 Reflecting on Terror |
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Now Falwell wants America to repent;
But who really needs to start repenting?
of TheColumnists.com
IN THE WAKE of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the fundamentalist Baptist minister Jerry Falwell has come up with a plan on how the United States can avoid future tragedies.
Repent, he says.
“I believe that if America does not repent and return to a genuine faith and dependence on Him, we may expect more tragedies, unfortunately,” he said.
Well, it’s always better to come up with some sort of a proactive strategy when you’re dealing with terrorist fanatics, isn’t it?
Of course, there is the question of who Mr. Falwell wants to do the repenting to avoid future tragedies. He specified “America,” but that’s pretty vague. Whom does he have in mind?
Would he include the families of the more than 300 New York firefighters who rushed into the maw of the holocaust to save lives, and lost their own lives in so doing? Should those wives and children, and brothers and sisters and grandchildren repent?
No?
Would it be the family and friends of the New York Fire Department’s chaplain, who died giving the last rites to an injured firefighter?
Not them?
Would it be the families of the New York cops who also rushed in to save lives, and who also perished?
Perhaps not.
Well, then, the families of the gutsy passengers who fought to prevent hijacker-terrorists from crashing their giant jetliner into the White House or some other national icon ought to repent. One of those courageous passengers was an openly gay man.
Not them either?
How about the people who put up pictures of their missing loved ones in the desperate and forlorn hope that someone might spot them and make a connection? Should they repent? Or the sobbing Asian woman on the street in New York who was looking for her missing and probably dead daughter? Maybe she ought to repent.
Well, no.
Perhaps Mr. Falwell might enlighten us in some future utterance about who ought to repent. I’m sure he has someone in mind. Doesn’t he?
I’m also sure the rest of us will find something to keep ourselves busy while he thinks about just who ought to repent. He should think very hard about it.
© 2001 by Charles
M. McFadden. The illustration is © 2001 by Jim Hummel.
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