"Islam 101 Lecture Costs Principal Job"

When I started blogging last week (I still can’t believe I am doing it given what a neophyte I am with all things electronic) I didn’t think I was going to have much to say. I thought I would do the men’s bible study notes (it has been very gratifying to me to hear from so many of you who appreciate getting these reflections) and that I would on a monthly basis send you all some thoughts on leadership in a column I am calling “Leadership and Life.” That is all that I thought I would do; but then…but then there seems so many other things that catch my interest and so many other topics that you are sending my way. So, here is another.

Some of you may have seen in the Houston Chronicle today an article with the title from above. The principal from Friendship Junior High had allowed an Islamic group to make a 40 minute presentation to students last month is now the “former” principal. The superintendent had authorized that the presentation only be given to staff and not to the students, but something happened from the hand-off from her office to the principal of the school, which led to the presentation happening in front of nearly 900 students. The origins of the presentation stemmed from a father contacting the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Houston after his son had been physically attacked at the school because he is Muslim.

After this presentation, which CAIR has described as Islam 101, community members flooded the district with complaints and it then became a “hot topic” on a local radio station. All of this led, again, to the principal being given other work to do, effective immediately.

Some parents were relieved about the principal’s dismissal and some were concerned. As a religious person and leader, I am in the second group. If the principal clearly disobeyed the instructions from the superintendent, then I can understand his or her removal; but if he or she was removed because he or she simply allowed the presentation to happen and because the instructions from the superintendent’s office may not have been clear, then, again, I am very concerned.

It seems to me—and now I about to launch into my own views about all this—that it is imperative that we as Christians learn about other faiths, that we learn what the similarities are, the differences are, that we accept, honor, and sometimes even celebrate those differences, and that we learn how to co-exist in this world together, all of us as God’s children. We need not, and this I believe passionately, be worried, intimidated, anxious, or afraid of other faiths. I want to live into my Christian faith with conviction integrity, and I would hope that Jews and Muslims and others would do the same.

I was recently at the Emery Weiner School here in Houston, and I told all of the high school kids that I was there to “proselytize.” I thought that the headmaster, my friend Stuart Dow, was going to “lose it.” I then asked the kids what it has felt like to be proselytized by one of their friends and the response I heard from them was uniformly ugly. (As much as I believe it is important for us to share our faith, we need to find a way to do it that is kind and gracious and sensitive.) Despite hearing their comments, I reiterated that I was there to proselytize, and then I said, “I am not here to invite you to be Christians but to be good Jews, or good people of faith from whatever faith tradition that you come from. Don’t just be cultural Jews; don’t just show up for Yom Kippur or any of the other big, holy days. No, live deeply into your faith every day, remembering that we are not human beings with a spiritual life, but spiritual beings with a human opportunity.”

The superintendent of the schools wrote a letter to all of the parents describing Friendswood as “a faith-based community,” while also apologizing to all of them that the program happened. Now, this is, I think, a rather odd statement. Is the superintendent suggesting that Islam is not faith-based?

And then all of the angry responses to her and all of the outraged comments on the radio station—what do we make of all that? One thing to make of all this is that we, many Christians, are woefully ignorant about the deep connections that we have with both the Jewish and Muslim faiths. And now is time for a little bible study. Our great-great grandparents in the faith, Abraham and Sarah, were called by God to leave their homeland and to begin a family (See Genesis 12). God told them that if they followed his invitation that he would bless them to be a blessings to all the nations of the world. (This will be the text that I will be preaching on this Sunday.)

Four chapters into the narrative, scripture tells us that Sarah continued to be barren, and so Sarah gave Abraham her slave Hagar so that she could bear children for them. According to ancient custom, a wife could give her maid to her husband and claim the child as her own. Abraham “went in to Hagar, and she conceived,” and she called her son Ishmael. Hagar then looked with contempt on Sarah, the barren one, and Sarah was not pleased, so began to treat her harshly. Hagar ran away. Out in the wilderness an angel of the Lord finds her and sends her back to her mistress. Later, in chapter 21, Sarah bears Isaac and when she sees Abraham’s two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, playing together she has Hagar and this other son banished. Just as she and the boy are about to die of thirst, an angel of the Lord comes to her and says, “What troubles you Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” (Gen. 21:17-18) Although Ishmael was not the heir of the promise, God did promise to be with the boy and his descendents. Muslims trace their lineage to Abraham through Ishmael, which means that Jews and Christians and Muslims—all of us—are related in the faith.

Now, by saying that we are related I am not meaning to imply that we are all one; nor, am I meaning to so blur the edges and distinctions that we just have one muddy-non-descript-smorgasbord of faith. There are differences. Important ones. But, again, we are all related, and we are all, according to Genesis chapter one, God’s children. Which means that we need to learn about each other—learn not only what we believe, learn what we share in common, learn what is different, but also learn how to get along in this world.

No doubt the horrendous attacks of 9/11 have made it hard for many of us to think about Muslim people in kindly ways, but we need to be very clear that many, many Muslims are just as appalled and angry about these attacks as we are. We need to remember that many Muslims have chosen this country as their home and that many of them have chosen to flee from the fundamentalist regimes of their homelands.

Let me say again that I don’t entirely know the circumstances of that principal in Friendswood being demoted. If he or she was being insubordinate, then he or she may have needed to go. But if he or she was sent packing because the superintendent was placating an angry group of parents, then we must on some level acknowledge that in all of these proceedings involving a 40-minute presentation on Islam 101 many people have not even practiced Christianity 101. You will remember that Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.” And even if any of us do think the Muslims as our enemies, we are still commanded to love them.

One irony in all this is that Friendswood is called by that name because a Society of Friends had once settled there. During these times, times that are fraught with so much suspicion and fear and anxiety, how can we learn to be friends across the lines and boundaries and divisions?

When Abraham died, both Ishmael and Isaac peacefully stood at this grave (see Gen. 25:9). What do we need bury for the sons and daughters of Ishmael and Isaac to peacefully co-exist today?