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Monday, May 19, 2003

•••The Dilemma Over Sharing What is Sacred Looking Horse's position as keeper of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota nations' most sacred medicine bundle prompted others to let him take a lead role after the Eagle Butte meeting. That's when he released the statement proclaiming non-Natives no longer welcome at the altar of traditional ceremonies. "Our purpose for the Sun Dance is for the survival of the future generations ... first and foremost," Looking Horse said. He asked non-Natives "to understand and respect our decision. If there have been any unfinished commitments to the Sun Dance and non-Natives have concern for this decision, they must understand that we have been guided through prayer to reach this resolution." Martin Marty, a University of Chicago Divinity School emeritus religion professor, said it's a matter of respecting another's beliefs. "I'm all with the Native American who rises up and says, `You're seizing what's sacred for us and you're profaning it,'" he said. "When it's clearly offensive to the majority of people, it comes across more as a parody, a desacrilization, a profaning." But Marty also suggests people not close the door of prayer and ritual to others. "I think absolutism from both sides misses the opportunity for us to empathize, to educate, to imagine the life of the other. If we want to do better to each other, we have to know more about each other, we have to care more. "Keep secret what's sacred," he said. "The outsider can't always define exactly what that should be. But the more the keeper of the sacred -- of any tribe, denomination or whatever -- realizes the value of sharing hospitality, the better off we are." But many Native people say the commercialization and parodies are here, set deep, and out of control. [from the Lincoln Journal-Star's Native News section, emphasis mine] I find these comments from Martin Marty particularly interesting in light of his view of the Benke matter back in July 2002: Church historian Martin Marty says theological objections are present in the debate but secondary to Benke's critics. "I think the case is as much about power in the Missouri Synod as it is about how to punish Benke," says Marty, a former LCMS member who is now a pastor with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The synod's 1847 constitution bans syncretism and unionism. In fact, the founders of the 2.6 million-member Missouri Synod emigrated to the United States in 1839 in reaction to a forced union with Calvinists by the German government. "Nothing went deeper in their theme than 'we do not want to be pushed into prayer with anyone else,' " says Marty, founding director of the University of Chicago Divinity School's Institute for Advanced Religious Studies, now named in his honor. "I cannot think of a group in all of Christendom as careful about who they pray with as the Missouri Synod." [Famous bow-tied Lutheran historian Martin Marty quoted in Christianity Today, July 31, 2002] Did anyone else notice there weren't any Medicine Men at Yankee Stadium, or call them intolerant bigots and religious extremists? I thought not...   10:20:20 AM   googleit 150

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