Mission Yearbook: New York church hosts talk ‘with malice toward none’

Seated recently in the sanctuary of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, where Abraham Lincoln used to worship during the most trying time in American history, a conservative and a progressive joined for a conversation on what “with malice toward none,” a soaring phrase in Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, might mean in today’s fraught political setting.

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Dr. Tim Shriver and Judge Tom Griffith, at right, were the guests last week of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church's McClendon Scholars program, "With Malice Toward None."

Dr. Tim Shriver, a film producer, the chairman of the board of Special Olympics and the co-creator of The Dignity Index, and Judge Tom Griffith, a retired federal judge who was previously general counsel of Brigham Young University, talked about the spiritual and moral values needed to combat today’s toxic political polarization. Dr. David McAllister-Wilson, president of Wesley Theological Seminary, moderated their 97-minute discussion, which can be viewed here.

Asked to talk about their faith, Shriver said it’s his conviction “we are all children of God, and we have a lot of evidence to that effect.”

“The problem of missing the dignity of other human beings is a fundamental human problem,” Shriver said. “Every time we miss it, we make a huge mistake. That’s where my faith starts — around the equality of every human being.”

Griffith said despite devoting much of his life to jurisprudence, the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law are “not my primary allegiance.”

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Judge Tom Griffith

“I am in awe to be in this space,” he said, adding that before the discussion started, he’d sat in Lincoln’s pew. “This church has been at the forefront of fighting for human dignity, and to be here with these people I love and admire — I’m grateful to be here.”

“I have faith in the Constitution, but primarily I am a Christian and I practice my Christianity as a Latter-Day Saint,” Griffith said. “The biblical story is Christ is going to win. It will look dark at times, but he is going to win. Any effort we make to follow him and copy him is worthwhile and valuable and important.”

Asked about the surge in political violence over the past few years, Shriver assigned part of the blame to what he called the “contempt industrial complex.”

“Partisan journalism is super profitable,” he said. “You’ve probably seen three to five examples of hateful rhetoric today. The toxin normalizes and rewards hatred.”

“Political violence has been with us forever, but there’s something different about this moment. Political scientists call it ‘affective polarization,’ and we’ve never seen it at the levels where it is now,” Griffith said. “Democrats and Republicans should disagree, but they now feel the other side is immoral.” Our political system “can’t work with that level of contempt,” he said.

When he speaks on college campuses and at law schools, Griffith pleads with students to stay off social media. He tells them, “You are being played, and it’s dollar-driven.”

“This is the opioid crisis of our time,” Griffith said. “It puts the level of enmity on steroids.”

McAllister-Wilson pointed out that polling shows that religion is often a driver of polarization and even political violence. He asked: What do people of faith do with their sense of righteous anger?

“Act on it without becoming the evil you oppose,” Shriver said. “Differences of opinion are not the problem; they are the solution to problems. It’s the whole purpose of a vote. That’s how we solve problems.”

A fan of C.S. Lewis, Griffith was at Oxford University recently. “I always go to University Church, where Lewis delivered his ‘The Weight of Glory’ sermon,” Griffith said. Lewis ends his sermon with these words: “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”

“I think that’s right,” Griffith said. “The people we disagree with who are so wrong — we need to treat them with dignity and respect.”

Shriver and Griffith were asked: What gives you cause for hope?

“That this is still a country of enormous innovation and compassion,” Shriver said, adding that Special Olympics relies on a half-million volunteers to hold events across the nation.

“I am hopeful because on Easter Sunday, something miraculous happened,” Griffith said. “Christ began a new Creation he calls us to be part of.”

