A2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19 , 2022
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eventsThe miracle and faith in a congregation’s open door
Despite all the
security training
they’d sat through
and everything
that the
congregants knew
about the
heightened
dangers of hate
and ignorance,
they still kept the
faith and opened the synagogue
door to for the stranger who
knocked. He was welcomed
inside Congregation Beth Israel
where it was warm on a
particularly cold Saturday in
their small Te xas community. He
was offered tea. Then, he
revealed his violent intentions.
Wielding a gun, he made
hostages of the rabbi and the
three worshipers who were
attending services in person on
the Sabbath. The four escaped,
not because police officers
stormed the synagogue, but
because security experts had
schooled these civilians on how
to be proactive, look for their
moment and save their own
lives. And when it appeared that
the gunman, full of antisemitic
bile, had grown more agitated
and desperate, they bolted for
the door and ran to safety.
The hostages survived and
their assailant was killed. And
the foundations of faith — those
precepts of generosity, grace and
trust — were tested yet again.
After the terrible ordeal in
Colleyville, the public thankfully
didn’t find itself weeping over
lives brutally taken by a gunman.
But there are still so many
tears to be shed.It’s quite astonishing when
people who historically have felt
the brunt of unfettered hatred
and violence continue to extend
their hand. It’s nothing short of
miraculous that those who have
been demonized are still willing
to listen to their better angels —
indeed, that they’re willing to
heed them.
The generosity of
Congregation Beth Israel calls to
mind the welcoming embrace of
the worshipers at Mother
Emanuel African Methodist
Episcopal Church in Charleston,
S.C., in 2015. The Black men and
women opened their hearts to
the stranger who came to the
door during their Bible study.
They fellowshipped with him
and prayed with him. And then
he, a white supremacist, killed
nine of them, including the
senior pastor. The worshipers
had not allowed the history of
American racism and violence
against Black churches to cause
them to throw up physical
barricades and emotional walls.
They didn’t look at the young
man who would become their
murderer as a stereotype or an
archetype. They saw an
individual. Surely, that’s a
testament to the resilience of the
human heart.
But then the very nature of
faith is in being willing to take a
risk, to believe in a source of
goodness or solace or strength
that’s impossible to explain.
Faith is wholly illogical. A
congregation is little more than
fertile ground where the tiniest
seeds of hope can grow.
What would a synagogue orchurch or meeting house be if
only the familiar were allowed
in? So despite all the history that
argues against an open-door
policy, the doors of the church
still swing open. Security guards
may patrol the parking lots,
vestibules and fellowship halls.
Members may settle into pews
and kneel for prayers all while
taking heed of the closest exit.
And everyone becomes an
amateur FBI profiler as they try
to determine whether a stressed
out stranger at the door is a
deadly threat or simply a
nervous visitor who finally found
the courage to come ask for help.
The marvel is how often
congregations decide that open
arms are what’s needed rather
than a defensive posture.
At their most beautiful and
inspiring, congregations lift up
the human spirit and make room
for everyone’s flaws and failures.
They’re nonjudgmental and take
people at their word. They see
the best in others often just
when it has become impossible
for people to see the goodness in
themselves. Faith communities
speak lovingly but truthfully to
their members. In that way, they
are, one hopes, like family. None
of that is possible without a
willingness to take a risk, to open
oneself to a wounded ego, slings
and arrows, a broken heart.
Faith communities falter
when they become hierarchical,
self-righteous and self-
aggrandizing. When they close
themselves off from their
surroundings and look at all
outsiders with suspicion or
disdain, they may enhance theirown safety but in the process,
they suffocate the spirit. They
snuff themselves out.
The assaults on houses of
worship don’t put religion in
danger. Judaism, Islam,
Christianity. The sacred texts, the
organizational flow charts, the
politics, the financial demands
will go on just fine. Buildings can
be repaired and reconstructed.
Personal faith can withstand
these terrorizing attacks, too.
Many believers will cling to their
God with greater urgency and
devotion. They will find certainty
where there was doubt. Their
faith will guide them through the
darkness.
No, what makes these attacks
on places of worship so grievous
— beyond the lives that are lost
and the families that are
traumatized — is that they take
aim at the spirit of community
that these buildings foster. Their
power is the light they shine out
beyond their walls. They’re
admirable not because of the
way in which they treat their
most devoted members: the ones
who fill up the collection plate or
who have instant recall of long
passages of scripture. The
grandest house of worship isn’t
necessarily the historical
building with a place of honor on
a wide boulevard. It isn’t the one
with the largest membership or
the most prestigious one. It’s the
house whose doors are always
open to the least of its neighbors.
And every assault is a reminder
that those open doors are an
astounding, heartbreaking
miracle.
[email protected]Robin
Givhan
THE CRITIQUEBY ROBERT BARNESSupreme Court justices Tues-
day generally seemed to think it
was a mistake for the city of
Boston to refuse a ceremonial
city hall flag-raising to a Chris-
tian group when it had never
turned down such a request from
any other organization.
