We were asked to reflect on our life’s journey and on the people who had brought us to this place – all in 5 minutes!  An impossible task, obviously, but it was a time to think about all of those people who had brought us to where we are today.  For that opportunity, we were all grateful.

            We three came at the task from different perspectives.  Fahed and Caroline came from the perspective of those who experienced oppression and injustice in many forms.  Their reflections named those people who had helped them move away from the definitions of internalized oppression and towards the definition that they were children of God.  My reflections came from the perspective of the oppressor, the white male, and my stories named people who had intervened in my life, who had helped me by being neighbors to me, who had challenged me and deepened me.  These neighbors helped me to hear that my internalized oppression of superiority was harmful to me and to others.  I’ll share more of my journey on that in the next blog.  Today, I want to share Fahed’s and Caroline’s perspectives and encourage us all to think about our own journeys and about the witnesses in our lives.

            Both of their stories are always powerful.  Fahed was a young boy, living in his Palestinian, Christian home in 1948 when the “Nakba” struck, when Israel, backed by Western allies, forced over 700,000 Palestinians to abandon their homes and their lands so that Israel could establish itself as a nation after the Holocaust of World War II.  The 70^th anniversary of al-Nakba, the Arab word for “catastrophe,” was May 15 of this year.  Fahed and his family were among those forced to leave and  to live a marginalized existence in a mountain refugee camp, with no compensation for their home or their land.  Eventually he made it to the USA as a young adult, and through the generosity of many people, he went to college and then to Columbia Seminary.  All through that time, he astonished people when they discovered that he was Christian, not Muslim.  He was elected as the first Arab-American Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the United States in 2002.  He recalled being part of the program for the annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Celebration in the next year, and he was introduced as a Muslim minister.  With his Arabic name, no one could believe that he was Christian.  He reminded us all of the powerful witnesses in his life, including his mother, who helped him to hear that while the West told him that he was a Muslim terrorist, his definition was much deeper and broader – he is a child of God.  He continues to speak out against the injustice of Israel and the West toward his Palestinian people.

            Caroline was the 21^st woman ordained to the pastoral ministry in the former southern Presbyterian church.  She shared her journey of the obstacles that she had faced and of those who helped her to hear that her primary definition was not property of men but rather daughter of God.  She grew up in Central Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, where her mother had grown up.  She and her family were faithful and loyal members, and Caroline did so many duties in the church.  When she decided to go to seminary and went to the church board (known as The Session in the Presbyterian Church) to receive their blessing as a seminary student, they turned her down because they did not believe that women should be ministers.   She joined another “Central” Church, this one in Atlanta under the leadership of Randy Taylor, and they welcomed her as a candidate for the ministry with open arms.  When she arrived at Columbia Seminary as one of five women students, many male students met her and read passages from the Bible, telling her that she could not become a pastor.  When she graduated from seminary, no churches would consider calling her as a pastor, but she gave thanks that Woody McKay called her as associate campus minister at Georgia Tech.  So many obstacles, but so many women and men who helped her get over those obstacles!

            Our perspective obviously makes a difference –next week I’ll look a bit at mine as white male.  For now, be thinking about your journey, about whether you have internalized superiority or have internalized inferiority.  And, be remembering and giving thanks for all those who helped you (and continue to help you) find your true self.