“When we are seeking reconciliation,” Griffith said, “he’s with us.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Stephen Smith, Business Analyst, Trust Services, The Presbyterian Foundation
Katie Snyder, Project Manager for Digital Fundraising, Annual Giving, Administrative Services Group  

Let us pray:

Creator God, grant us wisdom and strength to understand the power as serving all in justice and love in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - The Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb brings precision and passion to a talk at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church

The Palestinian author and theologian shares five theological challenges he’s struggling with

October 31, 2024

The Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb concluded his 

plenary at the Matthew 25 Summit in 

January with several action steps 

Presbyterians can take to work for peace 

in Gaza. (Photo by Rich Copley)

The Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, founder and president of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, recently spoke at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., as part of the McClendon Scholar program. Watch his presentation, titled “Understanding Gaza: Political Context and Theological Challenges,” here.

Raheb’s friend, the Rev. Dr. Sarah Johnson, New York Avenue Presbyterian Church’s senior pastor, introduced him, saying he has “challenged me to shuffle and recalculate my narratives.” Johnson also noted Bright Stars of Bethlehem, which supports Dar al-Kalima, the only university of arts and culture in Palestine. Its motto, Johnson said, is, “Hope is what we do.”

Raheb’s family has lived in Bethlehem for millennia. He uses the term “settler colonialism” to frame what’s going on in his homeland. Such colonists intend to stay in the place “for good,” he said. “The ultimate aim is to replace the native people, not live with them.” Native people become aliens, and settlers become more like natives, he said. A police state has to be created and granted extra power, including over the civil affairs.

He described five stages of colonialism in Palestine since 1948: seeding the seeds, taking the land, expanding the boundaries, negotiating a compromise and sealing the colonial project, which is what’s happening now, Raheb said. “As a Palestinian whose ancestors have been living there for thousands of years, I am an alien. I have no rights in the land, and I’m not allowed to question it. They’re not shy about it,” he said of the Israeli government. “They are proud to be a settler colonial state.”

“The whole idea is to make life unlivable in Gaza,” he said. “They will have no choice but to be displaced and seek refuge somewhere else.”

Dr. Lamma Mansour

Raheb next turned to five theological challenges he’s struggling with:

• The question about God and humanity. People feeling the pressure of an occupying force often ask, “God, where are you?” But according to Raheb, in Gaza they say, “God is my defender. Where is the Arab world? The Muslim world? The church?” “They don’t feel abandoned by God. They feel abandoned by humanity, and the silence of the world is deafening,” he said. “We need to think about what this means, when people lose their faith in humanity. It’s much tougher than losing faith in God.”
• The question about human rights. As they see the support for Ukraine following the Russian invasion, “Palestinians wonder if human rights are really universal,” Raheb said. Governments have funded human rights initiatives around the world, “but when we needed human rights defended, they’re not there,” he said.
• The question of what Raheb called “genocidal theology.” He noted that some of Israel’s prime ministers have compared themselves to Joshua, leading conquests in God’s name.
• The warrior God and the warrior state. While liberation theologians look to God’s liberating acts in Exodus, God as warrior “is more visible in Joshua and Judges,” Raheb said.
• Decolonizing Palestine and decolonizing the Bible go hand in hand. “We have so much to do as theologians, politicians and as human beings to bring justice, peace and reconciliation to the world,” Raheb said. “We have to end settler colonialism so Israelis, Palestinians, Christians and Muslims can share the land on equal footing.”

During a question-and-answer session following the talk, Raheb made it clear that “our problem is not with the Jewish faith. They were part of the Palestinian people until 1948.” When people talk about God giving the land of Palestine to Israel, “they mean to support settler colonialism,” he said.

The United States has “many young people against settler colonialism” who “support equality and reconciliation and the end of occupation,” he said.

He reminded the hundreds of people online and those gathered in person at the church that history for Palestine didn’t start with Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023. “At the time of Jesus, Palestine was under imperial Roman occupation,” Raheb said. “As long as there is occupation, there will always be resistance.”

