Not Everything Changed
July 1, 2001
THE CRY FOR JUSTICE HAS NOT CHANGED. IT HAS ONLY GOTTEN LOUDER WITH THE ADDITION OF AMERICAN VOICES. A few weeks before the attacks, I gave a sermon titled "Being God's People When the Rules Have Changed." I drew some loose parallels between the Roman Empire and America. What I couldn't have imagined was that we'd soon be remembering the Gauls. At the dusk of Roman rule, the Gauls were dismissed as backwoods and barbarian. And when they sacked Rome, the Gauls didn't fight according to the rules. The rules changed again on 11 September 2001. The rules of war have changed. The scenes of planes flying into buildings inspire horror as well as open-mouthed amazement. Who would have thought of doing such a thing? Who could have done it with such dramatic efficacy? America's, and the world's, response will also have to be different than anything we've witnessed before. America's sense of security has changed. Today we welcome tightened security at airports. Flying domestically in America may now become a bit more like flying into or out of Tel Aviv on El Al—which takes some getting used to. In Tel Aviv, if you make it through security in less than two hours, and don't have to be taken to a little back room for interrogation, you consider yourself fortunate. Americans may come to know that El Al feeling—safe and under threat at the same time. Speaking of Israel, our understanding of the world has changed. A well-known pastor in the Washington area confessed after the attack, "I guess I didn't realize that America was so hated in certain parts of the world." While I understood his sentiment, I was also grieved. Is this what it tales to open our eyes? Some of the anger directed at America is no doubt jealousy. But some of that anger comes ...
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