Forum at Mary Washington puts religious faces front-and-center as war rages | Also in this issue: Martin Davis on reclaiming thankfulness
by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
Usually, when violence breaks out somewhere in the world, it is the practice of universities to assemble a panel of academics to analyze the events, said Ranjit Singh, a professor of political science and international affairs at the University of Mary Washington.
“That seemed unproductive,” however, in the wake of the devastating Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel by Hamas and the devastating ensuing attacks on Palestinian citizens by Israel, he told an audience gathered in UMW’s Dodd Auditorium Wednesday evening.
“There is a time and a place for arguing the complex politics of the Middle East,” Singh said. “In this case, history offers inadequate answers, and we are all experiencing trauma, fear, loss, and grief. Those concerns inspired this event. Tonight is about nurturing and honoring the different faith traditions” involved.
Wednesday’s forum, titled “Focused on Compassion, Recognizing Grief,” was organized by UMW’s Khatib Program in Religion and Dialogue and moderated by Mary Beth Matthews, professor of religious studies.
Panelists Melissa Palguta, a therapist with the university’s Talley Center for Counseling Services; Ronda Young, a rabbi and Jewish educator; Imam Sherif Shehata from the Masjid Aliya Islamic Center; and Ethan Lowry, campus and young adult missioner at Trinity Episcopal Church and The House, gathered to talk about trauma and how their faith traditions reconcile trauma and grief with compassion.
Palguta listed the many different physical and emotional responses to trauma, and emphasized that “whatever you are feeling, it is normal.”
“Feelings can be difficult, but they are never bad,” she said.
Though the three faith leaders represented three different religious traditions, their remarks revealed one commonality – they are all called to love and to respect the humanity of every person, regardless of their background, beliefs and current circumstances.
Young spoke about the “divine spark,” the Jewish belief that a portion of God resides inside each human being. Jews are taught to nurture the divine spark within themselves and seek it in others, she said.
Shehata said that Islam teaches him not to “expect justice” but to love everybody, and Lowry said that Jesus’ message to him is that “There is no one among us who does not bear the image of God.”
Lowry said this especially means seeking out, caring for and loving those who are different from us.
“The work of love is how we treat the most marginalized among us,” he said.
All three faith leaders emphasized that their focus is bringing peace to their immediate communities.
Young quoted from the Pirkei Avot, a compilation of ethical teachers from the Rabbinic Jewish tradition.
“It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it,” she said, explaining to her, this means we should work to “bring peace where we can.”
A way to start this work, Lowry suggested, could be to ask someone who is hurting as a result of the recent violence “What do you need?” and “Do you need a friend?” – instead of trying to start a dialogue with them about the events.
Matthews closed the forum by asking the community to consider accepting that both of the following statements are true – “What happened on Oct. 7 was horrible” and “What is happening now is horrible.”
“Those statements should be joined with ‘and,’ not with ‘but,’” she said.
A Season of Thanks
by Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
A Thanksgiving Column? On November 3? Four days before the election?
Yes. and I can’t think of a better time.
Pointless Whining … Positive Affirmations
Everyone should have an opportunity at some point in their life to sit at the feet of a truly great mind.
For me, that time was 1989 at the University of Chicago, when I was a student under Martin E. Marty. As winter gathered in Chicago that late Fall, and the stress of exams was looming large, Mr. Marty gave some of his precious seminar time to reflect on the coming holiday of Thanksgiving.
It was, I remember his saying, “The perfect American holiday.” It extoled the virtues of “public religion.” It was a day given to religious expression in that peculiarly American voice – appreciative of the divine, yet welcoming of all who share in America, personal convictions aside.
Over the past 40 years, however, Thanksgiving seems to be dying a death by a thousand commercial cuts. Halloween, not the day of thanks that Abraham Lincoln established at the height of the Civil War, now serves as the gateway to the Christmas rush.
Religious organizations themselves have largely dispensed with special services on Thanksgiving – we’re more likely to run a 10K or nestle in to NFL pregame than offer a bit of our time to give thanks and celebrate what is right with our communities.
As so many have bemoaned – we have been secularized to a fault.
Don’t count me among those who mourn the day’s loss to secularization.
Rather than bemoan what has been taken by “others,” we should look inward and examine the beauty of the day and reclaim it.
Marty wrote beautifully about this in 2013.
Abandoning sanctuaries and worship for shopping and running is only one of the many ways a public “secularizes.” Those who put their energies into resenting may be pointing to the main factors that produce “secularization,” however defined.
If they divert energies from pointless whining to positive affirmations of faith and community and inventing new approaches, they are likely to achieve some surprising results about which they and the larger public could be thankful. [Emphasis added] They could be generous enough to say Happy Black Thursday, and Happy Black Friday to those who choose to make or, let’s face it, have to make, other choices about that formerly holiday weekend.
The “pointless whining” that Marty references is what drives so much of our lives – and not just about Thanksgiving.
Look around – That whining has consumed politics. Consider the campaigns that Tara Durant and Joel Griffin have run for Senate District 27.
Durant has run a campaign based on blame. Dems are destroying our community with Critical Race Theory, lawlessness, and “failed” education. Her thoughts for what we should be thankful? What is working? And what we can do to be better? If she has them, she isn’t talking about them in her campaign.
Then there’s Joel Griffin. As Virginians are struggling under crushing inflation and run-away housing costs, the talking point he keeps hammering is abortion rights and a Democratic Blue version of Trickle-down economics.
The same strain runs through the Joshua Cole and Lee Peters race for House District 65.
That politician who can inspire hope? Move us toward a common good? Maybe Durant or Griffin or Cole or Lee is that person. But right now, none is running as if they can.
Voters, meanwhile, lament the decline in politics and respond by blaming politicians. Then in large numbers they ignore Election Day in the same way they avoid Turkey Tetrazzini the week after Thanksgiving.
Lots of “pointless whining,” precious little “positive affirmations of faith and community and inventing new approaches.”
You Have an Extra Hour — Use It to Rediscover Thanks
We need to rediscover thanks. And that begins with “positive affirmations” about who we are as a people.
This year, I’ve had much to positively affirm. Namely, an abundance of people who believe in people over politics (Thank you, Cori and Megan), who believe in the common good over the greater good (Thank you, Shaun), who believe in families (Thank you, Leigh Anne), who believe in community and service (Thank you, Audrey and John and Chris and Ned), and so many more who believe that there is more to celebrate than to decry. Even when decrying is appropriate, they don’t allow their concerns to override their affirmations of what makes us who we are as a people in this community called Fredericksburg.
Yes, Thanksgiving is having a rough go. We recover it not in pointing fingers and naming enemies. We recover it in looking into ourselves and discovering what is right, and beautiful, and good.
Why wait until Thanksgiving to do that?
Sunday morning, we are given the gift of time. An extra hour we are gifted for a few months out of every year.
Take that hour, and affirm faith and community, and invent some ways to make things better.
We need Thanksgiving now, more than ever.
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