The last week delivered stories, accounts, and video clips of the events of 9/11/2001. We’ve lived 25 years with the outcomes of the attack. Each American alive at the time has a different take on the events of that dreadful day. Part of the problem is how many Americans were not alive 25 years ago or who have little or no memory of the day.
The Terrifying Day
Here in the Midwest, the first jet slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City at 7:45 a.m. Across the fruited plains, many were on their way to work, most school children had yet to leave home or were finishing breakfast, and some parents were pulling out of the drop-off line when the radio broadcasters or morning television shows broke in with what appeared to be a freak accident.
A commercial airliner hit a skyscraper. Weird, but o.k. we supposed it could happen. Really tall building, mechanical failure with the plane, something wrong in the cockpit. Tragic, but it made sense.
Then it happened again, and that made no sense. This could not be mere coincidence. Eighteen minutes following the first attack a second airliner, fully loaded with jet fuel, penetrated the South Tower.
At 8:45 a.m. a third jet tilted nose down ramming into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Twenty-five minutes later a fourth jet crashed in a Pennsylvania field when its passengers mutinied against their terrorist captors not allowing their flight to be the next attack on the American people and the American way of life. Their sacrifice cannot be measured.
By 9:30 a.m. both towers at the World Trade Center collapsed, reducing the nearly 1,400 feet tall skyscrapers to mere rubble. The fire at the Pentagon was out of control. Every airborne plane flying in U.S. airspace was ordered to land immediately. The combined air power of the U.S. military took to the skies with orders to shoot down any and every aircraft non-responsive to the order to land. The mainland of the United States was under attack from an enemy we could not identify, and, therefore, could not defend against. Everyone was a potential threat, and all of us were potential targets. It was a terrifying day.
In less time than it takes to drive from St. Paul to St. Cloud,
the United States of America changed.
I remember the morning with clarity. It was a blue sky, crisp autumn day here in Minnesota. Driving to my office at the church building, the radio broadcaster reported the first bits and pieces out of New York City. By the time I sat down in my office chair, the second tower had been hit. I quickly grabbed an old television and worked to get reception from any broadcast channel. When the third jet bored into the Pentagon, I told my administrative assistant I was heading home. There I found my 10, 7, 4, and 2-year-olds and their mom watching the live feed. It wouldn’t be many days after that our little boy reenacted with his toy cars, planes, building blocks, and miniature people what he saw on the screen.
I struggled with how to minister to the people of our church in the days immediately following. The worship on the following Sunday morning was somber. I didn’t know what to say to the people in front of me. In my study on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I pondered what the Lord would have me convey to the confused, emotional, angry, and fearful who would gather on Sunday.
Nothing in my seminary training nor anything in my thirteen years as an assistant pastor had prepared me for how to be a pastor under this circumstance. I’m somewhat embarrassed to say I preached a sermon borrowed from an online presence. It wasn’t a particularly good sermon. In my defense, I was 36-years-old and had been in the pulpit for less than ten months. I had no idea what to do or say.
New Age Tactics
25 years later many of us are far more informed about Islam than we previously were.
We’ve learned Islam is not a religion of peace as has been told to us over and again. Islam is an ideology of domination that requires and acknowledges only full submission.
Some of us have read more broadly Islam’s history. We have concluded the Crusades were not an immoral action against Islam but were sacrifices of Christian men and women to rescue brothers and sisters enslaved and massacred by invaders.
We’ve learned Islam has an insatiable lust for world domination. Islam knows nothing of compromise. Islam does not negotiate, and Islam will not surrender to anyone – never has, never will. It accepts one outcome.
We see the tactics Islam has employed in the last 25 years: infiltrate and use the policies and principles of the West to subvert the West. Islam has taken advantage of birthright citizenship, social services, and the general goodwill of the West. Islam sees the potential in elected offices and bureaucratic appointments. Keith Ellison, the current Attorney General for Minnesota, was the first Muslim to win a seat in the U.S. Congress. He won his seat five years after the 9/11 attacks. Presently, five adherents to Islam hold seats in the United States House of Representatives. Eleven Muslims are mayors of our cities, including our largest city, New York City. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) tracks 255 followers of Islam holding elected or appointed offices across 26 US states, including 18 state or local judges. No record exists of how many teachers and professors hold positions in our government schools, public colleges, and private universities. What is certain is students are under the direct tutelage of Muslim educators.
The Other Enemy
I loathe Islam. Its doctrine damns people to an eternal hell, and its worldview suffocates, consumes, enslaves, and kills. There is nothing redeeming or valuable in any expression of Islamic culture. All of it is oppressive. All of it is anti-Jesus. All of it is anti-West. It cannot be tolerated and must be opposed by every ethical means available to a nation.
On the other hand, we are Christians who follow our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no hate in him, and there can be no hate in us. More concerning to me than the invasion of the West by Islam is the invasion of hate in our hearts. It is common in the Minneapolis / St. Paul metro to walk into a retail store and interact with a female employee wearing a hijab or to see a late model Toyota or Honda driven by the same. In that brief moment, we cannot tolerate the smallest intrusion of hate in our hearts. We must check the first impulses of disdain and contempt when we hear Arabic spoken in our presence. These musings of the heart are not of the Lord. They are born of our flesh.
I cannot predict what the next 25 years will hold for the West and for the United States of America. I pray for the stand of the West against the Muslim nemesis. Where we can fight against Islam – politically, culturally, civic involvement, voter participation – we must. We are responsible for our time. You will need to work out your opposition tactics. Moreso, we must fight against every inkling of hatred because the flesh can produce nothing profitable (John 6:63).
May God spare us from enemies without and enemies within.
As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.