As the salt flavors every drop in the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of our nature. It is so sadly there, so abundantly there, that if you cannot detect it, you are deceived.
C.H. Spurgeon

A Number of Pastors Display Woeful Degree of Strategy

A Number of Pastors Display Woeful Degree of Strategy

by Anonymous on 2001-09-25 00:04:10

Proverbs 29:18 reads, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” If a story published in the September 16, 2001 edition of the Washington Post regarding the kinds of sermons preached in DC Metropolitan Area churches following the terrorist attack upon the United States is any indication, it would seem that the undershepherds of these flocks may be leading the sheep considerably astray regarding the proper Christian response to these historic events causing catastrophic loss of life at both the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

These homiletical criticisms of the nation take two basic forms. Both pretty much place the fault for this calamity and responsibility for the probable response squarely on the shoulders of the American people.

[This is a thought-provoking article – ed] The first theological condemnation contends the attack is judgment from God for the sin and social decay rampant throughout American society. Such argumentation is open to interpretation and requires more careful analysis.

Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.”

Instead of blaming those that died, the United States as a whole, or by assigning God the negative p.r. which this line of reasoning ultimately does, the theologically responsible conclusion to draw would proffer that this tragedy ought to serve as a wakeup call to certain trends festering at the heart of American culture. Already the rush towards hyphenated Americanism is being reevaluated by minorities with any degree of wits about them. Already the debate has been settled as to whether or not America can withstand paralyzing reductions in its defense and intelligence resources. No longer can the United States afford to admit every teary-eyed foreigner who comes knocking on the door of our borders or in many cases caught breaking-in through the unwatched windows of state.

To proclaim the tragedy an act of judgment is to assume a degree of divine understanding no mortal can fully possess. The last time I checked, there are more devout Christians living within the United States than the bombed-out hell-holes of the Middle East from which this human slime oozed forth.

Relatedly, with the number of dead and missing in this attack being so high, it is statistically safe to say a number of committed Christians could be found among the ranks of the departed. Do they deserve to die because of some pornographer in Hollywood?

While this incident serves as a reminder of our need to rely upon God and recognize the fleeting nature of this earthly existence, one perceptive caller to C-SPAN remarked we have not forgotten God so much as these lunatic bombers have. What we have in this incident is an example of humans — in this case the terrorists — abusing their own free wiils rather than an act of divine wrath.

The above matter is primarily a matter of interpretation as individuals struggle to discern the meaning of these perplexing events, and those making them such as Jerry Falwell will no doubt come on board to support an appropriate measured response. The greater concern lies with those formulating policies through more-skewered theological constructs that would inhibit the United States from taking the action needed to protect both the people and the territory of the nation.

For example, the Pastor of Hughes Memorial Methodist Church is quoted by the September 16, 2001 edition of the Washington Post as dichotomizing the decision faced by the United States as between peace or revenge.

The Pastor of Western Presbyterian Church in the DC neighborhood of Foggy Bottom spoke along these same lines by characterizing the path set before the nation as one of either revenge or justice. This Presbyterian went even further in his comments by classifying this atrocity as a crime rather than an act of war. As such, a military response would be an inappropriate act of vengeance.

Obviously, neither of these clergymen lost a close loved one in the attack.

Can anyone tell me where the justice would be in allowing Bin Ladin to live out the rest of his days in a cushy jail cell watching cable TV serving out a life sentence since these whiney peaceniks usually oppose the death penalty as well? Those preferring this course of action are so disgustingly to the left they’d probably bestow First Amendment rights upon Bin Ladin to grant media interviews and issue fatwahs from behind bars.

Those failing to see the attacks upon the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as an act of war would be forced to oppose America’s response to Pearl Harbor as well, with the results being the enslavement of Asia by Japan, the eradication of European Jewry, and the triumph of totalitarianism around the globe if America had yielded to such dimwitted defense policies.

Romans 13:4 says, “For he [referring to civil rulers] is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”

This is not to say that the every thing the government does is right or that those operating in its name have not infringed upon the rights of innocent citizens from time to time. But this particular incident of evil is so egregious in nature that one almost has to question the sanity of anyone standing in the way of action in terms of justice being inflicted upon the guilty.

