Reflections on 9-11
Last Thursday I was asked if I would share something in chapel, Friday about 9-11 since the plans for the day fell through. That night I pulled out what I had written ten years ago when I was asked to share and added some thoughts. This is what I shared, more or less.
Ten years ago, on a Tuesday morning the teachers gathered in my room for an in-service dealing with child abuse. When I was getting a cup of coffee, another teacher asked if I had heard about a plane crashing into one of the World Trade Towers. I hadn’t but when we got to my room, we turned on the television. Instead of watching the video for our in-service we spent most of the morning watching the building burn, the second jet crash into the other tower, and then both buildings collapse.
No one knew what was happening or why. There were reports that other jets had been hijacked and were headed towards Washington DC, Chicago or other cities. All planes were told to land immediately, planes arriving from overseas landed instead in Canada, Mexico, or they risked being shot down by the US military.
The next question was, what do we do with the students when they arrive? It was decided to meet in the chapel, now the library and to tell students what had happened, read some scripture and have a prayer. Some came already knowing, while others knew nothing. For some the primary concern was, would the soccer game go on as scheduled. The game was canceled to the dismay of some of my players who were looking forward to the long bus ride to Ft Madison.
I’m not sure what happened in other classrooms, but in mine, we spent much of the time watching the television coverage. I did not have a computer in my room so watching things over the internet was not an option. Students wanted to know why someone would attack the U.S., and some quickly realized that our country and their lives would be changing. Someone got the bright idea that I should talk about what happened in chapel so I spent the weekend reading news articles and thinking about what to say.
In my talk, I tried to answer four questions a lot of students were asking. They were:
Question #1 Why do so many people and countries hate us (the United States) and want to harm us?
Question #2 Where do we find safety and security?
Question #3 How should Christians, especially those of us who claim nonresistance, respond to the attack?
Question/ Thought #4 What is our place as Christians in American society?
Looking back at what I wrote I think my answers made sense, but I think it is still important for us to think about these questions. What I wrote ten years ago is in italics since I couldn't figure out how to do it in a different font. Or you can read the previous post if you are so inclined.
Question 1 –Why would people want to attack the US?
We are the biggest most powerful country in the world. Our country has done some great and wonderful things, but at times our country has acted arrogantly and selfishly. In the last ten years I have had the privilege of traveling to China, Israel/Palestine, and Poland. In every country I was told the same thing, “We love Americans, but we don’t care so much for your government.” Can I distinguish between individuals and the actions of their governments?
Question 2. Where will we find our safety and security?
I wrote, Will it be in adding millions to the budgets of the FBI, CIA and the military? Will it be as the article titled“ Shaken Americans take comfort in guns.” Where a gun dealer is quoted, “People in Peoria don’t have to go out and buy a handgun to protect themselves from a stolen 747, but people are afraid and they go out and look for something that will make them feel better. Or will we choose to remember the Psalm, “God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So will we not be afraid even if the earth is shaken and mountains fall into the ocean depths. Even if the seas roar and rage and the hills are shaken be the violence.” Psalm 46 Can we say with David? “Some trust in their war chariots and others in their horses, but we trust in the power of the Lord our God” Psalm 20:7 Today will we put our trust in guns, missile defense systems, new security measures, or can we rest secure in the arms of God?
According to some estimates, since 2011 our country has spent at least 7.6 trillion on “security” costs. Because of secrecy and the nature of some of the anti-terrorist work, according to a recent Frontline report we may never know how much has been spent.
Since 2000 “...the Pentagon’s annual “Base” budget (not including war costs or the nuclear weapons activities of the Department of Energy) from FY 2000 to FY 2011 has risen 235.6 Billion.”
http://costofwar.com/en/publications/2011/ten-years-after-911/top-ten-security-spending-numbers-you-need-know/
These numbers provide evidence of the choice made by our government. To use the words of David in Psalm 20, we put our trust in war chariots and horses, rather than in the power of the Lord our God.
Some of you were likely annoyed by my last comment, which brings us to the third question I asked.
Question #3 How should Christians, especially those of us who claim nonresistance, respond to the attack?
