Remembering 9/11 with Chuck Colson | A BreakPoint Podcast Special

0:00Welcome to a special bonus episode of the Breakpoint podcast. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. 25 years ago, the world witnessed the horrific terrorist attacks that are now known as 9-11. Like anyone old enough at the time, I remember exactly where I was. Preparing to teach a class, I saw on TV that a plane had struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. I didn't know, in fact no one knew at the time that that was just one of four airplanes that had been hijacked. It was not until the second plane hit the South Tower and I saw that live on television that anyone really suspected anything other than an accident. And a few minutes later, a third plane crashed into the Pentagon. It was clear that this was not an accident, it was war. All of us who watch what seemed like a real-life disaster movie unfold on live TV were stunned. I had never told the campus that day and told students to do something that I had never told them to do before.

1:00To go watch TV, it was clear their world had changed. Because in the midst of that chaotic moment that Chuck Colson on Breakpoint, as he always did, offered clarity and hope in the face of cultural confusion. To remember that horrible day 25 years ago, the Colson Center is sharing again the wisdom of our founder, the wisdom that he provided on Breakpoint and the days following the attack. Here's Chuck Colson with a Breakpoint commentary from September 12, 2001. If you're loved once perished yesterday as a result of these acts, please know you have my deepest sympathy and our heartfelt prayers go out to all involved. As the Bible says, when one suffers, we all suffer. As I listen to the reports, I felt the same way I did when President Kennedy was assassinated. When President Reagan was shot or Pearl Harbor for that matter, which I'm old enough to remember. Chuck's cause grief, not just for the loss of life, but for the assault they are upon our deepest beliefs. They assault the very soul of America. Terrorism, the warfare of the new century, is engaged in for the specific purpose of destabilizing

2:04free societies. The terror has succeed if free people cower in fear and begin to restrict their treasured freedoms and liberties. We should never succumb to terrorist-inspired fear. We can never allow such people to win. Instead, we must renew our commitment to the most fundamental liberties and to the rule of law. And we must support our government in its response. God establish government to preserve order by punishing evil and seeking justice. Without this restraint on human sinfulness, the strong will pray on the weak and seek to impose their will on others. What is true in relations between individuals is also true in relations between nations. As St. Augustine wrote 1600 years ago, loving God and our neighbor will require using force against aggression. And this brings me back to yesterday's events. For the Christian, we believe government has a special duty to punish those who will affect invaded our soil and committed these dastardly acts. But we must do so in a just manner. As Augustine's just for theory teaches any military action must have a reasonable chance

3:05of success. In our context, that means being fairly certain as to the identity of the perpetrators. We can't simply strike out for the sake of doing something or an blind rage. We need to also make sure that our targets are military ones. Saviians, even those who applaud the terrorist actions, should never be targeted. Finally, our response should be proportionate. After an event like yesterday's, we are understandably tempted to lash out with every weapon in our arsenal. But we must be careful and not let our response to the harm we have suffered lead us to commit even greater harm. Something that our technological superiority makes possible. But respond we must and quickly, less the world and more importantly would be terrorists view us as a paper tiger. We are the respond appropriately with a sword or invite more of the same. I am sure President Bush is weighing right now. All of the intelligence available to him to find out who's responsible if any governments are involved and how quickly the US can retaliate. I have confidence in the President and Secretary's Rumsfeld and Powell. They and those who serve with them are competent leaders who find themselves in a time of tremendous

4:08crisis. I urge you to pray with me not only for those who grieve and not only for our enemies, but especially for our leaders as they fulfill their awesome responsibility in this dark hour. May God help us. For Breakpoint, this is Chuck Colson in Washington. That was Chuck Colson's commentary from September the 12th, 2001. There was so much information to take in following 9-11 and a lot of misinformation. Hardly anyone outside the intelligence community had ever heard of Osama bin Laden or Al-Qaeda. They had no idea why they had attacked us. Initially, of course, many believed that up to 10,000 Americans had died. A number that thankfully shrunk significantly. While the world was still reeling, Chuck Colson knew that Christians needed to be able to give the reason for the hope that was within them, just as Peter had commanded all of us to be able to do. We needed to think, to speak, to act from the strong grounding of the Christian faith. So on September the 13th, 2001, he challenged believers to do just that.

