Friday, 30 September 2011
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Shane Claiborne: What Happened After 9/11
I thought in the weeks following 9/11 this quote was especially relevant about the world we live in. “I saw a banner hanging next to city hall in downtown Philadelphia that read, “Kill them all, and let God sort them out”.
A bumper sticker read, “God will judge evildoers, we just have to get them to him.”
I saw a T-shirts on a soldier that said, “US Air Force…we don’t die; we just go to hell to regroup.”
Others were less dramatic–red, white, and blue billboards saying,”God bless our troops.” “God bless America” became a marketing strategy. One store hung an ad in their window that said, “God bless America–one dollar burgers.”
Patriotism was everywhere, including in our altars and church buildings. In the aftermath of September 11th, most Christian bookstores had a section with books on the event, calendars, devotionals, buttons, all decorated in the colors of America, draped in stars and stripes, and sprinkled with golden eagles.
This burst of nationlism reveals the deep longing we all have for community, a natural thrist for intimacy that liberals and progressive Christians would have done much better to acknowledge. September 11th shattered the self-sufficient, autonomous individual. and we saw a country of broken fragile people who longed for community–for people to cry with, be angry with, to suffer with. People did not want to alone in their sorrow, rage, fear.
But what happened after September 11th broke my heart. Conservative Christians rallied around the drums of war. Liberal Christians took to the streets. The cross was smothered by the flag and trampled under the feet of angry protesters. The church community was lost, so the many hungry seekers found community in the civic religion of American patriotism. People were hurting and crying out for healing, for salvation in the best sense of the word, as in the salve with which you would dress a wound. A people longing for a saviour placed their faith in the fragile hands of human logic and military strength which have always let us down. They have always fallen short of the glory of God.”
Do you agree or disagree with Shane Claiborne? Why or why not?
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- From: llamalima@xanga
- About Me: Who am I? I am 19 year old university student, prone to stressing over about some assignment due the next day. I sometimes have time to blog mostly about Christian thoughts. In my spare time, I am also a musical connoisseur, ninja, movie junkie, and full-time hypochondriac. I may have lied about one of those, or a few.
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Comments (3)
A few years ago, my home was broken into by vandals....I say vandals because it seemed their goal became one of trashing my things since there was so little of value to steal. (a guitar, computer, camera, those sorts of things but no drugs, guns, or jewelry). They also did the same with my landlady's house on the same property (she was in the hospital at the time).
There really wasn't much I could do - file a police report, tell my friends, but the feeling of having been violated by people that I didn't know and may not have known me except for my schedule (church), was hard to describe. I felt that everything was dirty. I couldn't eat or sleep there until weeks later when the damage was repaired and most of my belongings taken to the dump. Now, if my friends (or enemies) would have judged my actions or my lostness following the break-in, it would have been the wrong time to put me under the microscope, trying to read my mind, criticizing my words or motives. I am a Christian and I believe that I did nothing to dishonor God during that time, but the senseless destruction is....senseless.
This particular description of the aftermath of (9/11 in this country is first of all an "artist's" depiction, generalities and criticism of hurting people blindsided by horrific vandalism and atrocity. We've done enough self-loathing and berating of our ideals and lifestyle to last for a very long time.
One point that is obviously true is that in any disaster, there is a desire to reconnect to the familiar... to have someone to talk to - to keep from going crazy or losing hope. I certainly would not want to be one casting stones in the midst of all that destruction (although there must have been many of them lying around).
THANKS.
Unique thoughts, and that's refreshing. I don't neccessarily agree with them all, but they are fresh.