In response to 911 many Christians pledged their support to President Bush. A prayer service was held at the National Cathedral where prayers were offered for the victims, for our leaders and for God’s guidance. It wasn’t long before President Bush talked of a crusade to rid the world of bin Laden and his evil followers
Calvin Thomas, a professed born-again Christian in an article titled, “If this terrorism act is war, then lets start acting like it,” wrote: “Evil exists. It must be opposed. It is self-defense to kill people intent on killing you. If this is war…lets start acting like it and tell America’s enemies that if they are so intent on seeing their God, we’ll help them get there. As for us, we intend to die of natural causes.”…“Those humanistic, ‘can’t we all get along, profiling potential terrorists is racism, we’re all God’s children, kumbaya, all we are saying is give peace a chance’ moral equivalency equivocators will soon be back. …. They should be ignored. …. We know the enemy. We know where they live. Let’s go get them before they get any more of us, and let the moralizers sort it all out later.”
We have had to sort it out, whether or not we were “moralizers”
2,977 people died during the attacks against the United States on 9-11. Since going to war there have been 6,026 U.S. fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan. Civilian casualties are more difficult to come by. Remember Rumsfeld’s line, “We don’t do body counts.” Conservative estimates suggest a minimum of 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died while others suggest it is over 900,000. In Afghanistan nearly 20,000 civilians have been killed.
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ see also http://www.unknownnews.org/casualties.html
Our country has had to debate whether “enhanced interrogation techniques” are torture. We cringe at the name “Abu Ghraib” and the images it brings to mind. It is easy to find stories about the struggles faced by returning veterans and the demons they face as they deal with their combat experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I remember the words of Jesus, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Or the words of Paul in Romans 12, and I wonder, am I one of Cal Thomas’s “We’re all God’s children, kumbayah, moral equivocators? Am I being naïve if I reject Thomas’s call to violence and revenge?
Now ten years later I wonder if we are naive if we assume we can engage in war, violence and torture without consequences.
Question/ Thought #4 What is our place as Christians in American society?
In the aftermath of 9-11, 93% of Americans supported taking military action and 77% supported military action even if it meant innocent civilians would be killed. 71 % said they would be willing to give up some personal liberties and privacy. Flags were sold by the millions, newspapers and magazines printed paper versions so everyone could put them in the window of their house or display them in their car.
“As patriotism is mixed with prayer,” as our nation gets ready for war, is their room for the 7% of us who oppose using a military response?
As a “people of peace” in a country preparing for war, how are we to act? Especially if it becomes a war without borders fought in a variety of ways. Will we choose to place flags supplied by our local newspapers in the windows of our cars and homes? Will we keep our voices low and our opinions silent to avoid detection and perhaps persecution?
Am I willing to be treated as an alien in my own land?
We are faced with a choice, Will we choose to join our country as it draws its sword, beginning its “crusade to wipe out the people who would strike at our freedoms….” Or will we choose instead to believe and follow Jesus the Prince of Peace.
Methodist Bishop Will Willimon recently said in the evangelical magazine Christianity Today: “American Christians may look back upon our response to 9/11 as our greatest Christological defeat … when our people felt vulnerable, they reached for the flag instead of the cross.”
http://blog.sojo.net/2011/09/08/10-years-after-911-the-good-and-the-bad/
The last ten years have not always been easy ones. Some families decided not to have their children return to IMS, fans of visiting teams were sometimes vocal about the absence of a flag and the national anthem, the state athletic associations punished our sports teams. During this time some relationships were broken, yet others were developed and maintained.
In the end, if we are to be faithful we have a choice to make. Ten years ago I asked,
Will we choose to join our country as it draws its sword, beginning its “crusade
to wipe out the people who would strike at our freedoms….” Or will we choose instead to believe and follow Jesus the Prince of Peace?
Today, ten years later I am going to tell you my answer to that question. If we are to be the people of God, we need to choose to believe and follow Jesus, the Prince of Peace. In the words of the Methodist bishop, we need to reach for the cross instead of the flag. We need to follow Jesus in spite of the costs if we are to be a people of faith.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Friday, September 09, 2011
9/11 reflection from 2001
I was asked to share some reflections about 9/11 today in chapel. I pulled out what I shared ten years ago. Since it was before blogs, or at least before I was aware of blogs, I thought I would put it on here. I had a hard time finding a digital copy of it since I had apparently saved it on one of those 31/2 in floppy discs. I'll put up my ten year update later.
Chapel talk Sept 17, 2001
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 it is said has changed America and Americans forever. President Bush described the terrorist attacks as “acts of war” and later talked about the first war of the new century.Our newspapers have shown headlines saying, “We’re at War,” “War Looms” and “The New Battlefield.”