“Is armed resistance the best way? I personally am not for armed resistance,” he said. “The best way to fight terrorism is to offer people hope. Fighting terrorism with more military power is counterproductive. It creates more terrorism.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb speaks at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Miguel Vargas, Building Manager, Presbyterian Historical Society 
Stephanie Vasquez, Language Services Manager, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 

Let us pray

Dear God of every generation, may we listen to your voice like the roar of rushing waters and answer your call upon our lives. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - New York Avenue Presbyterian Church hosts columnist who cites three commandments for Christians in politics

David French, an author and political commentator, appears as part of the McClendon Scholar Program

February 13, 2024

David French

David French, a decorated military veteran and former litigator who’s now a New York Times columnist and the McClendon Scholar at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., borrows from the prophet Micah for his three commandments for Christians in politics.

Do justice.

Love kindness.

Walk humbly with your God.

View the 90-minute online talk, attended by about 800 people, here. French is introduced at the 11:40 mark.

French, author of the 2020 book “Divided We Fall,” noted the “lethal mass partisanship” that now plagues the political landscape. When pollsters asked respondents if the world would be a better place if a large number of their political opponents died, about 20% said yes. Christians are told to pray for their enemies, but “we’re beginning to see a lot of rage and fear, rather than love and faith. God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love and sound mind,” French said.

“We over-apply the Bible,” when we’re talking about policy, French said, “and under-apply the Bible when it comes to virtue. That’s exactly backwards from Scripture.”

Micah 6:8 is central for our time because, among other things, “it addresses those who say Christians shouldn’t be involved in politics.”

“The call for justice is throughout Scripture. It’s an inescapable aspect of obedience,” French said.

In conversations, French sometimes rearranges Micah’s three commandments. “I don’t know all the answers, and so I lead with humility,” he said. “When you walk in humility, kindness and mercy flow naturally from it.”

As he touts these three commandments, he receives pushback, of course. People tell him that kindness and humility just don’t work in politics, “a rough and dirty business. It ain’t beanbag,” French said. “Or they say, ‘It’s pie in the sky. Show me an example of a Christian movement like this.’”

His answer is, “We have to think hard about what it means to work. Look at the life of Jesus, who was unjustly executed, then resurrected. … The Romans seem to have won,” but Jesus “does provide us a profound example of what working means in God’s economy. He is the singular figure of the 1st century, resonating forward for 2,000 years.”

A more recent example is the civil rights movement, “one of the single most successful social movements in the history of the United States,” French said. Alongside “many non-Christian allies,” members were “committed to justice to the point of personal peril and danger. … It was sacrificial, loving and forgiving, and it pursued justice unfailingly,” French said.

If people of faith follow Micah’s three commandments, we’d “return to the blazing countercultural radiance that Christianity should represent,” French said. “If we form that right-sized vision in politics, we can be countercultural in exactly the way this country needs us to be.”

During a question-and-answer session following his talk, French was asked what it would look like if political leaders walked humbly with God.

“The No. 1 marker is, have you heard them say, ‘I was wrong?’” French said. “Apologizing? Explaining how they got something wrong?”

“When I know I’m wrong, I want to say the right thing as clearly as I said the wrong thing in the first place,” French said. Another marker is, “Do they have a posture of openness and receptivity, or are they there to lecture you? Do they care what I say? That’s a great test.”

 When he served in Iraq as a squadron judge-advocate, “we confronted terrorists who did many of the things Hamas did on Oct. 7. They were unspeakable atrocities, and we had the responsibility to protect innocent people under our care,” French said. “At the same time, you cannot and must not lose sight of the humanity of even the most vicious of your enemies.” The army was using deadly force to protect people, “but when terrorists fell into our hands, no matter what they’d done,” they were given food, medical care and safe accommodations and treated with “decency and dignity,” he said.

“It was both justice and mercy working in the darkest of circumstances,” French said.

