The weeks leading up to today’s anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks have not been good for America. The overblown, often irresponsible rhetoric concerning both the building of a mosque near Ground Zero and – unbelievably – whether it is appropriate for Christians to burn copies of the Quran, have presented an ugly face to the world. Both of these issues have received far more attention than they deserve, but that seems to be the inevitable consequence of living in a media-driven culture. In my estimation, we have dishonored the memory of the 3,000 who lost their lives in the terror attacks nine years ago.
As a Christian pastor, I am gravely concerned. Our nation’s struggle for the last nine years has been against terrorism, not Islam. Yet, there are Christians in this country and Muslims elsewhere who do not represent anything more than a tiny fringe element in their religious traditions, but who are also loud, crave attention, know how to get it, and who fervently desire an all-out Holy War between Christianity and Islam. It would be a tragedy of unspeakable proportions if future historians were to write about the early 21st century as the age of a global religious struggle that resulted from self-fulfilling prophecy.
It is time for faithful people with cooler heads to get loud themselves, denounce these fringe elements, and very publicly fulfill the command to love our neighbors. Christians and Muslims are neighbors, maybe more so in America than just about anywhere else in the world. To live together in peace is to follow a basic commandment of all the monotheistic faiths. It does not require us to worship together, or to renounce those elements of our respective faiths that are in conflict with each other. It doesn’t mean that we cannot have substantive theological disagreements. But we must still love one another.
The presence of Islam does not threaten my Christian faith one bit. Sharing the public square with the people of other faiths does not change who Christ is, nor does it diminish the presence of Christ in the world. If, however, I choose to hate my neighbor and make him my enemy because he does not share my religious faith, I diminish myself, dishonor Christ, and bring shame to the Christian witness.
Americans often mark the yearly remembrance of 9/11 by singing “God Bless America.” Right now, that request sounds a tad presumptuous. “God help us” is more like it. God forgive us – especially people of faith who either promote hate or fail to denounce it. And God help the followers of your Son Jesus Christ to love one another, our neighbors, the strangers among us, and even our enemies, for this is what Christ commanded.
Copyright 2010 by J. Mark Lawson
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