I was asked to talk about how we might respond to the events of last week. I’m not sure why I agreed to do this. As a historian it seems as if I need more time,
say a year at least, to formulate a satisfactory answer but all I had was the weekend. I would have liked time to reread Niehbuhrs’ thoughts on Christian realism, to look at Bonhoeffer’s struggle to remain a faithful Christian in Nazi Germany, and to look at John Howard Yoder’s writings or those of Menno Simons on Christian citizenship. So what follows are some random thoughts and questions I have been asked this past week. I hope you find them to be helpful in your thinking.
Question #1 Why do so many people and countries hate us and want to harm us?
There are numerous reasons why some groups and some countries do not like us and so these answers are on the simplistic side. First remember, we are the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth. Just being in that position makes us a target. Using a sports analogy, who doesn’t want to knock off the number one ranked team? When teams like the Yankee’s and Braves play who do you cheer for? It is difficult for me to be excited because I know one of them is going to win.
Second, some of our policies, while perhaps good for us, are not so good for other countries. Why do we have troops stationed in Saudia Arabia? Is it to protect the Saudi’s, or is it to keep them in line and to assure low oil prices? It doesn’t really matter what our reasons are- as long as many middle easterners perceive it as the latter. When we criticize Arab countries for cracking down on political dissent, but are seen as giving a blank check, along with weapons, to Israel while it aims missile’s at Palestinian residents and uses assassination as a way of silencing dissent, our country appears to be hypocritical and it makes many people angry.
There is not time to look more closely at this but I would encourage you to read James 4:1-2.
Question #2 Where do we find safety and security?
When I was little I often said this prayer as I went to bed. “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” When I said the words, “If I should die…” I did not see myself dying peacefully in my sleep. Instead I saw myself being blown to bits as the mushroom cloud of an atomic blast rose above my obliterated house.
In the 60’s and 70’s, many of us went to bed knowing thousands of nuclear missiles’ were aimed at our country, while our country aimed even more at our enemies. Our country sought security in a policy referred to as MAD or Mutual Assured Destruction. Our countries security rested in the idea that if the Soviets launched an attack, we could launch a counter attack and destroy them several times over. For many it was a fearful time.
Over the course of history countries have sought security in their weapons and strategies. The Roman legions conquered much of their known world, the Spanish king placed his faith in his Invincible Armada, a vast fleet of the largest, most powerful
ships of the 16th century, Napoleon created the largest army in Europe and conquered the continent.
New weapons, new strategies and technology have all been sought after as countries tried to expand their borders, their influence and preserve their way of
life, but all of these and many others have come and gone.
Where will we find our safety and security? Will it be in adding millions to the budgets of the FBI, CIA and the military? Will it be as the article titled
“Shaken Americans take comfort in guns.” Where a gun dealer is quoted, “People in Peoria don’t have to go out and buy a handgun to protect themselves from a stolen 747, but people are afraid and they go out and look for something that will make them feel better.” Or will we choose to remember the Psalm, “God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So will we not be afraid even if the earth is shaken and mountains fall into the ocean depths.
Even if the seas roar and rage and the hills are shaken be the violence.” Psalm 46
Can we say with David? “Some trust in their war chariots and others in their horses, but we trust in the power of the Lord our God” Psalm 20:7
Today will we put our trust in guns, missile defense systems, new security measures, or can we rest secure in the arms of God?
Question/Thought #3
In class this past week a student asked how I thought our country should respond to the terrorists attacks, I answered that as a nonresistant Christian I would answer one way, but that as a realist I would answer another. Something about that troubled me as the week went on. Does Jesus call me to be a realist, or does he call me to be his follower even if it doesn’t make sense to the world?
As the week went on I read articles by men who have described themselves as Christians and I wondered some more. Calvin Thomas, a professed born-again Christian
in an article titled, “If this terrorism act is war, then lets start acting like it,” wrote: “Evil exists. It must be opposed. It is self-defense to kill people intent on killing you. If this is war…lets start acting like it and tell America’s enemies that if they are so intent on seeing their God, we’ll help them get there. As for us, we
intend to die of natural causes.” “Those humanistic, ‘can’t we all get along,
profiling potential terrorists is racism, we’re all God’s children, kumbaya, all we are saying is give peace a chance’ moral equivalency equivocators will soon be back. …. They should be ignored. …. We know the enemy. We know where they live. Lets go get them before they get any more of us, and let the moralizers sort it all out later.”
