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In Response to events of September 11, 2001

Resist temptation to vengeance, say US church leaders

Geneva, 12 September (ENI)—While US officials started a hunt for the culprits of yesterday's brutal attacks in New York and Washington, leaders of churches in the United States appealed to their members and to national leaders to show restraint and wisdom in the days ahead. "We all will be tempted to surrender to our rage, to seek vengeance and to be consumed by bitterness," said the leader of the United Church of Christ (UCC), asking church members nonetheless to "resist the impulse to respond to violence with violence".

"This is a time of testing for our souls," John H. Thomas, general minister and president of the UCC, said in a statement issued from Germany, where he was visiting European partner churches.

Hijacked planes yesterday crashed into New York's 110-story World Trade Center towers and near the Pentagon, the defensedepartment's headquarters in Washington DC, in what US President George W. Bush today called "acts of war". A hijacked plane also crashed in Pennsylvania killing all the passengers on board. President Bush said the US would spend "whatever it takes" for recovery efforts and to protect national security, the Associated Press reported.

The collapse of the World Trade Center, where some 50 000 people work, and part of the Pentagon, sent as-yet unconfirmed numbers of people to their deaths. "We are talking about the possibility of [the deaths of] thousands of people," predicted New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Reuters reported today. Several national leaders have likened yesterday's attacks to the surprise strikes against Pearl Harbor in 1941 that pushed the US into the Second World War.

But responding to yesterday's violence, Frank Griswold, presiding bishop of the Episcopal (Anglican) Church, said in a statement that the church was "called to another way".

"Many are speaking of revenge," the presiding bishop said. "Never has it been clearer to me than in this moment that people of faith, in virtue of the Gospel and the mission of the Church, are called to be about peace and the transformation of the human heart, beginning with our own. I am not immune to emotions of rage and revenge, but I know that acting on them only perpetuates the very violence I pray will be dissipated and overcome." After an address to the nation by President Bush, former President Bill Clinton made a plea for people in the US to remain calm and to support Bush.

"We must send a clear and unambiguous message to the world that the people of America are completely 100 percent united and we're going to follow our leaders and support whatever action he takes," Clinton said, according to Reuters reports. However, the head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has urged a cautious approach. "As Christians, it is important that we behave responsibly at this time and not act harshly," said George Anderson, ELCA presiding bishop. In a pastoral letter, officials of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) addressed the "horrendous decisions" that US leaders were facing in the aftermath of the disasters.

"As they seek to find effective and appropriate responses to this terror, it is our prayer that these responses may * contribute to a future of peace and not serve in any way to escalate the cycle of violence and counter-violence to a higher level," said Jack Rogers, PCUSA moderator, and Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the general assembly in the jointly signed letter.

"Further, we call our leaders and all people of good will to resist the stereotyping of enemies that so often occurs in these types of situations." Various interfaith councils that group Muslims and Jews as well as Christians have also called on the public not to resort to ethnic prejudice.

Remembering the "threats, harassment and incidents of violence" suffered by Muslims after the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington issued a statement reminding the public that all religions "teach the sanctity of human life". The conference—which includes members of the Bahai'i, Hindu-Jain, Islamic, Jewish, Latter-day Saints, Protestant, Roman Catholic and Sikh faiths—has scheduled a public prayer service at Washington DC's Islamic Center on Thursday, 13 September. While a spirit of despondency has swept over the US, "people are bonding together", said Chris Herlinger, ENI's US correspondent and public information officer for the Emergency Response Program of Church World Service, a major ecumenical aid agency in New York that is responding to the disaster.

"Yesterday the mood at Newark's Interchurch Center—home of a number of national and local ecumenical offices, including the National Council of Churches and the CWS—was sheer daze. People were stunned", Herlinger said. "New Yorkers are resourceful people and there will be a lot of determination in the weeks ahead. But the mood in the city right now is still somber. The subways are quiet; you can see the sadness in people's faces."

All articles (c) Ecumenical News International Reproduction permitted only by media subscribers and provided ENI is acknowledged as the source.

—By Laurie Spurr
Ecumenical News International
eni@eni.ch

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