On the anniversary of 9/11 let me point you to a new monthly podcast--An Old Old Story--done by Alan Elrod and Zachary Crow, both students at Harding University. Harding, for you non-CoC folks, is a sister school of ACU's. You can also follow An Old Old Story on Twitter.
The inaugural podcast reflects back on 9/11 and its lingering effects upon the relationship between Christian America and Islam. The first part of the podcast features an interview done by Jimmy Shaw talking with Kyle Holton, American missiologist and theologian, who has been living and working post-9/11 among Muslims in Mozambique. Listening to Holton's personal encounters with Islam, I think, are very helpful for Americans wanting to engage with Islam in a more thoughtful way. I was particularly struck by Holton's contrasting "trespassing" versus "understanding," where the worry about proximity with Muslims sits in tension for many with the call to welcome and understand. As Holton says,
"You cannot talk about loving your neighbor without destroying those fences and destroying this concept of trespassing."The second part of the podcast is an essay by Jonathan McRay, author of You Have Heard It Said: Events of Reconciliation. A great line from the essay, where Jonathan is talking about Christianity and Islam with his acquaintance, a Muslim taxi driver:
"I do feel called by the way of Issa the prophet, who said to love your enemies.”
Shawkat Toorawa, gave a speech where he said, "These terrorists not only hijacked four planes, they hijacked 1 billion Muslims ..."
May I recommend Judith Butler's Precarious Life? "Judith Butler responds in this profound appraisal of post-9/11 American to the current US policies to wage perpetual war, and calls for a deeper understanding of how mourning and violence might instead inspire solidarity and a quest for global justice." She does not use the word 'love' particularly often, but she touches on a lot of the same issues of vulnerability and peace, and whose lives are grievable, that the conversation going on here seems to be invested in. The title in fact the central point of the book: the fundamental political fact that we must address is that life is, always is, precarious. No familiarity with her previous works is required for this one; it's a bit of a departure for her.