Confronted with 'morally bankrupt' terrorism

By Philip E. Jenks November 11 - Church leaders in the United States are struggling to find a Christian response to the current crisis that brings terrorists to justice while ending the cycle of violence that government officials say may last for years.  That was one of the messages that came out of a special consultation November 9 and 10 in Chicago between nearly 20 US church leaders and an ecumenical team representing World Council of Churches member churches from around the world. But a Christian response is not easy to discern in view of the horrified reaction of millions of US Christians to the September 11 terrorists attacks, participants said.

Seeking a Christian Response to terror in a Chicago consultation with local church leaders: David Baak, director of Grand Rapids Ares Center for Ecumenism, Bishop Azariah and Dr. Ted Campbell, president of Garret-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill.

"The terrorists who hijacked airplanes full of innocent people with the intent of murdering thousands of innocent people were morally bankrupt," said the Rev. Jon Enslin, interim ecumenical officer of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  

For many US Christians, including some members of historic peace churches, the attacks were so disproportionately evil that they justify a military response, according to consultation members.

"If the terrorists had collapsed our computers or cut off our fuel supply, our response might have been different," said a consultation participant from a historic peace church.

Consultation members included bishops, church heads, pastors, educators and denominational staff.

"I think in the wake of September 11, Baptists knew what to do," said Dr. Cheryl Wade, deputy general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA.  "We worshipped Wednesday night, we worshipped Thursday night - we knew where to go and to whom to go."

Yet US people are "totally out of touch with who we are on the world stage, an innocence . . . that is impossible to penetrate," she said.

Dr. Jean Martensen of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said the climate of public opinion in the US, and the general lack of information US citizens have about their nation's policies in the Middle East, make dialogue difficult.

"The contradictions between what we believe about ourselves and what we do has never been clearer," she said.  "The job of peace work has never been more difficult.  Dissenters are going to be working in a far more difficult environment."

Even so, television images of dead and wounded civilians in Afghanistan have haunted US Christians.  And testimonies from ecumenical team members who have lived with terror and death for decades reinforced the conviction of US church leaders that "an alternative must be found" to bombing and violence.

Metropolitan Elias Audi, Greek Orthodox patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, from Beirut, Lebanon, a member of the ecumenical delegation, offered a criteria for evaluating the situation that is familiar to most US church people:  "Let us ask ourselves," he said, "what would Jesus think about this?  What would Jesus do?"

The Rev. Thomas Finger of the Mennonite Church responded emotionally to members of the visiting delegation.  "We're seen as a Christian nation but dropping bombs is not Christ's way.  How do we tell people, we're sorry?"

Bishop Samuel Azariah of the Church of Pakistan, a member of the ecumenical delegation, happened to be in New York on September 11 and witnessed the destruction of the World Trade Center.

"I agreed with President Bush's call for justice," Bishop Azariah said.  "Today I am not sure that justice is being implemented."  Azariah said he was worried that bombing in Afghanistan generated popular support for "that small group of people who bring terror to the world.  Terrorism has to go, but not in the way that is going on in Afghanistan."

The people of Afghanistan have endured war and terrorism for 22 years, Azariah pointed out, and no one - including Christian churches - can wash their hands of responsibility.  For years before September 11, "when the Taliban were killing thousands of people in Afghanistan, where were we?  When the Taliban were killing women, when the Taliban were killing children, the conscience of the world was dead."

There is a growing number of dead that includes thousands killed in the September 11 attacks and thousands of victims of terrorism and war around the world, Azariah said.  "All the dead people are coming to us now, and I think they want it to stop.  I think they are coming to us singing a chorus of peace and good will."

Ms. Septemmy Lakawa, a teacher at the Jakarta Theological Seminary, Indonesia, and a member of the ecumenical delegation, said she had been impressed by the depth of pain US churchpersons were feeling since the September 11 attacks.

"I am struck by the way you express your sadness," she said.  "When I decided to come to the US, my friends in Indonesia asked why.  Their impression is that the American people never experience suffering.  The language of Americans that they hear is the language of victory, prosperity, power.  They never hear the language of victims."

Lakawa said she would take home the message that US people are suffering, too.  But she added, quietly, "Sometimes justice does not mean killing others."

The uneasiness of US people goes beyond the September 11 attacks, noted Dr Bernice Powell Jackson of the United Church of Christ.  "Anthrax made clear in a very ugly way the racism of this nation.  When they gave antibiotics to capital police dogs days before they even tested postal workers, who were persons of color, it said some people are expendable.  It's very real and it's very ugly."

The testimonies of members of the ecumenical delegation from their contexts in Palestine, Lebanon, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa and France, had given her courage, Jackson said.  "Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they did not know the things that make for peace.  I think he is still weeping."

"This can be a kairos moment," Jackson said.  "We can face the pain we cause, or not.  What we're facing now in this country is pivotal and our choice has got to be from the word of God . . . the Sermon on the Mount.  If we miss this opportunity, I believe this nation will never face another
peaceful day."

The Rev. John H. Thomas, general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, said the visit of the ecumenical delegation gave him a sense of resolve to seek a Christian response to terrorism and violence.

"I go away renewed in a commitment to say this war will not result in a just peace," Thomas said. "I go away renewed in the resolve to say we need a confessional repentance that our actions over the past 10 years has contributed to this.  I go away renewed to call for seeking justice through an international tribunal, not war.  I go away renewed to call for help for refugees.  I go away renewed to call upon the US to release food to the starving people of the world."

Georges Lemopoulos, acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches, who is accompanying the ecumenical delegation, noted that the consultation had illuminated the spirit of the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV), an emphasis of the WCC conceived by delegates to the Eighth Assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1998.

"Instead of saying to the churches what they should be doing, DOV asks the churches what they are doing to overcome violence," Lemopoulos said.  "This constitutes one of the major alternatives to the current situation.  There can be no single response."

The role of the ecumenical movement - churches working together - is to encourage and strengthen efforts for peace and make them more efficient, an alternative to political, economic and military coalitions," Lemopoulos said.  "Another alternative response is to remind us that it will take time, in contrast to the culture which demands immediate solutions."

At the conclusion of the consultation, Bishop Mvumelwano Dandala, presiding bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, stressed the pastoral nature of the visit of the ecumenical delegation to the United States.

"We are not bringing answers," he said.  "We are bringing love.  We wanted to touch you and we wanted you to touch us.  It was a privilege for us, and we are humbled that you were willing to be with us."

Other "Living Letters" team members are:  Rev. Fr. Nicholas Balachov, secretary for Inter-Orthodox Relations at the Department for External Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church; The Rev. Jean-Arnold de Clermont, president of the French Protestant Federation, Reformed Church of France; and Ms. Jean Zaru, presiding clerk, Religious Society of Friends, Ramallah, Palestine.  Accompanying the team is the Rev. Kathryn Bannister, a United Methodist clergywoman who is moderator of the WCC US Conference and WCC president, who was present through the conclusion of the consultation in Chicago on November 10.
 
The delegation flew to Washington, D.C. to meet November 12 with representatives of the US Catholic Conference/National Council of Bishops and with representatives from the American Muslim Council.  The group will also attend worship Monday morning in Simpson Memorial Chapel of the United Methodist Building on Maryland Avenue.

The pilgrimage will conclude November 13 and 14 in Oakland, Calif., when the group meets with the US National Council of Churches general assembly.