May

28

9/11 and evangelicals

Filed Under Faith 

Mark Byron uses a David Heddle post on Abe Lincoln as a jumping off point to discuss 9/11 and God’s judgment.

I must say that the tone and content of much of what Mark and David write makes me very uncomfortable. I think claiming that God is using events like 9/11 to judge nations is presumptuous and unhelpful. First of all, it raises a host of issues that are not easily resolvable. Do we really believe that God at some point decided that America was too sinful and that it was time for some innocent people to die a horrible death so that those left behind might repent? This is a rather harsh “Old Testament” type view of God’s actions for today. America is not the children of Israel interacting directly with God in its daily decisions. And how does this work exactly, I mean when do we know disasters are God’s judgment? Do we just assume if something is bad enough it must be God’s judgment? The problem with this view is that at base it is blaming someone else - God and America. What Fallwell and Robertson (two kooks ? if often well intentioned - if you ask me) were saying was not I have sinned and need to ask God for forgiveness and redouble my efforts to live by God’s standards. They were not saying that the wages of sin are death and that 9/11 reminded me of the wickedness of man and the need for God’s redemption. No, what they were saying was: the gays, and abortionists, and the pornographers are so sick that God had enough and decided to allow terrorists to fly a plane into a building. What they were saying, in their mock seriousness and their false humility, was that non-Christians were going to hell and God decided to call in the chips early. With this arrogant assumption of God’s knowledge they switch responsibility from themselves to others and ultimately to God. Man has enough trouble worrying about his own sins letting alone taking over God’s job of judging nations in their entirety and deciding which tragedies are God’s punishment for man?s sins.

Fallwell and Robertson do not have good track records in this regard anyways. Robertson has written some of the kookiest things around about the end times. I do not trust his judgment. Fallwell has never struck me as a insightful and wise spiritual leader either.

Lastly, evangelicals who start seeing Judas’s at every turn will soon find themselves in the proverbial wilderness. William F. Buckley is a man of faith - not an evangelical for sure - and to cast him aside as a “secular conservative” is a bit strong. Evangelicals need to begin to construct a political strategy that goes beyond “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it for me.” I am not one to see Abe Lincoln as the beginning of a totalitarian USA, but simply quoting the prayers of Lincoln and comparing it to today do not prove America is going to hell with the help of secular conservatives.

Comments

One Response to “9/11 and evangelicals”

  1. MarcV on May 29th, 2002 12:45 pm

    The better quote is “God said it, that settles it,” since our belief does not influence His truth. Falwell and Robertson go out on limbs, but that is how they get attention. I believe they may have been better off to say that God takes away His protection from countries that stray from Him (and maybe that is what MB and DH were getting at).
    Franklin Graham was interviewed on FoxNews 9/13/01, and he did not go where the others went, but simply said that it was a time for each of us to examine our own lives and get right with God. I believe that Lincoln’s speech calling for a day of prayer and fasting would be appropriate for 9/11/02. It may help show other nations, particularly Arab, that we can go beyond news specials and rock concert benefits to honor and remember the victims of the terrorist attacks.

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