(Written and posted 22
September 2003.)
After the attacks of
September 11, one question that was repeatedly asked throughout the country
was, “Why do they hate us so?” We were told
that they hated our freedom. We were
told they hated our prosperity. We were
told that they hated our liberal Western ways.
Perhaps they didn’t hate us because of some abstract political
philosophy, but that they just hated us personally. Perhaps those Americans with whom they had come into contact with
were so obnoxious and offensive, that they mistaken concluded that all
Americans are that way, and enraged by the behavior of the few, decided that,
for the sake of the world, the best American is a dead American.
If you remember, prior to
that day, two American Baptists from Texas were arrested by the Taliban in
Afghanistan for activity evangelizing, which the native Muslims found to be
rather offensive. After all, these women
had entered the country under the ruse of performing humanitarian work, and
instead knowingly and happily violated the anti-evangelization rules. (Whether or not we think these rules are
silly is irrelevant; when in Rome…) Our
government, in its omnipotence, reacted exactly the opposite as it should have
– instead of chastising these two women for entering another country and
knowingly violating its laws, our government declared these two women to be
heroes for trying to spread the faith.
What do you think the Muslims thought about us after that? They probably thought that we do not care
about their religion, laws, or customs, and they would probably be right. They would be enraged, and justifiably
so. If the situation were reversed, and
someone came into our country under false pretenses with the actual intention
of subverting our government, religion, culture, and way of life, and then they
were deemed to be a hero back home, we would be enraged, wouldn’t we? And we were. Did it not make you angry to see Islamic extremists celebrating
the tragedy of that day, proclaiming law-breakers to be heroes? Of course it did. After all, our culture, our government, our way of life had been
attacked.
Do you think, then, that
maybe the Muslims felt the same way when our government made heroes out of
people who were trying to destroy their way of life? Our first impulse after our violation was to retaliate against
all Afghanis because their government harbored these militant religious zealots. Do you think it is possible that the whole
tragedy that September day was a similar response by Muslims against us because
our government made national heroes out of people who were trying to destroy
their way of life?
Having lived most of my
adult life in the Bible Belt, I can honestly say that I find the Christian
zealots to be annoying, obnoxious, and totally offensive. And I am I Catholic. I can only imagine what those of Jewish,
Muslim, Hindu, Wiccan, atheist or any other non-Christian faith must
endure. Three times in a twenty-four hour
period I have been evangelized. The
local Assembly of God threw a rock in my driveway with their literature. (This is an interesting method – “Convert –
Or Else!”) While trying to put my
children and groceries in the van I was approached by an evangelical in the
parking lot distributing evangelical coloring books. Then, to top it all off, the Baptists rang my doorbell wanting to
take one of my daughters to the Franklin Graham festival. (When I replied that we were done with our
churching for the day, I received one of those “God shall smote thee!” kind of
looks.) Geez! Enough already! I can
understand why the boys at Columbine shot the Christians first; there is only
so much you can take!
My daughters are evangelized
at school, even by teachers. Our
neighbors who drive around in vehicles plastered with Christian icons (fish,
crosses—you know) leer at me when I am out in the yard with that smug “I’m
holier than you are” look while at the same time their children are running
amok destroying other people’s property.
With each passing day, I despise evangelicals and their smug hypocrisy
more and more. And I live here!
Here’s my thing – you have
your religion, and I have mine. You
keep your religion to yourself, and I will keep mine to myself. You live by your moral code, and I will live
by mine. Got it?
Nothing is accomplished by
trying to cram your morality down my throat than to make me angry. You my think Bush is good and Clinton evil,
but you won’t change my mind on the matter, so stop being so pushy. I know I will not convince you of the
contrary either, so we can agree to disagree and still be friends. There is nothing wrong with having different
viewpoints and philosophies. We all
must live our lives in by whatever moral code makes us happy, and as long as we
are not hurting you, who cares? What
gives you the right to come to my house and tell me that I am wrong and you are
right? I do not care what you think, I
did not invite you to my house, so leave me alone and let me live my life and
raise my children the way that I want to do it. That goes for the rest of the world, too. Leave them alone. Do you think Muslims want to hear that their religion is evil and
that unless they follow your way, and only your way, they are never going to
enter paradise? Somehow I doubt
it. The last thing the Iraqis need
right now are the evangelicals coming into what is left of their country and
trying to show them “The Way.”
I was reading an article in
the paper this weekend about the Baptists, where one moderate lamented that the
Baptists are becoming the Taliban of the United States with their
intolerance. How would we feel if the
Taliban came to our shores and tried to force their extremist theology onus? Sadly, this is exactly what we are doing to
other countries. Is it no wonder that
other cultures, other societies, other people hold us in such contempt?