5:12Here's Chuck Colson. The terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and damaged the Pentagon were not just about buildings and airplanes. They were about people, people who survived and people who died. The concrete grieves. In the midst of this, Christians are called as a gust and put it to be the best of citizens. But what should we be doing? Well let me begin with some practical suggestions. The hospitals in New York and Washington desperately need blood. And whether you're in New York or California, if you give blood, it will get to the victims who need it. Christians ought to be the first ones in line. Second, we can volunteer. Yesterday as exhausted, emotionally spent office workers walked across the Williamsburg bridge to Brooklyn. They were met by workers handing out cups of water. They had hauled five gallon water bottles from all over to offer the proverbial cup of cold water to those suffering. I don't know about the workers' motivation, but what a touching example of community spirit and love. Third, we can listen. The magnitude of this terrorist attack cuts to the heart and soul of many American communities.

6:12Many neighbors, lost friends or loved ones in airplanes and buildings. Beyond that, most Americans spent all of Tuesday and the bulk of yesterday glued to the television as did most of our children in schools. People are traumatized, confused. They need to talk and we can listen and give a reason for our hope. We can listen and we can be an influence on those around us. For example, we can love our Muslim and Middle Eastern neighbors. Our instinct for self-preservation will cause us to see someone in traditional Muslim dress or with Arabic features and wonder if he or she represents a threat. At the same time, we know that most Arabs living in America are Christians. Christians who have fled from the kind of militant Islamic leaders, fanatical extremists who are suspected of Tuesday's terror. Beyond that, the vast majority of Muslims living in the United States are peaceful, law-abiding people. Christians should be the first to recognize this and befriend those who will find themselves shunned by many. Finally, and most important, we need to pray. Pray fervently for our leaders. President George Bush has a devout evangelical faith in Christ, I know from our conversations.

7:16National Security Advisor, Candelisa Rice and speechwriter Mike Gerson and others in the administration are strong believers as well. These brothers and sisters need God's wisdom and our prayers. Commentated Tim Russ had pointed out what a difficult decision the President faces. If his response is too weak, he invites more terrorism. If he orders an all out assault on the terrorists and those who harbored them, it could provoke extreme elements in moderate Muslim countries to topple those governments. This would have the net result of turning our allies into rogue nations who were willing to aid and export terrorism. An enormous wisdom, nothing less than God's wisdom is required. We can also pray that the quiet, unyielding anger of the American people, of which Bush spoke, an anger that is both natural and appropriate does not spill over it into rash demands. The President knows he must act swiftly. But for the rest of us, this is a time when our anger must be tempered with patience and restraint. God have mercy on us. That was Chuck Holson's break point commentary from September 13, 2001.

8:17It's hard to believe that anyone could have guessed that 25 years after 9-11, there would be a Muslim mayor in the very city where most of the damage had been done. Still, the Christians' responsibility to love our neighbors and to love our enemies has never changed. It was easier in the pain of 9-11 to hate. And in the days and weeks after, there were some very regrettable examples of that hate. The Christians, who had nothing to do with the attacks, they were themselves attacked. Just as Christ demonstrated extraordinary love to all of us, he calls his people to live out that same love for others. Three days after 9-11, Chuck Holson addressed the temptation to retaliate. And the call of Christ to love. And this commentary Chuck reminded us that in this time between Eden and the New Heavens and New Earth, the world cannot be neatly split up between good guys and bad guys. We have to ground our thoughts, our hopes, our actions and the eternal perspective of the gospel. We have to rise above the natural impulse for revenge.

9:21Here's Chuck Holson. Sheer Singh was born in India and has lived in the United States for two years. On Wednesday, when his train from Boston to Washington DC stopped in Providence, Rhode Island, he was arrested, suspected of involvement in the terrorism that rocked the country on Tuesday. Alerted by television reports, a crowd gathered outside the train station. As police led Mr. Singh from the station, the crowd whooped and jeered. Kill him, yelled one man. You killed my brother, Shriek to another. Mr. Singh, who had absolutely no connection with the terrorism, is a Sikh and wears a turban, a long beard and a ceremonial dagger strapped to his shoulder. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. In Chicago, a crowd marched on a local mosque, shouting, USA, USA, someone threw a fire bomb at an Arab-American community center in Texas. Urban Americans have been assaulted and harassed across the country. A 19-year-old in Chicago commented, I'm proud to be an American and I hate Arabs and I always have. Evil in this world begins more evil, it's self-prepetuating, and we're already seeing that in the rage against Mr. Singh and people like him.

