As a wave of sympathy sweeps much of the world we ask, Are there lessons for all of us?
`The world has changed forever' is the sentiment in mid-September, as the awesome atrocities in New York are still raw reality. Who knows what that change will entail? When you read this in November, apocalyptic war may have engulfed us.
But for some on that September morning, the tears were of joy. In the face of such horror, vile human nature found room to rejoice: `Just desserts', `They asked for it'. Welling up from a hatred that scoops the depths of depravity in its origin, millions couldn't find an ounce of human compassion for the agonizing suffering inflicted on five thousand plus civilians by fanatical terrorists.
America the Mighty
The twentieth century has been dubbed `The American Century'. The nation replaced the British Empire as the world's key player. Nature - `from sea to shining sea' - endowed her with natural riches and a personal dynamism that enabled her to rise to world dominion. Its chief rival was for seventy years held in the iron chains of false ideology - its internal rot inevitably causing it to crumble.
Just four percent of the world's population - yet producing twenty percent of the world's goods and services - the United States has given its citizens prosperity unparalleled in human history. And it has exported that prosperity around the globe. Where would many nations be without the inflow of American dollars and expertise? She has used her wealth to enhance the lifestyle of millions beyond her borders. Elsewhere, recipients of her bounty have corruptly amassed wealth for a small clique of leaders - not America's fault!
Nor can we ignore her decisive - if belated - role in allied victories in two world wars with military help and Lend-Lease followed by the Marshall Plan which set Europe back on its feet. America's so-called `cultural imperialism' is welcomed worldwide: no-one is forced to drink Coca-Cola or down McDonald burgers or dote on Hollywood. Chinese and Zambians and Burmese - and Arabs - love them! Indeed for the past years the world's economic fig-leaf has been American consumerism.
Just Cause?
So why should the United States be subjected to such ire? Within her borders there is peace, freedom of expression, widespread prosperity. Isn't that what the world wants? Not so among her enemies. Only one nation east of Suez permits democratic rights - America's `sister nation' Israel. Elsewhere is suppression of individual freedom, intolerance, incitement to subversion and religious persecution. And a united dedication to `thrust Israel into the Sea'. Little wonder Israel is shielded by America as the under-dog.
But reasons are found for the `hate America' campaign - not only among Islamic nations but in the free world. too. Envy, certainly, is one. Any who lived - live - under the repressive heel of communist ideology would surely gladly embrace the American dream, thankful for `American imperialism'. And some do. But that's alien to the mind of dictatorial tyrants everywhere: `Give me the dollars but don't interfere'. Without American (and British) `exploitation' the African continent and the Middle East would - like Afghanistan today - still be in the Stone Age.
Seeds of Conflict
The values that have driven American civilization are anathema elsewhere. Freedom of speech and information. Freedom of assembly. Freedom of worship. Freedom of expression. None are tolerated in closed Islamic or communist societies. Fear locks out these fundamental values - hence the hatred of America. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers are a prime example of fundamentalism run riot.
Clearly, the roots of any nation's values lie deep in the soil of its civilization. For the West - especially the United States and Britain - the roots were nurtured in the Bible. Our laws reflect the great principles of justice, mercy, personal responsibility. Those principles were abandoned by medieval Christianity as the `Holy Roman Empire' sought to expand its unholy dominion by destructive unChristian means. That spirit, motivated from Rome, has never died but constantly seeks resurrection by other means - as in the papacy's call to the Crusades in the twelfth century, or the modern European Union. The IRA, shielded by Ireland, are a recent Western example.
America and Anglo-Saxon civilization in general have to some degree restored those Biblical values. The seed planted in the soil - the founding people - are the descendants of faithful Abraham filtered through the people and faith of ancient Israel. They are `the people of the Book'. For all their faults they have brought prosperity to many nations, casting a mantle of civilization over a dark world. Outside that influence there remains much oppression, poverty, discontent.
Abraham's other son - Ishmael - chose a different path. He and his descendants (other Semitic tribes) separated themselves from the divine influence and submitted to another philosophy, other gods. Hence rose the five-thousand-year enmity with `Israel' - the Jews and their brother Anglo-Saxon-Celtic nations. Echoing Psalm 83:4ff they and their allies say "Come, let us destroy them as a nation that the name of Israel be remembered no more. With one mind they plot together, they form an alliance against you". This attitude prevails to this day, tragically worked out in the Middle East - and now on American soil.
Responsibility
The British Empire and the United States of America achieved a measure of greatness because of their readiness to observe the principles of the divine Law willingly embraced by Abraham (Genesis 26:35). As long as they are enshrined in the national consciousness they are a hedge to adversity, both personally and nationally. Our nations are protected from the worst that evil throws.
But with power comes also responsibility. Both in Britain and in America - and indeed in other kindred nations - those Laws that regulate society have been trodden under foot. The `West' has become the hold of every foul social disease. The God of the Bible is despised, locked out of our Courts, our schools and even our churches. Hedonistic consumerism devours us. Lip service is paid to the Bible - but its guiding tenets are ignored. The family is undermined by every new law. Perversion is tolerated and indeed promoted. Adultery is a national pastime. Lax law enforcement encourages every form of criminality. Sexually transmitted disease is rampant, single parenthood undermines the future, the murder of innocents in the womb a blot on any society.
Decades of self-indulgence have weakened national vigilance. Our protectors - the Secret Services - have utterly failed, weakened by crass and unwise Executive decisions. Subversives are tolerated in the name of freedom. Foreign policy is dictated by self-interest divorced from responsibility for the weak or simply by a petulant childish response to `foreign interference'. There is no self-examination.
Need we wonder calamity falls?
Protective Hedge
The protective hedge of the divine Law and way of successful living has been torn up by our leaders. Our forebears in ancient Israel went the same route: "Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who deal corruptly! `they have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged" (Isaiah 1:45).
And the result? "Your country lies desolate, your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence aliens devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by aliens".
Nor does outward religious show cut any ice with God! We can fill our churches on a Sunday, mourn our dead - but what does God say?: "When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood".
Faced with such calamity - is there a way out? Can we turn aside more terrorist attack - on America, on Britain, on any of our democracies?
Repent!
There is an answer. But are we ready for it?
Says our God: "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken".
We Can Choose
The scourge of fascist terror chastened the Western democracies twice in the last century. What did we do? Shook ourselves down - and carried on as if nothing happened! Freed by divine intervention working with our national resources we yet despised God's call to His people to turn to Him in repentance. Our nations sank deeper into selfish hedonism, worshipping at the feet of the great gods Dow Jones and Footsie [London Financial Times index]. Lessons were not learned. The lessons that we are nations of special interest to the Creator, that our prosperity is God-given and not solely the product of our own genius, that continuing prosperity derives from a humble and repentant populace - from the head to the toe.
In sum : "Why will you still be smitten, that you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint . From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and bleeding wounds".
Must we receive more strokes from God? Works such as this one have for half a century called - heedlessly - for national repentance. Will this awesome blow to American pride and prosperity be sufficient warning?
"Return to me, and I will return to you", says our God!
To comment on this article or request more information, please contact James McBride by e-mail at the comment form below.
For PDF or mailed copy, see CGOM. Excerpt from New Horizons Volume 5 No. 6, November/December 2001. Edited by James McBride of the Churches of God, United Kingdom.
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