I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
or better yet:
I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE CHRIST OF THE FATHER OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE. AND TO THE CHURCH FOR WHICH HE IS HEAD, ONE KINGDOM, UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND MERCY FOR ALL!
The
Christian Response to America Under Attack
As far as our
responsibilities as ministers of reconciliation, we have an obligation to every
man’s conscience in the sight of God (2 Co. 4:1-5). This
obligation is to carry out the ministry of reconciliation assigned to the church
(2Co 5:14-20). (Please
refer to the first article I wrote on First Impression)
Also, God has given us a
responsibility that has social and political ramifications as part of a nation
that has organized the God-instituted machinery to bring punishment unto the
evildoer. Some have argued that
this implication as carried out by a soldier, or even a police officer for that
matter, is against Christian morals.
Nothing could be further away from the truth.
Rom 13:1-6
clearly states that God appoints governing authorities to establish justice and
hold terror for the disobedient. Police,
including the military, are God's ministers to execute wrath on those who
practice evil, even if it means death, for they don't bear the sword (guns) in
vain.
These are God's words, as
spoken by Paul, and if you want confirmation, read 1 Peter 2:13-17,
where he also deems the authorities (governments) as those who punish evildoers.
Peter goes on to say that we should practice doing good with the freedoms
we enjoy, as opposed to those who use their freedom to practice evil.
As Christians (God’s
Kingdom) we need to recognize that God has given us a responsibility to pray
for our government (nation) to establish peace (1 Tim 2:1-4).
That peace can only be maintained by God's agents of wrath unto the
disobedient. Who is that agent?
Well, in this case, the military and diplomatic machinery of peace-loving
nations that can act together to punish those who practice evil.
I think the lack of
carrying out the moral duty to punish evildoers is what has this nation hanging
onto weak and deplorable convictions that compromise our urgency to preach the
Good News, that is, carry out our prime directive as God’s
Kingdom: Preach the Good News of Jesus Christ.
As Christians and as God's
kingdom, we are about peace and about preaching the Gospel to
those who do not know God or do not obey the Gospel. We are a light in that regard, called to live in peace and in
accordance to God's will. It is not
our duty to complain or criticize whether or not the president or another branch
of government is doing their job or how right or wrong they are doing it. Rather
we need to pray they carry out their God given ministry of upholding peace and
punishment of evildoers.
As a nation, we give
authority to those in government to execute their God appointed duties to uphold
good and punish evil, and sometimes we take away the support when the evil needs
to be punished. That is also
deplorable, for it is God's judgment that this be done like this, not according
to any one person's judgment or understanding. Understand?
This next passage shows how
peace sometimes is only wrought through punishment, since we need to learn to be
peaceable. It is not in our nature, at times, to be peaceable.
Heb 12:10-11
For they indeed for a few days chastened [us] as seemed [best] to them, but He
for [our] profit, that [we] may be partakers of His holiness.
Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful;
nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those
who have been trained by it.
Some refuse to be trained
by chastening, and suddenly suffer destruction:
Prov. 13:13
He who despises the word will be destroyed, But he who fears the commandment
will be rewarded.
Prov. 21:7
The violence of the wicked will destroy them, because they refuse to do justice.
Prov. 29:1
He who is often rebuked, [and] hardens [his] neck, Will suddenly be destroyed,
and that without remedy.
Where do you stand? What
can you do?
I urge you to pray.
Pray without ceasing for you not to be divided in your mind nor that this evil
that has occurred overcome your sense of good.
After much praying and reading of the word, prepare yourself, as a
soldier of Jesus' army of reconciliation, to preach the word in season and out
of season. For the war we fight is
a spiritual one, whether our earthly surroundings are at peace or at war, we
know the spiritual war is ongoing unto our death.
If you are one of the brave
soldiers of Jesus who also happens to be a soldier of our army or a policeman or
another type of police agent, be convinced that you are a blessed part of what
God has instituted to punish evil and establish peace.
