Nov 22 | Blessed are the persecuted (Letters from the Coast)

I work in an urban parish in East Vancouver. It’s a bit of a change from my last charge, a nearly suburban parish in the once working-class now posh Dunbar Heights.

Despite both neighbourhoods being quite safe, there is a more explicit poverty here, and the problems connected to it are more visible.

This summer, just before the return of the rector from sabbatical, we discovered a cache of clothes and other items, including human waste and a few needles, strewn about the south outer wall, which is partially hidden from the sidewalk by a low hedge. This was later accompanied by rambling, nonsensical graffiti. A former parish lay leader was appalled, and phoned me shortly after phoning the police. The graffiti was especially distressing to this lay leader, who felt that it demonstrated a complete lack of respect for a place of faith.

The depth of this leader’s anger was surprising to me. Of course vandalism indicates a lack of respect, but the fear beneath the rage was difficult for me to understand, and frankly, it rather annoyed me.

I couldn’t put my finger on why until months later. Sitting at my computer in this very parish, I found an email from a mailing list out of a local synagogue with a message of comfort and solidarity after the horrific synagogue attack in Pittsburgh.

Included in this email were different suggestions for actions the community could take. One heading said, “Security,” and the text beneath read as follows:

“Well before this most recent attack, [Temple] conducted an audit of our current security measures. …The technology exists to address these vulnerabilities and to ensure that no one need ever worry about their safety in our Temple.”

Further down was an encouragement for parishioners to take volunteer security training.

This brought up a number of feelings for me. My home parish, which is downtown, has had its share of angry folks who have taken issue with its progressive theology, and it’s also had trouble with folks looking for unattended money or other valuables to take. But as far as I’m aware, we’ve never had a bomb threat, significant vandalism, or arson attempts, and certainly there has never been a mass shooting.

Meanwhile, mosques regularly find the severed heads of pigs on their doorsteps, and similar things occur at Jewish synagogues. I’m sure there are incidents at houses of prayer for other faiths as well.

I have the incredible privilege of never having felt unsafe in a church before.

I can close my eyes and remember the odd feeling that filled me as I walked through the streets of Hebron in the Holy Land, that feeling that live wires were running a low current of electricity through my veins. It was not a safe place, and one had to be on alert at all times.

I imagine having that feeling every single time I go to church, and wince just thinking about it.

To imagine that Christianity’s loss of privilege is a terrible sin is laughable, but it’s even more laughable to imagine that Christianity is now on the same level as any other faith in the West. We will always be the more privileged.

I have heard too many people, both progressive and conservative, complain that “no-one respects the church” anymore.

Did Jesus die for us to have respect as a faith?

I don’t think so.

He died shamed, nailed to a cross like a common thief.

While we complain about graffiti and “Happy Holidays” and no more prayer in schools, our Jewish and Muslim families are paying out-of-pocket for their own security, their own clean-up crews, their own peace.

I’m not saying that any of us deserve or should expect and welcome graffiti or vandalism or violence in our houses of faith.

But I will say that maybe we should consider that if we as Christians aren’t being thrown into the arena anymore, we’re still doing pretty well for ourselves, and a little spray-paint isn’t going to change that.

Maybe we should try standing up for those who are experiencing true persecution, both here at home and abroad.

 

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 5:10