The international arena has been called a system of “ordered anarchy”. Fortunately, for now we do not have a planetary government since those running it would end up being as bad as Osama Bin Ladin or probably worse in a far more subtle way. Thus much like the towns during the frontier days of the American West, occasionally just nations of goodwill must take action against the brigands on the block by running the rascals out of town or by stringing them up at sundown.

A carefully thought out response targeted at guilty parties is not revenge. Revenge is characterized by lashing out in rage blinded to all logic or reason as epitomized by those who have engaged in acts of violence directed at innocent individuals of Middle Eastern or West Asian descent. Such actions are clearly wrong, just as wrong as failing to take the military and intelligence steps needed to decrease the likelihood of these events or even worse incidents from transpiring again in the future.

Removed from much of the struggle of normal life, many pastors — especially those in denominations discounting the ravages of sin upon human nature — mistakenly assume everyone else comports themselves with the same degree of dignity, honor, and sophistication as required by their own ecclesiastical callings.

One pastor and professor remarked on the PBS program “Religion and Ethics News Weekly” that these terrorists are sinners just like the rest of us. Maybe so in the sense of Romans 3:23 which says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” But frankly though, my own transgressions have not directly contributed to the deaths of over 6,000 people. One cannot insinuate that because no one is perfect that the United States is obligated to take it easy on these mass murderers.

These fanatics do not comport themselves by the common standards of decency that even the most licentious and decadent among us normally take for granted. Having given their lives to the ghastly goal of total revolution, one cannot reason with them as to the superiority of the Christian faith or even as to the error of their own ways. One can only annihilate them if there is any hope in preserving one’s life or civilization.

It also seems a number of the pastor’s hostile to a pending American response fail in comprehending the role played by human activity in the plan of divine providence. The Pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Northeast, Washington told the Post, “…returning bad for bad is not what God has called us to do. We have got to leave some things to him.”

Employing such logic, that we are to leave such things to God, it would be an act of blasphemy to seek medical attention when we are sick or even to go to work in the morning for that matter since Scripture tells us to rely on God to provide our needs. But as in the case of medical science and occupational employment, God has allowed for the establishment of certain social institutions — referred to as orders of creation by St. Augustine — through which various human needs are met. The role of government is to protect its citizens from evil doers, of which these terrorists qualify on a grand Nietzchean level.

Yet a number of these naive clergy find this essential government function appalling. The Pastor of Western Presbyterian Church in DC’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood said, “It’s not healthy to focus on self-defense, as individuals or as a nation. If we allow self-defense to become our number one priority, it will radically change us in a way none of us are going to like.” But for what other reason does the government even exist in the first place — to dispense Food Stamps or distribute condemns?

Over the past several decades, every conceivable special interest has postured to dominate the priorities of government, and now we face the prospect of a cataclysmic conflict that very few — both soldier and civilian alike — could end up surviving if we aren’t careful. Even though civil liberties will have to be guarded in the coming days as even now desponds for despotism are slithering forth from beneath their dank borrows clamoring for the diminution of our innate liberties, it’s about time officials got back to concentrating on one of government’s few legitimate functions instead of contriving new ways by which to debase both culture and conscience at taxpayers expense as evidenced by past spending on the arts.

Self-defense and preservation rank among man’s most basic instincts. They are nothing to be ashamed of. I bet even these pastors lock their doors at night and hold the hands of their children as they cross the street. And if they claim they don’t, they are either lying or are so out of touch with reality that they ought to be defrocked for the spiritual safety of their respective parishioners.

For decades it seems, congregations have been subjected to a constant litany of missionary sob stories depicting starving children living amidst abject squalor, producing in the mind of believers a quasi-Evangelical version of Rousseau’s noble savage myth where those living in these forsaken lands somehow possess more pristine characters for not having been tainted by the American way of life. Christian leaders had better realize before it’s too late that there are forces of evil rampaging throughout the world who will never accept our standards of decency and do everything in their power to see that these Christian beliefs — or at least those of who hold them — are eradicated from the face of the earth.

Copyright 2001 by Frederick B. Meekins
For additional commentary by this author and links to stories around the Internet, please check out the following: The American WorldView Dispatch.