Twenty-five years ago, I worked in Walsall, England, in the West Midlands, near Birmingham. Birmingham is a city known for many things, including having the largest Sikh gudwara outside of India.
In Walsall, in Caldmore (called "Karma"), I worked with countless Sikh families and experienced incredible hospitality from all of them. I was moved by the family cohesiveness and equality expressed within the Sikh families with whom I worked. I had never known any Sikh families before I met those in Walsall.
In 2004, while attending the Parliament of the World's Religions in Barcelona, Spain, the Sikh community at the Parliament hosted langar for thousands of us daily. We would enter a tent at lunch time, remove our shoes, put a covering on our heads and sit down with thousands of others to have a vegetarian meal. As a Presbyterian minister, I was struck by this hospitality to strangers. The Christian tradition speaks a great deal about hospitality, because Jesus was all about it: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in."
Sitting with others in Barcelona, enjoying this food that had been labored over for hours, I was a bit awestruck and deeply grateful. I knew the people who had prepared the food had been up before sunrise, had prayed over it while preparing it, and I felt blessed by the whole experience.
After lunch, when we, by the thousands, went to put our shoes on again, we found they'd been polished and cleaned while we'd been eating. Had I not already had such a positive view of the Sikh tradition from my time in Walsall, the experience in Barcelona would have won me over. Their kindnesses were impressive.
To hear that a lone gunman once again was on a rampage, is something akin to a stone dropping in the stomach. "Not again!" we think, before we learn the details, hear who was hurt and how. To hear that a lone gunman targeted a group of people, and in this case, in the Midwest, in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin? What is there to say? What can be said to a faith tradition that has been targeted with malice and foresight? If a Sikh family can't be safe in Oak Creek, Wis., where can they be safe?
In the last month I've been preparing to teach World Religion at a local community college. I've been deciding which religions are "in" in terms of being included, and which are out, meaning, we won't have time to cover them this semester. It's harder than I thought. I had been thinking in the last week what I'd lecture about, regarding the Sikh tradition. It dawned on me that if I knew Sikhs from only World Religion materials, I'm not sure what I'd say. I know I'd miss much.
It's easy for people and religions to become caricatures, simplified and flat. It's easy to dismiss what we don't understand, easy to put people into pigeonholes that work for us, while missing the essence of who the person is, what the person believes. Since 9/11, Sikhs have been mistaken for Muslims in hate crimes across the U.S. Is this how little understanding there is, that we don't even know whom we hate for sure, but as long as they are different, they must be suspect? Really?
Breaking bread with someone means that you might share more than just food at the table, wherever you are. Sit down on the floor with thousands of people and be served a delicious meal, with people concerned that you do not go away hungry? For me, having the experience of eating lunch daily with the Sikh community in Barcelona, experiencing that level of hospitality, means I will always be interested in the well-being of the Sikh community worldwide. Sharing a meal with someone has that sort of power. It sounds really simplistic, and yet, maybe it is that simple: a meal shared?
As the shooting details emerge, it appears clear Wade Page was full of hate. What is frightening is there are more Wade Pages out there, and we didn't see this coming. We rarely do. We can't predict the next targets, the next innocent human beings victimized by a gunman. We do know religious groups often bear the brunt of hate crimes. While Christians are busy attacking each other verbally over the issue of gay marriage in the U.S., a gunman tears holes in the fabric of the Sikh community that will go deeper and wider than the press will have time to report. As Wade Page gives hate a human face, may we, who are members of religious communities, wake up and take the abstract notions of "love," "peace" and "understanding," and give them human faces as well. May the Sikh community in Oak Creek and across the U.S. feel an upsurge of support as they experience this dark hour of domestic terrorism.
Sign the Charter of Compassion today. The Charter is a document that transcends religious, ideological, and national differences. Supported by leading thinkers from many traditions, the Charter activates the Golden Rule around the world.
Follow Rev. Susan Baller-Shepard on Twitter: www.twitter.com/yoursbc
Jasminder Kaur: Sikh Americans: Feeling Alienated and Targeted In America
Tresa Kaur Dusaj: A Sikh Woman's Response To Wisconsin Gurdwara Shooting
Imam Khalid Latif: Ramadan Reflection Day 18: Honoring The Victims Of Wisconsin Sikh Temple Shooting
I'm surprised it hasn't happened more often.
There is no stopping them with gun control, laws, and regulation.
Some are mentally ill for sure but some are not.
You want a society with no bounds, no law and no judgement?
You got it in these people.
They do what "they" think is right.
They individually with out thought of others do as they chose.
They have become god and guess who is promoting that line of thinking?
Those that teach no judgement, no good and bad, no right and wrong and individual personal interpretation of God is as relavent as Orthodox position.
You want a society that does it's own thing? You got it.
Brian Fischer of the so called "Family Research Council" has openly called for the kidnapping of the children of same sex couples. It is now time for our response to this and I ask each of you to do this. Why not ask your local parish or temple to issue a condemnation of this bigotry from the pulpit and in the bulletin and to do so this coming Sabbath whatever day that sabbath might me, then ask you conference, presbyter, diocese, synod, or association to issue a statement of opposition and condemnation to such hate either by this coming Sabbath or by the next one, and then ask these structures to demand of the national body what ever that is known by to do the same and then have each leader and or leaders to do this publicly and in the social media! I am very serious here. Will it be silence or Cowardice?!