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May 22, 2014

Not all Christians are Terrorists

Suppose for a moment that there was an attack on a government building several years ago that killed thousands of people. And suppose that the atrocity was committed by a very small band of cult members who opposed a number of policies instituted by our government, including the right to abortion and same-sex unions; ideology which they deemed to be in direct conflict with the clear teachings of Scripture. Suppose they believed that the attack on the building was akin to Jesus clearing the temple and that their act of loyalty to God would bring them eternal glory in Heaven. 

Now imagine that years later, on the site where the attack occurred, a memorial is erected and a museum is built to “never forget” the great cost of radical ideology. Now imagine that as you enter this museum there is a unique section dedicated to the perpetrators of the brutality. There is a Bible on a table, and there is a video playing on the wall giving a brief synopsis of the history and the basic tenants of the Christian movement. In fact, everywhere you look in the museum there is a nearly constant emphasis on the religious views of these terrorists, and a determined point to highlight the fact that they were driven to murder by their unyielding devotion to the Bible and their loyalty to the Christian faith.

Finally, imagine that you yourself are a Christian, and you yourself lost loved ones in the attack. Standing in the museum, are you allowed to join the community of the grieving? Are you allowed to be a victim, or are you compelled to be a perpetrator?

The new 9/11 museum opened its doors last week in New York City with an equal amount of fanfare and controversy. While the above simulation was hypothetical, it was based on the fact that this was precisely the experience of many Muslims who entered the museum in the middle of May. While museum curators attempted to be historically accurate with the details of the attack, the very use of the word “Islam” was inappropriate to many Muslims who stand as opposed to the radical extremism of al-Qaeda as anyone else who visited the museum that day. Muslims who not only disagree with terrorism, but who came to the museum in order to find healing for their own loss, seeking a community to grieve with. 

Dr. Dee Britton is a professor and writer that has centered her research on what is known as “collective memory.” The basic premise of her work is, especially as it relates to instances of trauma, the way we remember communally plays a significant role in the healing process, not only for families and organizations, but even entire nations. She writes,  

“A social group’s identity is constructed with narratives and traditions that are created to give its members a sense of a community….Regardless of the size and complexity of the social group, the group needs to construct and maintain an identity that unites its members (through) the stories, artifacts, food and drink, symbols, traditions, images, and music that form the ties that bind members together.”

As it relates to the 9/11 museum, my concern is that through the specific “stories, and artifacts” on display, Muslim Americans are not invited fully to the table of healing. Just as many Christians may feel unfairly represented by the opening, fictitious story, and compelled to protest “those people are NOT Christians,” so too are Muslims whose religion looks no more analogous to the faith of hijackers than my own religion mirrors the snake-handlers of Appalachia or the Branch Davidians.  

My prayer is that Christians especially would be on the forefront of a national dialogue that recognizes the common humanity of Muslims while helping to foster, perhaps even leading the way, towards a greater understanding of the theological inaccuracy of calling all Muslims terrorists. Indeed, perhaps more than anyone else, Christians should be sensitive to the way our media is constantly bent on drawing attention to the exception while calling it the rule.

I am keenly aware that there are vast, and incredibly important differences between Muslims and Christians. And yet, I also know that death, suffering, and loss present the very fertile soil in which genuine and potentially life-altering conversations about religion, faith and hope can actually take place. In that regard, I want 9/11 to become a bridge and not a barricade for Kingdom work.

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I am a father and I am a son. I am adopted and rescued...a friend of Jesus. I am Carrie's husband and dad to Luke, Andrew and Zachary. I am the Director of Spiritual Formation at Toccoa Falls College and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC). I am a teacher who loves to engage the world with words and I am a Christian who aims to be the Good News in speech in deed. I am an artist attempting to create good art that glorifies the Creator and encourages his creation to seek him.