But then I remember the words of Jesus, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Or the words of Paul in Romans 12, and I wonder, am I one of
Cal Thomas’s “We’re all God’s children, kumbayah, moral equivocators? Am I being naïve if I reject Thomas’s call to violence and revenge?
Question/ Thought #4 what is our place in American
society?
Saturday’s Press Citizen reported the results of anABC poll showing that 93% of Americans supported taking military action, and 77% supported military action even if it meant innocent civilians would be killed. 91% approve of the way Bush has responded so far and 71% said they would be willing to give up some personal liberties and privacy. A Philadelphia Inquirer reporter wrote, “The attack on America has triggered a rare moment of consensus in governing circles. Democrats and
Republicans, without bothering to check the opinion polls, are invoking war … as the ominous end game of US policy-violence without mercy, in the service of national retribution.”
In a related example one flag company reported receiving 2 million requests for flags as Americans in the words of a CNN anchor said, … “It seems as if when
Americans don’t know where to turn, they turn to the flag.”
“As patriotism is mixed with prayer,” as our nation gets ready for war, is their room for the 7% of us who oppose using a military response?
During times of war the United States has shown a strong tendency to restrict personal freedom and to squelch dissent. During World War I some Mennonites
spent time in prison rather than to wear a military uniform. During World War II Japanese-Americans were interned in prison camps, and many of German descent gave up the German language in order to avoid harassment from their neighbors.
As a “people of peace” in a country preparing for war, how are we to act? Especially if it becomes a war without borders fought in a variety of ways. Will we choose to place flags supplied by our local newspapers in the windows of our cars and homes?
Will we keep our voices low and our opinions silent to avoid detection and perhaps persecution? Am I willing to be treated as an alien in my own land?
We are faced with a choice, Will we choose to join our country as it draws it sword, beginning its “crusade to wipe out the people who would strike at our freedoms….” Or will we choose instead to believe and follow Jesus the Prince of Peace?
M.Miller 9/17/2011
Chapel talk Sept 17, 2001
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 it is said has changed America and Americans forever. President Bush described the terrorist attacks as “acts of war” and later talked about the first war of the new century.Our newspapers have shown headlines saying, “We’re at War,” “War Looms” and “The New Battlefield.”
I was asked to talk about how we might respond to the events of last week. I’m not sure why I agreed to do this. As a historian it seems as if I need more time,
say a year at least, to formulate a satisfactory answer but all I had was the weekend. I would have liked time to reread Niehbuhrs’ thoughts on Christian realism, to look at Bonhoeffer’s struggle to remain a faithful Christian in Nazi Germany, and to look at John Howard Yoder’s writings or those of Menno Simons on Christian citizenship. So what follows are some random thoughts and questions I have been asked this past week. I hope you find them to be helpful in your thinking.
Question #1 Why do so many people and countries hate us and want to harm us?
There are numerous reasons why some groups and some countries do not like us and so these answers are on the simplistic side. First remember, we are the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth. Just being in that position makes us a target. Using a sports analogy, who doesn’t want to knock off the number one ranked team? When teams like the Yankee’s and Braves play who do you cheer for? It is difficult for me to be excited because I know one of them is going to win.
Second, some of our policies, while perhaps good for us, are not so good for other countries. Why do we have troops stationed in Saudia Arabia? Is it to protect the Saudi’s, or is it to keep them in line and to assure low oil prices? It doesn’t really matter what our reasons are- as long as many middle easterners perceive it as the latter. When we criticize Arab countries for cracking down on political dissent, but are seen as giving a blank check, along with weapons, to Israel while it aims missile’s at Palestinian residents and uses assassination as a way of silencing dissent, our country appears to be hypocritical and it makes many people angry.
There is not time to look more closely at this but I would encourage you to read James 4:1-2.
Question #2 Where do we find safety and security?
When I was little I often said this prayer as I went to bed. “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” When I said the words, “If I should die…” I did not see myself dying peacefully in my sleep. Instead I saw myself being blown to bits as the mushroom cloud of an atomic blast rose above my obliterated house.
In the 60’s and 70’s, many of us went to bed knowing thousands of nuclear missiles’ were aimed at our country, while our country aimed even more at our enemies. Our country sought security in a policy referred to as MAD or Mutual Assured Destruction. Our countries security rested in the idea that if the Soviets launched an attack, we could launch a counter attack and destroy them several times over. For many it was a fearful time.
