Went to a church-sponsored choir practice this past Sunday at a compound that allows Christians to fellowship on its property. This compound is allowed to do so because of its sponsor, which shall remain nameless, but has buckets of wasta to get away with practicing a religion outside of Islam within KSA.
Our driver for the night was a Saudi friend of ours (e.am.), who is Shia and professes being half Christian; although, he doesn't believe in Jesus the way that most Christians believe in Jesus. We had invited him to observe the choir practice and participate if he so chose. He took us up on the offer, but he was coming straight from work, and so he was wearing a white thobe. We get to the house where we expect maybe 12 or 14 people to be. Change of plans -- it's a choir of nearly thirty, plus a full handbell choir, plus a praise band crammed into a large living room and when e.am. sits down next to e and me, wedged between the two rows of the handbell tables, heads turn.
Our friend is curious and intrigued by the practice, and so he carefully inspects a few of the handbells, looks at the music E and I are reading, and then eventually takes some video footage on his mobile. A gentleman from the church pulls him aside and explains that he cannot film or take pictures of church events, as per company policy. Our friend gives the man his word that he will delete the footage, which he does.
After the practice session finishes and people are quickly making their way out of the crowded house, e, e.am., and I wait outside the house for our colleague j to finish socializing. The gentleman who had asked e.am. to delete the video came up to us with his wife and essentially communicated to us, "Thanks for deleting the footage. And, by the way, you (e.am.) can't come back here again because our company has a 'no Muslims at church events on company property' policy." Apparently, this church community has had some issues in the past with holding events at the compound, and so they want to be very careful about everything and follow the rules to nth.
After nearly ten minutes of e.am. trying to understand why Muslims aren't allowed at church events and, "What does the company care? What does Saudi care? I don't care." I suggest that we're beating a dead horse and just want to get the schecks out of there. Of course, at this time, one of the women from the church community nervously comes out to where we're talking and interrupts us to say that they're missing a handbell, specifically one that e.am. may have been touching earlier, and wondered if he had "mistakenly" taken it. My inner monologue says, "Are you kidding me? You just tell us that our friend isn't welcome here and now you're accusing him of taking a flippin' handbell?!"
E.am, a little flustered, pats the pockets on his thobe and says, "Do you see any bells here? What would I do with a bell?"
I sardonically say, "Ring it," right before e.am. explains that he had picked up a handbell, but put it right back.
The woman apologizes and then goes back into the house to look for it again. Thirty seconds later, she comes back out to announce to us that she found it and that "Someone had put it in another room."
It's at this time that I start to feel really absurd. Why is it that in order to maintain a right to worship, a community is asked to turn people away who are interested in learning about Christ and experiencing a Christian community? Isn't God's authority ultimately higher than that of a powerful company? What impression are we giving to e.am. about Christians? Are we indeed fulfilling the common perception that Christians are hypocrites and close-minded? Was our friend being racially or religiously profiled in a case of misplaced hand instruments? Would all of this have been avoided had our friend not worn his thobe? They would have allowed him to come to the service had he been Jewish or Atheist or Hindu -- why draw the line at Muslims when Islam shares so many aspects of Christianity. Why do some of the church members fawn over the Syrian woman who is exploring Christianity, but not so much with the Saudi man?
The night couldn't have ended quickly enough.
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