When I was growing up, every so often, someone would describe someone else’s family as dysfunctional.
( We’re ok. But, those people…. )
Some time after that, and a long time ago at this point, I embraced the (now) popular notion that everyone’s family is dysfunctional. This is, of course, because families are made up of human beings. And human beings, of course, are troubled creatures who are all quite distinct from one another even when we look similar, speak the same language, eat the same food, root for the same team, and gather in the same church.
Is it any wonder that the children of Abraham, we uncountable stars in the night sky to which God pointed, have such trouble getting along?
Christianity. Judaism. Islam. Three major world religions that all descend from Abraham’s sons. Three branches of a family. A family filled with some members that almost everyone likes, some members that almost everyone loathes, a weird aunt here, a cranky grandfather there, some people who seem like they couldn’t possibly be part of the same family as we….
Sound familiar?
This weekend looms like some dangerous test of faith for Abraham’s family.
Tomorrow is September 11th, the ninth anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks in United States history.
According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll, 49 percent of Americans have a generally unfavorable opinion of Islam, the most negative view since October 2001, a month after the attacks.
Now, of course, not all of the respondents were Christians. But I’m willing to be bet that a large percentage were. And a big chunk of others were probably Jewish. And we’re a country where the majority of voters get cold feet if a presidential candidate is not a Christian. We’re so hung up on that point that President Obama’s detractors continue to try to convince people that he’s actually a Muslim.
And they’re gaining ground.
Meanwhile, a completely random minister of a very small church in Florida – a church not affiliated with any significant Christian denomination, mind you – has managed to seize the international spotlight by threatening to burn the Quran. The Pope and the President of the United States and a host of others with, one would hope, far more relevance and reason to be listened to, have repeatedly asked him to call it off. He seems to be demurring.
Distrust and bald hatred of Muslims is a fuel that burns really well right now. He’s probably trying to figure out how much farther he can drive.
It all shows just how dysfunctional Abraham’s family is. And how easy it is to confuse and mislead a lot of people when they’re already feeling anxious about the economy, the environment, the war.
What will it take for us to recognize and embrace our extended family?
There are violent and deluded people in each branch. They will refuse to see the connections between us, insisting instead on separation. They will refuse to see the diversity in the other branches, insisting that they’re all alike, all unreasonable, all deceitful.
May we realize that and not allow their dangerous myopia to define our vision of what this family could one day be.
Amen, Amen, Amen.