10:23By sharp contrast, Paul wrote to the Romans, overcome evil with good. One of the reasons I believe the Christian gospel couldn't be a made-up religion as some people think is that it tells us to do those things which are contrary to our human nature. When evil is done to us, the human instinct is to respond with evil. The result is that evil triumphs. In this case, if we responded to the terrorist attacks with evil, the terrorist win. But the gospel tells us to act exactly contrary to our own nature, to respond to evil with good. The most powerful example of this principle I know is Father Yerzy Papalusco, Catholic priest in Poland in the early 1980s. The pale, gaunt priest had a two-fold message, defend the truth and overcome evil with good. People responded and overflowed his church. The secret police followed him everywhere. He began to receive threats and finally one night after celebrating mass and preaching, Father Yerzy disappeared. About 10 days later, as 50,000 people came to mass and to listen to a tape of his last sermon, they heard that his body had been found in the Vistula River badly mutilated by

11:27torture. The secret police braced for an uprising, but on the day of Father Yerzy's funeral, the huge crowd that walked past their headquarters, bore a banner and shouted what it said, we forgive, we forgive. Father Yerzy taught them well. Only Christians, men and women who are touched by and understand the present reality of the cross, can possibly overcome evil with good. And if we don't, no one else will. Rage and anger will carry the day and the terrorist will have won. This doesn't obviate the government's use of the sword or military force to swiftly and proportionately respond to those terrorist attacks. We must do that. Our government will. But as the nation's anger rises, there is a great test for American Christians. Can we live by the gospel? Will we lever neighbors, even those who look or sound or seem like those who saruthlessly attack us? That was Chuck Holson from September the 14th, 2001. After that same morning, a memorial service was held for the victims of 9-11 at the National Cathedral, was led by Billy Graham and President George W. Bush.

12:30It was later that afternoon that President Bush delivered the famous bullhorn address from the rubble of the Twin Towers in New York City. The following Monday, Chuck Holson addressed yet another aspect of 9-11 from a Christian worldview. As happens during a world crisis, people were tempted to speculate about this event and what it had to do with the end times or the return of Jesus Christ. The hope of Christ's return, Chuck Holson said, is not an invitation to disengage from a complicated cultural moment, just waiting around for the Lord to come back. We have to engage at a national level, just War Theory, is a way to address the rights and the responsibilities that governments have to serve and protect their citizens. Chuck Holson repeatedly called Christians to this wonderful resource from the history of Christian theology. Here's Chuck Holson. This weekend, my wife was in the drugstore. The firm assistant was the first to confront her. This is obviously the end times, he intoned. Things are going to get much worse and then the Lord will come.

13:31Tell Mr. Holson to keep an eye on the king of Spain, Juan Carlos. Well, I don't know what Juan Carlos has to do with it. The only thing I know about him is that he read Born Again Unloved It. But I guess he's a candidate for the Antichrist. I might dismiss the pharmacist's response, except that in one hour of shopping for groceries, Patty was confronted by two other Christians, who told her, the end is near, it's finally come. This is it. Get ready for the Lord's return. If this is how Christians are thinking about the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, it confirms my worst fears. During the Gulf War, the world was concerned about the proper use of military power. Christians have been finally concerned with this issue and have advanced the just-word doctrine, which has shaped the understanding of Western society. Christians in America, however, during the Gulf War said nothing, choosing instead to speculate about the end times. One book about prophecy on the Gulf War shot to the top of the best-seller list, only to be forgotten weeks later when its dramatic speculations proved utterly false. Meanwhile, we left questions of power, justice, and international relations to secular thinkers,

14:33and on the process gave the impression that we don't know and we don't care. It was a bad witness and must not happen again. Now, make no mistake. Jesus is going to return. And, obviously, I believe that. But like C.S. Lewis, I refuse to speculate as to when. Rather than speculate, I want to concentrate on the great and unique contribution Christians can make in this hour. Christians need to focus attention on the issue surrounding just war. The President must respond to the terrorist attacks forcefully and quickly. The Bible teaches that the government has the power of the sword to preserve order and do justice. At the same time, the power of the sword has to be temperate by the restraints of the just-word doctrine. Along with Senegalism some 1600 years ago, Christians have thought and written about the appropriate use of military force. Today, we need to be the ones who insist that the response to the terrorist attacks be proportionate, that they do not create a greater evil, and that civilians are not targeted. I've been watching the television, and I have yet to hear the question of just war raised. If we don't bring these issues into public discourse, no one will.

15:34Now, don't get me wrong. Of course, as Christians, we are the community of eschatological hope. We live in the constant expectation of Jesus' return. That will be the most glorious day in all of human history. But it's our hope, and though we may talk about it among ourselves, this is not the time to inject it into secular discourse. People will simply dismiss us as a fringe group. The fact is this country is hurting and grieving, perplexed, frustrated, confused about what needs to be done next. This is the time for us to come alongside, offer compassion, mercy, understanding, good instead of evil. And we can contribute to the public debate that will inform our nation's actions in a way that reflects God's standard of justice. Of course, the most common response to a disaster like 9-11 is a question. Why? On September the 18th, 2001, a week after the tragedy, Chuck Colson took up the challenge of answering, or at least offering an answer to that question. It wasn't flippant. It didn't ignore the reality of what had taken place.