Watch previous offerings by the McClendon Scholar Program at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church here.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: New York Avenue Presbyterian Church hosts David French, author and political commentator

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Daniel Braden, Managing Editor-Publishing, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Lynn Bradley, Operations Administrator/Receptionist, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

Creator God, thank you that through your Spirit, creative solutions flow. Help us to let go of practices that no longer serve you or your people and to rise in Christ to the new opportunities to which you call us. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - New York Avenue Presbyterian Church continues its discussion on moral injury

Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock delivers the second of her McClendon Scholar-in-Residence lectures

October 27, 2023

Photo by Jacob Bentzinger via Unsplash

Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock, an author and scholar and the senior vice president for moral injury programs at Volunteers of America, continued her discussion on moral injury at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., by emphasizing the church’s role in moral injury recovery through ritual.

Brock, this past summer’s McClendon Scholar-in-Residence at the downtown Washington, D.C., church, spoke on moral injury. Read a report of that talk here. She also preached at the church that President Lincoln attended regularly during the Civil War.

Brock traced moral injury in veterans to the 1700s, when it was labeled “nostalgia” or “homesickness.” By Lincoln’s time in the White House, moral injury was being called “soldier’s heart,” and throughout both world wars it was commonly known as “shellshock” or “combat stress reaction.” Clinicians identified it “Post-Vietnam Syndrome” until 1980, and post-traumatic stress disorder entered the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders in 1980. The fifth edition of the DSM revised it to “stressor-related disorder.”

“Your brain over-functions in its fear mode,” Brock said of moral injury’s effects. Moral injury “is not a mental health disorder. It’s a function of our being born moral,” and has three levels of severity: moral discomfort, moral distress and moral injury, which she noted is “the biggest factor for suicide among veterans” and is, as Rabbi David Blumenthal has pointed out, “a sign of mental and moral health.”

“People can seem OK. They can get on with their lives, but it will need to be processed at some point,” Brock told an audience listening both in person at the historic downtown church and online. “It is crucial for the church to figure out how to help people with moral injury.”

“We may feel broken individually,” Brock said, “but we recover collectively.”

She said that human beings are “social animals. We need friends, and there’s an epidemic of loneliness right now that’s bad for your health.”

Both our meaning systems and our moral behavior are social, and they’re reinforced through ritual, Brock noted. “Most of us are moral by habit. We just are nice to people and do our thing because we have been habitually trained in that behavior. Rituals are crucial to that process.”

Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock

In church, those are shared, repeated processes. It can be as simple as a hospital chaplain asking a patient, “May I pray with you?”

“If the patient says yes, a ritual has begun,” she said. Churches “are that kind of space, and so is the outdoors. You don’t have to build it. You just have to say, ‘This is the space.’”

“It’s counterintuitive for Protestants to go on and on about ritual,” Brock said. “The Protestant attitude was ritual is superstition. … Protestants focus on personal faith and subjectivity, and rituals are understood to be an expression of your personal faith.”

But in many cultures, that’s the minority opinion, Brock said. “You do the ritual because it’s the ritual. They don’t care about your own beliefs.” If belief in God makes you a better person, go ahead and believe in God, those communities might say.

Even worship rituals many Christians consider innocuous enough, such as the passing of the peace, have been called hypocritical by some people. Brock pushed back on that: “You want a community where people who don’t like each other can greet one another,” Brock said.

Ritual can “pull you up out of the misery of your own feelings. You get to process your inner world with imagination and with empathy for others, and that relativizes how miserable you feel,” Brock said. We attend a friend or loved one’s memorial service “because you feel terrible that someone died who you cared about, knowing you will feel better in the end. You listen and trust, sing songs and listen to Scripture and prayers, and you’re surprised sometimes how much better you feel.” Sometimes it doesn’t work, “but it helps people handle the fierce forces in life that otherwise would destroy you.”

Rituals work for many people, she said, because they engage people’s imagination.

