Church in America

Committed to Evil

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Rev. R. J. Rooney
Senior Pastor, Verona (MS) UMC
September 13, 2001

Yes, I wept. I cried about the loss of life. I cried as the reality of what kind of future my children have in store for them began to sink in. The pictures of passenger jets flying full bore into the Twin Towers and their subsequent implosions will be burned into my memory for the rest of my life. And then I saw the pictures of the Palestinians cavorting in their streets with joy laughing at the loss of life and the misery of thousands of American civilians. I have seen that picture before on a smaller scale even here in America. Whenever a particularly notorious criminal is executed there is always a crowd of gleeful onlookers cheering his or her death as the hearse drives by. Still, that anyone could be happy about the massive loss of life of innocent civilians is unimaginable. Only one word comes to mind: EVIL.

Evil evokes a myriad of feelings and emotions when it is unleashed and unmasked even for a brief moment. Revulsion. Terror. Horror. Anguish. However, it is driven by and can only succeed with an absolute passion for commitment. On September 11, 2001 every single American stared briefly into the face of evil and saw pure commitment and it has sparked fear in America and shell-shocked the Church.

We are simply not accustomed to seeing (much less experiencing) the kind of commitment, which was required to create the havoc, suffering, and misery we saw on September 11. The years spent planning and training for the simultaneous acts of terrorism were obvious. The disregard for civilian life was monstrous. The willingness, nay, desire, to be killed and lauded as a hero of faith for killing women and children is perverted and sick. Say what you will about the cowardly acts of terrorism on September 11 but one thing that is undeniable is that it could not have happened without an absolute commitment to evil by ignorant, arrogant, and barbaric men.

It has been 56 years since this country has had to rely on a populace just as committed to righteousness as those who seek to destroy it are committed to evil. If nothing else, Vietnam plainly revealed that military superiority means virtually nothing without the corresponding and universal commitment from both the government and the populace. We have the means and the technology to combat terrorism no matter who its proponents are and where they are hiding. The question is, "Do we have the necessary commitment and resolve?"

Here is where the Church could and should be of significant help. The Church should be the world's clarion voice of warning concerning the level of commitment that the practitioners of evil are well known to possess. The enemies of God stopped at nothing when it came to crucifying Christ. They swore they were doing God a favor as they humiliated, brutalized, and murdered His only-begotten Son. Their commitment to evil was evidenced further as they sought out and murdered the Apostles one by one. They crucified Peter, Andrew, Philip, Jude, and Bartholomew. They disemboweled Matthew and beheaded James and Paul. They impaled Thomas and tried unsuccessfully to boil John alive in a pot of oil. The commitment to destroy Christians throughout history has been well-documented even if it has been overlooked or ignored. The commitment to evil of those who oppose Christianity has been inscribed in the annals of history and has been well-known for centuries. I am not forgetting about the hypnotic aspect of evil that has also seduced practitioners of Christianity causing them to commit atrocities in the name of God either. That is just further reason the world should be hearing from the Church. We know what it is like to be targeted by terrorists and deceived by them too.

America desperately needs to hear from the Church about how commitment to God is the only tried and tested counter-terrorist solution. Psalm 59 says, Deliver me from my enemies, O my God...save me from men of bloodshed. Fierce men launch an attack against me...Arouse Thyself to help me, and see!...awake to punish all the nations; do not be gracious to any who are treacherous in iniquity (vv. 1-5).

When thousands of Americans have perished at the hands of those committed to the furtherance of evil, the country needs to hear the Church say something more than that we should pray for those who have suffered loss and pray for peace. Common sense and human decency themselves call for prayers of solace and harmony. The Church should be setting itself forward as the example of commitment to Truth and righteousness as the means to defeating evil. We have received marching orders from God that call us to engage the enemies of God all the way down to the gates of hell. "Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war" has been our anthem for centuries. The problem, of course, is that the level of commitment to God and faithfulness in the Church has been highly suspect for many years. Despite all the sleight-of-hand rearranging of statistics and the curious (to say the least) interpretations of the same, the fact is that mainline denominations in America have been in decline for decades. Family reunions, vacations, slight physical discomfort, and boredom are just a smattering of reasons used by millions of Americans every Sunday for why they miss church. I hardly think the suicide bombers in the Middle East and now America miss very many worship and training opportunities.

I am a minister of the Gospel and therefore am not calling upon the Church to take up arms against Usama bin Laden or whoever else might have been responsible for the attacks of September 11 (although if that is the route the President chooses I would be glad to go before the military praising God and singing "Praise the LORD; for His mercy endures forever" [2 Chronicles 20:21]). Christians are, however, called to engage the "spiritual forces of wickedness" that surround us (Ephesians 6:12). But what good are we if we cannot even determine with a unified voice what constitutes sin and our houses of worship where we demonstrate our commitment to God are half-empty on any given Sunday while the camping sites and ballparks are filled to capacity?

Every American knows in their hearts that another day like September 11, 2001 looms ominously on the horizon. Will the terrorists succeed next time by striking the White House, the Mall of America, or the Superbowl? I do not know. What I have no doubt about now is the commitment of those who will surely attempt it. They are planning and training for it right now. American Christians are thereby in a very unique position. We can come en-masse to the altar of repentance confessing that our apathy and willingness to be so easily distracted contributed to this calamity. We can unite around the Head of the Church pledging to Him our absolute commitment to spiritually engage the forces of darkness our enemies are yielding to. We can truly lead America. Or, like we did with the Oklahoma City tragedy, we can say a few prayers and go back to making spectacles of ourselves with our arguments about what really constitutes sin subsequently forgetting about terrorism until the next time we are forced to look into the face of evil. The choice is ours to make. I choose the altar and the pledge.