16:36Instead, he offered important, healing words to a lot of people that were still very much hurting. There was hardly anyone watching the results of the terrorist attacks who failed to ask this one question. Where was God in New York and Washington? Doesn't a loving God care? This weekend I received a frantic call from a Christian friend deeply troubled. The husband of a woman to whom she had been witnessing had been killed in the World Trade Center attack. The woman called my friend and demanded bitterly, where was your God that you've been telling me about this week? Everywhere people are raising the same question. How could a good God have allowed such massive evil? And no question poses a great astumbling block to the Christian faith. No question more difficult for Christians to answer. Yet the biblical worldview does give us a good answer. The simple answer to why bad things happen to so-called good people is that God loved us so much that he made us free moral agents in his image. He designed creatures with the ability to make choices to choose either good or evil.

17:38The original humans Adam and Eve exercised that choice and chose to disobey God. In doing so, they rejected God's good, thus creating sin and opening the door to death and evil. What happened last week was raw naked evil committed by men who had made evil choices, but it was something else as well. It was merely a consequence of the fact that there is sin in the world. God could erase the consequences of sin immediately, but then we'd no longer be free moral agents. We'd be robots. For without consequences, there is no real choice. God cannot simultaneously offer us free choice and then compel one choice over another, which is what would happen if he stopped all evil. Jesus himself was asked why bad things happen to good people. In Luke 13, we read that people asked him if the Galileans who were killed while worshipping at the altar were worse sinners than anyone else. No Jesus answered, and then he added, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Jesus then reinforced his point, recently a tower in the nearby city had fallen, 18 people

18:43had been crushed to death. Jesus said, do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. This is one of the hard sayings of Jesus, but there's great truth in it. We are in no position to ask God why terrible things happen. We're only to seek forgiveness ourselves. What happened last week was one of the worst tragedies in American history, but God can bring good out of evil and he often works through adversity. Since the terrorist attacks, we have seen the nation come together with greater unity than I've witnessed since Pearl Harbor. And this Sunday, my church was filled with capacity for all services, very unusual in Florida at this time of year. Churches all over the country were packed out as they were in England as well. People may be angry at God, but they're also asking questions about the meaning of life and God's role in it. You and I need to be prepared to answer the questions of people in pain. Where was God last week? He was with us, just as he always is.

19:44He gave us everything we need to cope with this or any other evil. He gave us himself at the cross, at Calvary. About a week after 9-11, a couple of evangelical leaders famously blamed the terrorist attacks on certain members of the American left. As Chuck Colson would put it, quote, for these leaders, these attacks were a chapter of the cultural wars. Now, he was not dismissing the forces that were clearly secularizing American society and advancing immorality. Chuck Colson, in fact, often spoke about these harmful voices and the ideology that they represented and their victims. However, Chuck refused to use this national tragedy in an inappropriate way. He refused to abandon a biblical understanding of sin in the fall. Instead, he offered a brilliant understanding of God's judgment that was grounded in Scripture. Here's Chuck Colson. Since the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington last week, breakpoint commentaries have focused on the Christian worldview response, and we've ignored our scheduled commentaries.

20:46Correctly so, the attacks were of such magnitude that no one could think of anything else. But before we leave the topic of the terrorist attacks, I want to comment on the meaning of a prophetic response to this national disaster. Christians are called to speak prophetically to the world, calling for repentance. The reaction of some evangelicals, however, was unfortunately to put the blame for the attacks on people and groups who have had a secularizing effect on American society. I don't associate myself with those comments nor do I believe most American Christians do. These remarks were ill-timed and inappropriate as those who made them to their credit have acknowledged and have apologized for them. While I obviously believe that the forces of secularism have done a miserable harm, it's unfair to associate this tragedy with those groups. Nor can we lay the blame at the feet of Arabs or Muslims in general as some are want to do. The hijackers who crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were Muslim in name only. Several of them were involved in drunk driving and visiting strip bars.

