Encounter Point

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Encounter Point
Fri 21 Nov 2008 11:03pm
On Saturday night, a small group of us from three different faith traditions –watched a documentary film called “Encounter Point.” It featured Jews, Muslims, and Christians who live in Israel. All have lost loved one(s) in the conflict. Some have also been wounded, tortured, and or are imprisoned themselves. They are working together for peace and reconciliation through nonviolent means.

Imagine a Jewish mother who son was killed by a Palestinian sniper becoming friends with a Palestinian man (about the same age as her son) whose brother was killed by Israeli soldier. Imagine them working together for peace.

Unimaginable? No. But not easy. They dared to meet one another. That’s how it started.

Encounter point. That’s what I had last month when I had the privilege of meeting 20 Israeli students and two of their teachers from Haifa. They were guests of Congregation Beth El in Sudbury and they came to First Parish one afternoon to learn something about Unitarian Universalism.

Most of these students are not observant Jews, we were told, so it was eye-opening for them to meet American Jewish students and their families who are. The Israelis had not heard of our Unitarian Universalist faith. In the brief time we had together we tried to give them a flavor of our intentional and voluntary religious community dedicated, as we sometimes say, to “deeds, not creeds.”

“What kinds of deeds,” they asked. We told them about collecting backpacks and Halloween costumes for kids living in shelters, and initiatives such as the Green Sanctuary and the local Habitat for Humanity project. We explained that some of our deeds provided direct service while other times we advocate for change through public witness in the halls of the State House or Washington, DC.

Then, almost as an afterthought, I mentioned that I was about to visit a 33-year-old man who is sentenced to life at a maximum security prison.

“Why would you do that?”

We are tutoring this young man, helping him work toward a college education.

“What good is that?”

I explained that my motivation comes from the belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Yes, this man has had to forfeit his freedom and take the consequences for his action, but he is still a human being worthy of our compassion.

I told them what the man has said of his experience in the “College behind Bars” program: “I may not be free in prison, but this is helping me to feel free in my heart.”

Most of the students just couldn’t get it.

Encounter point. I have not stopped learning from those students (and also from my visit with the man in prison). I consider our vastly different contexts. One of the Israeli teachers called my perspective naïve and said, “You don’t understand what it’s like for us; you could be killed any day.”

She’s right. I don’t understand. I also don’t even begin to understand what a man who grew up not more than 20 miles from here experienced in his young life – how different is was from mine – and what of that experience may have led to a violent act that he is paying for with his freedom.

But I understand this. I had a chance to meet these people. I had a chance (albeit briefly) to hear their stories and to tell mine. I had encounters that I will never forget, encounters that cause me to think about my privilege, my freedom, my values and, yes, my very protected experience – something I did not earn – something that is so rare in a complex world I cannot imagine it otherwise. Until I dare to meet someone and she or he dares to meet me.

Katie Lee