November/December 2001
Did America Have It Coming?
by Greg Albrecht
Death and destruction rained down on the streets of New York City. Firemen and policemen raced into danger, sacrificing their own lives. Desperate people decided to leap 90 stories to death on the streets below rather than burn to death. Suffering and mayhem overwhelmed us. The nation and the world stopped -- riveted to televisions and radios.
Questions. Confusion. Frustration. Who is our enemy? Is this the end? What will happen to the economy? Do Americans at large have the character to respond with courage and resolve? A line had been crossed -- our own shores had been invaded by an unspeakable evil. The best of times was yesterday. This was the worst of times.
"It looked like a scene from the end of the world" said one uninjured eyewitness. This attack on freedom and democracy caused many Americans -- and for that matter men and women throughout the world -- to note the similarities with Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
But while both December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001, were surprise attacks, the comparison ends quickly. In 1941, the enemy wore a uniform and flew airplanes under the flag of an aggressor nation state. In 1941, the then enemy of the United States followed convention and doctrine, attacking only military targets.
Photo credits from left: Stan Honda © AFP/CORBIS; (next
3 photos) Shannon Stapleton © Reuters NewMedia Inc./CORBIS; Peter
Morgan © Reuters NewMedia Inc./CORBIS.
| We thought we knew about terrorism. But we didn't know. We are vulnerable in ways that we had dared not allow ourselves to imagine. |
On September 11, 2001, the enemy of freedom and democracy cowardly lurked in the darkness, carefully coordinating an attack not only on American buildings, but unarmed American civilians. Terrorists flew hijacked American commercial airliners into these buildings just after the beginning of the working day, thus allowing for the ruthless and barbaric extermination of the maximum number of unprotected innocents.
The real beginning of the 21st century arrived nine months and eleven days late with a suicide-kamikaze surprise attack upon the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the symbol of American financial power. History alone will decide whether a new era arrived on that day, replete with all of its complexities and unknowns, via a cowardly and despicable act of war waged upon unarmed and unprepared civilians.
Warning Signs
We thought we knew about terrorism. But we didn't know. We are vulnerable in ways that we had dared not allow ourselves to imagine. This attack on America is a wake-up call and a reality check. Now Americans know about fear -- and the fear of fear.
A gathering storm of hatred and fanaticism in Durban, South Africa, gave at least one clear and present warning sign of what might come. Only one week before terrorists acted out hatred and insanity with hijacked American commercial airliners, the Durban conference on racism was hijacked by radicals who tried to turn the conference into a condemnation of Israel and the United States. Ironically, a conference on racism was turned into a platform for the most virulent and vicious racist attacks, with demands for reparations and the branding of Europe, Israel and the United States as racist and oppressor states.
But what about other issues left unexamined by the self-appointed nation states who acted as the judge and jury in Durban (with the executioners to follow one week later in New York)? The Taliban extremists in Afghanistan. The persecution and extermination of Christians in Sudan. Human rights abuses and repression of freedoms in China. Atrocities in North Korea. The brutalities and ruthless dictatorship of Sadam Hussein. The oppression of minorities of all kinds in many Arab countries.
The alignment of nation states in Durban was a clear precursor to what was to come. Bad doctrine and corrupt philosophical notions are often followed by immoral and perverted behaviors and actions. From flawed doctrine and corrupt notions in Durban one week, to the hatred unleashed upon New York and Washington D.C. the next week.
Perhaps we should have seen it coming. Perhaps American security, military and intelligence are to blame. Perhaps the Jews should have seen the Holocaust coming. Then again, perhaps we will never accurately predict how low sinful behavior can take human beings.
| The United States does not need to achieve moral perfection in order to identify and respond to this insane evil. |
The horrific holocaust-like catastrophe of September 11 was greeted by some Palestinians with jubilation, flag waving, the exchange of candy among strangers and by guns fired into the air.
Suffering had been inflicted upon "the Great Satan." And while many Arabs and some Palestinians quickly condemned Palestinian victory dances on the graves of innocent civilians in the United States, citizens in many less developed countries around the world generally agreed that "now the United States knows what it is to suffer."
Egyptian political analyst Gehad Auda noted that in-your-face Palestinian celebrations would rebound. "Celebration at the moment of grief is wrong, uncalled for and it's unwise. America before was undecided. Now America will be decided -- for the Israelis."
