Friends,
Septemer 11th has slipped past with a quiet shudder and more visual reminders on television than any of us would like to see. It is hard to look at the distance we have travelled since those planes crashed into buildings and fields scattering death and confusion arross the landscape of our lives. But travelled we have. In fact, one can wonder if we're the same people we once were.

Civil liberties continue to be curtailed across the nation while our fears of another attack are cynically manipulated for political purposes. What color is it today? Our long held and sacred right of public assembly and protest has been relegated by the sitting president to "free speech zones," far away from where the president might be speaking or any other event might be taking place. Free speech? I don't think so. There is, shockingly enough, even talk from the White House of delaying or canceling the November elections because of the threat of terrorism. Even in the Civil War, when America was at war with itself, even in the 1st and 2nd world war, elections went on in this nation as scheduled. Now even our right to vote is in jeapordy. Our democracy is in danger of disappearing.

And then there are the wars we are fighting. With 1000 plus American soldiers dead, and more than 10,000 Iraqis dead, not to mention the ongoing unrest in Afghanistan we are, it seems painfully clear, in a long term and costly war.

That the war in Iraq has nothing to do with September 11th seems to go unnoticed by most people in our nation. That we were dragged into this war on the threadbare coat tales of a lie seems not to matter. And as thousands of young amputees return home, we keep them safely and quietly out of sight so no one will see; so no one will get upset. We are not even afforded a look at the plane loads of caskets landing in the dead of night.

The pursuit of this war has cost our nation its allies and erased the good will that the world felt toward us in the painful aftermath of the terrorist attacks of three years ago. From a surplus in our national budget to a projected $73 trillion dollar deficit, the war machine consumes boys, girls, families, and our economic well-being as well.

Should one more m0ther's son die for a lie? Should one more husband or wife become bereft for a false cause? Should our nation continue the lone path of more and more isolation as former allies step further and further away?

There is, for me, one clear answer. And that is the call of our Lord Jesus Christ to "love our enemies." It is the call of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to "turn the other cheek," and to not return evil with evil. If you are a Christian reading this, my plea is to consider this most basic element of our faith. Nonviolence.

Oh, we can justify wars and violence. We can come up with all sorts of reasons to put an M-16 in the hands of a teenager and convince him or her that "the enemy" must be killed. We can dehumanize that same "enemy" in their eyes to such an extent that the events in Iraqi prisons became more common place than we are being told. We can say we're doing it for freedom, or for the American Way of life. We might even make a slip into honesty and say we're doing it to protect our access to middle eastern oil. But however we justify it, neitiher this or any other war can ever be justified in the eyes of God's love in Christ Jesus Christ.

There. It's said.

To be Chrisitan is to claim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. To be Christian is to follow our Lord's teachings to pursue peace and justice for all people. To be Christian is to focus our prayers and our life's efforts on the betterment of those we are told are our enemies. To be Chritian is to feed the hungry, heal the sick, house the homeless, and liberate the oppressed. To be Christian is to put Christ before Caesar in all things.

So, as we say good bye to another September 11th, my own prayer is that we somehow learn to grow more clear about who we are called to be as a people. My prayer is that we will place Christ at the center of our hearts and our lives and engage the struggle for peace, for love, for hope and for salvation.

Let us be continually in prayer.
Let us be the ones whose lives become prayer.
Let us walk the walk, and talk the talk of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Peace be with you.

Schuyler Rhodes