Je suis Charlie?

"Je suis Charlie," the new rallying cry for freedom of speech and a declaration of freedom from fear of terrorism. As a Quebecer, I resonate with emotions of our French brothers and sisters across the ocean even though my French is horrible and I grew up an anglophone from Ontario. Yet I wonder at the same time, can I really say "Je suis Charlie?" I ask this because of the nature of the Charlie Hebdo magazine. It's a smaller satirical magazine with the goal to be provocative, and provocative it is. All faiths, all politicians, all subjects are fair game for their sarcastic and deliberately provocative cartoons and articles. In some ways, this attack was not unexpected as the magazine has been threatened in the past, but it was still terrifying and simply evil.
But now I sit here reflecting on all that has occurred, looking at the newest cover of this week's edition with a cartoon of Muhammad holding a sign saying "Je suis Charlie" with the caption "Tout est pardonne" meaning "All is forgiven," and I wonder about it. The goal is not to provoke Muslims according to the editor, but it is going to provoke simply by portraying Muhammad in cartoon form and declaring all is forgiven will not lessen the provocation because the ones who carried out the attack are not seeking forgiveness, but are seeking justice according to their version of Islam.
Words and images are powerful and say much more than we often intend once it leaves our desks and enters the public consciousness. With such power, I believe words and images need to be used wisely. Jesus is called the "Word" by John; a sign of the power Jesus holds and the words he spoke. Jesus was also condemned by his own words, misapplied by the witnesses, and led to his death. Martin Luther King Jr used words well and wisely and they also led to his death because words can inspire others for justice and change within a society and the values it holds, but at the same time we've seen the misuse of words to inspire others to acts of terror and evil. With such power can we honestly say we believe in the right of complete freedom to say what we want without the responsibility that rights come with of using wisdom to use words and images in ways that build up a community and culture rather than tearing others down?
As a Christian, I know that I cannot put my values onto a magazine that lives and works within an intensely secular, and often extremely anti-religious culture, but at the same time I believe that Christians do need to at least raise the questions in the public forum of what is a society's responsibility to affirm the legitimacy of the others' faith and how they practice it when it does not infringe on anyone else's sensibilities, such as the Muslim's prohibition on portraying their prophet in images. I believe a strong society is marked by respect and honouring each other. Satire has its place, I've been known to be a bit sarcastic at times myself, but you can provoke a discussion without crossing the line into hurtful and disrespectful sarcasm. But it takes someone to begin to talk about it and raise the issue into public realm. People are talking about this now, last night on the metro (subway), I overheard three university students talking about this very thing.
Freedom of speech: Yes! But with wisdom and the desire to build a strong unified and yet diverse society guiding how it is practiced. Just my few words.

sharing what you believe

This past week has been full and exciting as I am now a half-time pastor and half-time chaplain for the Ministry to Seafarers here in Montreal. It's with a bit of trepidation that I take on this new chapter for the next 8 months. There is always the concern for my family as both positions are ministry oriented and if you are in ministry, you don't just shut off because you're not physically present; you stay engaged and now I'm engaged in two places.
But even in this first week, one major difference has jumped out at me: as a pastor, mostly people seek me out for conversations about God, about faith and spirituality and with all that goes on in ministry in a church, I find I don't engage in much intentional going out and inviting others into a relationship with God. However, as a chaplain I'm the one doing the seeking out, going to the seafarers to engage them in conversations about God, faith and spirituality. The end goal is the same: that people come to know God and are invited to accept Jesus' invitation to follow him, yet the way it's done is completely different in approach. It's also reminded me that we call our congregations to be like chaplains, to seek out others to make disciples of others as they walk the road of discipleship themselves. It's not easy and I've already gained a huge appreciation for other chaplains and for what I've been encouraging my congregation to do.
Yet it is also not as frightening as I first thought. My identity is as a child of God and just like I invite others into my home for a meal, or to a movie, I find that making disciples is mostly about extending an invitation to come along my own walk with God. This makes it much less intimidating and oriented to building a relationship and planting seeds rather than feeling it's all on me. There will be many opportunities to also water these seeds and seeds other chaplains or people have planted by sharing my story of faith and the Biblical stories of Jesus and God's relationship with humanity, and finally, I pray that I might also see harvest times. Yet it is the Holy Spirit doing that, I'm here, and so are you, to do the farming. May your planting, watering and harvesting be blessed greatly.