Full Transcript: Reverend Sharon Buttry on Community Service and Teaching
Sharon: I also host a lot of volunteers and Christian service teams that come into the city. So the first weekend in March is Spring Break for Spring Arbor University and they always send a big team. So wherever I am in the world I come home for them because I love that group so much. So they come and we just blitz the city with all kinds of community service that week. And then I host other teams in April and May. I do a citizenship class right before Ramadan, like the four weeks before Ramadan. And I also go— I only teach women. So it’s an all women’s class and they love coming to the Hope Center because we have very private space, no men are allowed to walk through. They can throw off their niqabs and burkas and they’re very comfortable there. We started an exercise class because people were high risk for diabetes. So I have a friend who teaches that. We have something going on every day at the Hope Center mainly for Muslim women. One of the things I love doing is when these service teams and volunteers come from all over the country, they’ve never really met Muslims. So I really love seeing the stereotypes fall away and people getting just a different view of who Muslims are in America.
Interviewer: What kind of stereotypes do you think they come in with?
Sharon: Oh like, they’re afraid that people are actually going to harm them, like seek to harm them. I’ve taken a lot of people to visit mosques and they’re just really really scared to go in there. So just fear. Overcoming fear mainly, of Muslims. And a lot of people don’t really know much about Muslim theology, how many similarities there are to Christianity. So I do a lot of teaching on that. Just helping people see people as people. Yeah so like I just did a workshop on Muslim Christian relations out in Lansing. I had ten people in the workshop and so I just asked them, what do you want to know? You know, I have a workshop planned but I want to know what you want to know. And one lady all she wanted to know was, what can I take to my Muslim neighbor to welcome them to the neighborhood? And I said well don’t take anything with marshmallows, because you can’t have gelatin— it might have pork in it. She goes, are you kidding me? Rice Krispy treats? I go, no, no Rice Krispy treats! So it’s funny what people want to know.
Interviewer: What kind of stereotypes do you think they come in with?
Sharon: Oh like, they’re afraid that people are actually going to harm them, like seek to harm them. I’ve taken a lot of people to visit mosques and they’re just really really scared to go in there. So just fear. Overcoming fear mainly, of Muslims. And a lot of people don’t really know much about Muslim theology, how many similarities there are to Christianity. So I do a lot of teaching on that. Just helping people see people as people. Yeah so like I just did a workshop on Muslim Christian relations out in Lansing. I had ten people in the workshop and so I just asked them, what do you want to know? You know, I have a workshop planned but I want to know what you want to know. And one lady all she wanted to know was, what can I take to my Muslim neighbor to welcome them to the neighborhood? And I said well don’t take anything with marshmallows, because you can’t have gelatin— it might have pork in it. She goes, are you kidding me? Rice Krispy treats? I go, no, no Rice Krispy treats! So it’s funny what people want to know.