On Friday, September 14, 2001, three days after the tragic events in New York and Washington DC, I watched the impressive worship service at the National Cathedral. The readings were done by three religious leaders, a Muslim, a Jew, and a Christian. It was a moving service of prayer, music, song and word. It also had a multi-purpose ring to it. Undoubtedly, it was meant to give comfort and encouragement to people, to boost the national spirit and morale, to reflect the multi-religious and ethnic nature of American society, to send a message of hope and determination, and certainly to make it clear to millions of people of faith, in the States and throughout the world, that in time of calamity it is right for people to turn to God, the only source of solace and comfort. It was, indeed, an appropriate and stirring occasion.
I recall that the African American minister who started the service mentioned a number of times the importance of justice in the world. During the ensuing days, I noticed that President Bush repeated the word justice quite frequently, something rare on the lips of American leaders. President Bush would emphasize that the United Sates is seeking justice. It is not revenge, but justice.
At the end of the service, I remember quite clearly the words of the benediction pronounced by the African American minister. She said in part, “ …render to no person evil for evil ….” I wondered whether President Bush and his leadership team were listening to those words whose basis is the New Testament. The nonviolent challenge of the Gospel seemed in direct contradiction with the stark war rhetoric of the President, and the mood of millions of Americans. The words of the Gospel no longer evoke any positive response in us: Do not pay evil for evil, or blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy, etc. Our Constantinian Christianity has conditioned us to listen to the words of the Gospel but not to hear its nonviolent challenge, to read our Bibles but select those passages that inspire in us retaliation and war. How far have we strayed from the spirit of Christ? How deep has our theology of war been conditioned by our own understanding and interpretation of the Old Testament? How successful have we been in suppressing the nonviolent Gospel by which we must live and adopted the war principles of certain Old Testament passages? How many millions of people have been killed and massacred in the name of God by so-called Christian countries; and how often have the perpetrators of those atrocities believed they were only following biblical injunctions?
It is important to make it absolutely clear that no one in his/her right mind can condone or justify the atrocities carried out against innocent people in the United States on September 11th. It is difficult to adequately express words of sympathy and condolences to the families and friends who lost loved ones, let alone express grief at the many faceted ramifications of the catastrophe. But once that is done as sincerely as one can, it is important to pose the harder questions of what must be done, what is the best and most appropriate response, what are the underlying causes, and how can we prevent another calamity from happening again?
Granted that the American Administration and its coalition will do what seems right in their eyes, the response will most likely be, as has happened before, based on America’s military strength. It is the same Old Testament adage which we Palestinians have been subjected to for so many years, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. Actually it has been much worse, “ten eyes for an eye and ten teeth for a tooth”. It is easy to justify our action by random biblical quotations, but we cannot do it on the basis of the teachings of the New Testament and the commandment of love. Some of the spoken words at the National Cathedral brought out, though cryptically, the apparent contradiction between the demands of the Gospel on the one hand, and the human desire to retaliate, on the other. One can point to the words of Jesus Christ, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”(Matthew 5:43-47).
Although it is still uncertain who is guilty, it is easy to paraphrase the words of Jesus for today: “…For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the Taliban do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the terrorists do the same?” If the United States and its allies bomb Afghanistan to smithereens, how will that be different from what the terrorists have done? Obviously, one of the great differences is that American reprisal, through its superior war machinery, can reek greater devastations than any terrorist group can. Tragically, what added to the catastrophe in New York and Washington DC is the fact that the terrorists turned American planes and passengers against the American people. Bring them to justice, yes, but do not pay back evil with a greater evil.
In this twenty first century, many of us hope and pray that our world will outlaw war. Modern warfare does not bring solutions to the intractable and more complicated conflicts. At best, it only postpones for a while the greater calamities. We are in need of a new approach to conflict resolution. We must take another hard look at the dangers of globalization. We need to beware an economy that will make the rich grow richer and the majority of the poor people of the world even poorer. Indeed, we need a global and universal vision where every person is a brother and a sister and where we must collectively be each others protectors and keepers. We need a vision that goes beyond nationalism and into internationalism. We need economic policies that are set not only by the rich and the powerful but equally by the poor and weak countries. For example, it is wrong for the G-8 to meet alone and chart the destiny of the global economy when most of the people of the world, who will be directly affected, have no say, no voice, and not even representation. It is such injustices that breed anger, and anger breeds resentment, and resentment breeds frustration, and frustration breeds violence, and violence breeds terrorism. And then we wonder why people hate us and what did we do wrong?
It is not only economic justice that we seek but equally political justice. A case in point is the Israel/Palestine conflict. The state of Israel has illegally occupied another people and their land for many years. In contravention of international law it has dominated the Palestinians, oppressed them, humiliated them, and denied them their most basic rights. The whole world through its international body, the United Nations, has repeatedly called on Israel to withdraw from all the occupied territories, stop its oppressive measures against the Palestinians, and allow them their right to self-determination. Israel has refused to comply with impunity. Today, Israel stands in violation of 69 UN resolutions and has been protected through the United States veto against 29 others.
In the conference on “Racism” in Durban, South Africa, over 3000 Non-Governmental Organizations from around the world, pronounced the policies and actions of Israel against the Palestinians as racist. By doing so, the NGO’s around the world, like most of the countries of the world, are not calling for Israel’s destruction, but for Israel to end its occupation and domination of the Palestinian land, i.e. the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The greatest champion and protector of Israel’s injustice today is the United States Government. This grave injustice stands at the heart of the conflict and has bred so much violence and terror, and has, over the last century, cost the precious lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians and Jews. Our world today and our Middle Eastern region in particular, will be much safer if the United States support the implementation of UN resolutions. By doing so, the territorial integrity of the state of Israel will not be affected. This point must be made perfectly clear. The end of the illegal Israeli occupation will not decrease by one inch the Israeli state in its pre-1967 area (in spite of the inherent injustice in Israel’s founding).
The Palestinians, by and large, have accepted and shown their willingness to live in their sovereign state of Palestine as good neighbors to an Israeli state whose boundaries are clear within the pre-June, 1967 war. So long as Israel continues to illegally occupy Palestinian land and oppressively dominate its people, international justice is flouted, the conflict persists, and the region and the world are unsafe. It behooves America to impress upon Israel to move out. Such justice will bring security to Israel and relief to the whole world that has been agonizing over this conflict for fifty three years. Political injustice like its economic counterpart breeds violence and terrorism.
No wonder that whoever masterminded the terrorist attack against America, targeted three great symbols of American power, the economic, military, and political. Many oppressed people of the world, rightly or wrongly, perceive their misery as a direct result of the unjust policies of the western powers, led by the United States of America. These three perceived symbols of injustice stand in great contrast to the many other human symbols in American society, and indeed, in other western countries – large denominations, churches, NGO’s, faith and secular-based individuals and groups, millions of them who, for years, have stood in solidarity and shown a wonderful generosity and support for the poor and oppressed people of the world, including Palestine. They have been in the forefront of the struggle against human rights violations, political and economic injustice around the world. One wonders about this big gap between the American people and their political leaders in Washington D.C. and why is it widening by the day? If America wants to lead the world, there is a role that it can play. Due to its strength, wealth, and influence it can do it through a genuine compassion and commitment for peace based on justice and fairness. Having said, I feel it is the United Nations that is better qualified to assume that role.
A proper faith-based, or even “human” response to Afghanistan, as well as many Third World countries, would be more food rather than a shower of bombs, more equitable economic structures, more just policies for the poor and oppressed people of the earth. The millions of dollars it will take to wage wars of destruction that will certainly further the injustice can be spent in improving the quality of people’s lives in many countries and in studying and eliminating the root causes of many of those injustices.
Since the tragedy struck the United States, I have been meditating on the parable of the unjust judge recorded in Luke 18:1-8. In its setting, Jesus presented it as an illustration for the value of diligence in prayer, and indeed, it is so. This parable, however, has come to mean much more to me. It has a deeper lesson than a mere illustration. It contains a powerful message about justice. Jesus must have had more than one objective in telling it. Every word has its place and importance. On the one hand, the widow represents the poor and vulnerable people of society. She needs protection because her husband has died and she has no one to stand up for her. In a society where there was no social welfare, the widow experienced one of the worst predicaments of life and can, therefore, represent the oppressed people of our world.
The judge on the other hand, represented the powers – the power to do good or evil. Yet power has corrupted him. The description given to him by Christ reflects the judge’s utter depravity. “He neither feared God nor had respect for people”. The extent of his corruption is expressed in the fact that he was unwilling to render a verdict without a bribe. The plea of the widow is the plea of the millions of people who are looking for a decent life and human dignity. They only live on the crumbs of the richer nations because their resources have been raped and exploited. They do not truly live, they merely exist at the mercy of the powers inside their own countries as well as outside.
The cry of the widow is most poignant, “Grant me justice….” This is the cry that has reverberated and continues to reverberate before the judgment seats of those who do injustice. The prophetic pronouncement is very apt, “Alas for those who devise wickedness and evil deeds on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in their power” (Micah 2:1). The cry for justice still echoes today in the corridors of the powerful nations of the world. It was not the judge’s sense for justice that prompted his judgment, but his frustration and annoyance at the widow. “Grant me justice”. “If you grant me justice, I will leave you alone. I will stop bothering you.” The poor widow had only a voice and her stand against injustice took a nonviolent form. She stood out there with a small placard that said, “grant me justice”. Is it possible in today’s world that the cry for justice has gone berserk and taken different forms including, regrettably, terrorism?
Will God grant justice? Yes, God will, but will we? Jesus ended the parable with the words, “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” In other words, will human beings themselves work together with God to bring about justice on earth? Will the political leaders of our world today commit themselves to work for peace and prosperity based on justice? If they do not, then tragically, faith will be absent from the earth. When they do, they can humbly say, “we have kept the faith”.