The Good Samaritan, U2, and Diversity in the Church

On October 2, I and two students, Jessica Mast and Caitlin Baird, presented the workshop “The Good Samaritan, U2 and Diversity in the Church” for Fresno Pacific University’s Building a Culture of Peace Week. With about 35 students and faculty present we focused on the theme of “one, but not the same.”

The first part of our presentation was a reading and discussion of the Good Samaritan parable from Luke 10:25-37. While most of us read the story from the perspective of the Samaritan, we challenged the group to understand the parable from the Jewish man’s vantage point. This, after all, is a story about a religious leader who is beaten and left for dead, and in need of aid. The surprise of the story is that assistance finally comes not from his ethnic kin, but from a most unlikely source – the foreigner. The Samaritan was the marginalized stranger in a strange land. If Jesus were telling the story to us today, who would he use to surprise us – a foreigner, an ethnic minority, a political party we disagree with, a social group that is stigmatized?

The second segment of our workshop focused on U2’s “One.” The song is also a parable about someone who is not easily accepted (as the Samaritan). While a U2 song can never be said to have a single dominant meaning, there are certainly important influences. One dimension of “One” is its commentary on conflict and rejection between two parties that are very different. Bono has spoken of the song as a story of a father’s denial of his homosexual son. The image of buffalos that is often associated with the song in concert and on the album comes from David Wojnorowicz, a gay artist who was tormented by a lack of acceptance in politics, church and society as a whole. We had several questions for the group: What is more important in the church, being “one” or “not the same”? Is the church guilty of offering a message of love but then making people scratch and crawl as they beg for entrance? Aside from the issue of whether homosexuality is wrong or not, how does the church make this group feel? We watched the live version of “One” in which Bono ends with a prayer that is really more a commentary on the church:

Do you hear him coming, Lord, Do you hear us call
You hear us knocking, We’re knocking at your door

You hear us coming, Lord, You hear us call
You hear us scratching, Then you make us crawl

The third part of the workshop brought the focus back to the church. We looked at 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 (we’re one body but many parts) and Ephesians 2:11-22 (the dividing wall has been removed and we are one new humanity). We also introduced the concept of “the other” from French/Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas suggested that the ultimate injustice is to reduce “the other” (anyone you might come into relationship with) by minimizing the differences he or she might have. Ultimately this is what many of us do with God, the supreme “Other,” by making him in our own image and desiring a God who is like us. When we transfer this to the congregation we get an extremely homogeneous group of people. This led to a discussion of various ways we are or are not including diversity in our own congregations.

We closed our time together by showing Bono’s introduction in a live performance of “Please” (thanks to Beth for the link) and then the music video of “Please,” a moving and passionate plea to the church to “get up off your knees.” The final application: “One, but not the same” means that we find strength in diversity; this happens when we realize we can learn from those who are different than us; who will God use to surprise us in the same way the Samaritan surprised the Jewish man?

Want more? Find our teaching outline here and the PowerPoint presentation here.

Comments

[Beth]

Love your Levinas connection!

[Kim Cox]

Tim,

You have a the gift of insight. My brother-in-law is gay and felt the all the things you discuss. He knew it early on as a young boy. He hid it from us all and he is one of the kindest people I know.

Diversity and acceptance can challenge us all. My husband was in the Navy, in the old days of teh Navy ( back in the 40 or 50's a gay sailor might have gone suddenly missing. We never shared that with our friends, for many were not accepting of such things.

I have also learned another life lesson... "never say never and I wouldn't do that." It seems each time I have done so I have been tested on my very words spoken with great conviction heart at the time.

Great words to grow on.

Kim Cox