9 Fractured 1 America 1

I don't know that I have written much about September 11th on this blog. There is some sanctity that it should be afforded and Hoosier Happenings I guess never seemed the venue for writing about it. But here it is. The 9th anniversary of the horror.

So, where were you? I remember distinctly the events of that morning. I drove to work, stopping by the local chamber of commerce office to have some paperwork signed on the way. Then sat down and within about 15 minutes had pulled up the news on-line. From then through the rest of the day I don't remember much except being fixed on the trauma unfolding in front of my eyes. I remember driving back home for lunch and meeting another car at a four-way intersection...there was just this sort of dazed stare coming from the other driver, and probably from me. A silver lining is that my son took his first steps that day-which has become the easy way to do the math in my head on how old he was when he took those steps.

People said we would never be the same again. I think that lasted about a year.

I believe it is important to understand what drove the events of that day. It is important for us to understand that we were so hated by extremists, and still are, because of who we are, what we look like, what we stand for, where we live....and no doubt "Christian" probably plays into this. That sounds a bit racist, right? Intolerant, right? Singled out?

So, this is what's been going through my mind: our response to a mosque near Ground Zero and the evangelical pastor in Florida wanting to burn Korans. And I'm trying to figure out if there is any less hate involved in either of these. Do I think building a mosque near Ground Zero is a good idea? Of course not, but it doesn't mean that we get to pick and choose whose rights we protect and whose we don't. And in my life I have always been careful to not criticize any pastor but I'm going to say this....if a Christian is one who models Christ, regardless of this "pastor's" profession of faith, in my book the guy is a wolf in sheep's clothing. If he honestly believes God was telling him to act out in such a way, his god is not the same God I serve.

My pastor recently was asking me about some of the history of our community, since he is new here and all. He asked about some specific issues and I said that racism is a huge problem. Then later I thought to myself, is that right? Or am I overly sensitive to responses I've witnessed with the Latino population? It took only two days later to understand that no, indeed, the hatred we have for others who don't look like us is alive and well here in river city. My wife and I were standing in line at Marbucks when we overhead an employee talking with a customer...

yeah, Obamacare is going to take care of me you know...

right....you know what I think? they oughta let the guys in white sheets take care of him...

I was mortified. But honestly, based on all the crap I hear, and am forwarded-I guess this wasn't that much of a leap. I have to believe that at least 50% of the ill-feelings toward the president are generated out of bigotry....at least from the comments I hear. I guess maybe our hatred isn't driving us to aim planes at tall buildings but it continues to eat away at our civilization, whether black, Latino, or middle-eastern. And we call ourselves a Christian nation? I don't get for the life of me how we are modeling Christ-it certainly isn't through Glen Beck (he's not unlike the wolf above). I see it so rarely that as much as Christians like to think we are.....we might want to take a look in the mirror to see if it is the lamb, or wolf.