![\"CC0](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/333\/2016\/09\/pexels-photo-large-2-e1473433265466.jpg\")
Under my breath, I said to my seat mate, \u201cwhy doesn\u2019t she just move to the other side of the booth so that her back is to them, if it\u2019s bothering her\u00a0so much?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Like I said, this was a muttered comment. I cannot imagine that the woman could possibly hear me\u2013but that\u2019s exactly what she did. Moved to the other side of her booth and turned her back to them. This move put her back to us as well. But it also put her right up against our booth.\u00a0<\/span> And I thought\u2013well if she can hear us that well, then perhaps we should spend a few moments talking loudly about some things that are important to us. (My dining companion was not a member of my church, but is of the same denomination.) So for the next ten minutes or so, we discussed the work our church is doing to help resettle Turkish and Syrian refugees in the community; our shared\u00a0commitment to interfaith dialogue; a growing mission partnership with the local Islamic community; and the ways we work to\u00a0address systemic racism.<\/span><\/p>\n My hope is that our neighbor lady enjoyed her very uncomfortable pancakes very much. Excuse me, ma\u2019am, but would you care for some syrup with your xenophobia??\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You know my spiritual discipline of talking to strangers. This episode was a great reminder that direct engagement is not the only way to do that. I suppose I could have gotten up in this woman\u2019s grill\u00a0and accused her of\u00a0making a mean face. <\/em>But that seemed neither appropriate nor productive. It would have been different had she in some way confronted the family. Demanded that they leave, or unleashed a tirade of bigotry in front of those children. I was poised to intercede if it came to that.<\/p>\n But it didn\u2019t. All this woman did was make a rude face. It\u2019s a free country, so she\u2019s allowed to do that. What she is NOT allowed to do\u2013at least, on my watch\u2013is to sit there in all her judgey discomfort and assume that all the other white people in the room are feeling her pain and sharing her disgust. No, ma\u2019am. I am not ok with letting you project that onto me.<\/p>\n You can hardly accost a stranger and preach them a sermon just because you don\u2019t like their face. So. This seemed like one of those moments when we are called to employ the Third Way of Jesus; to creatively bring the gospel into a given moment without matching the hostility of another person\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n Sometimes, all we can do is let ourselves be overheard.<\/p>\n Let compassion be overheard. Let wisdom be overheard. Let a broader view of the world be overheard. Say what is true, and let a bigger, more gracious image of God be overheard.<\/p>\n The next time you find yourself sitting next to hate, let love be overheard. Let this be your ministry, every day, and who knows what might change?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I went to breakfast yesterday\u00a0at a usual neighborhood place. There was a Muslim family there too\u2013 an older woman and a two young women in full hijabs; plus a younger couple with two small boys, all of whom were dressed in a completely suburban way.\u00a0They were talking and laughing and bustling around to get situated. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1154,"featured_media":4545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,5],"tags":[1152,1281,9,940,1333],"class_list":["post-4544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-being-a-person","category-faith-and-community","tag-interfaith-dialogue","tag-islamaphobia","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-religious-freedom","tag-religious-tolerance"],"yoast_head":"\n
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