Two women point out faiths' Golden Rule

 

For the Eastern Washington Legislative Conference workshop, "Faithful Organizing: Spokane to Minneapolis," Karen Stromgren, executive director of Muslims for Community Action and Support (MCAS), and Gen Heywood, pastor of Veradale United Church of Christ and convener for Faith Leaders and Leaders of Conscience, presented the work they do in the community as organizers.

Both pointed out that faiths share the Golden Rule, "to do to others as we would want done to us." They said that rule conveys the importance of compassion for neighbors and strangers. This compassion moves them to live that love through organizing their communities to faithful witness to counter hate in neighborhoods and nations.

Karen, a Muslim revert and a member of the Islamic community, shared about the Islamic faith and its teachings of living in peace. She spoke of her journey to the faith and struggles of living faithfully in the U.S. because of hatred of Muslims fueled by misinformation.

MCAS seeks to educate and reach out to the public about teachings of Islam to correct misinformation.

Karen described barriers to building trusting relationships caused by the misrepresentation of the Muslim faith. This makes organizing difficult for local Muslims who fear it is not safe for them to be involved in the community.

"Misconceptions and hatred have no place in any community. Our lives should be led by education so that we understand others and their religious beliefs," she said.

As a pastor and convener of an interfaith group, Gen presented learnings from her days joining 650 to 1,000 faith leaders going to Minneapolis from around the U.S. in January in response to faith leaders there calling for support from around the country during ICE activity.

Staying with seven other Washington State UCC clergy allowed her to learn and reflect with them about their experiences.

The collaboration of faith organizations there exemplified what can be done when people give up the requirement of only working with groups "in perfect agreement" with each other, she said.

"We have to learn to work with people who may have previously hurt us," said Gen, adding that there is need to find on ramps for those who turn around from hate and hurting others, "This means we need to move from shaming people to including them.

"We need to build on the lessons learned," said Gen.

"The people of Minneapolis were uniquely ready because of their experience of the violence during and after the murder of George Floyd," she observed.

Gen listed ideas for people in the Inland Northwest to respond to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tactics coming and already in the region.

1) Training sessions offer people an organized, planned response, rather than them waiting and having to improvise.

2) Involvement in neighborhoods puts people in communication and solidarity, so they can respond together more quickly to threats.

3) Unions need to be involved with the resistance. Studies show that when unions resist authoritarianism, the chance to restore a democracy rises to 89 percent.

For information, email fllconscience@gmail.com or visit mcasspokane.org, facebook.com/SpokaneMCAS or VeradaleUCC.org.