 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
On September 11, 2001 a man-made disaster of unimaginable dimensions rocked our nation. As I watched the news, I could hardly believe that I was witnessing airliners crash into the twin towers of the world trade center, and then watching them crumble to the ground as if a giant kid was disassembling his lego set. I was further rendered speechless when I saw the huge gaping hole in the pentagon wrought by another airplane deliberately used as a missile. At the hands of terrorists a manner of evil we never thought we’d be the beneficiaries of on our own land had struck us. In the ensuing days I was gripped, almost paralyzed by the news coverage and the stories of the lives that had been lost. My mind numbed brain tried desperately to process what had occurred and its meaning. I watched the news coverage and listened to various radio programs. In truth they were clueless as well, but there was one story that caught my interest. It was the one in which Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson concluded that God was upset with America because of her various transgression ranging from homosexuality to abortion and so had removed his protection from us.
There is a fallacy to this conclusion and way of thinking. First of all if God wanted to get back at the people who committed the various cited transgressions, it seems to me that he would just specifically target those people in such a way that it would be difficult to mistake it for being anything but an act of God. I think it’s safe to assume that many of the victims of the terrorist acts may not have fit any of the categories listed by Falwell and were perhaps Christians themselves. Secondly, such statements assume that America is living under an Old Testament covenant with God like that which he established with Israel. This is a line of thinking I’ve had some trouble with since hearing it espoused by many Christians who think America is in the moral mess that it is in because she has turned her back on God in such ways as taking prayer out of school. America is not an entity in and of itself, but a place inhabited by various kinds of people with various ideas and beliefs. I do not dispute that when America was settled by the colonists they brought with them their Judeo-Christian beliefs which set the foundations of the nation. But these same beliefs arguably provided for a constitution which allowed people to believe contrary to Christian doctrines and principles. The founding fathers (in my view) were not trying to establish a Christian nation in which everyone born in the country or coming into the country had to be a Christian and observe Judeo-Christian ways at, if need be, the penalty of death. To do so would have been defeating the purpose of not having a country where you had to conform to the rules and dictates of the Church of England; Thus, the mindset for the concept of the separation of church and state without nullifying the free exercise of religion clause.
It is the free exercise of religion clause which would, down the line, launch the primary Christian religion of early times into competition with other religions and ways of thinking that perhaps the founding fathers could not imagine if they were here today as we would could not imagine the wicked acts of the terrorist. This is the paradox of America. The very freedom that we cherish is the freedom which has brought us to the shallow morality of modern times. The problems which Falwell maintains afflicts America is born not of a country out of sync with the God they promised to love and serve, but abandoned, but is born out of a failure of those who serve a holy God to influence via changed hearts the culture around them. God has already conducted the experiment of legislating morality by law and shelved it for a covenant of grace where his laws are written on people’s heart. Therefore, how can we as a country somehow deserve God’s blessing and protection before the terrorist act when if we were observing the law of God we had no doubt broken it from the inception of the nation.
Many people have asked why this has happened? I asked why had it not happened before? I do believe that God has blessed America and kept our borders safe for a long time. I do not believe it is because we were doing something right as a Christian nation. Our historical past would contradict that view as we have allowed in society evil to take place against various groups namely what occurred with the Native Americans and the Black Americans with slavery and Jim Crow and no doubt other things if you look but casually. I believe that God blessed America because of the genuine Christians who were here in times past and present and as a part of his purpose and plan for the future of the world, his return and eventual rule and reign. The word of God is powerful. Its use in the hands of a few can translate into the benefit of the many, even non-believers and scoffers. A positive aspect of the tragedy of September 11 is that those who had forgotten there is a God in heaven remembered there is a God in heaven. As the nation sang God bless America and Old Beautiful and cried over our loss it is not hard to think that God blessed us not because of who we are, but in spite of it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
