Oh the outrage!

This will be sure to make people upset with me…

I saw this news story yesterday and just shook my head.

Evangelicals Left Off National Cathedral 9/11 Program

A weekend of religious-themed observances at Washington National Cathedral marking the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks will include a Buddhist nun and an Imam, but not an evangelical Christian, leading the head of the Southern Baptist Convention to ask President Obama to reconsider attending the event.

“A Call to Compassion” will include an interfaith prayer vigil on Sept. 11. It will feature the dean of the Cathedral, the Bishop of Washington, a rabbi, Buddhist nun and incarnate lama, a Hindu priest, the president of the Islamic Society of North America and a Muslim musician.

However, Southern Baptists, representing the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, were not invited to participate – and neither were leaders from any evangelical Christian organization.

Gasp, there are not going to be any proper evangelicals at an event featuring a who’s who of religions folks! What an outrageous snub!

Guess what?

I couldn’t care less.

I am not going to watch a bunch of empty speeches dressed up in our perverse blend of religious-political patriotic lingo in the midst of a ecumenical fiasco. Why in the world would evangelical Christians demand a seat at the table for an event like this? If we are doing our job right we shouldn’t be welcomed by the secular government in the first place. Our response as the Body of Christ should first and foremost be to love our enemies, to leave peaceably with all as far as it is up to us and to overcome evil with good.

September 11th was a tragic event. It is seared in the memory of Americans and led directly to the involvement of America in two wars, wars in which we have lost more troops than civilians were lost on 9/11/2011 (approx. 6000 killed and 43,000 maimed and wounded between Iraq and Afghanistan). Wars in which civilians casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan far outnumber our losses on 9/11 (nearly 100,000 in Iraq and some 10,000-30,000 in Afghanistan). Sure we have avoided another major attack on U.S. soil but that “security” came at a terrible cost of human life in far off places.

September 11, 2011 was a horrific event and a tragic loss of life but it was not a uniquely Christian event and is dwarfed by events elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands killed in Darfur. 15,000 killed in Japan as a result of the tsunami in March. Between 50,000 and 300,000 killed in the earthquake in Haiti last year. Over 300,000 people have been killed in Somalia since 1991. Around the world people die in much greater numbers than were killed on September 11, 2011, the vast majority of them dying outside of Christ, and yet we approach the tenth anniversary of that event with many of our “leaders” pitching a fit because they are not getting the recognition and respect they “deserve”.

The Christian response to September 11th, 2001 is not speech making, public displays of religious patriotism and flag waving or a bunch of guys stimping their feet because they didn't get asked to make a speech. It should be in quiet service to others, in loving our neighbor and our enemy equally, in washing feet and sharing our finances, in preaching Jesus Christ who is the only hope any human being has for any sort of peace in this life or the life to come. We can never shoot enough terrorists, bomb enough cities or pat down enough travellers to find peace and security. That can only be found by following a Shepherd who died for His sheep.

It is kind of a shame but I found the best statement on this coming from a Brit, Carl Trueman:

I think the Rev. Page has misunderstood the reason for the exclusion: it seems the powers that be in Washington understand the implications of the biblical evangel better than some evangelical leaders. Rather than lamenting the situation, the Southern Baptists should be delighted that the organizers had the sensitivity and foresight not to place them in the grim position of having to turn down such an invitation in order to avoid compromising their orthodox, Protestant identity. The public relations disaster that would have followed this elementary stand for biblical truth and exclusivity would have been spectacular. After all, how could one maintain that one is taking seriously 1 Timothy 2 while sharing prayer time with a real-life incarnate lama?

The Southern Baptists need to stop feeling disappointed that such a well-intentioned but theologically incoherent gathering does not want their presence and they should instead remember the wisdom of Marx - not Karl, but Groucho: you should never want to join any club that would have you as a member.

Exactly.