9/11 -- in 2010

9/11 -- in 2010

Redeeming the Time
A Sermon by Kent Winters-Hazelton
August 29, 2010
23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

[9-15-10]

Psalm 67

Colossians 4:2-6

On September 12, 2001, I paid a visit to the Claremont Islamic Center, in the community in Southern California where I was then serving as a pastor. I went to express my concern to the leaders of the Center in the light of the great anxiety raised by the events the day before, and to let them know of the service of lament being planned by the local ecumenical group the following night. As I talked with a group of the leaders, one of the assistants came up to me and said, “Father Kent, the phone is for you.” That little moment – being summons to the phone in a Mosque – always struck me as a remarkable “small-world” event.

The caller invited me to a planning meeting for a service that the Islamic Center was preparing for the week following the 9/11 tragedy. At that service, held in the courtyard of the Islamic Center, I was invited to say a few words. I mentioned the tradition of town hall meetings in New England where church bells would ring calling people together to talk about critical issues facing the community. In my words I said that the Claremont Islamic Center was a ringing a bell in our community, calling us to walk together through those troubling and fight-filled days, and to ultimately build toward better understanding between our faith traditions and toward a stronger, more tolerant community.

It seems to me that someone should ring the church bells again, so that we might have an honest national conversation about the proposed Islamic Cultural Center in New York City.

For three weeks, opponents of the Center have made the most outrageous and unsubstantiated claims about the Center, its purpose and its founder. More recent voices, reflecting a balanced view of the facts, have spoken out in support of the project and the place of Muslims in American culture. Nonetheless, it has been reported that 61% of Americans oppose the building of this project a few blocks away from the site of ground zero.

Over the past three years, we here at this church have spoken often on the religious diversity of our world and our nation. Our congregation was one of the first to support “The Faith Club” initiative. Through this interfaith project we brought to Lawrence three women – Jewish, Muslin and Christian – who shared with us how they have wrestled with the insights, common ground and diverse perspectives of their respective faith traditions. Two years ago, I preached on a world-wide movement among scholars and preachers of the Islamic and Christian traditions. The movement is called “A Common Word.” It begins with the recognition of the common core values of our sacred texts and teachings, such as centrality of serving God and loving our neighbors. The Common Word movement is building a foundation for moderate Muslim leaders to speak up and challenge the violence done to their faith tradition by the Jihadist movements. And in our preaching, Mary and I (and Phyllis during her tenure among us) have spoken clearly and frequently of our belief and understanding that God is God of all the peoples; that each person is loved equally by God and guided in life in the same way as any other person is; and that there is only one God, whom we (as Christians) have come to understand and experience in part in the person, work, sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but toward whom others may find different pathways and resources of truth.

The proposed Islamic Center divides Americans. There are families with loved ones who perished at the Twin Towers who support the project, and other family members who oppose it. We have Republicans and Democrats who have spoken against it and those who have spoken for it. Even the President has presented mixed messages about the proposal. People are drawing conclusions based on emotions that have been rushing fast, far ahead of the facts. Emotions on all side run raw.

Let me suggest, however, that our reading this morning from Colossians 4 may offer some guidance for us as Christians, as we sort out our feelings about this momentarily explosive issue. In verses 5 and 6 Paul writes:

Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.

When Paul mentions “outsiders” he is talking those who are not part of our faith tradition. He tells us in rather plain language that we should be gracious as we live our life and our faith among others. He said, use a little salt. When the Bible talks about salt it is as a preservative, keeping meats usable, and a seasoning that brings out some of the flavor of the relationship.

But it is the little phrase at the end of verse five that catches my eye in this context. Paul says, “Make the most of the time.” At first glance, that phrase might not mean very much. But this is one of those texts where the King James Version translates this in a wonderfully descriptive way. Here the KJV says, “Redeeming the time.”

That is what I think a Christian community is called to do in this delicate age: we are called to redeem the time as God’s time among God’s people. When I think of God’s people in this context it includes us, and it includes our neighbors and our enemies; it includes those who worship God in ways that are different from our ways, and who encounter the mystery of the sacred and in ways that help us comprehend the breadth of the divine in our world.

So let us think for a moment about what it means to “redeem the time,” especially as it relates to the controversy in New York. Let me offer some perspective as I have thought about this issue as a Christian pastor, and as one who believes with the psalmist that God’s saving power is with all the nations. [Psalm 67:4]

First, I think the hostile reaction to the Islamic Culture Center is driven by a false understanding as to who our enemy is. President George W. Bush made that point abundantly clear in the days following 9/11 when he said we are not in a war with Islam. The enemy in this war is Al Qaida and similar radical extremists. Al Qaida is an aberration of Islam as it has been practiced for fourteen centuries. To say that those who perpetrated the tragedy of Pennsylvania, Arlington, VA and New York City represent Islam is to say that hate-filled activities of Fred Phelps accurately express your faith in Jesus Christ. Four out of every five Muslims live in Africa and Asia, and have no connection with the radical Islamo-fascism of Al-Qaida. Furthermore, President Bush accurately noted that Islam is a religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims in the world utterly reject the movement the violence espoused by Bin-Laden and his ilk.

