Terror in America

Terror in America

On the most horrifying day in American history, with smoke still billowing out of rubble in New York and Washington, a grim-faced President addressed the U.S. nation from the Oval Office, "Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist attacks... Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. The pictures of airplanes flying into building, fires burning, huge structures collapsing have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger."

September 11, 2001.... By far it was the most devastating terrorist attack ever on American soil, as four planes headed to California were hijacked and used as weapons of mass destruction. Coordinated suicide strikes hit the heart of America's financial and military centers. Thousands were feared dead as the World Trade Center collapsed, taking with it two hundred of New York City's police and firemen. And the causalities were not just Americans. They included nearly 1,000 citizens from thirty-seven different countries.

Holy War Horror

Since the attack on America, it has been all the more chilling to realize that Arabs, motivated by radical Islamic beliefs, carried out these acts. Their masterminds speak of a "Holy War," a Jihad against the West. International terrorism once threatened Americans outside their country. Since September 11th, the front line of attack has moved to Main Street, U.S.A.

"Terrorism is meant to terrify," Mark Juergensmeyer writes in Terror in the Mind of God. Terrorism comes from the Latin terrere, "to cause to tremble." Not only does terrorism commit violent acts against the public, the public who witness...

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...es for freedom and self-determination? Equally important, can America's evangelicals find the resolve to drain their own apocalyptic swamp of dubious Bible readings and eradicate its own Jihads?

Avnery concludes, "Instead of the destroyed New York edifices, the twin towers of Peace and Justice must be built."

As Abraham Lincoln gathered at Gettysburg to memorialize the dead in the middle of the Civil War, so humanity is now gathered on a great battlefield. The recovery workers of New York call it "The Pit" or "Ground Zero." Christians know it as the heavenly grounds of Mt. Zion (Heb. 12:18-24).

May we resolve, as Lincoln urged in his famous address, "that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."