Have you guys read this?
Submitted by innocence is bliss on 2002-06-15 01:40:44, Saturday
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Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 19:14:50 -0800 To: Rev. Jerry Falwell, Rev Pat Robertson From: sonia balcer Subject: reflections from a fellow conservative Dear Rev. Falwell, I am writing to you as a conservative Christian who is deeply concerned about the implied blame you leveled the other day at various groups of our countrymen in regards to the horrendous terrorist attack that occurred last Tuesday on American soil. (Rev. Robertson, by your explicit agreement with Rev. Falwell's statements, I include you equally in what I am about to convey in this letter.) As a person who takes the Word of God very seriously, I am struck by how gravely you are misrepresenting the message and character of God, and that in your apparently desperate attempt to "explain" a tragic outworking of evil by scapegoating your opponents, you are unwittingly complicit in the works of darkness that will alienate and stumble countless many in our nation and throughout the world. To put this in perspective, I carefully read your statement [Sept. 14th] that you "...hold no one other than the terrorists and the people and nations who have enabled and harbored them responsible." I also listened earnestly to the "Mike Gallagher" radio interview aired last night at 12:30 a.m. (870 kHz on a west coast AM station) where you were asked to explain your statement, and specifically (paraphrasing the host), "what is the connection between abortionists and foreign powers that commit acts of violence and war?" I listened earnestly to your answer that the responsibility for those acts lies "solely with the terrorists...", but that (paraphrasing) "we have affronted God and the curtain of protection has lifted such that for the first time since 1812, we have been assaulted on native soil" and therefore "...God holds us responsible for that, and this is a wakeup call (mentioning, if I recall accurately, 2Chronicles 7:17), and a call to repentance..." and that it can be a "catalyst" to move us towards God. But unfortunately this does not diminish the impact of the message conveyed by you on Thursday during the "700 Club" program. I understand that you were making the point (almost but not entirely invalid) that while "the Lord has protected us so wonderfully these 225 years" the recent attack could be only the beginning "...if, in fact - God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve." Our sins, personally and collectively, do indeed have harmful consequences -- they hurt us and our relationship with God. However, I disagree that such "protection", even for the most virtuous, is necessarily either a manifestation or a guarantee of blessing, for Hebrews 12 indicates that the most faithful are at times "scourged" so as to be further conformed into His image ("whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth"), and that such is inevitable if we are really His. The total devastation which Job suffered actually seems to correlate with his righteousness. Furthermore, Jesus taught (Matt 5:45, 9:3, etc.) that calamity cannot be explained away by any combination of our own or others' moral failure, inasmuch as "...He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust". He does not assure us that we won't have "tribulation", but to "...be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33) and that He would work even those difficult things for a greater good (Romans 8). At that point I honestly could have dismissed your statement as simplistic and a symptom of the dullness and presumption which can so easily accompany lives of great material abundance and comfort -- a tendency which I wrestle with too. But then you went on to say, "...I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen." This statement I cannot allow to go unchallenged. As a conservative Christian who shares many of your theological interpretations yet who believes that "all have fallen short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23), I condemn your ugly remarks as cheap shots to bolster your own narrow agenda. If your intent is to list things for which we as a people might collectively fall under God's judgment, why would you conveniently omit the obvious -- selfishness, haughtiness, indifference, partiality, slander, pride, cruelty, and self-righteousness -- unless your motivation (and unseemly partisanship) isn't in fact fueled by poisonous contempt and bias? As a webmaster-editor for a conservative Christian organization which stands for a just and respectful response to people who experience same-gender attraction, I identify you as one of the hypocrites Jesus spoke of (Matt. 23:27) who are "... like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." As an American whose heart has been broken by this tragedy, I say how dare you dishonor, by imposing your own polemically-charged interpretation of their death, those beloved whose lives were aborted by the deliberate acts of violent thugs. As the leader of a support group for fellow conservative Christians who struggle with (endeavouring to forsake) homosexuality, I rebuke you as one who stumbles the faith of the vulnerable and warn, with desperation and tears, that you are dreadfully close to those about whom Jesus said (Luke 17:2), "better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea." With anguished indignation, nonetheless in His love, Sonia Balcer |
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