Category Archives: 9/11

Atheists sue museum for displaying 9/11 cross

Posted on by
3

American Atheists have filed a suit against the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation because the WTCMF is displaying a cross formed from some steel beams left after the building collapsed.

The fact that the cross was on display for five years as a symbol of hope to thousands of people makes it an historically significant artefact worthy of display in a museum.

That is not good enough for today’s atheists whose hatred for the God in which they disbelieve is so bitter that they cannot countenance any reminder that billions of people know that he is real. As Kenneth Bronstein, New York City Atheists President pointed out: “That a worker resurrected one of these girders and dubbed it a Christian cross is an affront to all of us who believe in our constitutionally based right to have public places free of religious propaganda and religious coercion.” That the cross is an affront to those who are perishing is not exactly a new idea, but that its display is somehow religious coercion defies all the rationality that atheists are so eager to claim as their own.

Contemporary atheists will not rest until all expression of Christianity is expunged from our civilisation and its citizens’ lives are rendered as narrow, unimaginative, and vacuously meaningless as theirs.

From here:

The American Atheists organization has sued the National September 11 Memorial and Museum over the installation of the “9/11 cross” in the museum. The organization’s president, David Silverman, insists that it will not “allow this travesty to occur in our country.”

The 20-foot cross — two steel beams that had held together as the building collapsed — was discovered in the rubble of Ground Zero on September 13, 2001, by construction worker Frank Silecchia. The 9/11 cross became a venerated object, and many of those who were searching for survivors and clearing debris from the “pit” took solace from its existence. On October 4, 2001, it was moved to a pedestal on Church Street, where it was treated as a shrine by visitors to Ground Zero for the next five years. In October 2006 it was removed to storage, and in July 2011 it was returned to the site for installation in the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

 

Cirque du Guantanamo

Posted on by
1

Five of the 9/11 conspirators are appearing before a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay.

So far, they have refused to answer the judge’s questions, extended the proceedings by repeatedly kneeling on the floor and praying – a perverse accommodation of the court since conspicuous Christian prayers would not be allowed in a secular courtroom – removed their translator headphones and feigned indifference to the proceedings by ostentatiously reading magazines.

And now the defense attorney for this execrable bunch is not only wearing a hijab herself, but has passed on the prisoners’ request that other women in the courtroom show respect for the defendants’ religion by doing likewise so that her merry band of sexually-repressed, psychotic, mass-murdering Islamofascists don’t have to go to the trouble of averting their gaze.

I wouldn’t suggest this under any other circumstance, I really wouldn’t, but in this case, it’s justified: to show the religion of these gibbering demoniacs the respect it deserves, all the women in the courtroom should show up topless.

The whole fiasco is a powerful argument for the judicial efficacy of summary lynching.

From here:

A female defense attorney, who is not Muslim, wore the traditional Islamic hijab to the military court staging the trial of five Guantanamo Bay prisoners accused of the September 11 attacks yesterday.

Cheryl Bormann, 52, who represents Walid bin Attash, said that her client had demanded she wear the clothing and insisted that other women at the hearing also wear ‘appropriate’ clothes out of respect for his religion.

Today she explained her decision at Guantanamo Bay, saying she always wears the hijab around her client.

She asked that other women follow her example so that the defendants do not have to avert their eyes ‘for fear of committing a sin under their faith’

First Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco

Posted on by
4

Now he’s mislaid his brain in Timbuctoo.

From here:

Legendary singer Tony Bennett has waded into a new controversy by saying America “caused” the attacks on the Twin Towers.

[….]

“But who are the terrorists? Are we the terrorists or are they the terrorists? Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Bennett said talking about the aftermath of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.

[….]

“They flew the plane in, but we caused it,” Bennett said. “Because we were bombing them and they told us to stop.”

Rev. Gary Nicolosi ruminates on how 9/11 shows us what God is like

Posted on by
Reply

From here:

God is like the firefighters who ascended the steps of burning buildings to save those who could not save themselves…

And who could forget the stories of airline passengers and workers at the Twin Towers, knowing they would die, who called others to say, “I love you.”…

And how about all the rescue workers who ploughed through the rubble in the coming days…

True enough, but there was one curious omission which, because of its nature, I can’t help thinking was deliberate.
God is also like this on Flight 93:

The passenger revolt on Flight 93 began at 09:57 after the passengers took a vote amongst themselves about whether to act. By this time, Flight 77 had struck the Pentagon and Flights 11 and 175 had struck the World Trade Center towers. The hijackers in the cockpit became aware of the revolt at 09:57:55, exclaiming, “Is there something? A fight?”…….