What Others Really Think
Maybe we now have a better idea about what the rest of the world really thinks of us. We already knew that millions desire to emigrate to the United States, and that in some ways the freedoms and prosperity North America enjoys are the envy of the world. But now we know that in some parts of the world America is viewed as the source of everything that is wrong, a source of moral pollution and erosion of values. A place of unrivaled materialism, of personal prosperity only dreamed about elsewhere, or at any time in recorded history.
Revenge is sweet when a constant diet of envy and hatred has fueled religious fanaticism and ethnic notions. Some of the cheering and dancing at news of the bloodletting of this insane terrorism was justified because some believed America "had it coming" -- as a result of our arrogance, corruption and immorality.
Of course America has its share of sins. We have much to be ashamed of. We have not provided a perfect moral role model for the world. America is not perfect. The exporting of American culture, music, styles and customs has in many cases not only failed to elevate human life, but degraded it. We should be big enough, and Christian enough, to know that America is not always right, nor is the rest of the world always wrong.
May God save us from misguided souls, sometimes masquerading in Christian clothing, who fulminate and thunder jingoism in the name of the Bible. May God have mercy on those who call for indiscriminate military strikes against any and all who do not believe in "the American way."
Blaming all Arabs or all who follow the Islamic faith would be nothing less than religious racism. Convicted criminals on death row in the United States do not represent the American people or Christianity. Those terrorists and those who assisted them do not represent Arabs or Muslims.
Christians should pause to remember that we too have killed in the name of God. Christian history is pock-marked with inquisitions, torture, the Crusades and anti-Semitism. We too know how to hate, and we have tried to justify it in the name of our Lord and Savior.
Yes, Christians should pause before throwing stones. Yes, we Americans have our flaws and problems, but the world should remember that American freedoms often allow those imperfections to be viewed by the world through a free press guaranteed by democracy. In all fairness, America is not the Great Satan.
Did God strike the United States because we have more sins, or too many sins? Is this catastrophe the judgment of God, using the terrorists as his weapons? No. Evil stalks this world, and it has once again fully manifested itself in a Hitler-like incarnation, inflicting the misery and suffering that always follows in the wake of evil.
The United States does not need to achieve moral perfection in order to identify the evil that gave birth to the events of September 11, 2001 -- or to carefully and confidently respond to this insane depravity. We know that the cause of combating evil, insanity and tyranny will be just. We must respond to such savage barbarism. May justice prevail and peace result because of military efforts planned as we go to press.
The day after the tragedy in New York and Washington D.C. I was encouraged to receive the following e-mail from a Christian ministry in India, titled "God bless the United States of America." Written by
Indian nationals, not by American expatriates, the message said, in part, "We are stunned to hear of the barbaric attack of the terrorists on New York and Washington. We pray that God will help the American government hunt and catch the culprits of this inhuman crime -- at the same time we pray that the culprits be redeemed from their Satanic views and bondage. May the Lord remember all the sacrifices American Christians have made for worldwide evangelism and reward you at this tragic time."
The Twin Towers...
And Another Tower
In the gospel of Luke, Jesus spoke of a catastrophe that was apparently well known to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. "Or those eighteen who died when the Tower of Siloam fell on them -- do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish" (Luke 13:4-5).
Were the passengers in the planes that were hijacked, flying airlines who bill themselves as "the friendly skies" and "something special in the air," more sinful than anyone else and thus deserve to die as their planes were deliberately flown into the World Trade Center or the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.? Were the office workers who were just arriving in their offices, and others in the vicinity who perished in the blazing inferno that followed this cowardly act of war more sinful than others? Are New Yorkers more sinful than workers in Chicago or Los Angeles? Or for that matter, Abilene or Sioux City?
Jesus tells us in the gospel of Luke that God does not use tragedies and catastrophes to single out those who are worse sinners than others. Jesus gives us insight and understanding by telling us what we can learn from disasters. Time is short for us all! While we may not die accidentally or in a catastrophic act of war, we will die one day. Are we ready to meet our Maker?
The act of war on mainland America on September 11, 2001, should not cause us to fear those who can kill our bodies, but not our souls (Matthew 10:28). There will always be criminals and terrorists who seek to intimidate and bully us into subservience. We should instead learn from this awful and horrific disaster that we can trust in God who comforts the downcast (2 Corinthians 7:6) and gives life to the dead (Romans 4:17).
May we all continue in prayer for the families and friends who lost their lives in the holocaust of September 11, 2001, another date that will forever live in infamy. And may God bless America.
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