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Lifting the veil on religious bigotry

07 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"The Lord secures justice and the rights of all the oppressed," the psalmist informs us this Sunday. The Oregon legislature last week took a step in the same direction by giving their final approval to end a longstanding ban on teachers wearing head scarves or other religious dress. The ban had been enacted in 1923 during a time of anti-Catholic bigotry to keep Catholic nuns from teaching in public schools. Supporters of the legislation called ending the prohibition a historic step toward religious freedom and nondiscrimination in a state that has performed poorly in those arenas in the past. Christian teachers have long been allowed to wear crosses in Oregon public schools, but head scarves and turbans have not been permitted. Opponents of the change, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, say they want the legislature to slow down and think harder about the ramifications. They say the rights of students, particularly impressionable elementary pupils, to be free from religious indoctrination at school should be front and center. Steven Green, director of Willamette University's Center for Law, Religion, and Democracy, said that in his 20-year career studying and litigating freedom of religion cases, he has never seen a lawsuit prompted by a teacher's dress alone, apart from words and conduct. Proponents hailed Wednesday's vote as a victory for Muslim women and others who have been kept from teaching in Oregon by a faith that compels them to cover their heads. More than a dozen Oregonians wearing head scarves and turbans watched as lawmakers from both parties approved the bill, with four Republicans and four Democrats opposed. Afterward Muslim and Sikh leaders predicted more young people from their faith communities would enter teaching, knowing they would not have to choose between honoring their beliefs and teaching in public schools. "This is the way it's supposed to be," said Bahadur Singh, a member of the Sikh Temple of Salem. The bill now heads to Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who is expected to sign it. Source: Articles by Betsy Hammond for the Oregonian and UPI.com

discrimination freedom of religion steven green public schools head scarves religious garb oregon religious freedom Muslims sikhs

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Temple tragedy fueled by hate groups

12 Aug 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Letter to the Ephesians couldn’t be clearer than in this Sunday’s reading: “All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice.” Humanity has yet to heed those words, as was evident once again on Sunday when disaffected white supremacist Wade Michael Page opened fire in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six people and wounding three others. A broad spectrum of U.S. religious groups—Christian, Jewish, and Muslim—condemned the killings, which authorities described as an act of "domestic terrorism." Sikhs across the country mourned the deaths in the shooting rampage outside Milwaukee, and some said the killings revived bitter memories of the period just after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks when their distinctive turbans and beards seemed to trigger harassment and violence by people who wrongly assumed that they were militant Muslims. Sikhism, a monotheistic faith that emerged from the Punjab region of India about 500 years ago, is one of the world’s youngest major religions. It emphasizes self-reliance and individual responsibility and draws its tenets from the words of 10 gurus. The religion is known for promoting women to positions of power and has championed social justice. To some who track the movements of white-supremacist groups, the violence was not a total surprise. Page, 40, who died in a shootout with police outside the temple after the massacre, had long been among the hundreds of names on the radar of organizations monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of his ties to the white supremacist movement and his role as the leader of a white-power band called End Apathy. “The music that comes from these bands is incredibly violent, and it talks about murdering Jews, black people, gay people, and a whole host of other enemies,” said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the law center. At least one commentator found a silver lining amidst the tragedy. Faheem Younus, Ph.D., an adjunct faculty member for religion and history at the community colleges of Baltimore County, said the tragedy posed a question to the core American values: Do we stand up for the safety of our religious minorities with the same vigor as we do for the mainstream population? “The question was valiantly answered by the heroic act of the two police officers who did not hesitate to risk their own lives in order to save the lives of others,” wrote Younus. “They stood up to protect a Sikh congregation with the same vigor as was displayed for the victims of previous mass shootings.” Sources: Articles by Ethan Bronner, Erica Goode, and Serge F. Kovaleski for the New York Times, a news item by Ecumenical News International, and an opinion piece by Faheem Younus for the Baltimore Sun

sikhs shootings wisconsin white supremacists southern poverty law center
Quote of the week

12 Aug 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“The United States has a long history of religious bigotry.” --Stephen Prothero, religion professor and author, saying he’s not surprised that a mosque in Joplin, Missouri was destroyed by arson or that a gunman went on a shooting spree in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. Source: Religion News Service

religious bigotry religious intolerance sikhs wisconsin
Former aggressor, aggrieved unite for higher cause

11 Aug 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the long version of the second reading this Sunday, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the Jewish people awaiting the Promised Land "greeted it from afar and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens on earth." Nothing seemed stranger or more alien to Pardeep Kaleka, whose father was gunned down along with five others at a Sikh temple a year ago, than an invitation to dinner from a former white supremacist. Yet when ex-skinhead Arno Michaelis reached out to Kaleka, an alliance was formed that preaches a message of peace throughout the Milwaukee area.In fact the pair has grown so close that they got matching tattoos on their palms—the numbers 8-5-12, the date the gunman opened fire at a Milwaukee-area Sikh temple before killing himself minutes later.It wasn't easy for Kaleka to meet Michaelis, a 42-year-old who admits he contributed so heavily to the white-power movement that he might have helped influence the shooter. Kaleka knows Michaelis' history—his lead-singing in a white supremacist band, the white-power and swastika tattoos, the countless fights, and more than a dozen arrests.But he also saw the good work Michaelis has done since he quit the racist movement in the mid-1990s. Kaleka, 37, wanted his father's death to be a catalyst for peace, and he saw in Michaelis a partner whose story could reinforce the message that it's possible to turn hate into love."We realized the reason this [temple shooting] happens is that we magnify the differences between people. We don't magnify the similarities," Kaleka said. "So one of our main goals is to magnify those similarities and say, 'Hey, I'm not so different from you. So let's come together in a common cause.' "The two men have teamed up to create Serve2Unite, a community group that works to counter violence with peace. Kaleka, Michaelis, and others visit middle schools and high schools, where Kaleka describes how gunman Wade Michael Page walked into the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin last year and killed six people he didn't know. Then Michaelis describes how the shooter's white-supremacist background was nearly identical to his own. Invariably the children are riveted, Kaleka said. Afterward several will come up and ask how they can get involved.Homily hint: It is one thing to be for peace and reconciliation in the abstract and entirely another to walk the walk with someone from "the other side" of whatever divides us. These two men give us all a powerful and inspiring example of what is possible when people lay aside their differences to work for healing in a hurting world. Source: An article by Dinesh Ramdhe for the Associated Press

sikhs shootings white supremacists serve2unite arno michaelis pradeep kaleka

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