(Today's celebrity guest writer is Trinity parishioner Gary A. Becker. He is a retired high school teacher and avid astronomer, and currently serves on the faculty at Moravian College in Bethlehem.)
It was a muggy, summer-like Friday in late May, perhaps 15 years ago, and having one of the few classrooms in Dieruff High School that was air-conditioned, I had the planetarium unit on full blast. On that particular last period afternoon, the room was cool even to my standards, but my students generally loved it, coming from other parts of Husky High which could reach in excess of 100 degrees F. In full weekend mental mode, I popped inside about a minute before the bell and spied a raised hand in the far corner of the room. It was Hadi’s, a Palestinian who had immigrated to America with his family several years earlier. Dieruff had a large and vibrant Syrian population; in fact, the school was like a giant cultural melting pot with 37 languages spoken by its student population which at that time numbered close to 1800. Hadi was, however, my first Palestinian. He was an excellent student, also good-looking, with olive-toned skin, thick black hair, and brown eyes. He appeared much older than my average astronomy student, probably because he really was older, 19, I believe at the time. He should have been a girl magnet, but he was quiet and respectful, not nearly “dangerous” enough to attract the average, independent Dieruff girl.
Hadi asked me a simple question, “Why is it so cold in here?” I remember looking at him with some surprise and saying something like, “Well, isn’t it hot in Palestine and haven’t you ever heard of something called AIR-CON-DISH-ON ING (air conditioning)?” I emphasized the words and looked him straight in the eye.
I often used humor in dealing with my students and was guided by a few basic rules. Humor was not to be used to hurt or offend, but it could be edgy or sassy, and if I was using humor to work with my students, my pupils could use humor in working with me. It had to be give-and-take, a two-way street, coming from both sides. Hadi was fully aware of how I conducted my classroom, but the response that I received from him changed my perceptions of the Middle East in the blink of an eye.
Hadi said with almost no emotion, “Yes, we have air conditioning in Palestine, but our air conditioners are almost always broken. Whenever we get them fixed, the Israeli soldiers come around and break them once again.” I was speechless for a moment, and I don’t remember exactly what I said, but there must have been some feeble attempt at apology associated with my stammering. After class, I asked Hadi to remain; we talked some more, and I apologized to him in a more formal manner. It wasn’t necessary, he said. That part of his life was over, and he was in America; his life was good. He was a happy person.
I don’t know the specific reasons why Hadi’s family had moved to America, but I surmised that Israeli soldiers breaking his family’s air-conditioning units was pretty low on the list. You see, Hadi was a Christian, and at least at that time, Muslim families were moving into Christian neighborhoods with the goal of displacing Palestinian Christians. In the case of Hadi’s family, it had worked. They had come to America to find a new and a better life.
Fast forward to my current Moravian College astronomy class where I have two Saudi students, Faisal and Hamad. Their faith in Islam is as strong as their desire to be like Americans, and they are perhaps more in tune with pop culture than my other students. Helping them one evening with an assignment, our conversation turned to Christianity and Islam. The topics we discussed were diverse. They were curious to understand if Christians believed that Christ was the Son of God. They had difficulty in understanding the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They talked about the Koran and the fact that there was only one Koran, but Christianity had many different translations of the Bible. God spoke to Mohamed through the Archangel Gabriel, but in Christianity, God spoke directly to Jesus; yet any Muslim, like any Christian, could speak directly to God. In Islam, Christ would lead the armies in the Second Coming. However, what made the greatest impression upon me was their statement that no one could be a believer in Islam without being a believer in Christ. To me, the similarities of angels, the Second Coming, and belief in Christ gave a commonality between these two world religions.
So why can a 19-year old Palestinian feel no animosity towards those individuals who had forced him to leave his native land, and a Christian and two Islamic students have an animated discussion about their religious beliefs without anyone trying to gain advantage over the other? And finally, if Christianity’s twenty-first century concept of God is equal to love, why do we have so much difficulty spreading its effects beyond the sanctuary of our sacred spaces?
Perhaps young adults think too simplistically, yet I firmly believe that from my personal experiences of being a young adult and from 43 years of watching high school and college students interact as young adults, that their lives are just as complex as ours, but in different ways. Possibly we should pay more attention to their methodologies. At least, they are willing to talk honestly and openly about difficult situations.
So again I ask why the fight among Jews, Christians, and Muslims when we all worship the same God? Obviously the problems are complex, but the solution to me seems obvious and necessary for humankind’s survival. EXHALE, relax, stand down; and although we have diverse strategies in our traditions, we should unite and embrace our differences in a responsible and peaceful manner. Love thy neighbor. Hadi taught me that, and through example, Hamad and Faisal continue to reinforce that concept today.
Reconciliation to me begins with the individual, with his or her ability to accept differences without judgment, and to recognize that as a species we have an obligation to the past four billion years of evolution to preserve our right to exist into a future of understanding and peace. What a shame, if after all of those eons of time, after all of the struggles and the progress we have made, we nuked ourselves into extinction because we just could not get along. I think the God of love would be very disappointed.
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