Second, the hostile reaction to the proposed center falsely characterizes the man who is behind the project. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has been a leading Islamic voice for religious understanding and interfaith dialogue for more than 25 years. One commentator suggested that Imam Rauf is closer to new age guru Deepak Chopra than any radical Islamic cleric. Newsweek has reported that Imam Rauf has “routinely denounced all terrorism,” and calls for Muslims to live peacefully with all religions. He advocates equal rights for women and argues against laws that punish non-Muslims. Mr. Rauf is such a moderate that the United States State Department (under Presidents Bush and Obama) regularly sends him as an emissary to Muslim countries to preach peace, co-existence and dialogue – including such a trip this past week.

The original name for the project was the Cordoba House, named for a time of enlightenment in 9^th Century Spain, where the Islamic leader encouraged perhaps the greatest period of interfaith cooperation the globe has ever known. And yet even that clear signal of the founder’s intention has been skewed by opponents to represent some type of Islamic hegemony over America.

Fareed Zakaria, who writes on foreign policy issues for Newsweek, pointed out that if there is going to be a reformist movement in Islam it is going to emerge from programs and people like this. He went on to argue that we should be encouraging the people behind the movement, and not demonizing them. Indeed, we have seen video clips where the Imam and his project were lauded on the Bill O’Reilly show, and by Glenn Beck, as the type of “good muslim” that our world needs.

Third, the hostile reaction betrays a sacred value of the American people. Being an American means holding tight to our values and to our constitutional freedoms and to the rule of law. The very idea that we are questioning whether a nation that prides itself on religious tolerance and freedom of speech might deny its own citizens those very same rights is absurd and self-defeating. Speaking on this, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said,

We betray our values and play into our enemy’s hands if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else…. To cave to popular sentiment would be to hand victory to the terrorists.

Miroslav Volf is one of the Christian theologians behind the Common Word movement. He is on the faculty of Yale Divinity School. He’s a Croatian, an army veteran, and he experienced perhaps the most lethal racial and religious hatred in his native land, a conflict that gave the world “ethnic cleansing,” maybe the ugliest phrase in our language. In his book, Exclusion and Embrace, he talks about how racial, national, and religious divisions and hatreds erupt so easily into lethal violence. But in the midst of that, there is a powerful message of hope. Volf writes,

We need the grand vision of life filled with the Spirit of God. We need reminders that the impossible is possible. But along with grand visions we need stories of small successful steps of learning to live together. The grand vision and the small stories will keep us on the journey.

Let us hear again, the words of our Psalm this morning:

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make God’s face to shine upon us, that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

As the anniversary of 9/11 draws near, anti-Islamic rants are growing louder, and in some cases more threatening. We will be posting a number of comments, and calls for action, on this page. [9-7-10]

If you have thoughts to share --
or would like to point us to other readings,
please send a note!

Click here for some of our earlier posts on 9/11

NCC's Kinnamon joins with interfaith summit to address fear and intolerance toward Muslims [9-8-10]

See a stream of the September 7 press conference on C-Span at
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/295331-1

Washington, September 7, 2010 -- A high ranking group of U.S. interfaith leaders, including the general secretary of the National Council of Churches, assembled here today to condemn plans in Florida to burn the Holy Qu'ran on Saturday, and to decry incidents of violence committed against innocent Muslims.

The leaders noted the "anti-Muslim frenzy" that has existed in the U.S. since plans were announced to build an Islamic Community Center at the Park 51 site in Manhattan two blocks from the site of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

But the uproar over the Park 51 community center is only one aspect of the overall problem of anti-Islamic attitudes and actions across the country, the leaders said.

In a press conference at the National Press Club, Dr. Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of America (ISNA), said Muslims in America report the highest degree of anxiety they have felt since September 11, 2001. More >>

John Shuck recounts "My 9/11 story ... so far ..."
[9-7-11]

The Rev. John Shuck, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Elizabethton, Tennessee, commented on September 11, 2006 on the discussion then raging on our website (and many others) about charges that the attack on the World Trade Center and other targets was actually a "conspiracy" managed out of the Bush White House.

