Humility is the Most Practical Response to Terrorism
As a follower of
Jesus Christ, my sincere attitude towards my Muslim neighbors and friends is
love, care and respect. I pray for true peace (paz, salam, shalom, vrede) in a
world full of pride, arrogance and unfair caricatures which divide us (red vs.
blue states, alochtone vs. autochtone, legal vs. illegal). Can we please throw
away the labels and see every individual as a valuable person made in the image
of God. Please spend time listening and sharing with people that believe and/or
look different than yourself. This not only leads to enrichment but takes
seriously the words of Jesus to "love your neighbor as yourself."
–Facebook post after hearing of another terrorist attack committed by extreme
radical Muslims.
I live in Amsterdam ,
Holland France
The Slippery Slope of Pride
Religion, politics, education or anything else
which is in the hands of prideful people will lead to destruction. The first
step on the slippery slope of pride is to cause individuals to feel superior to
people who are different than them. These feeling of superiority then lead to
physical or social separation. This separation causes them to then caricature
or stereotype all people who are not like them as being one dimensional figures.
If we label people, then we don’t have to think about them anymore and see them
as people with value. Then we can marginalize them which may lead to active
oppression, abuse, violence and destruction.[1]
A clear example of this slippery slope of pride
is the Nazi-German propaganda machine drawing pictures of all Jews with large
noses and then blaming them for all of their woes. Outright oppression began
with horrible measures such as kristallnacht and making them wear yellow stars.
This pride for the Aryan race and hatred for Jews eventually led them to murder
million of them in the gas chambers.
We may not be placing people in gas chambers,
but our words and actions toward people of different nationalities, faiths, or
political convictions may be leading us down the slippery slope of pride. Pride
always comes before a fall and always leads to destruction.[2]
Pride
is…
|
Humility
is…
|
…driven
by emptiness (fear).
|
…being
content.
|
…contempt
and disrespect for people who are different than myself.
|
…respect
and friendliness for people who are different than myself.
|
…being
unteachable. A “know it all” who does not need anyone or anything.
|
…remaining
teachable and correctable.
|
…insecure.
|
…secure.
|
Alexander the Great conquered a huge amount of the known world but is said to never have gotten “enough.” Our greed and consumerism can also lead us to always thinking that having more will satisfy us, yet the short-lived placebo of having stuff will eventually leave us unsatisfied and needing more. We are searching for the secret to happiness and meaning in our lives. We would love to be able to say as Paul, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Philippians 4:12). The secret is humility.
(Student
devastated when she finds out she has the “wrong” eye color)[4]
In 1968, Jane
Elliot learned how to turn her sweet third graders into prideful monsters who
mistreated each other when she began telling them that the blue-eyed kids were
superior to the brown-eyed kids.[5] The next day she turned
the tables on them and said that actually the brown-eyed kids were better than
the blue-eyed kids. This was an experience which all the children would
remember the rest of their lives: discrimination is dehumanizing and horrible.
Brother
Andrew, who was known for going behind the iron curtain during communism to
smuggle bibles to Christian churches. Now he is known for going to top leaders
of Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, and Hamas where he is received with arms
wide open because he comes not just with Bibles, but also a message of God’s
love. He says that Islam for him means: I Sincerely Love All Muslims. A radical
message which sounds similar to what Jesus said and did when he not only prayed
and blessed his enemies, but also forgave the people who crucified him as he
was dying.
Muslims are
not our enemies, they are people made in the image of God who deserve to be
loved and respected as much as anyone else. For years we have done kid’s clubs
and activities in our neighbourhood which have been geared to loving and
serving everyone; especially our Muslim neighbours.
Breaking a
Ramadan fast together with our Muslim neighbours’ or serving together in the
Interreligious Council of our neighbourhood are things which I look back upon
with fond memories. Planting a church where people of all kinds of backgrounds
and faiths feel welcome also gives me great delight. We preach the message of
Jesus Christ without any reservations, yet people of other faiths and even of
no faith regularly attend our meetings. I hope this is fruit of my attempt at
being a truly humble leader.
Our Response
to Terrorism is Humility and Forgiveness
(Wilma Derkson who lost her daughter)
Wilma Derksen
lost her thirteen-year-old daughter, Candace, to a criminal who bound, raped
and murdered her oldest child. Her and her husband’s public response was “We
would like to know who the person or persons are so we could share, hopefully,
a love that seems to be missing in these people’s lives…Our main concern was to
find Candace. We’ve found her…We have all done something dreadful in our lives,
or have felt the urge to.”[7]
Twenty
years later, the Derksen’s confronted the perpretrator when he was finally
brought to justice. Wilma tells of her huge struggle inside of her. When she
saw him she had the feelings of anger, vengeance and hatred raise up inside of
her. Yet for her own family, future and sanity she decided to walk in humility
and forgiveness.
The
temporary pleasure of revenge only escalates problems and makes them worse. A
clear example of this is the decades of violence that have taken place in Ireland
"She
held my hand tightly, and gripped me as hard as she could. She said, 'Daddy, I
love you very much.' Those were her exact words to me, and those were the last
words I ever heard her say." To the astonishment of listeners, Wilson
(Gordon
Wilson: Father, Draper, Politician, and Peace Activist)
This
man who all his life had worked as a draper, rose up in his words and actions
and became a pivotal politician and peace campaigner who helped stop the
decades of fear and violence in Northern Ireland. He was a Methodist Christian
who did not just say he followed Jesus, he did it.
Wilson,
Derksen and Jesus Christ all show us that the best way to deal with our enemies
is humility and forgiveness. Our problems of fear and insecurity will not be ultimately solved by more bombs, bullets, cartoons, laws and guns. They will not be solved
by demonizing those who look or sound different than ourselves. We will only
find security by anchoring the roots of our identity in something that will
never change and that is the unconditional love of God. When we strive to do
this, then the way we treat everyone, even our enemies, will change. It can be
described with one word: HUMILITY.
[1] Slippery slope of Pride comes from Tim
Keller’s book The Reason for God.
[2] I am not referring to being happy or proud of your
kids or work as something evil. Having a good self-esteem is healthy, but as
you will see the form of pride I am speaking about is very septic.
[3] Jonathan Edward’s definition comes from Tim
Keller’s sermon on humility. www.gospelinlife.com
[5] Fantastic videos of these experiment can be
found on You Tuve.
[6] Picture comes from http://www.aftermathofmurder.ca/#!videos/c9o3
[7] Malcom Gladwell’s book David and Goliath tells this
story on page. 253.
[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Wilson_%28peace_campaigner%29
[9] Picture comes from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Wilson_(peace_campaigner)
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