Local religious leaders discuss discrimination in their faith

Charleston Illumination Project panel convenes in wake of several attacks on religious institutes

There was an atmosphere of peace residing over the Central Mosque of Charleston on the evening of April 24. Faith leaders from several churches, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, the mosque, and the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i were present to conversate about their experiences with religious discrimination.

As part of the Charleston Police Department’s Illumination Project, a crowd saw an interfaith panel discuss their experiences with intolerance as an opportunity for police-community outreach.

Keynote speaker Dr. J. Goosby Smith, associate professor at The Citadel, compared adversity to flight.

“You look at a sprinter, they’re disadvantaged by a headwind; you look at a plane, they’re given an advantage by a headwind,” she said. “You look at a sprinter, and they’re running on level ground. And you look at an airplane and it’s not built to go on level ground— it’s built to soar. It’s built to fly.”

“I look at discrimination like a headwind,” Smith added. “Are we more sprinters or are we more planes?”

Smith said that, while discrimination is powerful, there are battles that it cannot win. “Discrimination may stop us from getting promotions, it may stop us from getting fair interest rates, it may stop us from having the information we need, it may stop us from getting jobs, it may even stop us from living if the discriminator has a weapon,” Smith said. “However, it really cannot stop us from transcending.”

Dr. Kylon Middleton, pastor of Mount Zion AME Church, served as moderator of the event, posing questions to the group of religious leaders.

“Have you ever been discriminated against?” he asked.

Imam Shamu Shamudeen of the Central Mosque of Charleston spoke up about two incidents that happened outside of Charleston.

“My neighbor sicked their dog on me,” he said with a nervous laugh. “Once a person came to my home and punctured all four tires on my car and scratched a key into my car.”

“I honestly don’t really know if I’ve been discriminated against,” said Dr. David Goltra from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “I will tell you that my ancestors experienced it much different. The Church was formed in the United States, but along the way was severely persecuted. Their homes were burned, their farms were destroyed, they were forcibly removed from their cities.”

Rabbi Greg Kanter said that he has experienced bigotry for being Jewish and being a member of the LGBTQ family.

“The history of the Jewish community— for most of it, we’ve been treated as second-class citizens at best in most places we’ve lived,” Kanter said.

“Still, there’s been an increase in anti-semitic incidents all over the country and Charleston’s not immune,” he added. “Almost every child over the age of eight in my religious school has been told by a classmate that they are going to hell, as taught by their pastor.”

Two Rivers Church Reverend and Daniel Island area resident Wendy Hudson-Jacoby answered the question last.

“As a straight, white, middle class woman, I have spent the majority of my life being the oppressor,” she said, to some laughter from the audience. “Those of us who have not historically experienced discrimination, it is incumbent upon us to name our advantages, to recognize what we live in, and to commit ourselves to the work of becoming anti-racist and eliminating white supremacy.”

“Based on your faith community, how do you respond to discrimination internally and externally?” Middleton asked the group.

Imam Shamudeen told those gathered that when the Muslim community experiences discrimination, they have historically drawn strength from the Christian and Jewish people, citing a Quran passage where the Prophet Muhammad tells his followers that the religions before them faced intense persecution.

“We’re connected in more ways than you realize,” he said.

Reverend Adam Shoemaker of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church claimed that the LGBTQ population at his place of worship has increased in the last several years.

“I’ve spent a lot of time as a pastor at St. Stephen’s hearing stories of men and women who tell me about how they were disowned by their families, they were treated poorly at work, they were treated poorly at other churches and made to feel less than,” he said. “I think at St. Stephen’s, we try to combat that by creating a community where everyone feels welcome, everyone feels loved, everyone feels included. And we emphasize that all of us are beloved children of God, first and foremost.”

“So much of what we lack in terms of understanding others’ experiences is real dialogue,” said Julia Rodriguez of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i of Charleston. “A search for truth does not allow the belittling of another human being. A search for truth means that different opinions can clash and there will be a spark of truth. The people do not clash; the opinions clash.”

“We’ve all seen these acts of violence around the world,” added Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg, who also part in the discussion. “But, this uplifts my heart because in my experience as mayor, there are so many good things happening and so much good in the world.”

The Illumination Project began as a response to the Mother Emanuel shooting in the summer of 2015. In the wake of the tragedy, CPD conducted listening sessions between the police and members of minority communities.

“The goals have been to identify root causes of the critical dilemmas facing our community and find solutions that further strengthen citizen and police relationships,” stated former CPD Police Chief Greg Mullen, in the Illumination Project’s complete report.

Current CPD Chief Luther Reynolds, who resides on Daniel Island, expressed enthusiasm for the program when hired in April 2018.

“We have that [hate] in our country,” Reynolds told the group at last week’s program. “There’s been hate in our country for many years, right here in the city of Charleston and throughout our country and all the cities in this country. It targets a variety of people.”

According to Illumination Project bi-annual status reports, the city’s hate crime ordinance passed in November 2018 and LGBTQIA sensitivity training for officers is a direct result of the undertaking.

The panel centered around religious persecution and seems to be the next step in CPD’s attempt to reach out to as many different communities as possible. Chief Reynolds signified a further push from the police for better relationships with the people around them.

“There can be no space between us [police] and any member of our community who’s going to be the victim of bullying or hate of any kind,” he stated.

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