On the morning of September 11th, my daughter who was in high school at the time called me at the church office and told me to turn on the television because the World Trade Center had been hit by airplanes. In the church kitchen the staff and I and others who happened to be in the church building that morning watched the television reports and saw both buildings collapse.

As the day progressed I realized that the church community would need to have some kind of gathering for reflection and prayer. We contacted all of our members and invited the community through the media. We put together a service for the next day, September 12th.

By that time the spin had already begun. I didn't know it was spin at the time. The spin was that we were attacked by Muslim terrorists. Even then, one of my largest concerns was that this attack could start a desire for rage and revenge against Muslim people.

In the service I included a reading from the Qur'an and in my homily, I said:

This is a day of mourning for the victims of the unspeakable violence yesterday in New York City and at our nation's capitol. We stand with those who have lost loved ones with deep sorrow. Our sorrow will never reach the depths as that which has been experienced by those who have lost fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, wives, husbands, life partners, children, loved ones.

The act of terror and violence against innocent people is inexcusable. There is no reason under heaven for an act so cowardly and so despicable as violence against innocent men, women, and children. Violence at this magnitude is beyond horror. It is not justified now, nor ever. The scars will remain with us for as long as any of us here will live as well as with the lives of our children and our children's children.

He concluded:

We must pray for [a] miracle. Else I fear for the survival of the human species. I do not think that I overstate that concern. Our technology and our weapons of destruction and our vulnerability to misuse them is so great that we human beings could make for our own destruction unless we learn the difficult, the courageous, the humble, the Christ-like way of peace.

To love our enemies does not mean that we do not do everything in our power to end violence and to bring the doers of violence to justice, and sometimes that requires force. Force blessed and enacted by the agreement of nations united for peace. To love our enemy means that we recognize that we become the enemy we despise when we let that hatred and rage consume us. We are to love our enemy for ourselves as much as the enemy.

I read passages from the Hebrew Psalter, the Muslim Qu'ran, and the Christian Gospel to demonstrate that these three great and peaceful religions are just that--great and peaceful. The people who faithfully pray and practice their beliefs around the world all want the same thing we do--to live in peace with neighbor, to seek happiness, to enjoy life, to live freely. We must not let those few who insist on violence to destroy that hope of peace and freedom that God has planted within our souls.

In these critical days and weeks to come, the leaders of our nation and of the world need our prayers to work a miracle. May we pray for that miracle each day. As followers of Jesus we can do no less.

And now he writes:

We did a lot less. What I preached against is exactly what has happened. Two wars, the trashing of civil liberties, media paranoia regarding "terrorism", demonization of Muslims, and the refusal to look for truth.

For all of his thoughtful reflection on 9/11, and the continuing significance of the growing energy crisis, click here.

Christian and Muslim groups denounce ‘burn Quran’ initiative

[9-8-10]

Ecumenical News International, by Chris Herlinger

NEW YORK, AUGUST 19, 2010

Christian and Muslim groups have condemned a planned public burning of the Quran by a Florida church on the 9th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

A statement released by the Protestant Churches of Egypt through the United Church of Christ last week said it “regrets this destructive thought and declares total rejection of any attack against others’ religions and beliefs.”

It said Christian teaching encourages cooperation and “respect for others regardless [of] their affiliation or religion, and every person of all mankind is seen as a brother.”

The statement was in reference to a planned action by the Dove World Outreach Center, a Florida-based institution that calls itself a “New Testament Church.”

The center plans to publicly burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11 in a protest against Islam, which it says “is of the devil.” The church also refers to the Quran as “a lie.”

It says “Christians are called to live and speak the truth, and to tear down the strongholds of the kingdom of darkness.” The protest has spawned an “International Burn a Koran Day” page on the social networking site Facebook.

The Egyptian church said in response it would work with other religious bodies to denounce the planned action.

In a statement to mark the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the U.S. National Council of Churches and other bodies decried “anti-Muslim actions and plans” such as those of the Dove center and the “International Burn a Koran Day” initiative.

“Such open acts of hatred are not a witness to Christian faith, but a grave trespass against the ninth commandment, a bearing of false witness against our neighbor,” the statement said. “They contradict the ministry of Christ and the witness of the church in the world.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based group, has said it is responding to the Florida church’s planned action by distributing copies of the Quran to journalists, public officials, law enforcement authorities and others during Ramadan.

“Islamophobia is being promoted by a vocal minority of individuals and groups that seek to marginalize American Muslims and demonize Islam,” CAIR spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper recently told the Cairo-based Daily News Egypt. “CAIR believes it is important to challenge the rising level of anti-Islam sentiment in American society.”

CAIR has said it is increasingly concerned about protests and public sentiments against the construction of mosques and Islamic cultural centers in the United States.