Yesterday, our nation marked the 15th anniversary of September 11th, arguably the worst national tragedy since Pearl Harbor. Across the country memorial services remembered the lives lost and the heroic acts of bravery. Since September 11th fell on a Sunday this year, many church congregations also joined in the remembrances or had patriotic services.
During many of these services and memorials, as well as on social media, we saw and heard the refrain that we must "Never Forget" 9/11. Now, if we take that sentiment seriously, the task of remembering 9/11 and the accompanying lessons begins today--Sept. 12th. After all, with any holiday or remembrance, the temptation is to forget and move on starting the following day.
However, I think one message we actually should take away from this concerns the topic of Evil. No one will disagree that 9/11 was an "evil" day. The loss of nearly 3,000 innocent lives can be described in no other way than as "evil." But we as Americans have a strained relationship with the concept of "evil."
On the one hand, we often live our lives as if evil does not exist in our world in any significant way. This is largely due to the enormous amounts of security, stability, and prosperity we enjoy here in America. We don't go to work worrying about whether or not our family will be safe at home or if we will make it home from work. We are wealthier than the vast majority of the world. We live under a government that grants us countless freedoms and is far less tainted by corruption than most other counties. This is partly why the events of 9/11 were so shocking. We were not used to encountering evil, and suddenly evil came busting down our front door to stare us in the face.
On the other hand, we are sometimes too quick to use the label of "evil." In the aftermath of 9/11, our politicians, pastors, and pundits rushed to label the terrorists "evil," to call the nations associated with terrorism "evil," to describe an "axis of evil," and in some cases to identify Islam itself as an "evil" religion. Outside of dealing with terrorism, we thrown around the term "evil" in many other careless ways. We label opposing political parties and candidates as "evil" or speak of voting "for the lesser of two evils."
I suspect these two tendencies are related. We live a privileged life divorced from many of the harsher evils that run rampant in our world and are therefore shocked when a powerful evil strikes us. Likewise, since we are often shielded from horrific evils, we are confused about how to rightly apply the label and either attach it to everything we see or flippantly apply it to people or programs with whom we simply disagree. Unfortunately, such an aversion to and discomfort with evil results in poor decision making when true evil rears its ugly head in our midst.
This is perhaps one of the most important lessons we can take away from 9/11. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, the nation was brimming over with powerful emotions--fear, anger, a desire for revenge. Out of this emotional milieu, President Bush declared a "war on terror" a mere 9 days after the attacks, covert troops were inserted in Afghanistan 15 days after the attacks, and bombings and a formal invasion of another nation were initiated less than a month after 9/11.
Although some good came out of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (such as greater freedom and rights, as well as better infrastructure for certain cities), it cannot be disputed that these wars caused just as much evil as the initial terror attacks themselves. While Al Qaeda killed 3,000 innocents on 9/11, the war in Afghanistan killed 3,500 innocent civilians in 2015 alone. As of March 2015 an estimated 210,000 civilians had been killed as a result of these two wars. They were killed by terrorists and insurgents, but also by American and coalition forces. They died as the result of bullets, bombs, poor health, loss of shelter, and starvation. Other estimates place the number in Iraq alone as high as 500,000, although these numbers are almost impossible to know as the U.S. government and military tends to refrain from keeping or releasing such numbers on the civilian costs to these wars. Add to that the roughly 1.5 million refugees from Iraq and 2.5 million Afghan refugees, and the human cost is staggering.
In hindsight, the problem should appear obvious--we were shocked and angered by evil, and chose to respond poorly in a knee-jerk manner. We demanded blood for the blood of victims that was spilled. And when the Taliban refused to hand over bin-Laden, we foolishly decided that we could defeat evil with bombs and bullets.
But here is the lesson those who are Christians should take away from our memorial services--we cannot defeat evil with violence. We cannot bomb evil into non-existence. We cannot kill enough people to make evil submit.
I will not go so far as to say that war or violence can never be justified, but I will say that we ought to be more wary of such calls in the aftermath of tragedy. Evil is a siren call that deceives us into perpetuating more evil under the banner of "freedom" and "justice." This temptation is exacerbated by the narratives of patriotism, nationalism, and civil religion that usually accompany such tragedies and attacks.
For Christians, when we find ourselves staring into the face of evil, our first response should be to gaze upon the cross--the greatest evil of all time. For it is the cross of Jesus that dealt with evil once and for all. For thousands of years humans have devised methods of overcoming evil, but none of them have succeeded. Only the life, death and resurrection of the Son of God actually responds to evil in a meaningful way. The true answer to evil is found at the cross, and our responses to evil--both individual and national--should be informed by that event.
The cross also reminds us that the world cannot be divided into "good" and "evil." As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote, "the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being." In the wake of 9/11, our nation dubbed our enemies (ideologies, individuals, and nations) to be "evil," while at the same time presenting our own cause as righteous, just, and good. But the truth was so much more complicated. One reason for Islamic terrorism relates back to American imperialist tendencies in the Middle East going back decades, actions which radicalized numerous Muslims and Arabs. During the post-9/11 wars, we have killed innocent civilians, ignored the sovereignty of nations, and committed war crimes including torture. Now certainly we are not as bad as the barbarous individuals who carry out intentional, heartless attacks on civilians, but we must be honest and admit that we are not innocent or blameless either.
Focusing on the cross reminds us of that truth because Jesus died for the sins of all. He died because all of us have evil within us. He died because institutions, nations, governments, and places of power often become "possessed" by evil and commit atrocities. Simultaneously, the cross not only exposes our own guilt, but also illumines an alternative, counter-cultural way of responding to evil.
So how ought we to observe Sept. 12 and beyond? I suggest we do so by remembering not just 9/11, but also by remembering the cross. At the cross I am reminded that evil is constantly present in our world, so I should not be shocked by it. At the cross I am reminded that Jesus has dealt with and will deal with evil, so I can have hope. At the cross I am reminded that there are things worse than physical death, so I am not driven by fear in the face of evil. At the cross I am reminded that Jesus chose love, mercy, and sacrifice as the primary tools for overcoming evil; He did not buy into the myth of redemptive violence. So yes, let's "never forget" 9/11, but more importantly let's "never forget" God's response to evils like 9/11--the cross.
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