Battling fear and loathing

I once served a rural two-point parish in central Illinois.

A rural two-point parish is two churches who cannot afford a single pastor on their own, so they share one pastor between them.

In 2004, one of those churches decided to leave our national church body, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). It broke my heart. I served the people of St. Peter's Lutheran in Melvin, IL with great love for them as a community of faith, broken by their sin and healed by the forgiving love of God in Christ Jesus.

One of the reasons cited for departing the ELCA was the alledged "sponsoring of terrorism by allowing Muslims to speak at the Chicago seminary of our church." This departure was done out of ignorance, fear, and stupidity.

The seminary in question, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, was seeking to bring some understanding about Islam to the people of Chicago after the attacks on 9-11. For this brave act of compassion, directed towards a great world faith for the benefit of Christians in Chicago, they were rejected by a faith community (the one I used to serve) by fear and loathing.

I called the president of LSTC and asked if they were sponsors of terrorism. I was told "they were not."

I am writing this post because I still find elements of fear and loathing about Muslims even in the enlightened community of Bozeman, MT.

I invite you to attend a lecture to be given May 8th at Hope Lutheran here in Bozeman, starting at 9 a.m. It is entitled "A Window on the World of Islam." The event is sponsored by Northern Rockies Institute of Theology and the lecture will be given by Rev. Steve Benson.

Rev. Benson has taught Islamic history and theology in India. He has also published scholarly articles about Islam and inter-faith relations in three international academic journals. He earned an M.A. in Islamic studies and Christian-Muslim Relations from Hartford Seminary.

Cost for the event is $10.

For further information, contact Northern Rockies Institute of Theology at 406.452.1663 .

Their website is http://www.nrit.org/.

Let's battle fear and loathing by learning more about this faith and culture, and let's battle ignorance and half-truths by staying informed and enlightened.