Sword Defending: How could anyone do this?

TROWEL & SWORD

Resources - Leadership

November 2001

SWORD DEFENDING

How Could Anyone Do This?

Rev. David Groenenboom

How could anyone do this?

Terrorism has become part of our world. While we wince at the daily display of hatred between Israelis and Palestinians, part of us grows accustomed to the violence and the hopelessness. We see Chechen rebels, baulk at the attrition, yet resign ourselves to the inevitability of guerrilla warfare. Internet access and constant TV broadcasts massage our minds to accept that such violence, at least in a today’s world, is kind of normal.

But nothing could have prepared us for the hideous scenes of September 11. A civilian airliner ploughing into one of the WTC towers. Eighteen minutes later, another. The planes had passengers. The buildings were filled with tens of thousands of staff. Later, another plane smashes into the Pentagon, killing hundreds. Still another attempted suicide mission is thwarted as a plane crashes in Pennsylvania.

The question I kept asking was, how could anyone ever do such a thing? What possesses people to think that in taking the lives of thousands of civilians they are doing something good, or even righteous? How could anyone ever do something like that willingly?

Yet it only takes a brief reflection, and we remember war crimes in Bosnia. We remember Stalin’s evil regime in the USSR where millions were killed in operations of the State. We remember Nazi death camps. Even in our own country, though not as well publicised, there are documented accounts of human beings mercilessly killed by others: the Myall Creek Massacre in NSW, and the “black line” policy (Tasmania) where hundreds of people were killed.

History tells we have seen this evil before. But that fact alone does not make it any easier to accept the events of September 11 or to answer the question before us.

The Bible helps us here, but as it does, it may challenge our views about people. Jeremiah the prophet says: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9). This was said in a context where God’s people were trusting in themselves, and arrogantly believing they could prosper without faith in the Lord.

But we need to go further to really understand September 11. We need to return to Genesis, and see Adam rebelling against the Lord, and asserting independence. This sin of humanity is what brings bloodshed, envy and violence (Genesis 4:8). You don’t have to read much further to see the source, the depth and the ugliness of sin in humanity: The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. (Genesis 6:5). Make no mistake: The source of these actions was not primarily political, cultural, or ideological. The problem is the human heart.

So we are left with the uncomfortable reality that while we describe the alleged perpetrators of this evil as psychotic, Taliban extremists, there is a sense in which they are our brothers: we are all part of the human race. The sin of the race, the fallenness of the heart, is something we all share. It does not mean that we are all guilty of the World Trade Centre attacks. Those who planned and carried out these acts need to feel the full effects of justice. But it does mean that we cannot take the high moral ground and say, “they are evil and we are not”. As Nicholson’s cartoon so aptly observes, this ‘human condition’ is expressed every day in broken relationships. The whole thing is part of the ‘us’ we call humanity.

It’s a problem of the heart. People are alienated from their Creator, from the God who loves them. And when people in alienation from God do deceitful, ugly and evil things.

So our first response in this question is to acknowledge that sin is indeed powerful in its scope and thoroughly repulsive in its expression. The ugliness of the September 11 events, grounded in human beings in rebellion against God, can only be addressed by the Savour whose death and resurrection changes the human heart. Christ is our only hope, and we should give ourselves to prayer that the true solution is not found in cruise missiles, or dead terrorists, but in a living Lord who redeems deceitful and wicked hearts.

(Nicholson cartoon: The Weekend Australian, Sep 15)

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