But it was the First Amend-
ment follow-ups that created
concern. What about a request
from a Nazi group to raise a
swastika? The Ku Klux Klan? Or
even, the New York Yankees?
The case involves three flag-
poles on a plaza outside Boston
City Hall. One flies the U.S. flag,
one the Massachusetts flag and
most of the time the third flies
the city’s flag.
Occasionally, the city replaces
its own flag with another, after a
group applies to hoist its own
banner for a brief time, usually in
connection with an event.
From 2005 to 2017, the city
approved 284 consecutive re-
quests. But then Harold Shurtl-
eff, who leads a conservative
group called Camp Constitution,
applied to raise a white flag with
a red cross on a blue square in
the upper left corner, which he
noted was a “Christian flag.”
He was turned down, on the
grounds it would appear that the
city was endorsing one religion
over another.
Lower courts said the city had
that prerogative. But Shurtleff ’s
case has had the remarkable
effect of uniting conservativereligious groups with the Ameri-
can Civil Liberties Union and the
Biden administration, all of
whom said the city was wrong.
Supreme Court precedent
shows that “when the govern-
ment chooses to open up its own
property for use by third parties
to express their messages, the
government cannot restrict ac-
cess based on viewpoint, includ-
ing religious viewpoints,” said
Justice Department lawyer
Sopan Joshi.
The city has some discretion,
but it probably means that if it
permits a group to “raise a Black
Lives Matter flag, they probably
would have to be able to raise a
Proud Boys flag,” he said, refer-
encing the racial justice move-
ment and the far-right group,
respectively. “I mean, that’s just
what the First Amendment de-
mands.”
Douglas Hallward-Driemeier,
representing Boston, agreed that
if the flagpoles are considered a
public forum, the constitutional
prohibition of state-established
religion “would not provide a
basis to exclude a religious flag.”
But the city official who de-
nied the request thought of the
flagpole as “the city’s speech....
And the establishment clause
does apply to the government’s
own speech.”
Some justices said they under-
stood the view. “To an ordinary
observer walking past City Hall,
if you see a flag on the pole, you
think it’s City Hall speaking,”
said Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Asshe has in recent oral arguments,
Sotomayor participated remote-
ly from her chambers because of
concerns about the coronavirus.
But most seemed to think
Boston had opened itself up by
accommodating so many other
requests.
Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said
that if the o fficial m ade a mistake
about the “so-called” separation
of church and state, “why doesn’t
it resolve this case?”
Gorsuch is part of a conserva-
tive majority on the court that
has been far more protective of
religious groups. Liberal justices
seemed to think it might be best
just to decide that Boston made a
well-intentioned mistake and
move on without making new
law.
“In the context of a system
where flags go up, flags go down,
different people have different
kinds of flags, then it is a viola-
tion of the free-speech part of the
First Amendment and not an
establishment clause violation,”
Justice Elena Kagan said. “The
end.”
Justice Stephen G. Breyer also
wondered if the case was worth
it. “Can’t it be settled?” he asked.
Mathew Staver of Liberty
Counsel, which is representing
Shurtleff, said the city has been
unaccommodating.
The city argued that raising
the flag was government speech
because of its “mistaken view of
the establishment clause.... It’s
very clear that the same flag
could have flown with the sameexact symbol for the same one-
hour event without any incident,
had Camp Constitution simply
lied and said this is not the
Christian flag, it’s the Camp
Constitution flag.”
There were some facts that
made the case a little more
complicated. Although Shurtleff
was arguing his speech rights
were being violated, he has com-
plained to the city when it has
briefly flown other flags, includ-
ing the Chinese banner.
Hallward-Driemeier said that
showed that even Shurtleff felt
the display was government
speech.
Most of the flags that have
flown on the third flagpole have
been those of foreign countries,
but a handful have not. Chief
Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asked
Hallward-Driemeier, “Do I un-
derstand you to be saying that, to
some extent, the city approves of
every flag that flies?”
“It has to confirm that raising
a flag is consistent with the city’s
message,” Hallward-Driemeier
replied.
But Roberts pointed out that
the city once flew the banner of a
rival professional hockey team
that defeated the Boston Bruins
to win the Stanley Cup. “Does the
mayor of Boston really approve
of the Montreal Canadiens?”
Roberts asked.
The mayor lost a bet, Hall-
ward-Driemeier explained.
The case is Shurtleff v. City of
Boston.
[email protected]Justices lean toward religious group in flag dispute
YFFY YOSSIFOR/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, facing the camera, hugs a man after a healing service Monday at White’s Chapel
United Methodist Church in Southlake, Tex. Cytron-Walker and three worshipers escaped a gunman who took them hostage Saturday.Meet Vorac iously, the delicio us destination from
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