Reading about the details of the hijackings brings home to me how evil those acts were. It arouses my ire and makes me wish for vengance. I briefly fanasized about studying to become an expert in terrorism in order to strike back and make a difference. My initial conception of striking back against terrorism involves surgical strikes and very careful elimination of terrorist cells.
Against a backdrop of these thoughts, I went to see the movie Munich by Steven Spielberg late last night. Munich follows my fantasy of assasination-type surgical strikes against terrorists involved in the terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinians against Israelis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. It follows a young Jewish man recruited to carry out these attacks in what amounts to Israeli state-sponsored terrorism. The movie, though violent, doesn’t glorify violence. It takes a very close look at the very real issues surrounding terrorism. As the main character kills those terrorist and suspected terrorists, he witnesses the rise of harder targets and enemies more vile than those he was killing. He also struggles with many complex moral issues attending to the attempts to serve higher purposes with lower means.
Driving home from the theater, I was forced to reject my previous ideas about striking back at terrorism as an effective means of stopping it. I reflected on the “you-killed-my-brother, I’ll-kill-yours” mentality seen in places like Northern Ireland, the West Bank, and my own heart. I realized that the only solution ever presented to this ultra-hard problem comes in the out-of-the-box teachings of Jesus Christ. Forgiveness, however hard, is demanded as the ultimate solution to the cylce of violence and death.
I don’t pretend to make these statements from a position of understanding, as I haven’t lost loved ones to the pain of violence. But God DID lose his Son to us who declared ourselves His enemies. And the cry from the cross, the one calling for forgiveness of Jesus’s tormentors, echoes today across West Bank and Northern Ireland and through the caverns of my dark heart. It’s the first and last solution to the extreme evils of terrorism. This isn’t a call to weakness or to laying down in the face of evil; it’s a call to carry out one of the hardest acts ever imagined. It’s a call to stand up to evil in the world and in our own hearts; and it’s the only weapon ever shown to stop the cycle. God help us.
technorati tags: terrorism, response, 9/11, Christianity, Christian response to terrorism, Munich, evil
Andrew:
We saw Munich tonight. One of the most well-made movies I’ve seen in a long time. I was interested going into it to see whether Speilberg’s Jewishness would be reflected, causing a biased picture in favor of Israel. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the systemic issues were addressed rather than one group’s justification for their acts.
Your post is well-thought. I couldn’t agree more. I am learning that the impulse to exact revenge (and/or “justice”), while temporarily satiating, is not necessarily the moral high road, or even a means to an eventual end. I am learning that violence only serves to beget further violence. Killing for peace is like screwing for chastity. That said, I do not have any tangible solutions to offer – I suppose this is where the hard part comes in. Relying on God means admission that our instinctive ways of doing things are not always right. I hope to discuss this film further with you.
JRS