Through what you do, if done according to God's purpose, you are a light
unto the world.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Pedro Gelabert
From the daily Mirror, left wing periodical from the UK:
Parsons Daily Mirror September 11, 2002
One year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of broadcasting -- the mass murder of thousands, live on television. As a lesson in the pitiless cruelty of the human race, September 11 was up there with Pol Pot's Mountain of Skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the Nazi concentration camps.
An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so utterly merciless that surely the world could agree on one thing - nobody deserves this fate.
Surely there could be consensus: The victims were truly innocent, the perpetrators truly evil.
But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as America's comeuppance. Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over the last year. There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA in this country; too loud, too rich, too full of themselves, and so much happier than Europeans - but it has become an epidemic. And it seems incredible to me.
More than that, it turns my stomach. America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally. We are bonded to the US by culture, language and blood. A little over half a century ago, around half a million Americans died for our freedoms, as well as their own. Have we forgotten so soon? And exactly a year ago, thousands of ordinary men, women and children - not just Americans, but from dozens of countries, were butchered by a small group of religious fanatics.
Are we so quick to betray them?
What touched the heart about those who died in the Twin Towers and on the planes, was that we recognized them. Young fathers and mothers, somebody's son and somebody's daughter, husbands, wives, and children, some unborn.
And these people brought it on themselves? Their nation is to blame for their meticulously planned slaughter?
These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul or Karachi or Finsbury Park to see America as the Great Satan. The anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame the Americans for every ill in the Third World, and conservatives suffering from power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can do what it likes without having to ask permission.
The truth is that America has behaved with enormous restraint since September 11.
Remember, remember - Remember the gut-wrenching tapes of weeping men phoning their wives to say, "I love you," before they were burned alive.
Remember those people leaping to their deaths from the top of burning skyscrapers.
Remember the hundreds of firemen buried alive.
Remember the smiling face of that beautiful little girl who was on one of the planes with her mum.
Remember, remember - And realize that America has never retaliated for 9/11 in anything like the way it could have.
So a few al-Qaeda tourists got locked without a trial in Camp X-ray? Pass the Kleenex...
So some Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after they merrily fired their semi-automatics in a sky full of American planes? A shame, but maybe next time they should stick to confetti.
AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking lot.
That it didn't is a sign of strength. American voices are already being raised against attacking Iraq - that's what a democracy is for. How many in the Islamic world will have a minute's silence for the slaughtered innocents of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say that the mass murder of 9/11 was an abomination?
When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving Palestinians were dancing in the street. America watched all of that - and didn't push the button. We should thank the stars that America is the most powerful nation in the world. I still find it incredible that
9/11 did not provoke all-out war. Not a "war on terrorism." A real war.
The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening the gates of hell,"
if America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the gates of hell like you wouldn't believe.
The US is the most militarily powerful nation that ever strode the face of the earth. The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and the planned war on Iraq may be misconceived.
But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to these wretched countries. How many democracies are there in the Middle East, or in the Muslim world? You can count them on the fingers of one hand - assuming you haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting.
I love America, yet America is hated. I guess that makes me Bush's poodle. But I would rather be a dog in New York City than a Prince in Riyadh. Above all, America is hated because it is what every country wants to be - rich, free, strong, open, optimistic. Not ground down by the past, or religion, or some caste system. America is the best friend this country ever had and we should start remembering that.
Or do you really think the USA is the root of all evil? Tell it to the loved ones of the men and women who leaped to their death from the burning towers.
Tell it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died on one of the hijacked planes, or were ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper. And tell it to the hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for the New York Fire Department.
To our shame, George Bush gets a worse press than Saddam Hussein. Once we were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people and set up rape-camps in Kuwait. Now we are told he likes Quality Street. Save me the orange center, Oh Mighty One!
Remember, remember, September 11 - One of the greatest atrocities in human history was committed against America.
No, do more than remember. Never forget.