In the name of God………

….a phrase as old as spoken religion itself.   Whose God, or form of religion, has little to do with invoking this well-worn string.  These five words can begin or end a litany of joy, reflection, despair, and ultimately horror. 

On September 11^th in this year of our Lord 2001, it was “In the name of God” that religious based fanatics executed some 2900 innocent beings in the most innocent (or at the very least naïve) of open societies, that of the United States of America.   In this young society of less than 226 years, we have seen internal strife and battle, but never has a foreign element or nation imposed its hatred and wrath of destruction upon the innocent habitants of this great nation within its continental borders.  This act, of commandeering commercial airliners and driving them into the heart of one of the most populated cities in the nation, is the moral antithesis of America’s social bearing. 

As a nation supported on the foundation that “All men are created equal” and that such equality should here find the protection of individual freedoms, it finds itself agape at a horrific and incomprehensible attack on the very foundation these religious zealots claim to be of want.  We try each other in efforts to understand so fanatical a cause that ignores and attacks the core elements of our nationality which holds forth those freedoms that such terrorist desire.

This new, unprecedented attack of terror within our continental boundaries is perhaps no less shocking than Pearl Harbor was in 1941, yet this act carries no nation on whom to bear out or assuage our fury and outrage.  We find ourselves the victim of a hit and run incident with no way to easily describe the vehicle from which this devastation was delivered. 

How we as a nation adapt and change to this loss of innocence will be the measure of our true character.  The attack on Pearl Harbor at the heightening encroachment of World War Two on the United States should have been a knockout punch, instead it was the catalyst for such emotion as to sweep us through that tragedy and on to a war effort with a single consciousness by Americans that defeat was not an option, and that a defense of righteousness was our guide.   We now again feel a surge of nationalism, and while we struggle to comprehend this new era of violence, we should again take hold of the ideals that delivered our father’s generation from the depths of apocalyptic actions, and forge renewed resolve as a people that we shall not let our country’s ideals be tested and found wanting. 

*Americans are a good people, a just people, and while they may forgive, they will not forget.  Hatred and terror in the name of religion or any other cause have no place in this chapel of democracy.*   While the fabric which is the blind innocence of daily Americana is torn forever, the foundation on which this nation was brought forth, “one nation, under God, indivisible, and with justice for all”, remains firm.  

We now pray for a worldwide effort and understanding from this new day of infamy, so great an effort as to end such brutalities in our time.  In the name of God……..we pray. 

*This line adapted from the screenplay “The Contender” by Rod Lyrie