On the Gulf Oil Spill

I have waited until now to develop a fuller response to the Gulf Oil Spill. At this point, it is critical that every global citizen develop a conscientious response. Even BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward has stated publicly that the Gulf Oil Spill never should have happened.

What are we to make of this? I am an Ohioan. I do not live near the Gulf, but, like the vast majority of conscientious Ohioans, I am very concerned about the working people of the Gulf region. I realize that just as Ohioans advocate for the economic well-being of the people of Gulf region, the people of the Gulf region advocate for the economic well-being of Ohioans. I am also very concerned about the ecology. What can I do? Many thoughtful journals, including the Jesuit weekly America, have outlined helpful proposals. They are worth considering. One of the proposals concerns conservation. The only practical problem with conservation in Summit County, Ohio is that we have to drive to many places. There is a bus system, but it does not reach every place I need to travel to. I also have a child with special needs and driving at times is literally a necessity. There are a few things I can do and I try to do these:

1. I refuse to be a slave to lawn care. I use my gas powered mower less often than the average bear. I also refuse to use petroleum based lawn products or to hire a lawn care company that will use petroleum based fertilizers and herbicides. I do not worry about trimming around the trees or edging the lawn.

2. I continue to advocate for a carbon neutral, Progressive Olympic Games for the Lake Erie region which will provide an opportunity to build a commuter train from Columbus to Canton to Akron to Cleveland, with a real focus on the Canton—Akron—Cleveland route. If we pay attention to the South African World Cup, we will notice that there were train lines developed for the event. We can do the same here. For our Progressive Olympics, which will be founded on solidarity with the poor, it is essential that we demonstrate solidarity with the people of the Gulf region, especially the people of New Orleans. If we cannot demonstrate solidarity with our fellow Americans, who is going to believe that we can demonstrate solidarity with the people of Haiti and Nicaragua? If we cannot advocate for the well-being of the people of the Gulf, then who will advocate for our Olympic effort?

3. As a loyal GM customer, I will continue to advocate for more fuel efficient cars from my favorite car company. I will also continue to advocate for better fuel efficiency from all car companies as well as stronger federal fuel efficiency regulations.

4. I will strongly consider a carbon tax, fully aware of the fact that it does put a burden on truckers and others who rely on automotive transport for a living.

Most importantly, I pray for the people of the Gulf region, some of whom are personal friends of mine. I pray that all Americans might act out of sense of solidarity toward the people of the Gulf and that we might better learn to steward God’s creation. God loves us, but God will judge us for how well we take care of the world he has given us. Witnessing this unprecedented catastrophe and the human suffering it has caused, how do we judge our own actions now?

Trusting My Son, Trusting Myself

He sits on the swing, lost in thought, oblivious to everyone around him.

I call his name. No response. I call his name again. Still no response. I can feel the anxiety creep into my chest. “Rob, are you OK?” Finally, an answer. “Yes.” That’s it. He goes back to staring into space. I feel a lump in my throat. I have seen him like this one hundred times before, but every time, I feel the disconnect. My son is just not there, not aware of me, withdrawn into an Asperger’s world. I want to know what he is thinking. I want some kind of communication—even just a look, a smile, something, but it doesn’t happen.

I keep trying. Finally, it occurs to me to just ask him “Rob, what are you thinking about?” Another 30 second pause. I ask him again.

“Phinias and Ferb. Dr. Doofemshmirtz is funny.”

I feel the connect, my anxiety fades.

“Daddy, I’m bored.”

“Then ride your bike.”

He does so. Susie wants to follow him. She does. We all move toward a park bench about 100 yards away. When we arrive, Rob announces that he wants to go home. I have left the stroller back at the playground.

“We need to go get the stroller.”

“You go get the stroller and leave Susie here with me.”

“Rob, I can’t do that.”

“Don’t worry Daddy. I’ll watch Susie, Daddy. You can rely on me!”

Hearing this, a tear wells in my eye as Susie snuggles up with him.

“I’ll stay here with Rob, Daddy. You get the stroller.” She trusts him so much, looks up to him.

The tear in my eye. I can’t believe how beautiful my son is. Moments before, he was unable to communicate with me, now he is pledging to take care of his three year old sister. I cannot express the panoply of emotions that flow from my heart—gratitude, awe, disbelief, and fear, yes, still this fear that this moment will fade and Rob will drift back into an autistic world where I cannot reach him. But for now, utter joy. For this moment, the curtain drew back and my son was revealed to me as he really is—loving.

I can rely on Rob. A few weeks before he melted down so badly he threatened my wife and threw eggs at me. Now, I can rely on him. A roller coaster, but I can rely on Rob.

