Recently, we have seen and heard—and probably felt within ourselves—both grief and a desire to retaliate, to punish. These feelings are understandable, and to some extent justifiable. We want to make it clear that terrorism cannot and will not be tolerated. Yet we must also recognize that the desire for revenge brings its own kinds of evil. It is even more dangerous and disastrous collectively than it is individually.

Perhaps we can take a cue from the Scripture that the Catholic archbishop of Washington read at the recent memorial service for the victims of the September 11 attacks: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God" (Matt. 5:9). Or from the introductory words of the Episcopal Bishop Jane Dixon: "Let us remember that love is stronger than hate, and that love lived out in justice will prevail." Surely we remember the words of the apostle: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Rom. 12:21).

Is not part of our Adventist heritage—part of what it means to be authentically Adventist—a profound and vigorous protest against the evil of war? War is deliberate mass homicide. This fact does not change by calling it "defense of our homeland."

It is true that what happened on September 11 was in some sense "an attack on America" and "an act of war." But the question we must address is whether the will of our God of love is fulfilled by further acts of war. Although our nation’s foreign policy cannot be taken directly from the Sermon on the Mount, certainly the attitudes, words, and actions of practicing Christians ought to be influenced by the teachings of Jesus.

We must not let our feelings—much less our thinking—be shaped primarily by the hyped-up rhetoric of political figures, newspaper columnists, and television personalities. At the very least, we must not think and talk of the hijackers primarily as "Islamic fundamentalists"—as if the problem were essentially religious or theological.

How would we have felt eight years ago if the news reports of the tragedy at Waco had constantly referred to David Koresh and his followers as "Adventist fundamentalists" or "Adventist extremists." It is both inaccurate and unfair to blame the religion of Islam for its demonic distortion into acts of mass murder.

Shortly after the September 11 attacks, Larry Geraty, president of La Sierra University, composed a "Prayer for America" that Adventists will find worth reading as they think about recent events and what it means to be a "remnant" people.

O God, Creator and Sustainer of us all—
Jew or Gentile, Christian or Muslim, believer or non-believer—
we come to you as the Author of our sacred documents,
and the Parent of all the people of this our land—
whether those people were native to this land
or came in boats form Europe or Africa,
or in planes from Asia or the Middle East.

Showered by your grace,
most of us have experienced this land as one of perpetual harvest,
and its triumphs are the stuff of which dreams are made.
When oppressed people around the earth dream of freedom, they think of us.
And when they think of rule by law and justice, they think of us.
We know [this] is because our forebears sought to emulate your ways,
believing that your dedication to justice is boundless.

We would like to say that our hearts are pure,
and that our great nation has never taken the land of another
or needlessly humbled its people.
But to our eternal sorrow, we cannot say this, O God
for we, too, are afflicted with the inherited psychosis of the human race:
the madness of war, even a war we did not [choose].

So we come to you about a series of tragic events that began [two weeks ago]—
and yet we know that the root causes of these incomprehensible events
go back much further.
Like all people arrogant with power, O God,
we have tended to become inured to the plight of the weak.
We confess to our shame that, by and large, if you’re poor, you’re nobody.
More than cocaine and alcohol,
we confess our addiction to money and power for their own sake.

But right now we hardly have time for such thoughts
because we are so shocked,
so stunned by the news form New York and Washington, D.C.,
so devastated by the loss of innocent lives in airplanes and buildings,
so sickened by scenes that are unprecedented in America,
even at Pearl Harbor.

And so we stand in silence this morning—
stand in solidarity with those who have died,
those who are wounded,
and those whose families mourn and cannot be comforted.
And we would not forget those mothers, so far away,
who mourn the loss of young lives apparently so needlessly thrown away.

We pray for our president, for his advisors, for our elected representatives.
We pray for those in uniform—
in the armed services,
in the protective services of police and fire,
and in the healing arts.
We ask for special wisdom for decision-makers everywhere,
that they not fail us in our hour of such great need.
We want them to be able to say to their grandchildren,
"Yes, those were dark and trouble times for the world,
but the light from America never went out."

And for us, may we together put forth every effort,
in every way, at every time,
with every opportunity to make our strength known eloquently
for peace and for justice.
And may we, your sons and daughters,
never become passive in the shadow of disaster,
lest they say, "See, their God is helpless."
But may they say of us, instead,
"They beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks,
nation shall not life up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more" [Isa. 2:4].

To this end we pray to you this morning, in your name. Amen.

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