Without Sanctuary

Editorial: Without Sanctuary
By Le Anne Clausen
(published in the Hyde Park Seminarian, Feb. 28, 2007)

In 2005, I worked with the McCormick/LSTC joint Summer Language Institute, an intensive ESL and cultural orientation program for international students on both campuses. It was a great program--formed around dialogical education, art projects, devotions, spoken word, field trips, research projects in Chicago’s ethnic neighborhoods, and hot topics in theological education: interfaith relations, LGBTQ equality, and racism.

It was on this last topic that our group traveled to see the ‘Without Sanctuary’ exhibit at the Chicago Historical Society. This is a traveling exhibit of photographs--often made into souvenir postcards--of the public lynchings of black people our country engaged in so many times in our not-so-distant past. One of the photographs showed a family with children proudly posed in front of one such lynching victim. Others have jokes written on the postcards about the ‘barbecues,’ telling the recipient of the card what a lovely occasion they have missed.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Everyone in the exhibit, surrounded by these postcards, was silent.

I keep thinking back to that exhibit, not only for our terrible history, but also for how we brought our recently-arrived international guests face to face with our shameful secrets. Welcome to America, friends: this is us.

If you would like to view the Without Sanctuary exhibit, there is a carefully-done interactive website with images and quotes: www.withoutsanctuary.org. I strongly recommend it.

This past month at CTS, the Rooks Society lifted up more images of the persecution of black people in our country--illustrations of slavery and photographs of the civil rights era so painful I could barely contain my tears. Still, it was a service not only of mourning but also hope for a better, more just future.

We struggle to deal with racism and its continuing impact on all our seminary campuses. Some of our efforts have made matters worse. LSTC and Meadville students have been active in confronting and reforming the ways in which their campuses have addressed racism. In other positive efforts, the McCormick Herald newspaper has lifted up Black History month through a special poetry section (partly reprinted here). CTU sponsored a Black History Cinema the past several Fridays. Although Black History Month is coming to a close, our work to bring justice and reconciliation ought not be. To do otherwise is to build false sanctuaries and continue the worship of lies.