I was skeptical at first. I received an email from Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign asking me if I would be interested in participating in their program, “Welcome to My Table,” an initiative encouraging virtual multi-faith connection over Ramadan. Shoulder to Shoulder is a multi-faith coalition of mostly Christian and Jewish faith communities working to counter anti-Muslim discrimination in the U.S. At the time, Ramadan was still a few weeks away and we were placed under lock-down. They were proposing that they pair me up with a family for an interfaith iftar via Zoom.
I am all for interfaith iftars—my husband, Khalid, and I would host one in our home every year—and we attended them all over NYC. Having not ever experienced a meal over the internet, I knew I wanted to avoid an Islam 101 session. While I enjoy educating people on Islam, I wanted this conversation to be two-sided. After being assured by the organizer, I signed Khalid and me up, and we were immediately paired with a midwestern couple. After we ended the virtual meeting, we just looked at one another and went: WOW!
We were almost blind when we went into this meeting i.e. all we knew was that Mandy France was a Lutheran pastor in Minnesota. As soon as their faces lit up the screen, we realized how young they were. A good-looking couple.“So tell us about yourselves,” I said. “And then we will tell you about ourselves.”
“We live in a small rural town in Minnesota, with a population of 1,000. The nearest house is a mile away.”
“We live in a city with a population of 8 million and the nearest resident is across the hall,” I said, or that is what I think I said.
The call to prayer resounded from our adhan clock and we broke our fast with dates and water.
“Please help yourselves to your meal,” I said. They had been holding off on dinner while waiting for us to break our fast. “We are having salad.”
We chatted as we ate. Turns out that both husband and wife are pastors in two different parsonages. But here is what blew our minds away:In this as small-as-it-gets town, where everyone is Christian and white, they are doing interfaith work. It’s not as if The Muslims are Coming to town. But sensing the need for their flock to learn about other faiths, about people of other faiths, and dispel stereotype impressions of the ‘Other’, they have made it their mission—one of many—to raise awareness about Islam. There is a large Somali refugee population in a nearby meatpacking town—Muslims—and that has been the impetus for Mandy and Kelly’s calling.
“I went to Chicago for an interfaith training session,” Mandy told us.
“What kind of training was it?”
Khalid and I were totally taken as she explained that Shoulder to Shoulder had invited her to undergo training to enable her to raise awareness about Islam and Muslims with her congregation. Mandy and Kelly then organized a lecture series (I am paraphrasing) for her congregants, feeling strongly how important it is for people to know, understand, and stand up for people of other faiths. Taking it a step further, they brought in the police force and trained First Responders in dealing with hate-crimes, as well as understanding what Islamophobia is, and how it manifests itself.All the while bouncing their baby over their lap and watching over their four-year-old daughter, as they await news about adopting a child from India.Restores one’s belief in angels.
All Khalid and I could come up with was, ‘Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.’
This young couple in small-town-rural USA is ahead of the curve, preparing the ground by sowing seeds of understanding so that when anyone in their flock encounters someone who doesn’t look like them or doesn’t pray like them, they will say to them: “Welcome to my table.”
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