In fact, recovery from moral injury is like another ritual symbol for many Christians: a labyrinth, Brock said. “You keep moving.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock spoke on moral injury at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Sunkyoo Park, Associate, Adult Curriculum, Korean Language, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Brent Paschal, IS Specialist, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

God of renewal and hope, let us humbly walk with you following the example given to us by Jesus Christ. Bless the leaders you send to inspire and encourage us on this walk as we go forth in your name. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - New York Avenue Presbyterian Church hosts Professor Kristin Henning, a lawyer and scholar who wrote about how we are criminalizing Black youth

‘Every single child in this country deserves at least one irrationally caring adult in their life’ Georgetown Law scholar says

January 25, 2023

 

Professor Kristin Henning (Photo courtesy of Georgetown Law)

Professor Kristin Henning, who teaches at Georgetown Law, directs its Juvenile Justice Clinic & Initiative and wrote “The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth,” was a recent speaker in New York Avenue Presbyterian Church’s McClendon Scholar Program. More than 500 people from across the country registered to attend the online event.

Henning opened with this surprising statistic: In 26 years representing children accused of a crime or crimes in the District of Columbia — many of those years as the lead attorney in the juvenile unit at the public defender’s office — she represented only four white children. “That’s it. Every other child has been an African American child,” she said. “That statistic should cause every single one of us to gasp in horror.”

“I wanted to understand how these disparities are impacting Black youth. I wanted to know whether disparate policing and criminalization was making America any safer, or are we just hurting ourselves and our children? What can we do about it? The book arises from that set of questions,” Henning said.

A girl Henning calls Cherise in the book is illustrative. At age 17, she had an argument at school with her boyfriend. Convinced he was cheating on her, she grabbed his cellphone, walked away and started scrolling through his text messages. A school resource officer saw their encounter and arrested Cherise in front of her classmates. The next day she was brought before a judge and prosecuted for robbery. “On paper, she looks like a serious felon,” Henning said. “But really, she’s a normal teenage girl.”

In fact, Henning said, very few people under 18 “are engaged in the violent crimes we are most afraid of. The juvenile courts are populated by children like Cherise. Teenagers are impulsive risk-takers and fairness fanatics. They do what they think their friends are doing. They care more about the immediate rewards than they care about future outcomes.”

“For the most part, we treat white children with tolerance and grace,” Henning noted, while Black children “are criminalized for nearly every feature of adolescence, including talking back to adults, having a party, experimenting with sex and playing with toy guns in the park.”

And when Black children do commit a serious crime, “we are more likely to treat them as if they are beyond redemption, to prosecute them as adults and find them guilty and send them to an adult prison,” she said.

Adults perceive Black girls as older and more mature and less in need of protection, Henning said. As a result of these disparate perceptions, Black girls are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested at school than white girls, while Black boys are 2.4 times more likely.

“Black children are paying attention,” Henning said. “Black and Latino children are aware of the ways they are disparately treated in society.” Most of the distrust of police transfers to other authority figures, including teachers and counselors, she said.

“The criminalization of adolescents breeds delinquent behavior,” she said. “We are doing ourselves a real disservice. I care madly about public safety, but we have to get it right.”

During a question-and-answer session with Madalena Aspiras following her talk, Henning said she relied on a “shock and awe” file to help her write her book, which was published in 2021. The file held police reports and court files “that really caused me shock,” Henning said. “When I went to write the book, I looked at those and experienced some secondary trauma.”

“We should all do this and not become complicit and accept the day-to-day routine of the work we do,” Henning said. “We need to be alert. These are stories that need to be told.”

Asked about the role faith plays, Henning said it’s “100% what sustains me in this work.”

“Treating humans with dignity and respect arises from everything I learned from my faith,” she said. She suggested “getting proximate to the young people who are impacted” by becoming a mentor or tutoring them.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Jason Peterson, Chief Operating Officer, Presbyterian Investment & Loan Program
Jim Phares, Web Systems Developer, IT Application Development, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

Almighty God, we are thankful for the example set by your Son, Jesus Christ, in reaching others through his preaching, teaching and healing. Undergird our churches as they seek to follow that example faithfully in the places where they serve in his name today. Amen.