Attack on America: A Christian Response
By Bob Enyart, pastor of Denver Bible Church
(Partly delivered on live radio during the attack on Sept. 11th, fully posted to
ShadowGov.com on Sept. 12th, 2001.)
Security
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Airline Security The hijackings were not a failure of airport security
personnel, but were a failure of security strategy! Hijackers will always be
able to get weapons of some type onto airplanes, even ceramic or plastic knives
invisible to metal detectors. Pilots should be armed and crewmembers should have
access to weapons. As on Israel’s El Al airlines, undercover armed security
guards should fly, at least on random flights. Also, police and government
officials should fly armed. This type of hijacking would not have succeeded on
El Al.
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Self-defense Heroism on the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania prevented that
plane from crashing into the White House offices. We should encourage and teach
self defense. Our war against guns has created a victim mentality. Pilots have
heretofore been taught to comply with hijackers, as consistent with our
victim-mentality war against guns. Guns enable self defense and deter
criminals.
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Prosecution Pass legislation to prosecute all members of known terrorist
organizations for murder; and prosecute all supporters of known terrorist
organizations for conspiracy to murder.
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Deterrence If a foreign nation harbors or supports terrorists, America should
dismantle their government if possible. Nations bear full responsibility for
any act of war perpetrated by their terrorists. We should not just punish such
a terrorist government. If possible, we should destroy that government. This
will help deter future governments from supporting terrorism.
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Osama bin Laden As the crises unfolded, I was in studio at the Information
Radio Network during the hour when the final plane crashed. When asked who
could have been responsible for this, I stated on air that the Palestinians
would have done this, but were incapable. Rather, this terror was done on their
behalf against Israel’s ally, and on behalf of the radical Islamic world by
Osama bin Laden, the international terrorist protected by the Taliban
government in Afghanistan. As the pastor of Denver Bible Church, I had no
access to government intelligence. But I knew who did this because of the
public promise and effort by Bin Laden to do just what he had done. The
American government has long monitored him training terrorists to kill
Americans, and to “blow up your airplanes and destroy your tall buildings.”
Recently by videotape, he effectively claimed responsibility for the bombing of
the U.S.S. Cole. Those actions already provided sufficient cause for America to
attack the Taliban government and pursue Bin Laden by force and assassinate him
if necessary or apprehend and execute him after trial.
Foreign Relations
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Israel When we condemn Israel for punishing terrorists, we unwittingly take
the side of the terrorists, and encourage them and terrorism generally.
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Respecting Terrorists Treating terrorists as dignitaries and terrorist regimes
as valid governments, invites more terrorism. When we conduct diplomacy with
terrorists like Yasser Arafat we unwittingly validate terrorist tactics. Young
terrorists see in Arafat a justification of their strategy, and hope that
terrorism will one day bring them, or their compatriots, to the bargaining
table with world leaders.
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Allies and Enemies America saw the widespread Palestinian celebration, and the
spontaneous dancing in the streets at the news of our tragedy. At the same time
we heard Israel declare a national day of mourning. This contrast provides
strong evidence of who is our ally and who is our enemy.
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Justice America should fastidiously maintain justice in our foreign relations,
for enemies have long memories. When we wrong a nation, we should confess and
repent. When we punish a nation, we should do so swiftly and painfully and not
drag out punishments for many years, increasing bitterness.
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Foreign Aid Stop all foreign aid. Welfare is wrong, whether to individuals, to
corporations, or to nations. And foreign aid is welfare to countries.
Individual Americans privately and freely send billions of dollars of charity a
year to other counties. But the government should not send national welfare,
because charity must be freely given, not coerced. Forced charity, including
foreign aid, creates unnecessary animosity.
Islamic Relations
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Fear Countless millions of Islamic people fear America, believing that our
immoral culture is threatening their own families. America’s culture is
seducing the world. Arab families see their children attracted to Hollywood’s
smut videos and satellite transmissions, and they fear that we will thereby
destroy their families, just as we have destroyed our own. They hate America
for exporting our immorality. An Arab teenage boy employed to do laundry at a
western hotel sneaks into rooms to watch naked lesbians having sex in American
movies. After having broken our own homes, they watch as our exported
immorality begins to destroy their families. Our government should oppose all
sexual immorality including pornography, fornication, adultery, and no-fault
divorce; and defend sex only within marriage; oppose abortion and euthanasia.
