What Would Jesus Do: 5 years after 9/11

I couldn't be more disappointed. It's been five years since 9/11, and I don't feel any safer. Our government has spent the Last five years treating the symptoms of global terrorism, using the same tactics that cause global terror. The result is ironic.

One of the most discouraging things is the inability of our strong convictions of right and wrong to do us any good. This nation has more God loving Christians than you can shake a stick at. The popular WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) slogan is fodder for t-shirts and bumper stickers across the nation. But the answer to the rhetorical question is nowhere to be found.

What would Jesus do in the post-9/11 world? My guess, based on my admittedly limited understanding of His character, is that Jesus would increase his charitable works, forgive anyone he could find regardless of their offenses, love universally, and promote positive actions for peace.

Instead, we've reacted according to the mandates of base human selfishness: revenge, self-interest, and greed. We've started two wars for revenge, creating a body count in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, depending on which numbers you believe. We've passed laws and created regulations based our "safety' and "security". And, while the wars rage, we've watched our economic numbers, as if to say that everything is alright so long as the economy is up.

Please, to any person reading this, be you Christian, or some other religion, or just someone who wants to be a good person, hear this plea: Let's do something different in the next five years.

The key area of action is love. Jesus preached universal love. We should aim for love in order to achieve peace. Peace is a prerequisite for Love. If you look up love in the dictionary, you'll find something like this:
1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
If you look up peace in the dictionary, you'll find something like this (after the obvious statement that peace is the absence of war):
3. a state of mutual harmony between people or groups, esp. in personal relations
6. freedom of the mind from annoyance, distraction, anxiety, an obsession, etc.; tranquility; serenity.
Obviously, we need to achieve mutual harmony with something before we can have a profoundly tender affection for it.

Imagine being at peace with something. For example, when a family member or loved one dies, we suffer through mourning and eventually (hopefully) arrive at a place where we are a peace with their death. We are no longer annoyed, distracted, or anxious about it. We accept it as part of life.

Acceptance is a prerequisite to peace.

But, how can we accept things that we don't agree with? How can we accept terrorists, radical killers? That is preposterous, you say. I say it is not. Acceptance can only come after understanding, and understanding starts with listening. And listening, to those who know how to practice it, changes both the listener and the speaker. When someone listens to me (not just superficially waiting for their turn to talk, but understanding and emphasizing with my words), my mood is totally changed.

So, I would propose that we seek to act in Love. I would propose that we start by listening. With any luck, our listening should lead to understanding, acceptance, penultimatly peace, and finally love. But, we must begin by listening.

Immediately after 9/11, there were a few stories with names like "Why do they hate us?” Unfortunately, the questions and answers all came from us, not from them. We need to listen to them.

And who are they? They are the world. Al-Quada is the radical branch of a greater ideology and consciousness, the same way the KKK was the radical branch of a larger ideology of racism or Nazism was the radical branch of German nationalism. Understand the larger ideas first, and the radicals will begin to make sense. Look at the whole picture. What is the consciousness of Asia, South America, Africa, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union? What do they think of us? And why?

Consider the possibility that even if the military wipes out the entire religion of Islam, we could have another 9/11 that starts with hatred from Africa or South America or Asia. What will be the cause of 9/11/2025?

Think about it. Or, just bomb them all to smithereens.