Shepherds of United Methodists congregations throughout the world—large and small—stood in the pulpits of their churches Sunday, Sept., 16, and tried to help their flocks make sense out of what happened five days earlier in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Already, many members had turned to the church for special services of prayer and times of support. By Sunday, some of the initial shock, anger and numbness had subsided a bit, but difficult questions remained: Why did this happen? Why did the terrorists hate us so much? Where is our security?
Where was God? How should the United States respond?
The Rev. Adam Hamilton, pastor of one of the largest and fastest-growing United Methodist congregations in the United States, sought to address these questions as he preached to more than 9,000 people at one Saturday service and five Sunday services.
Hamilton is the founding pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, and author of Confronting the Controversies, in its third printing by Abingdon Press. The text of his sermon was quoted in the Kansas City Star, and the local NBC TV affiliate broadcast his message on Sunday morning. Thousands of audio and videotapes were sold over the weekend, according to Constance E. Stella, director of the church’s audio/video ministry.
Hamilton began with the individual believed to be the mastermind behind the terrorist acts.
"For Osama bin Laden, what is at stake is the future of Islam," he said. "He and his followers and the Taliban of Afghanistan…believe that America is a threat to their faith. We have got to understand this! As Americans we do not have the sense of history to make sense of what is going on. But in many ways, bin Laden is interpreting the political events of the last half of the 20th century through the lens of the Crusades."
The Crusades were wars waged by European Christians in the 11th through 13th centuries, aimed at gaining control of the Holy Land from the Muslims, who had controlled it for the previous 400 years.
Hamilton noted that bin Laden, a devout, extreme and fundamentalist Muslim, turned his attention against the United States in the early 1990s. "It was at this time that American troops were stationed on Saudi soil and became more heavily involved in direct military action in the Middle East."
Hamilton quotes bin Laden, who said in a 1999 interview that "there was an attack on Islam, especially on the holy shrines and on the al-Aqsa Mosque…and then the aggression continued with the Crusader-Jewish alliance being led by the United States and Israel. Now they have taken the country of the two holy mosques."
In a video of bin Laden’s training camps shown on television in recent days, Hamilton noted that dummies set up to represent the enemy had giant crosses on them, not U.S. flags.
"For bin Laden, a form of the Crusades is still going on: the most Christian nation on the face of the earth helps Israel maintain control of the Holy Land," Hamilton said. "Our troops are now stationed on Saudi soil. We have had operations going on in a host of other Muslim countries, including the Sudan, Egypt and Kuwait, with regular Air Force flights and bombings on Iraq. For bin Laden and for his followers, this is a war to prevent Islam from being destroyed by America! Unless we understand this mindset, and address it, there will be others who will be willing to die to preserve Islam from American Crusaders."
Hamilton noted that bin Laden represents Islam no more than the Ku Klux Klan represents Christianity and called on Christians to stop any hostility against people just because of their ethnic backgrounds.
"Even given the distorted perspective that bin Laden and his followers have on American intentions in the Middle East, his actions are a reflection of his picture of God," Hamilton continued. "His picture of God is a God who sanctions the ‘Jihad’—the Holy War—and the use of force to accomplish God’s purposes. His picture of God is one who accepts bloodshed and the death of innocents as a means of accomplishing his purposes.
"The picture of God we have as Christians is the person of Jesus. When we look at and listen to him, we see a God who conquers by love and not acts of hate and war. We see a God who influences and transforms people by his willingness to sacrifice himself for us. We see a God who calls us to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and to, in the words of the Apostles Peter and Paul, ‘not return evil for evil, but blessing instead.’ We see in Jesus a God who did not destroy the Romans with the sword, but who defeated them with ideas and by his own suffering and cross."
After addressing some of the political and religious tensions, Hamilton turned to questions being raised by his members and others around the world.
Will we ever be safe again?
Recognizing anger, Hamilton pointed to Psalm 137:7-9, written after Jerusalem had been destroyed, the Temple had been razed, and the Jews had been taken away as slaves to Babylon. "In this context, we find one of the most startling sentiments expressed anywhere in the Bible—a sentiment most un-Christian," he said.
"Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem’s fall, how they said, ‘Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!’ O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!"
Hamilton said he believes the ancient Israelites and the Holy Spirit specifically included these verses in the Bible to affirm that it is OK to experience anger and hate in the midst of deep pain. "It is normal, but the rest of the Scriptures provide us the balance, teaching us that hate and pain are not meant to be the final resting place in our hearts."
In response to questions of security, Hamilton declared, "The only real security comes from knowing Christ—knowing that your life belongs to him. Today, that is where our safety will come from—knowing that, come what may, God will either deliver us, or invite us into the home he has prepared for us in heaven. I cannot live my life in fear of what might happen."
Where was God at 8:45 a.m. on Sept. 11?
Beginning with the story of creation, Hamilton said human beings have been given the freedom to choose to do what is right or wrong.
"If you asked the average American what our greatest treasure is in this country, the answer, upon reflection, would be ‘freedom’," he said. "We are willing to die for it, and we would rather die than live without it. This is the very thing God has given us: freedom. We are free to follow him or free to spurn him. This gift of freedom is wonderful, and terrifying. It means that young men can be misled by a captivating religious zealot into dying for their cause while killing thousands of people along with them."
Even the evil of recent days will ultimately be bent to serve God’s purpose, Hamilton said. "He will not strip us of our freedom, but at every step, when evil seems to prevail, God forces the evil act to serve him, which is what we have seen this last week—Americans coming together like never before."
"I believe Jesus was in the back of those four planes, huddled with the passengers, telling them not to be afraid," Hamilton said. "I believe he was prompting the hearts of his people to help and hold and care for those who were injured and those who were dying. And I believe he was standing in heaven welcoming his children home."
For those who question the existence of God, Hamilton said recent events have confirmed the truth and necessity of the Gospel. "Whether God exists or not, the tragedy still happened," he said. "But through the Gospel, I understand the human condition. I have the law and the Gospels to help me know how to live. I have hope in the face of death that I will see my loved ones again and that they are with Christ. I have confidence to know that God will bend such evil and force it to serve his purposes. And I know that, whether caught or not, those who perpetrated such a crime will be brought to justice before the throne of God. This is what I have as a Christian, but for those who reject God, there is nothing but tragedy, hopelessness and despair."
How should Christians respond?
Hamilton expressed concern that decisions made during grief are often not well thought out. "Clearly something must be done to stop Osama bin Laden and other terrorists from acting in this way again. But this action on our part cannot be simply an attempt to satisfy our need for blood and vengeance. It must be to save others from being hurt in this same way."
He expressed concern that military force and retribution may increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks on the United States rather than diminish them. "This will be particularly true if we bomb sovereign nations as we have in the past. And if non-combatants, including women and children, die in our attacks, suddenly we will have become no better than those who have done this to us.
"If these extremists believe that America represents Christianity and the Crusades, how do we help them see Christ and the way we wish he had been portrayed in the Crusades? Is it possible to act in such a way that all would-be terrorists see the truth of who we are and the greatness of our national character so that they are shamed by what they have done—so that they are cut to the heart? How do we demonstrate the superiority of our ideas and our way of life?"
Hamilton said the United States is on the brink of another crusade. "We have a chance to reverse this one—to demonstrate that, as a nation of Christians, while we had the power to utterly destroy entire countries, we did not. Instead, we sought to understand why such people have acted in this way, we have sought to have reconciliation with those who were our enemies, and we pursued justice carefully and in accordance with our laws so that we protected other innocents from being slaughtered."
Hamilton reiterated his belief that the United States must respond to the tragedy by apprehending those who committed the terrorist acts and preventing them from doing it again. "But as your pastor I am obliged to say that God has already told us how we are to live and the kind of strength we as a nation of Christians are called to demonstrate to the world—it is a strength of character, of resolve, of righteousness, of love."
Tom McAnally is director of United Methodist News Service.