We should do right and thus rob the Islamic world of these charges against us.
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Hatred Islam’s longstanding hatred of America should not be intensified
needlessly. Hatred of America increased when Clinton bombed Arabs the night of
his televised Monica Lewinski deposition. A media report at the time suggested
that even a majority of American reporters believed that Clinton bombed
Afghanistan and the Sudan as a mere diversion. Virtually the entire Arab world
concurred with that assessment, believing that America’s planes bombed them
just to cover-up a sex scandal. Clinton announced that was the beginning of our
war on terrorism, but some of us immediately doubted him, predicting that the
bombing would not be followed up, but was a one-time distraction. In fact, his
war against terrorism started and ended that night; the bombing was not the
beginning of anything. The White House press corps will remember forever where
they were when they learned of the bombing. They were, as a group, in a
theater, watching a movie, Wag the Dog. In that Hollywood movie inspired by
Clinton, an American president involved in a horrendous sex scandal creates an
artificial war to distract his nation. That movie played widely
internationally, and had a particular impact on the Arab world. Yet, America’s
congress never condemned Clinton for his behavior, never investigated, and
never apologized. And the media did not condemn Clinton for this, and neither
did the American public, nor her social and religious leaders.
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Conspiracy Some Islamic fundamentalists encourage the killing of infidels.
America should prosecute Islamic people for conspiracy to murder if they call
for the killing of non-Islamic people.
Democracy Problems
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Limited Government God gave governments responsibility only for infrastructure
and defense. If government limited itself to its two just functions, thereby
getting out of education, health care, farming, etc., it could better defend
America.
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Full-time Campaign Our democratic form of government turns our leaders into
full-time campaigners. President Bush effectively was campaigning in Florida
when the hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center. No one can govern
from a third grade classroom.
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Focus When the government focuses on education, parents lose focus of their
primary role in educating their children. And when a government focuses on education,
it cannot focus as well on governing. A successful business which branches out
into thirty different areas typically does poorly in all areas, including its
original core business. America must limit government to maintaining
infrastructure and to defense of life, liberty, and property (through the
criminal justice system and the military).
Cultural Problems
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Suicide America should oppose all worldviews that promote suicide. Suicide is
inherently destabilizing. When cultures openly promote suicide as an acceptable
way to solve problems, they disable standard deterrents. For example, as the
American media and universities defend suicide, we have a growing epidemic of
murder/suicide. Harris and Klebold assumed that they could escape punishment for
Columbine if only they killed themselves in the attack, though they delivered
themselves directly into the hands of the Judge of the whole world. Those who
defend suicide promote the shedding of innocent blood. We must oppose them.
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Kamikazes September 11, 2001 was our own Pearl Harbor. Both radical Islam and
the Japanese empire taught men that suicide, in opposition to Judaeo-Christian
teaching, would lead to glory in the afterlife. In both attacks, the kamikaze
pilots of World War II, and the Islamic zealots of Pearl Harbor II, normal men
became capable of mass murder because of their eagerness to die in the attack.
America should recognize every defender of suicide as an enemy of security.
Suicide is inherently destabilizing.
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Energy Independence America needs a national commitment to fully explore
Alaska and all available lands and oceans for oil and gas, to move us toward
energy independence. We should try to reduce the billions of dollars we
transfer annually to OPEC and to some Islamic regimes which aid terrorists. The
quickest way to turn the Arab world strongly against terrorism is to threaten
to move toward energy independence with an emergency national mobilization
toward that goal.
Conclusion
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Policy Wisdom Right-wing Christians have long presented such policy
objectives, but the secular world generally ignores such wisdom. Christians who
carefully study the Bible are best qualified to teach the world how it should
be governed. Let’s change our way of life as little as possible, and the terrorists’
way of life as much as possible. We can comply with terrorists on one point, if
they want to die in this battle, we can assist them.
Media Contacts:
Public Relations: Ray Greybar 970-224-2964 rjrossmountain@aol.com
ShadowGov Founder: Pastor Bob Enyart, Denver Bible Church 800-836-9278 303
463-7789 EnyartBob@aol.com
View our DVDs titled
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