Turn the Other Cheek

Today we were asked to "remember the tragic events of September 11th, 2001."

 

Every year I am reminded that the REACTION to this event was part of a turning point for me. 

I had, like a "good Evangelical Christian," voted for George Bush.

I was raised to believe that Christians should vote Republicans because Republicans would behave like Christians.

Then I heard Mr. Bush say we would "get them."

My first thought was, "Wait. Did Jesus teach retribution and revenge?"

I heard many of my fellow church family saying it was important to fight back against the "evil Muslim extremists."

I penned and sent an open letter to George Bush, begging he reconsider lashing out at whoever we deemed was the obvious aggressor. 

In our own wisdom, we automatically assume that retaliation is best, for it shows strength. Retaliation shows more than strength. Retaliation shows that we our proud of our values. Retaliation proclaims that these values are worth the price of killing others.
For what values are we willing to kill? Our nation is expressing pride in money. Our nation is expressing pride in military strength. Our nation is expressing pride in “human perseverance.” Our nation is expressing pride in “freedom.”
“Freedom” and “human perseverance” sound like worthwhile ideals of which to be proud. Are they real, though?
Human perseverance exists anywhere in the world. We did nothing, as a nation, to create or develop it. Human perseverance is the closest humans get to being animals. Granted, we have higher-order thinking skills, which allow us to see more than immediate danger. Granted, we will strive to not only help ourselves, but help others. Why, though, do we help others? We are too often seeking to preserve “pride in American ideals.” We are too often seeking to quickly re-build what we had so that we can disregard any lesson that might have been learned.
Our freedom has enslaved us to money. We are so greatly enslaved to money that one of our first concerns has been “when will the markets re-open?” Our freedom has enslaved us to secular humanism and our own wisdom, ignoring the wisdom of God. Our freedom has enslaved us to power, so much that we feel weak if we do not display any. Our freedom has enslaved us to opinion and emotion, so that we want to act in a way that will seem appropriate, swift, and just to the entire world. Our freedom has enslaved us to our pride.
Our pride has brought us, now, to a point when we must either act in pride or return to God. I can not say what God would have us do, but I know we have not sought Him yet. We have appealed to Him to build us back up. Why would God seek to rebuild that which has sought to tear Him down?
I do not wish to seem un-empathetic. There are many dead who ought not to be. There are many grieving who need comfort. We can not bring back the dead. God can comfort and console. We must, though, not allow these deaths to take us further from God. We must not allow ourselves to turn “American Pride” into our God.
Our “American Pride” tells us to lash out at the evildoers. I have heard my President claim that we will wipe out terrorism. That seems like a wonderful goal, but do we truly mean that? Do we truly want to wipe out all of the terrorism in Ireland, Africa, China, and Japan as well as the Middle East? Or do we only want to wipe out terrorism that destroys our pride? Once we’ve finished killing, will the world view the U.S.A. as a wise nation, or a prideful bully?

Years later, after succumbing to years of a Depressive Disorder, I left my career as a music teacher for the role I am in now.

Within this role, I have learned a lot about Applied Behavior Analysis and responding to basic forms of appropriate communication BEFORE they escalate to violent forms of communication.  I work with a student population for whom many student do not have verbal communicative skills.

Within this new role, Jesus' instructions to "turn the other cheek" make even more sense,

More often than not, a violent response from a person happens only after we have failed to "listen" to and respond to previous communicative efforts.  It is our failure to LISTEN that breeds violence.

"Turn the other cheek," in a sense, means " listen and understand where this pain began.  Anger usually starts as pain.

Those planes did not fly into our skyscrapers because Muslim Extremists "hated our freedom." They were responding to decades of U.S meddling and bullying in worldwide affairs.  In all that meddling, we often only considered the viewpoint of whichever side was financially or politically beneficial to us. We did not "need to" listen to anyone else.

Today, we still haven't learned to listen.

Americans claim we're best at many things. But we're the worst at listening. 

 

So.

When I am asked to "remember 9-11," I remember to listen.