(2018) This past 9/11 was on a Tuesday morning and the actual 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001 was on a Tuesday morning, as well.  Also, this past Patriot’s day I found myself in a class right next to a Muslim man who just got back from a trip to Morocco and Saudia Arabia and Egypt. It was early in the morning and though I was hungry for breakfast, I found myself thinking about the event and expressions of patriotism and Islamophobia, some crazy and some mild, at the time and since then.

I also started thinking about the topic of forgiveness and I questioned myself, “Do I forgive them? Have I forgiven them? What does it mean to forgive and what should it or should not look like? How can I forgive a group of people who did such a horrible thing?”

There are some, like Barack Obama (who would never say the term, “Muslim terrorist” who wish that we would all forget it and love, love, love and trust, trust, trust our Muslim brothers. Mr. Obama did back-flips supporting his Muslim brothers while he turned away as people of the faith he said he belonged to were called “terrorists” for saying they could not bake a cake for a gay wedding. This is one of the reasons that I stand against everything Mr. Obama said and did and does!

Obama is not alone in ignoring the crimes of the Muslim terrorists.  Another example of this is how many homosexuals actually think that they can identify with the Muslim communities in Saudi Arabia or even in the United States and call them  oppressed and counter-cultural brothers. They conveniently forget the Muslim who shot up the club in Orlando or the Muslims who regularly murder homosexuals in public hangings in Muslim countries.

Granted there are other people who encourage us to hate all Muslims for just being Muslims. They forget that Muslims are in our schools and universities and on the job next to us. They forget that the majority of them just want to live peaceful lives, as Americans.

I have a lot of experience with Muslims from graduate school and working alongside them. One man I actually considered a friend was named Mohammed. I met Mohammad when I was in Bloomsberg, PA at Bloomsberg State University.  Neither he nor anyone from any of those other Muslims I have known ever thought it was their religious duty to attempt to convert me or kill me!

Yet, I can still still remember the horror of 9/11, vividly.

How should I view all of this? How should I remember the horror of those sights, hearing the screams, and the feelings of dread for them and our country while at the same time loving my Muslim neighbor, and today hearing and seeing the insanity of young and dumb college students/leftist-morons?

One thing I try to remember is that the issues of today are not new in the Lord’s eyes. American men and women have always been dealing with the same things. We are a brutal country and we have killed each other over crossing strike lines, holding a protest sign, or just being different.  There is no shortage of reasons to hate each other.

However, we are called to be different. Despite the intense (and they were intense) political issues of the time of our Lord, (between Jews and Greeks and Samaritans, Romans and everyone) creating relationships was the Lord’s priority. He created relationships with Samaritans and Romans and women, and the disabled. All of these people were people that good Jews stayed away from.

So, I reached out to my neighbor on September 11th and shook his hand as a friendly gesture and said “good morning”. Not because I forgot the horror of those events of 9/11. I will never. I reached out not because I think they are really, “noble savages” who just don’t understand what they did. I know that they did. I reached out NOT because I am perfect. I am not one of those Christians who are perfect. I am one of those who needs the Lord’s forgiveness daily!

I reached out because the Lord, (who more often than not) knows I am a sinner too. I pray that it somehow glorifies Him.

Colossians 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

——————————————————–W.