Dear Friends...
We are all stunned in the wake of Tuesday's terror. Scenes of fire, buildings falling, people jumping scorched our minds. Then came the stories -- real life experiences of people escaping or not escaping, body bags all too familiar, and lists of 'known dead.' We cry out to God for grace to cope with such trauma.
Friends United Meeting presiding clerk, Stanley Bauer, has made time on the General Board agenda in October to consider a formal FUM response. Immediately, as general secretary, I have joined with other Friends organizations in a call to prayer to pray for wisdom and peace. I have also signed the attached letter from religious leaders across America expressing our despair and encouraging a reasonable response. We encourage our nation to take a reasoned and considered response to these horrendous acts. The continued killing of innocent people violates our belief in the sacredness of life.
Let us pray together and respond in peace. Please feel free to forward the attachment.
May God's grace be with you,
Retha McCutchen
General Secretary
Friends United Meeting
Richmond, IN 47374 USA
September 12, 2001
DENY THEM THEIR VICTORY:
A RELIGIOUS RESPONSE TO TERRORISM
We, American religious leaders, share the broken hearts of our fellow citizens. The worst terrorist attack in history that assaulted New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, has been felt in every American community. Each life lost was of unique and sacred value in the eyes of God, and the connections Americans feel to those lives run very deep. In the face of such a cruel catastrophe, it is a time to look to God and to each other for the strength we need and the response we will make. We must dig deep to the roots of our faith for sustenance, solace, and wisdom.
First, we must find a word of consolation for the untold pain and suffering of our people. Our congregations will offer their practical and pastoral resources to bind up the wounds of the nation. We can become safe places to weep and secure places to begin rebuilding our shattered lives and communities. Our houses of worship should become public arenas for common prayer, community discussion, eventual healing, and forgiveness.
Second, we offer a word of sober restraint as our nation discerns what its response will be. We share the deep anger toward those who so callously and massively destroy innocent lives, no matter what the grievances or injustices invoked. In the name of God, we too demand that those responsible for these utterly evil acts be found and brought to justice. Those culpable must not escape accountability. But we must not, out of anger and vengeance, indiscriminately retaliate in ways that bring on even more loss of innocent life. We pray that President Bush and members of Congress will seek the wisdom of God as they decide upon the appropriate response.
Third, we face deep and profound questions of what this attack on America will do to us as a nation. The terrorists have offered us a stark view of the world they would create, where the remedy to every human grievance and injustice is a resort to the random and cowardly violence of revenge – even against the most innocent. Having taken thousands of our lives, attacked our
national symbols, forced our political leaders to flee their chambers of governance, disrupted our work and families, and struck fear into the hearts of our children, the terrorists must feel victorious.
But we can deny them their victory by refusing to submit to a world created in their image. Terrorism inflicts not only death and destruction but also emotional oppression to further its aims. We must not allow this terror to drive us away from being the people God has called us to be. We assert the vision of community, tolerance, compassion, justice, and the sacredness of
human life, which lies at the heart of all our religious traditions. America must be a safe place for all our citizens in all their diversity. It is especially important that our citizens who share national origins, ethnicity, or religion with whoever attacked us are, themselves, protected among us.
Our American illusion of invulnerability has been shattered. From now on, we will look at the world in a different way, and this attack on our life as a nation will become a test of our national character. Let us make the right choices in this crisis - to pray, act, and unite against the bitter fruits of division, hatred, and violence. Let us rededicate ourselves to global peace, human dignity, and the eradication of injustice that breeds rage and vengeance.
As we gather in our houses of worship, let us begin a process of seeking the healing and grace of God.
____________________________________
SIGNERS
Endorsements are personal; organizations are listed for identification only.
Thomas J. Allio, Sr., Director, Diocesan Social Action Office, Cleveland, OH
Dr. Philip A. Amerson, President, The Claremont School of Theology
Rev. H. George Anderson, Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Bob Barnhart, Associate Director, CWSW/CROP, Lansing, MI
Dr. Maxine Clark Beach, Vice President and Dean, Drew Theological School
Dr. David Beckmann, President, Bread for the World
Joshua Boettiger, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Rev. Peter Borgdorff, Executive Director of Ministries, Christian Reformed Church
Chuck Boyer, Church of the Brethren, LaVerne, CA
Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown, Pastor, Union Baptist Church, Cambridge MA, Co-Founder, Ten Point Coalition
Rev. Mary Lou Bowen, Executive Director, New York State Community of Churches
Commissioner John Busby, National Commander, Salvation Army
Rev. Sandra Cain, Downtown United Presbyterian Church, Rochester, NY
Dr. Mas’ood Cajee, Muslim Peace Fellowship USA
Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, Director, Department of Religion, Chautauqua Institution
The Rev. Eliezer Valentin-Castañon, The United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
