Mom is flying to San Diego this morning. Life in many ways is "back to normal." It just proves how we can mentally adjust ourselves to almost anything. We in Kansas City are not personally affected like people in New York or in Kabul. Those of us not in the reserves don't even think about being called to active duty. Even those who fly just have to pack differently and arrive for check-in an hour earlier.
Will this whole episode even be a "learning experience" for most of us? I am afraid that the potential lessons of being attacked by extremists who hate our "system" and/or our values and/or our behavior will be lost in the shuffle. Our main attention is on self-defense, closely followed by apprehending the culprits and accomplices, and finally by simple revenge.
Understanding what could drive people to hate us so much is barely attempted.
Tomorrow, October 12, will be the first Friday prayers for Muslims since we launched our military response against Afghanistan. There is much concern that Pakistani Muslims, sympathetic to the Taliban and to Osama Ben Laden, will institute violent protests in Pakistan against the recent positioning of US troops in their country. We can't just write these protestors off as "extremists" or as "demented." We should try to understand their sentiments and examine our motives.
If we just operate out of self-defense with a narrow definition, we will resort to the old tried-and-true method of proving to the "world" that might makes right. We have the most might, and what we say is right.
A broader definition of self-defense would include changing our behavior and our policies that provoke violent reactions from other people in the world. If we don't take these additional steps, we will undoubtedly face a resurgence of anti-US violence in the future.
Thursday, October 11, 2001
Monday, October 8, 2001
The Day After our Bombing of Afghanistan
We should have known it would happen sooner or later, but news came as a shock after church on Sunday. Bombing started at 11:30 AM Kansas City time, just while we were celebrating World Wide Communion Sunday. What can I say?
Instant polls show that 90% of Americans approve of the bombing. I am in the bottom (or top?) 10%. Osama Ben Laden calls us "infidels," supposedly because we are not Muslim. But as Christians can we say that we are really respecting the Sabbath to choose this day to drop our bombs? Maybe it had more to do with our capitalism than our Christianity, to choose Sunday rather than Monday to disrupt American life with hours of news broadcasts and press conferences and commentaries. Today we can get back to work to keep the economy humming.
Already we are being prepared (propagandized) that if there is a terrorist action, it won't really be in response to our attack: it must have already been in the works, planned weeks and months, even years, ago. As if that will make us feel more secure!
News photos of Sunday's football games show spectators holding "revenge" signs. How much can that sentiment go to explain our decision to bomb? There is a very prevalent attitude in American culture that is unchristian, that believes in the principle of an eye-for-an-eye, that ignores Christ's teachings to "Love thy neighbor" and "Love thine enemies." The fact that we have abandoned almost entirely one of the Ten Commandments to rest on the Sabbath seems so much more trivial than this.
Are we then Infidels? Is it really our punishment to feel insecurity? Are the terrorists merely delivering God's message to us?
Instant polls show that 90% of Americans approve of the bombing. I am in the bottom (or top?) 10%. Osama Ben Laden calls us "infidels," supposedly because we are not Muslim. But as Christians can we say that we are really respecting the Sabbath to choose this day to drop our bombs? Maybe it had more to do with our capitalism than our Christianity, to choose Sunday rather than Monday to disrupt American life with hours of news broadcasts and press conferences and commentaries. Today we can get back to work to keep the economy humming.
Already we are being prepared (propagandized) that if there is a terrorist action, it won't really be in response to our attack: it must have already been in the works, planned weeks and months, even years, ago. As if that will make us feel more secure!
News photos of Sunday's football games show spectators holding "revenge" signs. How much can that sentiment go to explain our decision to bomb? There is a very prevalent attitude in American culture that is unchristian, that believes in the principle of an eye-for-an-eye, that ignores Christ's teachings to "Love thy neighbor" and "Love thine enemies." The fact that we have abandoned almost entirely one of the Ten Commandments to rest on the Sabbath seems so much more trivial than this.
Are we then Infidels? Is it really our punishment to feel insecurity? Are the terrorists merely delivering God's message to us?
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