I have to admit that, at times, I wonder if I have the emotional resources that some parents have. I love my children, but I can become overwhelmed with how to handle Rob. Am I being too hard on myself? Probably. I don’t know many Dads who could calmly handle the meltdowns Rob has had. I struggle with shame. I grew up with a father who had a wicked Irish temper. He was and is a very generous man, but witnessing his explosions as a kid felt humiliating. Witnessing Rob’s explosions brings me back to those humiliating moments, when people would just stare at my father in disbelief.

For weeks I was frozen in that kind of humiliation again, wondering what my son would do next. It passed slowly and the thaw came completely with Rob’s proclamation that he was reliable enough to watch Susie. It had to be my sensing his self-confidence, that he had once again regained control of himself, that he trusted himself. And so my heart let up and the joy returned.

I hope that we can continue to foster self-confidence in Rob. To do so, I need to be in a situation where I know that people have confidence in me. My wife has an enormous amount of confidence in me. Her love and her trust sustain me. Unfortunately, right now, I am unemployed. I miss the camaraderie of being part of a team. I have a dream that I can work with a team of people who sincerely see my talents and who trust me. Having that confidence, which is socially infectious, will help me foster confidence in people at home.

Trust begets more trust. And the tricky thing about trust is that you cannot pretend that you have it. It has to well up freely from your heart as you share it without fear of loss. The Biblical term for trust that most of us are familiar with is faith. Faith cannot be coerced from a person, cannot be socially manipulated into a person. Faith is a gift. To live and work in a community of faith. I pray for that empowering gift.

Overcoming the Cycle of Violence in the Holy Land

Is it possible to live in peace with others without experiencing the insights that their worldview fosters?

In our global society, people of every conceivable religion move to every conceivable corner of the globe. For us to be economically productive and ecologically prudent, we must work together in inter-religious and multi-cultural teams. For the most part, we work together peacefully. We respect our neighbors. Each great religion emphasizes the values of respect for human life and compassion for the other. Yet, there are sporadic outbreaks of violence. One of the causes is religious nationalism which understands a faith as a sacred canopy which defines a geographical territory. In the United States, we hear religious nationalism in the form of statements such as “America is a Christian nation.” Such statements misunderstand the real value of religion by equating God who is infinite with an orientation toward a finite geographical place.

If we had more reverence for the true nature of God, for God as infinite, ineffable, beyond the human attempt to name and confine, we might have more insight into the reality that God communicates with us through the religious traditions of others. I know this personally. I am a Catholic. My religion makes its ultimate claims, but I learn from more than just the Christian Scriptures and the Catholic tradition. I learn from others. When I allow them to be other, completely beyond my attempt to name or control, I am open to the wisdom that God is offering me through their own living traditions.

For example, I value forgiveness and I have had the experience of being forgiven and of forgiving others in the Catholic sacrament of reconciliation. I have also been studying Buddhist insights into reconciliation, chiefly stemming from the practice of mindfulness. I can see basic similarities between Buddhist insights and the insights of Thomas a Kempis in his Imitation of Christ, but I can also sense something radically other and revealing in the Buddhist authors, especially the gift of meditating on what they call the inherent emptiness of existence (what I as a Christian would call mystery). One also cannot help but be impressed by the examples of the Dalai Lama, Thich Naht Hanh and other Buddhist practitioners. They practice non-violence in ways that most Christians only speak about. Yet, I remain a Catholic Christian, deeply grateful for the sacramental vision of the Church.

I have learned from many traditions: I can recall a good story about Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. A friend was complaining that he—the friend--was not more like Moses. Heschel responded “God is not going to ask me ‘Why are you not Moses?’ but rather ‘Why are you not Heschel?’’—emphasizing the value of authenticity. I have also learned from Holocaust survivors who have forgiven Catholics who ignored them as they were shipped off to concentration camps (and in some cases helped ship Jews to the camps). They constantly remind us to always resist genocide. I learn from the staff and members of the Jewish Community Center of Akron as they teach my daughter and celebrate the diversity of their membership. I know the Hebrew Bible better thanks to the writing of Robert Alter and I know that Catholic Biblical scholarship would be lost without the vibrant study of Jewish scholars of both the Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures.

I will be honest and admit that I have not had the opportunity to study Islam as well as I would like to, but I vow to change that in the near future. I have had the privilege of studying with three brilliant Islamic scholars at the Catholic University of America—Sayed Reza Hejazi, Kemal Ataman, and Bahar Davary—as they were pursuing their Doctorates in Religious Studies. Reza, Kemal, and Bahar exemplified respect for the other, critical insight in the classroom, and an articulate explanation of their faith. From them and other Muslims I have developed an even deeper appreciation for prayer.