The Rev. Jonathan Chute, Rolling Hills United Methodist Church, California
The Rev. James W. Crawford, Senior Minister, The Old South Church in Boston
The Rev. Dr. Susan E. Davies, Faith and Order Commission, NCCCUSA; Bangor
Theological Seminary
The Rev. Dr. Tim Dearborn, Seattle Pacific University
Rev. Boyd Drake, United Church of Canada, Rapid City and Area Pastoral Charge
Christian and Ralph Dull, National Council Fellowship of Reconciliation, Englewood, OH
Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Rev. Bruce Epperly, Ph.D., Director, Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health
Rev. Kate Epperly, D. Min., Pastor, Palisades Community Church, Washington,
DC; International Council of Community of Churches
The Very Rev. Christopher Epting, Deputy for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, The Episcopal Church
Rev. John Fanestil, Senior Pastor, Anaheim United Methodist Church, Anaheim, CA
Rev. Patricia Adams Farmer, Pastor, Orangethorpe Christian Church, Fullerton, CA
Rev. Diane R. Fleming, Community of Faith Church, Ann Arbor, MI
Rev. Thomas A. Fleming, Community of Faith Church, Saline, MI
Pam Folkers, Church World Service, Michigan
Thomas J. Gallen, Executive Director, Preacher’s Aid Society of New England
Paul Gorman, National Religious Partnership for the Environment
The Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, Reformed Church of America
Gloria Guard, People’s Emergency Center, Philadelphia
Dr. David P. Gushee, Graves Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy, Union University
Rev. Dr. Maria Davis Hanlin, Light of Christ United Methodist Church, Charlotte, NC
Rev. Gary L. Harke, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Council of Churches
Rev. Mark Henderson, United Methodist Church
Marvin D. Hoff, Executive Director, Foundation for Theological Education
Robert N. Hosack, Senior Acquisitions Editor, Baker Book House
Rev. William C. Imes, President, Bangor Theological Seminary
Rev. L. Steve Horswill-Johnston, Associate General Secretary, United Methodist Communications
Rev. Colleen Hurley-Bates
Elenie Huszagh, Esq., Incoming President, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs, Temple Kol Tikvah, Woodland Hills, CA
Thomas H. Jeavons, General Secretary of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
The Very Rev. Arthur M. Johnson, SA, Minister General, Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, Graymoor, NY
Rev. Donna Lawrence Jones, Pastor, Cookman United Methodist Church
Rev. Dr. Afrie Songco Joye, Innovative Short-Term Missionary, Faculty, Harris Memorial College
Scott Kennedy, Chair, Fellowship of Reconciliation National Council
Minister E. Terri LaVelle, Liscensed Evangelist, Church of God in Christ, Program Director, The Faith & Politics Institute, Member of Metropolitan Baptist Church, Washington, DC
Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor, TIKKUN Magazine
Sr. Beth LeValley, President, The Greater Rochester Community of Churches
Michael E. Livingston, International Council of Community Churches
The Rev. Ted Loder, former Pastor, Germantown United Methodist Church, Philadelphia, PA
Rev. Clark Lobenstine, Executive Director, Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington
Dr. JoAnne Lyon, Executive Director, World Hope International, Inc.
Jim Mannoia, President, Greenville College
The Rev. Michael A. Mata, Professor of Urban Ministry and Director of the Urban Leadership Institute at Claremont School of Theology
Dr. Kendall K McCabe, Academic Dean, United Theological Seminary
Retha McCutchen, General Secretary, Friends United Meeting
W. Grant McMurray, President, Community of Christ Jim R. McQuaide, Jr.
Bishop Freeman J. Miller, Mennonite Churches of Philadelphia
Stephen V. Monsma, Professor of Political Science, Pepperdine University
David Neff, Executive Editor, Christianity Today Magazine
Rev. Sandra Olewine, United Methodist Liaison, Jerusalem
Rev. Phil Olson, Evangelicals for Social Action, Vice President of Church Relations and Director of Network 9:35
Marilyn O’Rourke, RN, MSN, Rush University College of Nursing
Glenn R. Palmberg, President, The Evangelical Covenant Church
Dr. Peter J. Pizor, Churchwright Institute
Kathleen Pruitt, CSJP, President, Leadership Conference of Women Religious
Janet E. Raffel, J. E. Raffel & Associates, Baltimore, MD
Rev. Dr. Robert H. Roberts, Interim General Secretary, American Baptist Churches, USA
Rabbi David Rosen, International Director of Interreligious Affairs, The American Jewish Committee
Rabbi David Saperstein, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
William and Marina Shaw, Crosscurrents International Institute
Amy Short, Executive Director, Brethren/Mennonite Council for Lesbian and Gay Concerns
Dr. Ron Sider, Evangelicals for Social Action
Max L. Stackhouse, Project on Public Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary
Mark Flory Steury, District Executive Minister, Southern Ohio District Church of the Brethren
Susan M. Swider, Ph.D., R.N., Rush University
Dr. Ronald F. Thiemann, Professor of Theology, Harvard University
Rev. Leslie Copeland Tune, Associate Minister at Metropolitan Baptist Church, Washington, DC
Mr. Khalid Turaani, American Muslims for Jerusalem
Heidi Rolland Unruh, Associate Director, Congregations, Communities and Leadership Development Project
The Rev. Jim Wallis, Call to Renewal and Sojourners
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director, The Shalom Center
Dr. Denny Wayman, Free Methodist Church of Santa Barbara
Rev. Dr. Robert Welsh, President, Council on Christian Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
The Rev. Doris Arnett Whitaker, Director of Admissions, United Theological Seminary
The Rev. Nathan D. Wilson, Executive Director, West Virginia Council of Churches
The Rev. Dr. Walter Wink, Auburn Theological Seminary
Loretta C. Witt, Philadelphia
Dr. Richard Wood, President, United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia