A chapel at Wichita State University was renovated. Pews, which had been bolted to the floor, were removed and carpet laid down so that the space could more easily accommodate Muslims and people of other faiths. Naturally, this was met with criticism.
“And that set off the firestorm,” said Wichita State alum Jean Ann Cusick, who started it with a Facebook post Friday.
Donors to the university, alumni and others began posting Facebook comments on her page, and contacting WSU administrators.
Students reposted Cusick’s post and resulting comments on their own Facebook pages. Other students posted in answer.
“And the hate answered the hate,” Cusick said.
“Why did they have to take out all the pews?” Cusick said.
The decision, she said, marginalized Christians.
“This is Islamophobia,” said Wichita State’s student body president Joseph Shepard, a church-going Christian. “It’s coming from off-campus, not from the students here. “They say we’ve taken a place of Christian worship and turned it into what they call a mosque.”
As the issue unfolds, it looks like reasonable heads will prevail. The students seem to strongly support the more inclusive chapel. Further, the changes honor the wishes of the family whose donations created the chapel in 1964. They specified that the chapel should be open to all creeds and races.
When I was young, pastors always taught that the church was the people, not the building. Don’t modern Christians believe that anymore? Furthermore, haven’t they read the parts of the bible where Jesus said they would be persecuted and treated as second class citizens? Did they skip the parts where they aren’t even supposed to act like they belong here, let alone run the place? And where is it written that God needs everybody sitting in pews?
Hypocrites are annoying but, to be fair, I don’t believe Christian holy books carry any more weight than anybody else’s. As humans, their complaints to unfair treatment are allowed, even if Jesus doesn’t agree. The problem is their insistence on preferential treatment.
Okay, so a bunch of over-sensitive, self-righteous Christians got their panties in a bunch because someone made a decision that didn’t cater to their sense of privilege. Of course we are not surprised, but why does this even happen?
There is a book by Dr. Hector Avalos called, “Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence.” It sets forth an interesting thesis. Scarce resources often result in violence as people compete for those resources. We can easily understand this when considering such resources as food, water, land, etc. Avalos goes on to propose that religions unnecessarily promote added violence by creating new categories of scarce resources—resources that would not exist but for the religions that created them, and which could hardly be considered scarce or valuable without religious veneration.
He lists several religious resources, such as scriptures (My books are holy; yours don’t qualify.), or access to salvation (There is only one way to be saved.), but one that reared its ugly head in Wichita is the creation of, and access to, sacred spaces.
What is a chapel but a room? (In the case of WSU, I believe the chapel is actually a small, single use building, but my point still stands.) Christians want a quiet place to pray or to gather together in worship. Set aside a room and call it a chapel—wish granted. Muslims want a quiet place to pray or to gather together to worship. Let them use the room as well and the problem is solved. Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Wiccans, whatever—as long as the room has the capacity to handle all the traffic, why would you need more than one?
That’s where religion becomes nasty. If one believes that their practices within that room somehow change it, make it special, sanctify it (even if there is no outward sign that anything has actually changed), then it becomes “ours.” Our sacred space. Our holy ground. Our right, which must be defended. Worse, if one religion sanctifies the space, then certainly the practices of another faith must defile it. Let the battles begin.
This is such a curious and irrational concept. Consider all of the start-up churches across the country that hold services in school gymnasiums and auditoriums. Come Monday morning, can any of the passing students tell that the room has somehow changed? Of course not. To any rational person, it is nothing more than the same gymnasium or auditorium that is was on Friday afternoon. This fact does not change after a certain number of services or a specified fervency of prayer. Neither does it change if used by another group on Wednesday evening.
Turning back to the chapel at WSU—how can anyone justify the notion that Christians are marginalized if the space is used by others? At what point had it ever changed from being anything more than a room in a small university building? Only in the religious mind.
I see great hope for the future in the words and actions of the WSU students. It’s possible that this new generation may create a world that is more open, inclusive and accommodating—one less warped by religious tribalism—one less inclined to value such arbitrary notions as sacred spaces.
It can’t come too soon.