I have become more attuned to the energies of my own body—what Hindus call prana—through a Yoga class I am currently taking. Each pose activates a different line of energy and the class culminates in a very deeply peaceful relaxation of each part of my body into the present moment.

All of this makes me wonder about the current suffering in the Middle East. I know that there are geopolitical concerns and military strategies that go beyond my expertise, but I can’t help but wonder if there is some way to nurture compassion for the other and if such compassion is the key to overcoming the cycle of violence between Jews and Muslims (as well as the violent attitudes that some Christians have toward the warring parties and toward what they consider the proper partition of Palestine/Israel). Judaism, Islam and Christianity proclaim that God is compassionate and that God rewards human compassion. What if Jews, Christians and Muslims—the three religions with a history of violence toward each other concerning the Holy Land—were to pray with each others’ sacred texts and the commentaries each writes about these texts. What if we were to try to very sincerely imagine ourselves as the other and appreciate why the other truly values the sacred sites of the Holy Land? Would this give us some hesitation when we plan to harm each other over these very sites?

I am not advocating cafeteria spirituality or spirituality without healthy boundaries. We first need to develop a solid foundation in our own tradition and make sure that the younger members of our traditions receive solid foundations (what I as a Catholic would call catechesis). After that, to ensure we grow in our own faith, we need to allow others to reveal to us the depth and brilliance of God. We need to risk praying and meditating with texts from traditions different from our own and then return to our own tradition changed, more compassionate, valuing the other, even when that other threatens us. The alternative to valuing the other is terror, control and occupation which only lead to violence and entanglement. It is a vicious cycle from which we will never be free.

To become free of this cycle we need to ask God for the blessing of a sincere reverence for the religiosity of those who are different than we are and we need to pray with those who are different from us. A solid grounding in our own tradition and then acting to open ourselves to the on-going religious revelations of the other, as other, leads to peace and freedom.

Non-violent dialogue to resolve Israeli-Palestinian Violence

In the wake of the heightened tensions in the Middle East, it is important to take constructive actions to sow the seeds of peace. Both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King thought that those who would work for peace must purify themselves of violence. At the current moment, very few Christians can claim that they have totally purified themselves of anti-Judaism to such an extent that they can, in complete freedom, criticize the nation of Israel. The reason for this is the violence that exists in our Scriptures. The Christian Scriptures are laden with an anti-Judaism that gave birth to two millennia of pogroms and that culminated in the Nazi Holocaust. Most churches still have not re-translated their Bibles to remove the texts that refer to Jews as Christ killers, those from whom the Jewish disciples hid in fear, and those who were too obtuse to accept the Gospel. Although these texts are not forms of physical violence, they have promoted physical violence in the past. They are also forms of spiritual and psychic violence. On November 11, 2009, I wrote about this issue, focusing on the Fourth Gospel. There are also plenty of passages in the Gospel of Matthew and in many other texts of the Christian Scriptures.

We should not postpone efforts to remove anti-Judaism from our Scriptures. The need is even more pressing now. I whole-heartedly believe that the people of Israel would be more willing to hear criticism of their foreign policy if we took the very simple steps to correct this problem. Shall we wait for another war in Israel/Palestine to break out?

In addition, I firmly believe that inter-faith prayer will help us resolve this issue. There are many who have advocated it. I hope that we might begin this process in Northeast Ohio, bringing together Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and others in retreats and other formats that not only foster dialogue, but which allow us to show reverence for each other’s most sacred prayer and which facilitate prayer for and with each other. In particular, I and many others think that it is possible to adapt the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius to facilitate such encounters. There are other approaches.

Open dialogue, free of intimidation and insensitivity, in which we actively listen to each other, in which we pray with each other, and in which we forgive each other is the only manner to sow the seeds of lasting peace.

On The Current Israel-Turkey-Palestine Crisis

I think that both Israel and Palestine have a right to a homeland and that the two state solution is the only solution. I also know that cultures are constructed. Given these assumptions, I have a few questions:

1. How can we construct a culture of peace in the Middle East?
2. What will it take to move the nations of Israel and Palestine to cooperate with each other? Ultimately, would it not be fruitful for Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon to host the summer Olympics together? Could this sow the seeds of lasting peace?
3. In the short term, we need to ask if religious nationalism is getting in the way of lasting peace. I think that this is the question that the prophet Isaiah would ask us today (confer Isaiah 2). I will define religious nationalism as the tendency to associate religious boundaries with geographical boundaries. In the United States and many other nations, we have demonstrated that it is possible to let go of religious nationalism and still maintain our religious identities. The Israeli peace movement seems to be willing and able to do this. What is the next step?