Dear Friends

THE BATTLE AGAINST TERRORISM

VISITNG GROUND ZERO

On our recent family holiday to the United States, we visited New York. Whilst in the city, Sue’s brother took us to Ground Zero - the site of the Twin Towers. It is not a place I would have chosen to have visited. I initially felt that it was ghoulish to go, as a tourist, to the place where three thousand people had died. But the atmosphere was subdued, respectful and reverent. I heard a mother trying to quieten her fractious child. Someone she had known had died on 9/11: and she had gone to Ground Zero to pay her respects. She just wanted to be quiet and to remember. I certainly found myself quietly praying, as I reflected on the events that took place there almost five years ago. Ground Zero has the appearance of a rather desolate building site. Its focal point is a simple cross, constructed from two girders that had survived the destruction. On a nearby wall is an impressive bronze memorial to commemorate the men and women of the New York Fire Brigade who had died trying to rescue those trapped in the building.

THE ENDURING THREAT OF TERORISM

Our visit to Ground Zero was all the more poignant for us, as the previous day we had heard the news that a terrorist plot had been uncovered to attack a number of transatlantic flights. Having flown out just two days previously, it made the threat of terrorism seem all the more immediate. One’s imagination ranged over all the terrible possibilities. And we were reminded that those affected by 9/11 included families with children, just like ourselves. Ground Zero is a memorial to both the best and the worst in human nature. The best represented by the courage and self sacrifice of the emergency services. We saw the same qualities last year in the attacks on the London Underground: the remarkable ability of men and women to place their own lives at risk in their desire to save the lives of others. But Ground Zero also stands as a warning of the darker side of human nature: rather in the same way as Auswitz or Belsen do. That there is this capacity for evil in our human makeup. And that this evil is at its most potent when human beings believe they are acting out of principle - or in the name of their religion.

THE TERRORISTS’ MOTIVES

The terrorist is a person who acts out of religious or political conviction. He believes that his violence is justified by the cause he serves. He does not consider that the destruction and death he unleashes is evil: because he believes it is serving a greater purpose. He may even believe that he is doing it in the name of God. Amid the current media demonisation of Muslims, we need to refresh our memories about other recent acts of terrorism. In Northern Ireland, and in the cities of Britain, hundreds of lives have been lost at the hands of terrorists who claimed to be Christians. Many members of the IRA and the Protestant extremist groups would have been found devoutly kneeling in church on Sunday. In the Balkans, just a decade ago, genocide was committed against Muslims, by Serbian Christians. Further back in Christian history, there was the terrible violence of the Reformation, as Protestant and Catholic believed they were doing God’s will in torturing and persecuting each other. However noble the cause we take to our hearts, how easily the powers of darkness can corrupt and exploit our intentions.

THE POWER OF EVIL

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, St Paul describes the world as being in the grip of the spiritual forces of evil. And History shows that Christians are just as capable of being seduced by those dark forces as any one else. Like most people in the ancient world, Paul was convinced that unseen spiritual forces were exercising power over human lives. He did not think of evil as an abstract concept in the way that we tend to. For Paul, evil was a personal fact. As he was stoned, scourged, and imprisoned for his faith, he saw himself as a soldier engaged in a great spiritual struggle. Like the other New Testament writers, he saw the hand of Satan behind the manifestations of evil in the world: rather in the way that Sherlock Holmes always saw the hand of Moriarty at work behind the activity of lesser criminals. For us, living in a scientific and rational age, talk of spiritual forces of evil can be difficult for us to get our minds around. But just reflect on the course of human history. It has not been, as the philosophers of the Enlightenment thought, a gradual record of moral progress. The tragedy of human history is that so many movements that begin proclaiming high ideals - justice, freedom, liberty, equality - all seemed destined to end up worse than the regimes they replaced. We think of the French and Russian revolutions - to name but two. There seems to be this force at work in human history to corrupt and undermine even our noblest purposes. The dangers for men and women of faith are as great - perhaps even greater - as for every one else. This is why St Paul tells us that we need to constantly measure our motives and deeds by the yardstick of the armour of God. “The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness; the shoes of the Gospel of peace; the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of God’s word.” It is these, and these alone, that will protect us from being seduced by the forces of darkness.

THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE

As a child, brought up in a home where Westerns films were very popular, the world seemed very simple. There were the good guys - (represented by actors like Jimmy Stewart); and there were the bad guys. As you grow older, you realise that life is not so straightforward. The good guys can easily become the bad guys. So potent is the power of evil that the victims of terrorism or genocide, can within a generation themselves become the perpetrators of terrorism and genocide. The first stage in the battle against evil is to acknowledge the reality of its power. And to recognise, that history shows that in any conflict, both sides are open to the influence of the evil one. This seems to be as true of the present conflict in the Middle East as in another conflict. Has either side emerged from the Lebanon war able to convince the world that it can still claim the moral high ground? My visit to Ground Zero, coming as it did in the face of the latest terrorist threats, spoke to me of the reality of the forces of evil. St Paul was in no doubt that as Christians we are engaged in a spiritual war. “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication” he advises the Ephesians. It is for this reason that the Archbishop of York has been engaged in the vigil of prayer for peace in his Cathedral.

A reminder that as Christians we are to align ourselves with the Kingdom of God. We strive to be children of light in a world of so much darkness.

Stephen Carter