Volume XII, Issue XXIIIb
A Prayer for Manchester
There are no words to express the deep emotions of this horrific event. Perhaps it hits home because I remember when my daughter and her friend flew to Heathrow and journeyed by bus to Glasgow, Scotland. One event on their itinerary was a concert in Manchester. It very well might have been in this arena, so as thousands feared for their daughters' safety after the latest terror bombing, the picture was a little clearer... a little closer to home. Of course we all join in prayer for the healing of those who's lives have been suddenly ripped apart... and for good people to stand firmly against those who would perpetrate cowardly attacks on little girls. If your god demands such actions, decent people should be free to say that that is no god at all, but something dark. We want nothing of it!
Radical Militant Islam, and I am being very specific here, has no place in a civil society. I am not speaking of 'all' Muslims here, but the militant radical jihadists. We must remember that there are many decent Muslims in our midst, like the Muslim taxi drivers in Manchester, who offered rides to the stunned people at the arena after the blast free of charge. Our charge is very specific here.
I am a Christian. The Westboro Baptist Church claims to operate according to Christian tenets but I know Baptist theology well enough to say that they are NOT Baptists... and I would hesitate at this point to even call them a church. I want nothing to do with them. I do not want to be lumped with them. They do not represent Christianity in America. I would identify more with the bikers who form a shield around the military funerals these people feel compelled to rudely disrupt.
Thus I can agree with the call for all decent people to denounce the use of terror. I will say that it is difficult because the verses are there in the Quoran that may be interrpreted as calling for this very thing, yet let us reflect on the fact that getting along together requires the Golden Rule. Many people of all Faiths practice it. Again, there are Muslims who do NOT feel compelled to war against us.
America is a unique 'Nation of Nations.' Britain is as well. People of Japanese ancestry and German ancestry live in the United States in peace though we fought an all-out war with their nations in the last Century. Many Muslims DO live peacefully in both of our respective nations.
But there are some naive people who would equate reasonable precautions with exclusion. Ironically some of these are celebrities who live in places guarded by armed security. If they want us to embrace 'open borders' they need to start by being an example at home. It would be wise for them to study a little history too. In our nation's participation in World War II, we did not quite know what to do with the scores of immigrants from the very countries we were at war with. While my father, the descendant of Bavarian immigrants, worked designing aircraft in a defense plant; Japanese Americans were interred in camps. Did the government have an interest in protecting Americans? Yes. Did they go to far in interring the Japanese people? I think so.
But here is where the spirit of America may be seen as well. One Japanese family owned a large vineyard in the Napa Valley. When they were interred, their neighbor who owned the vineyard next to theirs took it upon himself to care for the lands of his neighbor. His family tended their own vines and those of their Japanese neighbor. When the Japanese family was able to return to their home they found their vines and grounds cared for and the neighbor handed them a check for the money received for the sale of grapes from their property.
So do signs proclaiming "No matter where you are from, we're glad you're our neighbor" express the true heart of America? I would say yes and no. To the extent that America welcomes people from across the globe to engage in her life, I would say yes; but America has a culture and a way of life that she wants to preserve. If you feel that we need to become more like the rest of the world... consider why so many in the rest of the world want to come here. Also, say I really want to live in Japan, doesn't it stand to reason that it is because I appreciate something about that people's culture? And won't I want to learn at least a basic conversational Japanese, so as to be able to participate in the life of my new home?
The academy in America has promoted the notion that America is nothing special. They want to cast us as 'oppressors,' thus the intellectual effort to diminish our culture. The problem is that the truly oppressed and persecuted peoples of the world know better. They seek a safe and better life, so they come here. If we truly care about the world's suffering masses, doesn't it stand to reason that we should work to protect and preserve the great gift we have been given in a free and safe America? It is not unreasonable to protect her from those who would seek to destroy her, whether 'homegrown' or from abroad. My prayer is that we will realize this and cherish the gift in this land that our ancestors bled to give us.