A Look Back

As the 10^th anniversary of September 11^th approaches I can’t help but think of where I was when it happened and more importantly how those events changed the world and the Church.

I was in fifth grade that September. We had had just finished taking a math test and the class clowns were chasing each other around the room, somehow they managed to turn the TV on. We all thought that it was a movie, we just sat there in our seats waiting for our teacher to shut the TV off but he never did. Instead he walked out of the room, before he left he told all of us to stay in our seats. We were all  excited, sure we had the best 5^th grade teacher ever, but being able to watch a movie in the middle of the day was not something we were accustomed to. A few minutes later he came back into the room and asked us if we knew what we were watching, we had no idea. Before he could say anything else the principle came over the loud speaker and told us that recess had been canceled and that that no one was to turn on the TV’s in their classrooms. We all realized that something was wrong, we waited for our teacher to shut the TV off but he never did. Instead he explained to us that what we were watching wasn’t a movie. He told us about the Muslim terrorists, but none of us understood what he was talking about. When I was in fifth grade the only things we cared about were gel pens and Harry Potter. When I got home my mother sat my little sister and me down and told us about the Muslim terrorists, she called them “towel heads”, had killed Americans. That Sunday in church the sermon was about Muslims; they were demon possessed, their god commanded them to kill Christians, and that we should not be friends with them.

Everyone talks about how 9/11 changed America, but no one talks about how 9/11 changed the Church. The events of September 11, 2001 were horrible and many innocent lives were lost as a result, but the events that happened shortly after and continue to happen are even more horrific.

Ever since 9/11 the church I grew up in and churches like it have committed many acts of terror. A terrorist is defined as one who employs terror. Telling children that all Muslims want to kill them terrifies children. Telling adults that Muslims want to kill them and their children terrifies adults. Pastors across America have been spreading terror to members of their congregations. Sadly many of the members have followed in the footsteps of their leaders.

Countless Mosques have been vandalized. Countless Muslims have been harassed, many physically, by “Christians”. Many people have closed their minds when it comes to the Islamic faith and anything associated with it. When the community center, the purpose of which was to bring peace, was proposed to be built a few blocks away from Ground Zero, “Christians” showed up with signs saying, “All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11.” What if it was a church that was being built there instead and Muslims showed up with signs that said, “All I need to know about Christianity I learned from the Crusades.” or “All I need to know about Christianity I learned from Fred Phelps.”

Jesus came to bring peace to all people. To be a Christian is to be a follower of Jesus. To be a Christian is to be a peacemaker. Protesting things that bring peace is not being a Christian. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.”

go in PEACE. live PEACE. be PEACE.