The Norwegians' Peaceful Response

Photo credit: Junge, Heiko/AFP/GettyImages

My friend Jim High shared a video last year of someone he knows personally. She is an American living near Oslo. On that video she shares her observations of the remarkable response from the Norwegians to the terrorist activity of one of their own, Anders Behring Breivik, whose alleged actions resulted in the deaths of 77 people. (The video can be seen below)

“One man set out to spread hate,” she stated, “yet, the overriding response to the horrific tragedy he caused, is love. Love for the families who are torn apart; love for the values of this amazing democracy; love for the free, open, inclusive society we in Norway have chosen. Love, support and kindness springing up from all colors, creeds and political affiliations, from all around the world.”

She then shared words that had been offered by officials in Norway:

• From the Norwegian Minister of Justice: “We will not allow you to destroy our democracy and our commitment to a better world.”
• From the Crown Prince of Norway: “We have chosen to respond to cruelty with compassion.”
• The Mayor of Oslo: “We will punish the killer together, and the punishment will be more openness and more tolerance.”

Currently in Norway, the trial is underway for Breivik. In an article by Balazs Koranyi and Victoria Klesty Breivik that was picked up by Reuters, Breivik is quoted as saying that his victims were   "‘traitors’ who deserved death for embracing left-wing values which, in his view, opened Europe to a slow-motion Muslim invasion.”  The Norwegians’ response continues to be peaceful with as many as 40,000 people gathering in peaceful demonstration by singing “ ‘Children of the Rainbow’ - that extols the type of multicultural society Breivik has said he despised and one that he specifically dismissed during the trial as Marxist propaganda.”

There’s Just One Question

I find this Norwegian response to be remarkable and inspiring. As a southerner who grew up and continues to live in the “Bible Belt” – the epicenter of Evangelical Christianity – I have one piercing question to ask. Why has Norway internalized the message of the gospel of Christ in a way that is a quantum leap ahead of Evangelical Christians in the U.S.? Statistically, about 3% of Norwegians attend church, yet they act as Jesus bid his followers to act. On the other hand, here in the Christian South where there are churches on practically every corner, my fellow citizens are all too quick give shouts of approval to bigotry, war and violence. Where and when did the words of Jesus give way to sectarian and tribalistic cries of nationalism?

A Journey that Began with a Poem

April is National Poetry Month. I've posted a few of my short poems this month, as I do from time to time on my blog. I didn't want to let the month get away without celebrating a poem that I discovered in the sixth grade. It wasn't the first poem I had memorized (in the third grade I memorized "Casey at the Bat" which I mentioned in a previous blog post), but it was the first poem I recall memorizing to say in front of the class. The teacher asked us all to find a poem to recite. I had seen this one in our English textbook and thought it sounded good, and it had the added advantage of being very short.

Outwitted

by Edwin Markham* (1852-1940)

He drew a circle that shut me out —
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!

At the time, I was impressed by the sentiment of the poem – perhaps it was a new idea for me. As a twelve-year-old, I knew what it was like to be shut out of a group, but I also knew too well what it was like to be in a group that shut someone else out. I certainly did not successfully practice that drawing of a large circle as a school boy in Alabama back in 1967, but the idea was one that would not leave me. I could not shake the importance of including all kinds of people from many backgrounds, even when I was not quite able practice such hospitality. I think it was Markham's poem that planted the seed that would allow me to begin to have what I call "fluid boundaries."

I have long been fascinated by religion and spirituality. In my own pilgrimage I have moved from Southern Baptist to Episcopalian to Unitarian to Roman Catholic. There have also been dalliances with Pentecostals, and an appreciation for Buddhists and Hindus. In my own spiritual path, I have never felt that I was leaving one thing behind to go to another. To me, I was simply enlarging my circle. It is the idea of the larger circle that makes it important for me to listen to the wisdom of Native Americans and to spend some time each year during Ramadan getting to know my Muslim neighbors.  

It is that enlarging of my circle that has also allowed me to have a fascination with other cultures and to have a desire to pursue life-long learning. There is so much to be learned from literature, history, and science. There is so much to be enjoyed from the arts. There is a world to celebrate, and perhaps for me the first timid step came from reading a short poem in the sixth grade. That is why I want to celebrate this month by thinking about the long journey that was launched in the heart and mind of a school boy by the words of a poet.

_____

*Edwin Markham is also famous for his poem "The Man with a Hoe" inspired by the painting of the same name by Jean-François Millet. The poem highlighted the social inequities seen in the exploitation of the human laborer. As Markham stated in his own commentary on the poem, "The Hoeman is the symbol of betrayed humanity, the Toiler ground down through ages of oppression, through ages of social injustice. He is the man pushed away from the land by those who fail to use the land, till at last he has become a serf, with no mind in his muscle and no heart in his handiwork. He is the man pushed back and shrunken up by the special privileges conferred upon the Few."

An Old, Old Debate

    

Under the Double Helix

Though I often liked St. Augustine

I thought Pelagius had it right;

And I put my money on nurture

In the nature/nurture fight.

John Calvin was so fierce

With his predestination blues,

For me it was Arminius

Whose words bespoke good news.

But the question is not settled

As geneticists now show,

It could simply be our DNA

That determines how we grow.

                        Charles Kinnaird