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