As co-chair of the Women’s Global Peace Initiative, a UN partnership organization. I have been working for
almost four years with other women religious figures—an ordained Protestant clergywoman, a Buddhist
nun, an Islamic scholar, an Orthodox Jew, and a Hindu nun—to bring Arab and Israeli women together in a
common cause. In all these experiences, I found myself viewing the present through the scrim of the book
of Genesis.
I remember my delight as a child when Sister read to us in class the passage that protects the innocent
and the guilty. “Then Abraham came near,” the scripture read, “and said to the Lord, ‘Will you indeed sweep
away the righteous with the wicked?’”
Then began the haggling that amazed and delighted me as a child.
“Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city,” Abraham goes on. “Will you then sweep away the place
and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it?”
And Abraham cajoles: “Far be it for you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the
righteous fare as well as the wicked! Far be that from you!”
And the Lord honors the plea of the innocent: “If I find in Sodom fifty…or forty-
five…forty…thirty…twenty…even ten righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.”
I found myself confronted by the living implications of the scriptures when a young Palestinian woman sat
next to me on the bus. She had come as staff for the group, but, I noticed, she came every day in the same
clothes—all of them a bit too small, a bit too uncoordinated for the poise I saw in her. It was only toward the
end of the conference sessions, on the trip back from a day of meetings, that I finally began to piece her
story together. There had been, she told me, the destruction of a thirty-unit apartment building in Gaza the
week before by an Israeli tank squad. The military had seen members of the Palestinian underground run
in the front door of the building and out the back. So, they evacuated it and then destroyed it.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “It must have been very frightening to see.”
“Yes,” she said, “but worse was to lose everything at one time. We’re not even allowed to search through
the rubble for our things.”
I stopped short. “You lived there?” I said. “Where do you live now?” I asked, almost afraid to hear the
answer.
“I sleep overnight with different friends, and,” she smiled a little uncomfortably and pointed to the short skirt,
“I borrow clothes till I get some money to buy more.”
“Are you angry?” I asked.
“Well, yes,” she said, “but not at all the Israeli people. Only at the soldiers and the government. After all,
their people are suffering, too.”
The young woman was only twenty-three years old. If she can understand Abraham’s debate and God’s
answer, if she knows the whole city must be saved, if only for ten righteous, why not the rest of us?
- from The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians, and Muslims by Joan
Chittister, OSB, Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow.
almost four years with other women religious figures—an ordained Protestant clergywoman, a Buddhist
nun, an Islamic scholar, an Orthodox Jew, and a Hindu nun—to bring Arab and Israeli women together in a
common cause. In all these experiences, I found myself viewing the present through the scrim of the book
of Genesis.
I remember my delight as a child when Sister read to us in class the passage that protects the innocent
and the guilty. “Then Abraham came near,” the scripture read, “and said to the Lord, ‘Will you indeed sweep
away the righteous with the wicked?’”
Then began the haggling that amazed and delighted me as a child.
“Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city,” Abraham goes on. “Will you then sweep away the place
and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it?”
And Abraham cajoles: “Far be it for you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the
righteous fare as well as the wicked! Far be that from you!”
And the Lord honors the plea of the innocent: “If I find in Sodom fifty…or forty-
five…forty…thirty…twenty…even ten righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.”
I found myself confronted by the living implications of the scriptures when a young Palestinian woman sat
next to me on the bus. She had come as staff for the group, but, I noticed, she came every day in the same
clothes—all of them a bit too small, a bit too uncoordinated for the poise I saw in her. It was only toward the
end of the conference sessions, on the trip back from a day of meetings, that I finally began to piece her
story together. There had been, she told me, the destruction of a thirty-unit apartment building in Gaza the
week before by an Israeli tank squad. The military had seen members of the Palestinian underground run
in the front door of the building and out the back. So, they evacuated it and then destroyed it.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “It must have been very frightening to see.”
“Yes,” she said, “but worse was to lose everything at one time. We’re not even allowed to search through
the rubble for our things.”
I stopped short. “You lived there?” I said. “Where do you live now?” I asked, almost afraid to hear the
answer.
“I sleep overnight with different friends, and,” she smiled a little uncomfortably and pointed to the short skirt,
“I borrow clothes till I get some money to buy more.”
“Are you angry?” I asked.
“Well, yes,” she said, “but not at all the Israeli people. Only at the soldiers and the government. After all,
their people are suffering, too.”
The young woman was only twenty-three years old. If she can understand Abraham’s debate and God’s
answer, if she knows the whole city must be saved, if only for ten righteous, why not the rest of us?
- from The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians, and Muslims by Joan
Chittister, OSB, Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow.
TO SAVE THE INNOCENT
Order this book now.
On sale til Sept. 30!
On sale til Sept. 30!
 |  |  |  |  |
| Home||Benedictine Sisters of Erie||Catalogue||Joan in the News||Contact Benetvision Fund for Prisoners||Retreats||About Benetvision||Ideas in Passing Benetvision • 355 East Ninth Street • Erie, PA 16503-1107 • Phone 814-459-5994 benetvision@benetvision.org • Fax 814-459-8066 Copyrighted © 2007 Benedictine Sisters of Erie, PA |