[Today, we have a guest blog post from one of our long-time supporters and colleagues, Dr. SimonMary A. Aihiokhai, Ph.D., written on the occasion of the November 8, 2016, presidential election]
I AM A PILGRIM
Friends,
that is what all of you are to me, friends. For more than a year,
President-elect Donald Trump spent everyday alienating people. At first, I was
shocked at how scary his racist statements were. I believed that all decent
persons will reject his agenda. But I do not know if I was too assuming or not.
There
is something you my friends need to know, it is what it means to be an
immigrant. To be an immigrant is to take the greatest risk, to leave all one
knows and journey to the land of the unknown. It is to uproot one's tree of
memories and plant it in a new land and hope it will grow and not die. One fact
always remains in this process, for some the tree shrinks, struggles to
survive, and sometimes, it even dies. For others it slowly begins to grow and
it sure takes time.
An
immigrant is a person with two stories, of which he can hardly tell completely
because his/her audience can never know the complete version of each story - a
story from the homeland which is alien to the ears of those in the new home and
the story from the new home which is alien to the ears of those in the first
homeland. When asked to tell their story, an immigrant can only tell half
stories. Such is the dilemma of an immigrant.
For
many years now, I have journeyed through the road of pilgrimage, one all
immigrants journey through. Slowly but surely, I began to plant my tree in this
country called America. It has not always been easy. I have experienced
discrimination, bigotry, hatred, and most often been misunderstood. I chose never
to give up because if I do give up, there is no home to go to. My first
homeland has moved on and I will be a stranger in that land should I go back
there.
But
what happened yesterday shocked me. A man ran for office rejecting my story and
those of millions of fellow immigrants. Yet, he was voted into office by people
I had thought have accepted me as a member of the family. That is telling
indeed. Never for once did I see a sign of Trump on lawns of houses of Trump
supporters in the states I travelled to and lived in during the times he was
campaigning - Indiana, Illinois, Georgia, and Oregon. Everyone said they were
rejecting Trump and his message of hate but that seems to have been a LIE.
Trump was the silent buddy of many.
If
my fellow Americans were willing to ignore the dehumanizing agenda of Trump,
which was directed at people like me, Muslims, LGBT+ persons, women, blacks,
Hispanics, and so on, and still vote him into office, it means that I have not
yet found a home in this land I have called home.
One
thing I want to do is this - I will intensify my prayers, for that is what has
never failed me. An immigrant is always a pilgrim holding on to one sure
companion, prayer. It is a prayer that is uttered in the language of those at
the margins. The content of the prayer is never clear. The language is never
clear. But God always makes the prayer clear. God is the one who understands
the language of he immigrant because God continues to be a pilgrim with us who
are immigrants.
Let
us now use one sure strength we have, that of being pilgrims to embrace those
at the center of power in this country to transform their hearts. The embrace
is not of strength but of vulnerability. May our vulnerability transform the
hearts of those who are alienated by the results of last night's election
results. VIOLENCE IS NOT THE SOLUTION.
SimonMary Asese A.
Aihiokhai, PhD
SimonMary
Asese Aihiokhai is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Systematic
Theology at University of Portland, Portland, Oregon. His research and
publications engage Religion and Identity in Islam, Christianity, and African
Religions; African approaches to Virtue Ethics; Philosophy, Culture, and
Theology; Theology and Economics; Religion and Violence; theological, cultural,
philosophical, and sociological issues facing Catholicism in Africa; Comparative
Theology dealing with Christianity, Islam, and African Religions; and
Interreligious Dialogue in the Global South. Dr. Aihiokhai has continues to be
an active interlocutor in the ongoing Christian – Muslim dialogue in Nigeria
and the Catholic – African Religions dialogue. He worked as a missionary among
many cultures in Nigeria for ten years and continues to reflect on the rich
experience he attained from his encounters with people of the Muslim and
African Religious faiths.
Dr.
Aihiokhai comes from a very religiously pluralistic community in Nigeria and
professed the Islamic Faith until his conversion as a youth to the Catholic –
Christian faith. He joyfully professes a Catholic-Christian faith that is
shaped, nourished, and affirmed by Islam and African Religions.
