Three Years Later: Pittsburgh 11

Three years ago today I was with some people from my church on a work trip to storm-ravaged Panama City, FL. I logged onto Facebook to post some photos of the { undamaged }worship space at St Andrews's Episcopal Church, our " home base" for the work trip. 

 I saw several posts from people all over the nation .

 " Prayers for Pittsburgh"

  Whaaaat? 

  Quickly I flipped to the Yahoo News app on my phone and learned that 11 souls who were worshipping at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh were gunned down by a bigot who let it be known on the Dark Web that his mission was deadly. 

  11 souls met their untimely demise simply because they, as Jewish-Americans, were worshipping in their synagogue. 

  Three years later, I wonder: Have we learned anything? 

  I'll never feel truly safe in worship again--- there is always that one chance that a person { usually a skinny, White " man child" will take out his rage on another house of worship--- including my own. 

 The pervasive cultural " norm" of White Straight Male Power has to stop. We are living in a multicultural, multi-faith, multilingual , globally-orientated time. People with my skin pigmentation are becoming a smaller segment of the fabric that is the USA. I am a Christian, but my Jewish heritage makes me take the events in Pittsburgh three years ago very seriously. 

  What have we learned in three years? We learned that some White  men still feel threatened by women { especially women-of-color} non-Christians { Muslims face more persecution than Jews.. but Jews are NOT exempt} people who identify as one or more of the LGBTQA+ alphabet soup and the working poor. 

 Many people in my life belong to one of the groups listed above, and it is days such as today that remind me how fractured this so-called " United States" really is now. 

 I wonder if maybe we were never ' united" in the first place. 

 Frankly, as a Christian, I am weary of Holy Scripture being used as weapons against " others". This is not a new problem--- our Scriptures { both Old and New Testaments} have been used to justify nearly every horrid act humans have committed against each other since the Canon was closed in 325 A.D. 

When I first arrived at The University of West Florida-- a relatively new Christian, I saw  people on the sidewalks yelling such phrases as " Jews Are Evil " Sinners Repent Now"  and { the worst " God Hates F___ "}

 My thoughts were: I did not sign up for this nonsense when I was baptized. Should I give up Christianity & go back to my own weird ways of communing with The Divine? 

 I went to the one person I know on campus who would not judge me for asking questions: My choir director. " Doc" Lynne listened with no judgement about why I felt repelled by the signs of  my faith on campus. Over the course of the semester she offered me Bible passages to read and ponder--- passages that shows Jesus as a champion of the poor, the powerless and the downtrodden. 

 Those of us fortunate enough to be able to gather on Saturday and celebrate the life and legacy of my dear friend were remined that people who follow Jesus, the Brown-skinned , born-in-a-barn travelling rabbi follow a Way of Love. Doc-- as human and therefore imperfect as everyone else-- lived her life daily as a follower of a Jesus Who came to show humans what Love Incarnate resembled. 

 I am sure Jesus would have wept at learning of the fallen 11 Pittsburgh Jews who were martyred three years ago today. I weep this day and every day that there is violence against people for simply being who God created them to be. 

 May my life -- as imperfect as I am-- reflect the Way of Love. 

Amen. 

~Sarah McCarren

27 Oct 2021