Unit 5

The readings this week were wonderfully rich and complex. I was called to recollect the struggles of a number of Bosnia (or is it Bosniak) families in Twin Falls. They wanted only the opportunity to put their lives back into some semblance of order. Uprooted as they were from the war torn lands of their origins they were relatively unceremoniously plopped down in a rural Idaho farm town, with only a small community college sponsored refugee center, they showed resilience, resolve, and a nearly grim determination.

Hundreds of family members, all or most of them European Muslims, endeavored to persevere in a strange land. Idaho, perhaps a strange choice for refugee resettlement. Idaho known for little, beyond it's potatoes and neo-nazi skinheads, to the broader world. Yet, Idaho had much to recommend itself to the Bosnians. High rocky mountains, rich fertile lowlands, simple people of simple faith holding fast to a simpler way of life. Yes, much of the ways of Idaho were not entirely dissimilar to the land and folkways they had left behind.

The folks of Twin Falls had felt sorrow over their struggles in Bosnia. Newscasts carried reports of rapes, killings, even genocide. They willingly supported the movement to provide a relocation center for those who had been forced to flee the violence. Willingly they approved the center, and willingly they supported the process. But, their was little they were willing or able to do personally. The "community" helped them but on an individual level the lines of separation stood fast. Their was little mixing between the two communities and over time an us and them mentality began to develop. It happened faster and more easily than one might ever have imagined. Everything necessary to destroy the initial potentialities, everything necessary to taint the hope. The newcomers looked different, spoke a different language, practiced a different, some had even been...god forbid, communists.

As the two communities grew together the level of distrust ever grew. Leaders from the "original inhabitants" and the "newcomers" went through the motions of harmony and integration but the groups they represented began to exhibit more and more signs of divisiveness. The telling moment, in my eyes, was the rejection they received and the hands of their neighbors when they sought to establish a worship community. No church was willing to provide them a space, no place would rent to them, no one seemed willing to help. They all had their reasons...excuses. I heard some of their motives uttered in hushed tones...they might be terrorists....well, their not Christian.....they have quite a few criminals....it's to dangerous.

It was sad, it was terrifying. Is that who we really are?