Confused by Terror
Mark Tooley on Liberal Theology & September 11
On September 11, thousands of Americans were murdered by fascist terrorists who seek to extinguish free speech, reduce women to robed chattel, drive out all infidels, and stone to death all the adulterers and sodomites. Liberal churches and their spokesmen might be expected to be outraged about such an incident, but their anger has been strangely missing or muted.
Of course, they conveyed their shock at the attacks and their grief at the loss of life. But many on the Religious Left treat the butchery of September 11 as merely a “tragedy,” on par with a massive earthquake, a famine, or a disease epidemic.
In their statements, they avoid dwelling on the awful details of the event: the numbers of dead and the manner of their death, the identity and motives of the attackers. Perhaps because these religious leaders are so worried about their fellow Americans being consumed by bloodlust and vengeance, they do not allow themselves any thoughts that might stimulate such base instincts.
They hurry to issue calls for “healing,” “reconciliation,” and a renewed determination to build “community” before they have even assessed the forces that disrupted the community. Without troubling themselves to find the proximate causes of the terrorist attacks, they are eager to identify the “root causes” of terrorism. Predictably, these root causes are not radical Islam but rather US foreign policy.
Liberal Justice
The liberal church officials have called for “justice” to be administered to the terrorists. But they instantly ruled out any US military response. Several denounced the US actions in Afghanistan. “Justice” in their minds seems to mean United Nations resolutions and possibly a trial before an international tribunal. Perhaps a delegation could be sent to Afghanistan to hand Mr. bin Laden a polite note: “Would you please come with us to the Hague? We’re sure the handcuffs will not be necessary.”
One official has actually suggested that all “punishment” is a form of “violence” and therefore unacceptable. He favored a public confrontation between victims and perpetrators. In Oprah Winfrey style, the victims would “share their feelings” with the terrorists. Perhaps the perpetrators would not repent, he admitted, but at least the confrontation might be an example to others. Of course, at least 3,000 victims and 19 terrorists would be unable to attend.
Many liberal church leaders have wondered how the United States could be so hated. And they know the answer to their own question: Of course, the cause for such hatred must be US support for Israel, US-led sanctions against Iraq, and centuries of Western “intervention” in the Middle East. It is convenient that Osama bin Laden’s pet peeves about America so neatly mirror their own.
The bishops of the Episcopal Church, along with a United Methodist official, have even likened the assaults of September 11 to the deaths of children around the world from malnutrition, which they regard as morally equivalent to terrorism. The implication is that terrorism, like famine, can be handled by stepped-up international good will. They imply that terrorism, as well as famine, is fueled by Western greed and callousness.
Religious leaders have, appropriately, expressed concern that Muslims and Arabs in America not be targeted by vigilantes. They have also, more dubiously, suggested that such private, racist vengeance is common in America, a land already supposedly teeming with “hate crimes.” Of course, they don’t realize the irony that September 11 was itself an unprecedented hate crime. The victims were targeted simply because they were Americans, not because they belonged to any particular racial or religious group.
Mark Tooley directs the United Methodist committee of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (www.ird-renew.org) in Washington, D.C.
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