Faith leaders react to tariffs threat

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During the pandemic, the Free Press invited local clergy and faith leaders to share reflections about faith and the COVID emergency. What were they saying to their congregations and denominations?

Canada is facing another emergency today with the threat of tariffs from the U.S. We decided to invite faith leaders to share on this topic, too, under the theme of “Keeping faith amid a trade war.” The submissions are posted on the faith section of the Free Press website.

One who responded was Ismael Mukhtar, a local Muslim community leader. In times like this, Muslims are encouraged to seek guidance from the Quran about coping with uncertainties, he said. This includes heeding its message that life contains tests, difficulties and pain.

“Such understanding makes believers mentally prepared for all possibilities, including not taking prosperity for granted and not being surprised in the face of any unfavorable outcomes,” said Mukhtar.

The Quran also reminds Muslims that human knowledge is limited; that what seems to be dreadful now can, in retrospect, be “seen as a blessing;” and that God is faithful and can be trusted, he added.

“This is the time to show the best of who we are by standing together, sharing resources, and supporting one another,” Mukhtar said, adding Canadians should remember Americans are our neighbors and not fall prey to “hate or acrimony.”

At the same time, “we shouldn’t fall into the narrow nationalistic sentiment of ‘We First,’ he said. “We should take care of our needs, but we should also remember that we are part of the human family and keep our sense of care and humanity unbounded.”

In his submission, Michael Paul, executive director of Mennonite Church Manitoba, said this was a “time for courage in the way of Jesus.”

For Pahl, that means remembering Christians should not “get overly caught up in the nationalistic trends and anxieties swirling around us.” They should, rather, be concerned about “the impact these political, economic, and social realities will have on those most vulnerable to harm.”

While threats of substantial tariffs on Canadian goods are of concern, “our primary focus should not be on how these and other actions affect us,” but on how these actions impact those “who are disempowered and marginalized in society.”

That, he said, “is the way of Jesus … may we continue to walk in this way of Jesus in this new era of need.”

For Michael Wilson, minister at Charleswood United Church, having faith doesn’t mean anxiety goes away. “Jesus may say ‘do not be anxious,’ but I am pretty sure that anxiety is part of the package in life,” he said, adding “we are living in an anxious moment.”

When Jesus offers faith as a means to counter anxiety, “I think he means remember … we are not alone. Remember that God’s people have been this way before. Remember our true selves and our deepest values and do not set them aside in response to anxious times,” Wilson said.

Jesus, he said, “has been this way before, demonstrating that love conquers all. That includes the love of neighbour — even when that neighbour does not seem to love us.”

Erik Reedman Parker, minister at Sherwood Park Lutheran Church, reached back in history to the time of Martin Luther for guidance on how to live a Christian life in this current world.

“For a lot more of human history than not, the reality is that kings, rulers, emperors, presidents and heads of state have been more Trump-like than not,” he said, noting this was true when Martin Luther was alive.

Luther asserted two basic ideas during his time. First that the Christian individual “is a completely free lord of all, subject to none. And, second, that the Christian individual is a completely dutiful servant of all, subject to all,” Reedman Parker said.

This means we are free “to show love and mercy for our neighbours,” he said, adding at times like this Luther reminds us of the greatest commandment given by Jesus: To love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

“This is the opposite of putting our trust in flawed human rulers and then absolving ourselves from having to be accountable to others,” Reedman Parker said.

The message that Janessa Nayler-Giesbrecht is sending to her congregation is “we are not helpless or alone.”

For Canadians, things are “stressful, tense, and frustrating at a level I have not really experienced much in my own lifetime,” said Naylor-Giesbrecht, pastor of Jubilee Mennonite Church. “It’s a LOT. And it is affecting us all in different ways.”

When people ask her how she’s doing, she says: “Well, personally I’m doing really well. But then the world is also on fire, so I’m not really sure how to balance those two things out.”

There is a profound feeling of helplessness that is seeping into people, she said, adding we need to find ways to reject that.

“As people of faith, we are called to live into the vision of the world that Jesus articulated to us. A world where he invites us to prioritize loving God and our neighbours as ourselves in all things,” she said.

There are also submissions by Yuri Hooker, senior pastor at Bethesda Church, who wrote about the important role of the local congregation at a time like this, and Peter Bush, formerly the minister at Westwood Presbyterian Church in Winnipeg, who provided a prayer and confession for a time of chaos and anxiety.

Find all the submissions here: http://wfp.to/Wpm

faith@freepress.mb.ca

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John Longhurst
Faith columnist & reporter

John Longhurst has been writing for Winnipeg's faith pages since 2003. He also writes for Religion News Service in the U.S., and blogs about the media, marketing and communications at Making the News.

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