Never Forget

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001 I turned on my car radio as I travelled to a morning prayer meeting at a local school. I sat in my van doubtfully listening to the events of the story continue to unfold. A second plane? Another incident with a plane elsewhere?

The hatred and physical violence perpetrated against the United States on September 11, 2001 is unprecedented. There haven't been many wars on "our" soil in the last 100 years and never has there been that kind of attack against innocent civilians in the USA. How can this be?

But the war did not begin that day. The war, waged by religious extremists simply spilled over onto our soil that day. This war has been raging since the 8th Century and prior, as a religion expands through physical force and murder. This war is being fought in the Sudan and all throughout Africa. This war, when reduced to rhetoric, has been lost by well-meaning people throughout Europe.

We forget about the lessons we learned on September 11 when:

• We hate a religious extemist. The lesson we learned? Hate the hate.
  
• We confuse forgiveness and consequences. It's ironic that in practice most "liberal" leaders want to forgive the extremists while imposing no consequences; most "conservatives" want to impose consequences without forgiveness. Lesson learned? Forgiveness and consequences co-exist in our hearts if we are wise and just.
  
• We trust our government (leaders, military, diplomacy). Lesson learned? Since the overthrowing of deceit is up to God, we must pray as if the entire enterprise is up to God because it is.
• We vote in our next election based on untried and unproven strategies. Lesson learned? Listen for this theme in your candidate's speeches: JUSTICE. I think Tony Blair got it right:

• "So what do we do?

  Don't overreact some say. We aren't.

  We haven't lashed out. No missiles on the first night just for effect.

  Don't kill innocent people. We are not the ones who waged war on the innocent. We seek the guilty.

  Look for a diplomatic solution. There is no diplomacy with Bin Laden or the Taliban regime.

  State an ultimatum and get their response. We stated the ultimatum; they haven't responded.

  Understand the causes of terror. Yes, we should try, but let there be no moral ambiguity about this: nothing could ever justify the events of 11 September, and it is to turn justice on its head to pretend it could.

  The action we take will be proportionate; targeted; we will do all we humanly can to avoid civilian casualties. But understand what we are dealing with. Listen to the calls of those passengers on the planes. Think of the children on them, told they were going to die.

  Think of the cruelty beyond our comprehension as amongst the screams and the anguish of the innocent, those hijackers drove at full throttle planes laden with fuel into buildings where tens of thousands worked.

  They have no moral inhibition on the slaughter of the innocent. If they could have murdered not 7,000 but 70,000 does anyone doubt they would have done so and rejoiced in it?

  There is no compromise possible with such people, no meeting of minds, no point of understanding with such terror.

  Just a choice: defeat it or be defeated by it. And defeat it we must

The above picture will never return. It's just a picture and it's just buildings. But together we must never forget how the changed landscape forces us to consider justice.

In closing, God can only forgive me because of justice. He had to hold Someone responsible, and punish that Someone to the full extent of the Law in order to justly forgive me. Don't gloss over the extent of my sin. Grace and justice exist side-by-side as lessons learned on 9-11. Never forget.