21:47Things no religious Muslim would ever do. In reality, they were anarchists seeking to destroy, destabilize, and make us slaves to fear. But you ask, aren't Christians supposed to be prophetic within the culture and point out sin? Of course, but there are biblical guidelines. First, remember the words of the Apostle Peter. It is time for judgment to begin with a family of God. The sins of Christians and of the Church are our first order of business. Our materialism pride, disunity, gossip, and lack of love are as much a cause for judgment as anyone else's behavior. To single out the transgressions of others while ignoring our own is to turn biblical teaching on its head. Second, the biblical prophets who pronounce God's judgment upon the people were careful to count themselves among those being judged. And when judgment came, they shared in the suffering of the people. Jeremiah wept and wrote laments when Jerusalem fell. Ezekiel went into exile, Moses threw his light in with the people when God told him of his intention to wipe out Israel and begin again with him.

22:48We always speak as fellow sinners and are the first to repent. Third, if we were deprofatic when you speak out for the right reasons, not to find scapegoats or condemn or denounce, but out of our love for our neighbors. Rather than demonizing others, we offer an alternative to destructive worldviews that have left many victims, including the victims of last Tuesday, in their wake. Comments that sound self-righteous and point the finger of others make it hard for ordinary people to see how the Christian message differs from the condemning message of the hijackers. Christians should be measured and balanced in all we say. A word of caution for all of us. The Bible is full of caution. The Bible is also full of cause to remember, and we're to remember the deeds of the Lord. This is both a warning for us against judgment and a basis for our hope. In this final commentary that we'd like to share from Chuck Colson about 9-11, he calls us to remember those who risked and even lost their lives, to honor the men and women who served and sacrificed, and to live out their example.

23:50Here's Chuck Colson. No one who was old enough to take it in will ever forget September 11, 2001. We see passenger jets flying out of a clear September morning, the flashes of flame, the destruction, the death, and the valiant acts of heroism. It's well to remember and to mourn the victims this day. But let me raise the question of why we memorialize those who have sacrificed for us. What's our object in doing so? The answer is gratitude. As we mourn and remember the sacrifices of those who went before us, we ourselves, out of gratitude for what they did, commit ourselves to defend those values for which they die. As we hold so dear, freedom, human dignity. Gratitude. John Calvin said gratitude was at the center of the Christian life, and GK Justin called it the mother of all virtues. It was gratitude for living in a free country that caused me to put on the uniform of the United States Marine Officer during the Korean War. We do our duty to our country out of gratitude for those who went before us to defend the liberties

24:53we hold surprecious. I love the scene at the end of the movie Saving Private Ryan. Ryan, who was now 70 years old, returns to Normandy, and he's looking at the grave marker of Captain Miller, the man who died to save him during World War II. Ryan's on his knees. The grave marker is a stark white cross. He addresses Miller now long dead. I've tried every day to live up to what you did for me. I hope I've lived a life worthy of your sacrifice. On this anniversary of the attacks, we ought to be looking at the sacrifices people made for us and asking ourselves whether we are living lives worthy of their sacrifices. In addition to gratitude and duty, we remember because good can come out of those vicious terrorist attacks. It's of course a biblical principle that God works through human suffering, tragedies, and defeats, sometimes to do His greatest work. These acts of war surged as a wake-up call. There was a lot of utopian discussion going on in the 90s about how Western liberal democracy had won the great ideological contest of the 20th century.

25:54We forgot that this is a dangerous world that evil is real. Now we know better, and even the postmodernist has to agree there is evil. And just as the great World War II generation saved the world from Hitler's evil, so this generation must become great for this moment. It's our calling to be great in defense of liberty and freedom and human rights, to defend good against evil today. The war on terrorism is by its nature, slow, and treacherous. We must not allow ourselves to become discouraged or fatigued. On this September 11th after looking back with gratitude, we need to look ahead. Our hope lies in our resolve to do our duty that our gratitude inspires. Our hope lies in the lessons we've learned for the future. And our hope lies in our confidence in a sovereign God that in the end, white will prevail, that civilization can be preserved, and that America and our allies in defense of freedom and opposition to evil will triumph. And just like that soon in saving private Ryan, let us also this day look at the cross

26:55as Ryan did. May we live lives worthy of the supreme sacrifice Christ made for us. For Breakpoint, this is Chuck Colson in Washington. On behalf of all of us at the Colson Center, thanks for joining this very special edition of the Breakpoint Podcast. You've been listening to a series of commentaries from Chuck Colson reflecting on the tragedy of September 11th, 2001, the terrorist attacks in Washington, DC, New York, and Pennsylvania. Chuck, as he did so many other things for all of us, framed those horrific events from a Christian worldview. Thanks for listening to today's program. If you're a fan of the Breakpoint Podcast, would you please leave us a review wherever you download your podcast, and you can always visit us online for more resources. Just go to breakpoint.org.