Remembering a Palestinian Lutheran

The last two weeks have been traumatic for Americans. It wasn't enough to hear the stunning news of one jetliner slamming into a tall Manhatten building, but the world also watched in horror as another jet slammed into the building's twin. Two other planes, two other highjacks, fewer casualties, but shocks to not only Americans but the whole world.

And like World War I which saw extreme anti-German sentiment (a catalyst that likely propelled Lutherans to abandon the German tongue for the American English dialect) and World War II which brought about imprisonment of Japanese Americans in internment camps, Americans looked for a culprit in this disaster.

And unfortunately Americans of Middle Eastern, Indian, and Pakistani descent have become targets. Gas stations are barren because the owners happen to not only be American, but of a skin tone that betrays a familial origin from the Middle East region. It doesn't matter that some of the persecuted are Sikhs, not Muslim. And it doesn't seem to matter the destruction was wreaked by extremists denounced by a landslide majority of Muslim teachers.

It is, quite simply, Satan at work at creating separation. And when the average American learns that the perpetrators had lived and worked and played and mingled like ordinary citizens, well, the worst way to separate people is through betrayal.

Think for a minute the hatred one must harbor for the years spent among a people one detests and then calmly fly a jet into a building filled with ordinary citizens.

Back to the topic. Like I said, we have had an angry reaction to Americans of Middle Eastern descent. And, quite frankly, it is not a very Christian attitude (didn't Jesus say "love your enemies?"). And as I see the hatred and attitudes around me, I'm reminded of a young lady that graced Salem's roster briefly. And I hope Sylvia and her twin daughters are doing fine. I keep them in my prayers.

Sylvia came to Salem expecting a baby—two babies, actually. There was never a male around and I'm not sure of the circumstances. Shortly after the birth of her twins she moved from Milwaukee (elsewhere in Wisconsin) to be with her family for assistance in raising her daughters.

Sylvia was born and raised in Nazareth. Not the Nazareth in Pennsylvania. The Nazareth in Israel. The very same Nazareth in which our Lord Jesus Christ ran the streets as a boy, where he went to Hebrew school, where he likely learned the carpenter trade from his dad. This is where Sylvia grew up.

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