The cockpit voice recorder captured the sounds of crashing, screaming, and the shattering of glass. Jarrah stabilized the plane at 10:00:03. Five seconds later, he asked, “Is that it? Shall we finish it off?” Another hijacker responded, “No. Not yet. When they all come, we finish it off.” Jarrah once again pitched the airplane up and down. A passenger in the background cried, “In the cockpit. If we don’t, we’ll die” at 10:00:25. Sixteen seconds later, another passenger yelled, “Roll it!”……

The 9/11 Commission Report concluded that “the hijackers remained at the controls but must have judged that the passengers were only seconds from overcoming them”. However, many of the passengers’ family members, having heard the audio recordings, believe that the passengers breached the cockpit and killed at least one or all of the hijackers.

The passengers of Flight 93 sacrificed their live for others so you would think they might deserve a mention – if it weren’t for that deeply troubling last sentence: they may have  killed some of the hijackers. That’s just not very inclusive is it.

 

 

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori displays Islam myopia

Posted on by
Reply

On September 11th, Katharine Jefferts Schori preached the sermon at St. Paul’s Chapel in the shadow of Ground Zero. Among other things, she said this:

I saw a pickup truck a couple of weeks ago with a waving American flag painted on its rear window.  As I walked through the parking lot, I realized there was something written on the tailgate – the word ISLAM stood out first.  Finally I saw the whole sorry slogan, “everything I need to know about Islam I learned on September 11th.”  How will we change hearts that seem closed to learning more about peace?

Are we willing to recognize and then proclaim that as children of Abraham, Christians, Jews, and Muslims share that vision of a healed world that Micah paints for us?

That isn’t true – at least, it’s not true in the sense that Jefferts Shori means it. In the majority of Islamic nations there was rejoicing on September 11th, 2001 because America had finally got what was coming to it. The Islamic vision of a “healed world” is one of an Islamic caliphate ruled by sharia law where democracy, free speech and Jefferts Schori style “diversity” have been obliterated.

Here is a not untypical Islamic reaction to 9/11 from Saudi Arabia:

Then we all knew it wasn’t an accident. We heard sporadic yelling in the streets and happy shouts from Saudis in our own hospital. In the terminal cancer ward, patients were hooting and screaming “Down with USA,” much to the horror of the American nurses tending them.

A Christian response to 9/11

Posted on by
1

Christians inhabit two kingdoms: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. Jesus confirmed this when he said, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21).  The difficulty is deciding which things are God’s and which Caesar’s.

One thing that belongs to God is forgiveness. Not the self-indulgent maudlin corporate forgiveness of those who have next to nothing to forgive, but the painful personal forgiveness that God requires of each of us if we are to receive his forgiveness.

True peace also belongs in the kingdom of God and, as St. Augustine noted, insofar as it is immanent in this world, it is related to but not the same as the peace of this world:

In its sojourn here, the Heavenly City makes use of the peace provided by the earthly city. In all that relates to the mortal nature of man it preserves and indeed seeks the concordance of human wills. It refers the earthly peace to the heavenly peace, which is truly such peace that it alone can be described as peace, for it is the highest degree of ordered and harmonious fellowship in the enjoyment of God and of another in God.

So, as a citizen of both kingdoms, it is a Christian’s responsibility to further the peace of the kingdom of heaven and of this world. Not, however, as many half-baked clerics. They have chosen to be the citizens of a third kingdom: the foggy land of interfaith diversity where earthly peace has supplanted its heavenly counterpart and is supposed to arrive wafting gently on waves of dialogue, candle lighting, mutual back-patting and ecumenical peace quilting.

The Biblical way for a state to maintain peace is by the sword: in other words, through force or the threat of force (Romans 13:2-5). It may appear contradictory to love an enemy while being required by the state to kill him, but it isn’t. As C. S. Lewis put it in “Mere Christianity”:

Now a step further Does loving your enemy mean not punishing him? No, for loving myself does not mean that I ought not to subject myself to punishment even to death. If you had committed a murder, the right Christian thing to do would be to give yourself up to the police and be hanged. It is, therefore, in my opinion, perfectly right for a Christian judge to sentence a man to death or a Christian soldier to kill an enemy. I always have thought so, ever since I became a Christian, and long before the war [WWII], and I still think so now that we are at peace. It is no good quoting ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ There are two Greek words: the ordinary word to kill and the word to murder. And when Christ quotes that commandment He uses the murder one in all three accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And I am told there is the same distinction in Hebrew…

