c. 2008 Religion News Service

CHICAGO _ A few hours before the bodies of singer Jennifer Hudson’s murdered mother and brother were discovered on the city’s South Side last Friday (Oct. 24), across town one of the world’s greatest peacemakers began his remarks at the Hotel Intercontinental by addressing head-on Chicago’s daunting problem with violent crime.

“I want to give a special message to a group of people sitting in that corner _ it is families who have lost sons to the gun violence that is so rampant,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, motioning toward a table at the far end of the ballroom. Among those seated there was Ron Holt, whose 16-year-old son died shielding another friend from gunfire on a Chicago bus in May 2007.

“It is easy, so facile, to say to you, `We feel with you,”’ Tutu said. “Please go away from here knowing there are people who care enormously who want to see a different kind of Chicago, who want a Chicago where everybody is safe.”

Tutu, the 77-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner and archbishop emeritus of the Anglican Church of South Africa, gave an address titled “The Dawn of a New Moral Awakening,” but I don’t think he meant it as a description of what already is happening.

I believe Tutu came to Chicago to speak the truth to power _ to prophesy about what could be, as opposed to what already is. His attention quickly turned to racial and religious tensions around the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama.

“The other day, we were traveling and went through one or another of the airports,” Tutu told a diverse audience that included several other Christian bishops, rabbis, imams, Sikhs and Buddhists, among others. “And the (television) screens showed some illustrations or cartoons of Barack Obama wearing Arab clothes, Muslim garb. I didn’t see all of it because we were passing through, but there was something about it … he was holding a gun and `terrorist’ was something that was put down there.

“I felt incredibly sad for this country,” Tutu said, his sparkly eyes flashing with emotion behind wire-rimmed spectacles. “I thought, how obscene. How repulsive. And also, how dangerous! … And they say this because one of his names is `Hussein’? They forget that the other name means `blessing.”’

It’s a familiar message but one that bears repeating, if the “Barack Hussein Obama is a covert Muslim terrorist” e-mails that keep arriving in my inbox are any indication.

Reducing any person or people to a stereotype is dangerous, Tutu insisted, especially if it’s done with the claim of a divine imprimatur.

“I don’t know about you, but I am so glad I’m not God,” Tutu said, drawing one of many bursts of laughter from the rapt audience. “I really am glad I’m not God. But I’m also so glad that God is God. He is an incredible God!”

He giggled as he began to talk about his dear friend, the Dalai Lama. “I have not yet met anyone as holy,” Tutu said. “I haven’t met anyone I know who has the depth of his serenity. I’m a little jealous of him, of course. If he were here, you’d have to look for a far, far larger venue.”

The message of revolutionary peace and nonviolence is one that Tutu and the Dalai Lama share, especially when it comes to confronting violence done in the name of religion.

“God has no one except you,” Tutu shouted. “God says, `Help me. Help me make this world the kind of world I intended for it to be. Help me. Help me to make this a world that is more compassionate … where there will be no poverty; where my children won’t spend as much as they do on weapons of destruction.”

Quoting a passage from the Gospel of John, Tutu reminded Christians in the audience that Jesus said, “I will draw all people to myself.”

“His embrace is so wide that it leaves no one outside,” Tutu said, stretching his arms out like a cross. “All are inside. All! All! Do you understand `all’? Black, white, rich, poor, clever, not-so-clever, beautiful, not-so-beautiful. All. Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Baha’i. All. All. All. Gay, lesbian, so-called straight. All. … Bush. Bin Laden. Palestinian. Israeli. All. All. All. Help me.”

God, help us … help you.

(Cathleen Falsani is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, and author of the new book “Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace.”)

KRE/PH END FALSANI

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