Over the course of history countries have sought security in their weapons and strategies. The Roman legions conquered much of their known world, the Spanish king placed his faith in his Invincible Armada, a vast fleet of the largest, most powerful
ships of the 16th century, Napoleon created the largest army in Europe and conquered the continent.
New weapons, new strategies and technology have all been sought after as countries tried to expand their borders, their influence and preserve their way of
life, but all of these and many others have come and gone.
Where will we find our safety and security? Will it be in adding millions to the budgets of the FBI, CIA and the military? Will it be as the article titled
“Shaken Americans take comfort in guns.” Where a gun dealer is quoted, “People in Peoria don’t have to go out and buy a handgun to protect themselves from a stolen 747, but people are afraid and they go out and look for something that will make them feel better.” Or will we choose to remember the Psalm, “God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So will we not be afraid even if the earth is shaken and mountains fall into the ocean depths.
Even if the seas roar and rage and the hills are shaken be the violence.” Psalm 46
Can we say with David? “Some trust in their war chariots and others in their horses, but we trust in the power of the Lord our God” Psalm 20:7
Today will we put our trust in guns, missile defense systems, new security measures, or can we rest secure in the arms of God?
Question/Thought #3
In class this past week a student asked how I thought our country should respond to the terrorists attacks, I answered that as a nonresistant Christian I would answer one way, but that as a realist I would answer another. Something about that troubled me as the week went on. Does Jesus call me to be a realist, or does he call me to be his follower even if it doesn’t make sense to the world?
As the week went on I read articles by men who have described themselves as Christians and I wondered some more. Calvin Thomas, a professed born-again Christian
in an article titled, “If this terrorism act is war, then lets start acting like it,” wrote: “Evil exists. It must be opposed. It is self-defense to kill people intent on killing you. If this is war…lets start acting like it and tell America’s enemies that if they are so intent on seeing their God, we’ll help them get there. As for us, we
intend to die of natural causes.” “Those humanistic, ‘can’t we all get along,
profiling potential terrorists is racism, we’re all God’s children, kumbaya, all we are saying is give peace a chance’ moral equivalency equivocators will soon be back. …. They should be ignored. …. We know the enemy. We know where they live. Lets go get them before they get any more of us, and let the moralizers sort it all out later.”
But then I remember the words of Jesus, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Or the words of Paul in Romans 12, and I wonder, am I one of
Cal Thomas’s “We’re all God’s children, kumbayah, moral equivocators? Am I being naïve if I reject Thomas’s call to violence and revenge?
Question/ Thought #4 what is our place in American
society?
Saturday’s Press Citizen reported the results of anABC poll showing that 93% of Americans supported taking military action, and 77% supported military action even if it meant innocent civilians would be killed. 91% approve of the way Bush has responded so far and 71% said they would be willing to give up some personal liberties and privacy. A Philadelphia Inquirer reporter wrote, “The attack on America has triggered a rare moment of consensus in governing circles. Democrats and
Republicans, without bothering to check the opinion polls, are invoking war … as the ominous end game of US policy-violence without mercy, in the service of national retribution.”
In a related example one flag company reported receiving 2 million requests for flags as Americans in the words of a CNN anchor said, … “It seems as if when
Americans don’t know where to turn, they turn to the flag.”
“As patriotism is mixed with prayer,” as our nation gets ready for war, is their room for the 7% of us who oppose using a military response?
During times of war the United States has shown a strong tendency to restrict personal freedom and to squelch dissent. During World War I some Mennonites
spent time in prison rather than to wear a military uniform. During World War II Japanese-Americans were interned in prison camps, and many of German descent gave up the German language in order to avoid harassment from their neighbors.
As a “people of peace” in a country preparing for war, how are we to act? Especially if it becomes a war without borders fought in a variety of ways. Will we choose to place flags supplied by our local newspapers in the windows of our cars and homes?
Will we keep our voices low and our opinions silent to avoid detection and perhaps persecution? Am I willing to be treated as an alien in my own land?
We are faced with a choice, Will we choose to join our country as it draws it sword, beginning its “crusade to wipe out the people who would strike at our freedoms….” Or will we choose instead to believe and follow Jesus the Prince of Peace?
M.Miller 9/17/2011
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