Double Standards of Accountability Not Acceptable

There has been a report out that an American born and educated man is considered to be the heir apparent to Osama Bin Laden. He is pushing violence, basing it on anti-American sentiments and passion, but couching it in a religious context.
This man is reportedly so dangerous that he is on a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) list of people that the agency wants killed, but people who are watching him say not to kill him because doing so would make him a martyr and make his cause more popular.
The “online imam,” 39-year old Anwar al-Awlaki, is causing concern among Americans, linked to last year’s Fort Hood shootings and the attempted hijack of an American Airlines jet on Christmas Day, 2009.
His father has launched a lawsuit against the United States government to get his son’s name taken off the CIA’s “capture or kill list.”
The story in and of itself is fascinating, but it is a question that a CNN anchor asked a reporter covering the story that caught my interest. Most of us feel like religious people, particularly religious leaders, ought to be above the fray of violence and hatred and, frankly, ignorant arrogance.
That sentiment was caught as this CNN anchor asked, “Why aren’t other Muslim clerics stepping up and saying that this man is wrong?” In other words, why aren’t the religious leaders calling this particular religious leader to accountability …not to them but to God?
Well, now. Isn’t that always the case? Too man religious leaders are in the world and of the world, concerned with their own interests and “careers” as opposed to the Word of God? How many religious leaders spoke out about the Holocaust, or about racism or sexism or homophobia? How many Christian religious leaders have been silent when the world and its putrid situations have called for a cry from the righteous?
Whenever one speaks up for what appears to be the word, work and will of God, he or she risks being ostracized by the group. A classmate of mine in seminary said that his father, a pastor, hated racism but would not speak out against it because he knew he’d lose members or maybe his job. His board reined him in, telling him that they paid his salary.
At the end of the day, though, the final paycheck is given by God, who calls on all of us who call ourselves “called” to stand up for justice, no matter the cost. That is not and has not historically been the case. My thought was, as this anchor asked his question, incredulous at the apparent reluctance of other Muslim clerics to silence this young, influential man, was that he, the anchor, had forgotten that American clerics have been painfully silent through the most horrendous racism.
In fact, many American clerics have been complicit in the perpetuation of racism, discrimination, hatred and more. An American clergyperson sponsored the burning of Korans this week. The thought disgusts me, and yet, we as clergy, have been slow to call “our own” to accountability.
People who have studied American history, including its brand of democracy, have been quick to see the disconnects between ideology and praxis. Our ideology says “all men are created equal.” Our praxis says something else.
I realized that there was no point in my being angry at this anchor person, but I was.
Americans ought to stop applying a double standard to the subject of human rights, trying to dictate to others how to act when we fall so short ourselves.
Pastor Smith