In 1959, assigned to a French Army peace keeping force,
Christian de Cherge was stationed in Algeria to assist in maintaining civility
between French colonizing Christians and native Muslims. Forming a friendship with an influential
Muslim policeman, Mohammed, de Cherge and he often took conversational walks to
understand politics, theology, and culture in the area. De Cherge shared this story of one of their
conversations:
Mohammed
made a habit of coming to talk with de Cherge regularly. One day, the policeman found a particular
situation for which he called the Frenchman to respond …. “It’s
been a long time since we’ve dug our well!”
De Cherge teased him, asking, “And at the bottom of our well, what will we
find? Muslim water or Christian water?”
Mohammed looked somewhat amused and
somewhat apologetic. “Come on now, we’ve spent all this time
walking together, and you’re still asking me this question! You know very well that at the bottom of that
well, what we’ll find is God’s water!”
Christian and Muslim relations
remained tense. On another of their
walks, Algerian rebels ambushed the two men.
Mohammed stepped between the rebels and his French military friend. “He is
a godly man. Leave him alone.” The rebels let both men pass.
The next day, Mohammed’s murdered
body lay displayed in the street.
Mohammed’s life changed de
Cherge. After his military tour
concluded, de Cherge returned to his home country, France, entered a Trappist
monastery, pursued ordination, and returned to Algeria eventually as an
abbot. “De Cherge made decisions that his superiors saw as unusual, even
unwise. Instead of proselytizing, he
offered the locals employment, medical care and lessons in literacy and
French. He also organized an annual
interfaith summit to promote Muslim-Christian dialogue. He even invited Muslims
to stay at the compound of Notre-Dame de Atlas, his monastery.” [something
of value today, perhaps a PX90 undertaking?]
In 1996, Muslim extremists, GIA,
kidnapped de Cherge and six of his fellow monks. The GIA held them as hostage collateral
against failed French negotiations before beheading them. What makes people so
unkind on a human spectrum of such degradation and ferocity? de Cherge and his monastic order only promoted
peace.
Ugliness, fear in the world seems
to be growing. More and more people are
choosing to belong to a side … to accuse or to blame … choosing to fragment
societies. People invite media to regurgitate the violence, the rhetoric, the greed back
to us in a feeding frenzy. Fundamentalists
and extremists drive evil often in the name of a Supreme Being. I wonder how many folks agree with de
Cherge’s superiors: the abbot’s actions were unwise and meddling. Living in fear, Algerians largely polarized into
two camps, Muslim and Christian. However!
Mohammed and de Cherge offered a third more tiring, more enduring option of
dialogue, patience, and understanding.
Yet, Muslims killed … not only Christians, but Muslims as well, … just as
Christians had historically done to each other.
Today, ISIS and other extremists
are not only killing Christians, but Muslims as well. In our own country, Christians are polarizing
on gun laws, immigration, quality of life, gay marriage, universal healthcare, socio-economic
issues, etc. Rather than working
together, attempting to host civil exchanges, accusations isolate people and sadly,
Christians are killing Christians among others.
No humane faith of God inspired by
their guiding texts, the Bible, Koran, or Torah, etc … promote and defend
violence and cruelty. Extremism defends itself
with literalism, the lowest level of understanding engaging the greatest level of
fear to impose its influence. Fear
polarizes societies. If left untreated,
fear spreads like an infected wound.
Fear justifies judgement. Too
many media sites sell fear and profit on ugliness to generate further false
markets of “belonging to the justified.”
Unfortunately, accusations, negativity unite fear-based groups far more
quickly than love does. Egos establish superiority
over scapegoats, those to blame for the world’s woes. In my opinion, many religions have circled
their wagons to protect beliefs from “outsiders” rather than inviting and
dialoguing with the stranger. So many people
genuinely desire this engagement, but fear ridicule rather than welcome.
Make no mistake, there are parties
committing evil, heinous acts. Jesus’
ministry demonstrated peace, compassion, mercy, integrity, honesty, acceptance
… all in the goodness, the generosity of the Father. He called people to live these qualities
beyond the walls of their homes out into community. De
Cherge and his small band of monks went out among the people. Cultures need to be uniting, building up. Whether intentional or not, too many people
are fleeing churches by the association of a few isolated individuals projecting
ugly actions. At the same time, far too
many people are entering mega-churches to receive their dose of “feel-good” so
they can “check” weekly obligations to continue to move through their lives
without investigating the societal challenges that exist.
PS. If you’ve not
seen the film, Of Gods and Men, I
recommend it as a humbling retreat. Who
are you among the 7 monks. I’d imagine a
bit of each! The closing scenes
resonated with me as I imagined Jesus’ dynamics when he healed the high priest’s
servant’s severed ear at the Garden before being led away by the guards, yet
another polarized group. (Luke 22:47-53)
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