Why the Iraqi Muslims and the Alabama Christians React Differently to Having Holy Places Destroyed

I've been struck over the last several days by the reactions of Shiite and Sunni Muslim devotees to the bombing of the Askariya shrine in Iraq on Wednesday. This act of senseless destruction and willful desecration, presumably perpetrated by Sunni-connected insurgents, has unleashed a spasm of tit-for-tat mosque-bombings, the murders of at least three imams, and the kidnapping of yet another cleric.

Although Christians have been guilty of more than our fair share of sectarian violence, including the pitting of Protestants against Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland in recent memory, it was difficult for me not to contrast the calls for revenge and apologies emanating from the various Muslim communities in Iraq with the reactions voiced by Christians in Alabama in the wake of recently having their church buildings burned.

These Christian believers certainly want the perpetrators of the violence to be apprehended and brought to justice. I do too. But the predominantly-reported reaction from these folks has been to pray for the perpetrators of the crimes, asking God to forgive them.

In this reaction, those Alabama Christians, black and white, are manifesting the ethos and approach commended by Jesus. Jesus urges His followers to pray for our enemies. (Our enemies, by the way, aren't supposed to be people we hate, but only people who hate us.)

Jesus not only tells us to forgive as we've been forgiven, but when teaching the Lord's Prayer, with its petition, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us," He explains that we will only be forgiven to the extent that we ourselves are willing to forgive others. Christians are thus taught that the failure to forgive is a wall that we erect between God and ourselves.

As a garden-variety sinner who just spent some time yesterday asking God to help me forgive people who have hurt me, I find the reactions of those forgiving Alabama Christians amazing, exemplary, inspiring, and intimidating.

But beyond the call to forgive others, I believe that there is another reason the Alabama Christians and the Iraqi Muslims have reacted so differently to the destruction of their places of devotion and worship. It's that they have a different sense of the importance of place.

This coming weekend, Christians all over the world, will be celebrating the Transfiguration of Our Lord. Reading from the Gospel of Mark, they'll remember the moment when the heavenly glory and deity of Jesus was put on display for three of His disciples on top of a mountain.

There, two Old Testament figures, Moses and Elijah, came from the ancient past to talk with Jesus while Peter, James, and John looked on. Dazzled by the sight, Peter suggested that three tabernacles, or booths, or houses, or places of worship be built in honor of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.

Apart from the absurdity of building tabernacles that would pay equal homage to Moses and Elijah as that given to Jesus, God-enfleshed, there is another big problem with Peter's plan: It's rooted in a futile human desire to capture God, to bottle the holy, to domesticate the fierce, wild presence of Christ. But Christians believe that no matter how impressive a place like Saint Peter's Basilica may be, for example, God is no more present there than He is in an inner-city storefront church where a few worshipers read the Bible, pray, and sing songs of praise. You cannot capture God in a place!

In the Old Testament, at the dedication of the Temple he constructed to be the site of the Holy of holies, where it was thought God dwelt on earth, King Solomon was forced to concede that God doesn't live in houses made with hands. And when God came to this planet in the Person of Jesus Christ, He said that wherever two or three people are gathered in His Name, there He would be in the midst of them!

It's good to have buildings where people can worship God, study His Word, serve their neighbor, and be deputized for making disciples for Jesus Christ. But a building is only a tool. For Christians, when we're at our best, the church is never a building. The Church is God's people, striving each day to follow Jesus Christ, the Savior Who, as a free gift, saves all who renounce their sin and trust in Him.

I suspect that it is this belief, along with Jesus' call that His people forgive, that accounts for the forgiveness and the calm expressed by those violated by the bombers in Alabama. They know that all the places of this earth are only temporary. I suspect too, that very different beliefs account for the vengeance being demanded and exacted by those who have been violated in Iraq.

[You might be interested in a two-part series I wrote last fall on The Place of Place in Faith and Life. The series was inspired by the withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip and by the displacement of many in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. See here and here.]

UPDATE: Thanks to both Pastor Jeff at Conblogeration and to Rick Moore at Holy Coast for linking to this post!

ANOTHER UPDATE: The Immodest Proposer at Immodest Proposals has also linked to this piece. Thank you very much!