I was driving down the Interstate, listening to NPR, when I heard the breaking news of an airplane crashing into one of the Twin Towers in New York City. My first thoughts were of accidents and innocence. But as I continued listening to the reports, with more tragedies than what coincidence would allow, the sinister scene began to unfold.
When I heard the crash at the Pentagon I called a close friend. We had both just finished reading a Tom Clancy novel where terrorists had used an airplane as a weapon against our government. We shared a moment of incredulity as what seemed so farfetched in fiction was so terrifying in real life.
Once I sat in front of the TV I saw the live video. It was more horrible than I imagined and I was in disbelief when the towers fell.
The attack violated our nation, our sense of security, and our pride. It rallied our nationalism, our sense of sacrifice, and our anger.
That anger hasn’t served us well.
We’ve started wars we cannot win, lost more of our sons and daughters than what we lost on that first day, and killed more innocents than what we’d like to admit.
It’s been easy to vilify a religion, to quote a line or two of their scripture in order to make almost a quarter of the world’s population appear to be unredeemably evil. The truth is, my own religion of choice has just as many suggestive scriptures and violent history towards other faiths. We Christians don’t want to accept that because we believe Jesus is on our side.
Sometimes I don’t think he is.
Many emotions have been stirred up recently through another story about Muslims and New York City. Most of the rhetoric is baseless, in my opinion, and is stirred up by people who are more interested in being fueled from their fear-based emotions than allowing their hearts to be transformed by love.
For many, this is a shame. For Christians, it is a crime.
What’s true? Depends on who you listen to. I’ve had several friends share interesting theories with me, but most of them have rung false. It is almost that they want to, need to believe that they must fight this battle against flesh and blood Muslims.
I wonder what would happen if we took our fingers out of our ears and started listening. I wonder what would happen if we let our sense of justice take a back seat and let love drive for a while. I wonder what we will do with the following information:
Earlier this year, an organization called the Cordoba Initiative were granted permission by the appropriate authorities in New York City to turn an old Burlington Coat Factory at 51 Park Place in lower Manhattan into a community center. The organization was headed by an Imam named Feisal Abdul Rauf, who has made it his life’s work to stand against radical cults like al Qaeda and teach young Muslims that America is a place where one can freely worship at the appointed times and then join other faith communities in America in the task of building a great nation. The proposed community center was to include a basketball court and space for different religious communities in New York City to have interfaith relations. It was also going to have a place for Muslims to pray, if they liked.
The news didn’t sit well with many people in New York, most notably people who didn’t live in Manhattan. This is because they were told by a gaggle of dumb Islamophobes that what was planned was a “Ground Zero mosque.” Of course, the planned community center was not, strictly speaking, a “mosque.” And it was most definitely not “at Ground Zero.” “Ground Zero” is the site of an interminable municipal construction project. There are no plans to build a mosque there. “Ground Zero” is also not the name of a recognized New York City neighborhood, like DUMBO or Murray Hill. But, here’s the thing: even if it was, the battle to stop the “Ground Zero mosque” was already lost, because there already is a mosque in that neighborhood.
- Jason Linkins, Huffington Post
I wonder what would happen if we started policing our own fundamentalist freaks. I wish the media hadn’t given so much attention to the Florida clown who wanted to start a bon fire with copies of the Koran. Can’t we see this pastor for being a hijacker as well? To me he is far more dangerous than Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.
On 9/11 I didn’t cry until I was home watching a broadcast on the internet from Europe. Sting’s planned concert for a group of friends at his home in Italy took on a much different tone after hearing of the tragedy across the sea. His song “Fragile” took on a prophetic tone that still resonates with me about the horrors of that day.
If blood will flow
when flesh and steel are one
Drying in the color
of the evening sun
Tomorrow’s rain
will wash the stains away
But something in our minds
will always stayPerhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetime’s argument
That nothing comes from violence
and nothing ever could
For all those born beneath an angry star
Lest we forget how fragile we are
Let us do all we can to move away from a world of bitterness, violence, hate, and religious intolerance.
If we don’t, it is about our own ignorant actions that Jesus’ words reverberate against, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.”
***
This is my contribution to a campaign by Sarah Cunningham, who has called on faith bloggers to offer goodwill on the anniversary of 9/11. What did you think? Please share your thoughts and feelings in the comments.
