[Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Bulletin: September 16, 2001] Page: 1
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NOTES
Sunday, September 16, 2001
FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO
The operative word is retaliation
Jesus teaches us to love our enemies. He forgave the Jews and Romans even as they
executed Him. And His commandment to love even as He loved us is not limited to those
who treat us well. It is necessary that the criminals who planned and perpetrated the
crimes of last week be found and punished, and that action be taken against governments
which harbor them. But we must teach our children that 6-year-old Muhammad Amin is
not an enemy, nor his parents the target of our hatred. It is hard to be Christian in times
of crisis, but somebody has to try!
In this case we have no identifiable enemy. We have thrown around the name Osama
bin Laden, but as of this writing we cannot categorically accuse him. Nonetheless, we
have been attacked with deadly effectiveness by someone who hates us. And we are
angry—we are infuriated—we are eager to get to military readiness.
Most of the leaders of our government belong to churches. They exalt the name of
Jesus Christ on a routine basis. How can we harmonize our intent to follow the
principles of Jesus with an anger that may label all Muslims as evil, or that would bomb
Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq off the globe? Is our faith completely separate from the
matters of government?
It is a day no one can forget. We heard or read about the mass deaths in the
Galveston Hurricane of 1900, or the sinking of the Titanic, or the devastation of London
in the blitzkreig of World War II, or the destruction of masses in Hiroshima. But the
implosion of two 110-story buildings at the heart of American commerce and the
destruction of a major wedge of the Pentagon was made more horrible by our technology
of visualization. Last Tuesday we entered an ugly new level of warfare against entire
communities.
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Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church (Houston, Tex.). [Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Bulletin: September 16, 2001], pamphlet, September 16, 2001; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1338633/m1/3/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 13, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.