When soldiers came to St John the Baptist asking what to do, he never remotely suggested that they ought to leave the army: nor did Christ when He met a Roman sergeant-major – what they called a centurion. The idea of the knight – the Christian in arms for the defence of a good cause – is one of the great Christian ideas. War is a dreadful thing, and I can respect an honest pacifist, though I think he is entirely mistaken. What I cannot understand is this sort of semi-pacifism you get nowadays which gives people the idea that though you have to fight, you ought to do it with a long face as if you were ashamed of it. It is that feeling that robs lots of magnificent young Christians in the Services of something they have a right to, something which is the natural accompaniment of courage – a kind of gaiety and wholeheartedness…..

We may kill if necessary, but we must not hate and enjoy hating. We may punish if necessary, but we must not enjoy it.

9/11 numerically speaking

Posted on by
Reply

From here:

Nine eleven: By the numbers

Number of years since the attacks: 10

Number of Muslim hijackers: 19

Number of airplanes hijacked: 4

Number of intended targets: 4

Number of targets struck: 3

Number of murder victims: 2,977

Estimated financial cost of the attacks: $3.3 trillion (source)

Number of apologies from Muslims, Muslim countries, or Muslim organizations for the attacks: Zero

One more.

Number of apologies by Christian leaders to Muslims for anti-Muslim bigotry: too many to count.

Stephen Harper’s Islamicism remarks provoke the inevitable reaction

Posted on by
Reply

Stephen Harper had the temerity to suggest that, for Canada,  “the major threat is still Islamicism.”

In an exclusive interview with CBC News, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the biggest security threat to Canada a decade after 9/11 is Islamic terrorism.

Leading the NDP foreign affairs critic to ruminate on the true cause of terrorism:

 “The 10th anniversary of 9/11 should be a time for reflection on how we can build a more inclusive society to end extremism,” NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar told The Globe Wednesday morning. “Let’s all guard against knee-jerk demonizing and overheated rhetoric.”

Leading me to ruminate on how Canadian society could possibly be more inclusive than it already is.

I know! Include more terrorists: that should reduce extremism.

 

New York mayor doesn’t want clergy praying at 9/11 anniversary

Posted on by
Reply

From here:

The mayor of New York City has disallowed clergy from praying at an event commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, sparking indignation from leaders who have pointed to the pivotal role religious groups played in the heroic response to the tragedy.

When King Darius decreed that no-one was permitted to pray to god or man, Daniel did this:

When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where *he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.  Daniel 6:10

Now that King Bloomberg has done something similar, perhaps clergy should take their cue from Daniel: go to the event and pray with megaphones.

Liberal congregations hold interfaith worship services to commemorate 9/11

Posted on by
Reply

From here:

Washington, D.C. – Interfaith worship services have doubled in the decade since the 11 September attacks, according to a new study released Sept. 7, even as more than seven in 10 U.S. congregations do not associate with other faiths.

The survey by an interfaith group of researchers found that about 14 percent of U.S. congregations surveyed in 2010 engaged in a joint religious celebration with another faith tradition, up from 6.8 percent in 2000, Religion News Service reports.

[….]

The study implies that the more liberal a congregation, the greater likelihood for interfaith activity. Approximately half of Unitarian Universalist congregations held interfaith worship services, and three in four participated in interfaith community service. By contrast, among more conservative Southern Baptist churches, only 10 percent participated in interfaith community service, and five percent in interfaith worship.

The study shows most of the 11,077 congregations surveyed reported no interfaith activity, a finding that troubled the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of Washington-based Interfaith Alliance. “The reality in our nation now is we have a major problem with Islamophobia, and that fear is being fed by people in large enough numbers that we need probably ten times as many people involved in interfaith discussions and actions,” Gaddy said.

As the tenth anniversary of the murder of 3,000 innocent people by crazed Islamists approaches, apparently, the major problem facing the US is Islamophobia.  That must be why every month since September 11, 2001, another murderous Islamist plot has been thwarted and new mayhem is being planned to mark the anniversary: I don’t know about you, but I am appalled by this blatant Islamophobia.

If only Rev. C. Welton Gaddy had invited those over-enthusiastic flying Muslims to an Interfaith worship service ten years ago, they could have let off some of their boyish energy in dialogue and holy listening.