By Bill Munn
At what place does quietism take the guise of reconciliation? In the hundred years war of the 20th century, the church has largely stood silent as blacks were lynched and cast into the “otherness” of segregation. Workingmen and women seeking union representation were looked upon as pariahs by the church. Gender equity was only belatedly acknowledged and sexual identity has become the rationale for reaction.
Is this the “Kingdom of God?’ where all manner of cruelty is justified in God name as was slavery in the 19th century? Does any of this reflect the breaking through of God in the daily life of mankind?
Do our efforts at reconciliation represent a true recognition of our status as children of God or is this an effort of an organization’s desperate attempt at self preservation? Is this a “feel good moment” that takes the place of real and sustained effort to address the pressing issues of our time?
The larger problem of “finding the moral center” is that of moral relativism, an accusation fondly hurled by the religious right, but perhaps not without a certain validity from the left. Where was the “moral center” in the Holocaust? Where was it at the march on Birmingham? What was the moral center of the murder of Matthew Shepard by homophobes in Cheyenne, Wyoming?
I suggest that while the impulse may be noble, the application may be considerably less than noble and might in the final analysis be the cruelest fate for those who are singled out as “others.”
