Rev. Elizabeth Moreau
Sep 14, 20126 min
taken from Inquirer News www.inquirer.com
This Week was the eleventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on American soil. I am not sure what there is to say about that that has not already been said. The day passed without my watching any coverage
of September 11, 2001, much less any commentary. Last year on the tenth
anniversary, I made my grandson watch several documentaries about the
events of that day so he would know and remember. He was three years
old at the time. It would be nice if we could simply set the day aside
as one among many in the history of our nation, but that day was not.
He needs to know and understand, and he needs to know and understand
more than just the sequence of events. There was more to the attacks
than a handful of angry men.
I did read about the attacks on American embassies in Egypt and Libya.
Especially Libya. The ambassador was murdered by suffocation, and three
others were shot. Apparently, some Egyptian Christians living in the US
made a film that was perceived to be an offense against Mohammad. Hamid
Karzai, president of Afghanistan, spoke out strongly against the film,
identifying the film as “inhuman and abusive” as opposed to the killing
of Americans. This would be the same Afghanistan where our troops are
stationed to maintain and protect Karzai’s own presidency and power as
that nation is supposedly stabilized and eradicated of the greatest
threats to America. I get the logic of why our military is there. I
just fear the starting point of the thought process was faulty. If we
do not start with reality, we cannot possibly prepare a functional,
much less successful, plan of action. In other words, we cannot get
from A to B if we start at C, especially if C doesn’t really exist.
Therein lies our problem.
We truly believe that all people desire freedom. I do. I believe that.
But our very idea of freedom is rooted in Christian faith – that all
people were endowed with certain unalienable rights by their Creator.
That is a statement with which I wholeheartedly concur. The problem is
that not everyone believes in the same Creator. Oh, we like to believe
that all religions are the same, but if they were, there would not be
more than one religion. If all religions were the same, I am pretty
sure we would have picked up on that little piece of information
somewhere in the last fourteen hundred years, or last two thousand
years, or five thousand years. Au contraire…
The basis of American freedom has moved from a Christian foundation to
a philosophical basis, that somehow, inherent in every human being, is
this burning desire for freedom, narrowly defined as the individual
right to do whatever one wants, so long as no one else gets hurt. The
Christian idea of freedom does not dare such a broad definition. Some
of the things we want are very self-destructive, particularly in light
of the Christian understanding of a human being. But that is not
everyone’s idea of the meaning of being human, not even every
Christian’s idea. Moreover, that understanding of the being of humanity
does not exist outside of Christianity, although Judaism is very
similar.
Afghan President Karzai went on to say that the film “caused enmity and
confrontation between the religions and cultures of the world.” That is
the salient point we cannot seem to grasp. Karzai has a clearer picture
of reality than we do. All religions do not believe in the same
Creator, and thus, all religions have a different understanding of the
human being, meaning, the function and purpose of human life are
different. The idea that all human beings want the freedom of the
American human being is wrongheaded, as in, false. This is the “C”
starting point that doesn’t really exist. People want the freedom
defined by their creator, however they perceive that creator. Nothing
more decisively reveals this truth than the fact that the two nations
most recently liberated to democracy – Egypt and Libya – are currently
attacking all things American, starting with our embassies on their
soil.
It would be wonderful if we could simply all be friends and get along,
but friendship is dependent upon common denominators. Everyone
understands that a loving husband and wife devoted to caring for and
tending to their children is plenty of common ground for friendship, be
the family in the US or in Egypt. Yet, this ideal is just that – the
ideal. Loving parents devoted to children is the ideal; it’s not even
the reality in the US in too many cases. Finally, friendship can only
be as strong as mutual respect, and mutual respect demands common
understanding. None of us understands that a loving father can offer
his own child as a suicide bomber, for example, while that father is
convinced his son is being offered to the highest and best good.
Likewise, it would be wonderful if everyone were simply educated enough
to see things the “right” way – our way. As George Orwell succinctly
pointed out, “Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals can
believe them.” Having been to seminary, which I naively assumed was a
holy or blessed place, I have known intellectuals who believe some
really stupid ideas, and nothing breeds a hotbed of distrust and
conflict like disagreement over ultimate things, that is, the meaning
of life, of God, of creation. In the hallowed halls of religious
academia, I witnessed professors lying, manipulating, and plotting for
positions of influence and power, seeking to dominate and impose their
various schools of thought on the school as a whole. Perhaps that is
where my own view was formed. Without a common starting place, without
an “A” from which to begin, we will never get to “B” together. And that
is precisely my point: we cannot “get along” with people who view the
world entirely differently than we do. We can be respectful enough to
leave them to their own lives, but we cannot create a “C” alternative
because it does not exist. However, even the idea of mutual respect is
tenuous at best, dangerous at worst, i.e.: Egypt and Libya.
Of course, there is our confidence in American trade and products to
keep peace. That works to some extent, but consider this: missionaries
have gone into countries and built water wells to provide villages with
easy access, only to have those same wells destroyed as they leave
because the people want nothing to do with America or Christianity.
Beyond that, the international influence of the mighty dollar is waning
rapidly as the dollar flows ever faster on the current leading to a
crashing waterfall.
So, what am I trying to say? Just this… It would be wonderful if
reality were something different than it is, but reality simply is. No
amount of education, communication, or fiscal policy will ever change
human nature. Only Jesus Christ can change human nature. Only Jesus
Christ has the power to transform what is sinful and/or evil and turn
it into something good. Our high ideals of civilized humanity have led
us to a place of unreality, a “C” that doesn’t exist. Eventually,
sooner or later, there will be war. That is the way of human beings.
Jesus knew that. Not only did He say there would be war, He said war
must happen. When war comes, we either will conquer or be conquered.
That is the way of war. No one sacrifices one’s own life for the idea
that ‘it’s all about me and my happiness,’ the prevailing American idea
of freedom. That mindset does not bode well for our future.
The utopia we so desperately and high-mindedly yearn to create in our
world is not attainable. If only it were so… If only reality were
something different than what it is. But reality is what it is, and no
amount of wishful thinking or sophisticated philosophy will ever change
it. It would be helpful if we could come to terms with reality. Only
then will we be able to do what we can within the limitations of
humanity, and if our humanity is imbued with the Spirit of God, there
is much we can do. We cannot create a utopia, but we can bring the
Kingdom of God to where we are, and we can bring Jesus Christ to others
that they too might have a new life, transformed by the Holy Spirit.
That is as close to utopia as we are going to get, at least until the
end comes.
Am I a pessimist? I prefer to think not. My prayer is that I see the
world as our Creator sees the world, full of vast and noble potential,
but plagued by sin and evil – in short, in need of a Savior to become a
place of goodness, justice, and peace. That is, as a Christian, as
realistic as I can be. One day, there will be no more sorrow, or
crying, or pain, or death. Until then, I think we would do well to live
with reality as it is rather than as something we wish it were.
In Christ –
Elizabeth Moreau
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