For additional reflections on 9/11:
- Beyond the Rubble by Sarah Cunningham
- Jesus Loves Muslims — A 9/11 Letter by Jon Reid
- A Firefighter Reflects on September 11th by Ed Cyzewski
- Why I Remember 9/11 by Keith Seckel
- Love Always Wins by Brian Jeansonne
Check out my other blog, Jesus or Squirrel. It’s a fun attempt at figuring out what should truly be credited to Jesus, Religion, Hype, Tradition, Superstition, Satan, Oral Roberts and his Friends, or The Squirrel.
Studio Casey
Amen!
Right on. A good word.
I think I will shoot straight on this one. I can't speak to what your heart thinks, but this is the only piece out of the four that is negative, angry, and divisive.
No Amen here.
I am not sure what you mean here Justin?
Chad reports his own reactions in a neutral tone and takes a negative tone when speaking about the reactions of "other" Christians and Americans. He even speaks for Jesus in asking forgiveness for others because they don't know what they do, because they don't think like him. Grace Gambrell states the same idea from a far more humble stand point.
Chad, thank you and thank you!!! I believe this is the community Jesus was talking about, those who are on the outside are in and those who are "in" are now out, changing our hearts and minds… Dear God, humble us from our longstanding arrogance.
Chad, this was beautifully written. It portrayed your own fears, emotions and devastation that many including myself felt that day and at the same time addresses the knee jerk reaction that occurred ( and that I was guilty of thinking of as well) instead of the response that should have taken place. The third way of Jesus: To not lay there and take it or respond in the same manner as the perpetrators. Thanks for this balanced post Chad it really spoke to my heart and what I remembered on that day.
Thanks Chad for taking the thoughtful time to write this.
Hey Chad I really appreciated the post, and will share it on facebook.
One author I read said it like this, "If it has flesh and blood, then it is not our enemy."
These are great thoughts for today. Thanks
That Sting "concert" was one of the most interesting and timely things that happened in that whole chain of events. When I listened, it led me to the book of Ecclesiastes. It brought me balance as I thought about there being a season for everthing and that participating in these things were all a part of God's plan. I may not be able to agree that we should not have taken some military action, but I can agree that the hatred being directed at Muslims in general is misplaced and in my opinion Un-Christian. Thank you also for pointing out that there are wack-jobs and fearmongorers on both sides of this issue. If we think, as Christians, we need to win folks over we are best served by showing the love of Christ rather than hatred. Thanks for your post Chad and bringing up some important points for discussion.
Thanks for your comments. I'm not necessarily opposed to military action/intervention etc. But as we look back on how we did respond militarily, I have serious doubts about it being appropriate measure, and against the appropriate people. At the time I was very supportive of President Bush's decision, but now I feel we were lied to.
"fool me once, shame on — [pauses] — shame on you. Fool me — [pauses] — You can't get fooled again."
Now I understand your position a little better. I always thought there were some other motives involved in the decision to take the type of action that we did (oil for one, influnce or regime change for another, a personal vendetta by the President against Saddam for contributing to his father not getting re-elected for a third) none of which I could have support. I would not feel good about fellow Americans risking their lives for any of the reasons listed above. I agree with you that our leaders were not completly honest with us about some of their real motivations. Which group do you think is more responsible at this point for this since of lingering hatred? Is it the leaders who got us involved in some of this for at least partly questionable motives or is it characters like this "Christian" preacher who are propigating hate through doing things like burning books? Thanks for the great discussion
We are not a very old country and in a lot of ways we are not a wise country, One of the saddest things about this whole right wing hysteria is that the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is a Sufi and the Sufis have been our staunch allies against Muslim extremism. So when we slap our friends around what kind of a nation do you think the rest of the world will think we are? I guarantee you that most of the school children in Europe know the difference between Shias, Sunnis, and Sufis. We are looking pretty narrow and stupid at this point in the eyes of the world.
Also, rabble rousers usually have a definite political goal in mind, so I would not characterize the hateful stirring up of Islamophobia as being pointless or without a goal. This is a Nazi like tactic which has a very unseemly racist element. I wish I could actually show so many of my friends how artfully they are being used by the enemy, but then I am sure I would be labeled an unpatriotic traitor.