Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Terror

New York City,
USA 9-11-01













Tyre,
Lebanon 7-26-06



Context determines meaning.



As many of us wrangle with what to do with this carnage and especially how it fits into our religious worldview, I would like to offer a voice I have found exceedingly disturbing, tenacious and helpful. Martin Accad is the academic dean at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut, Lebanon. You can read his reflections on the ongoing conflict here one American reader's reaction and his response here.

I think this dialogue offers us deeper insight into the complex realities of this conflict and help us resist our deep seated desire to apply reductionistic theologies that let us off the hook for accepting the destruction of buildings with airplanes as justified.

(and yes I'm aware of the irony of this sort of thing being written by the son of a fighter-pilot)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting and thoughtful articles. Thanks for bringing them to peoples' attention.

ryan

Anonymous said...

matt,
thanks for your comment on our website the other day. it was really encouraging
thanks also for posting the links to these articles. i am trying to be more informed on this stuff and those articles were really helpful!