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(Written for the newsletter of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Catskills, November 2001)

9/11 proves to reinforce people's beliefs, or lack of them

Recently I have been going more often to a strange but wonderful website: www.beliefnet.com. Beliefnet is one of those things that is only possible on the Web. It is a smorgasbord of religion, a buffet. Various famous and unknown people from all parts of the religious spectrum write on it. Heaven knows how they get Christian fundamentalists, Christian modernists, atheists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans all writing on the same site. You can read Thich Nhat Hanh, Michael Lerner, Starhawk, Bishop Spong, Gregg Easterbrook, Debra Dickerson (look under Columnists). 

In the week after 9/11 on Beliefnet I read about:

§       The Fundamentalist: A report about Bethel Assembly of God deacon Stanley Praimnath of Elmont, Long Island. Stanley was standing at his desk on the 81st floor of WTC 2 when he saw the second plane coming apparently directly for his window. He dived under the desk. It hit somewhere above him, but a flaming wing of the plane landed in the doorway of his department. He was buried in debris, and there was no exit. He prayed, found extraordinary physical strength, broke through a wall with the help of a man with a flashlight, and made it out of the building. "For some divine reason, I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the good Lord's mighty hand turned the plane a fraction from where I was standing," said Stanley. "Because when it crash-landed, it was just 20 feet from me. I don't care who would rationalize -- what people would say now or years from now, but I know it was the handiwork of the Lord that turned that plane. My Lord Jesus is bigger than the Trade Center and His finger can push a plane aside!" I was flabbergasted. Did Stanley think there were no other deserving people among the thousands slain? I feel sick even quoting Stanley, partly because his mindset seems so close to that of the people who created this horror; partly because it appears to skip so mindlessly over the real problems of believing in a miracle-working God during a century in which the Holocaust happened, let alone other horrors.

§         A Personal God is Impossible: But also that week on Beliefnet, I read John Shelby Spong, the controversial liberal Episcopalian bishop. His essay was titled, The Theistic God is Dead--A Casualty of Terrorism. He wrote: “This tragedy brought a wide variety of religious leaders to public attention, each seeking to provide comfort. Their pious rhetoric, however, was strangely stilted, unconvincing, and sentimental… A desperate need seemed to exist among these religious leaders to demonstrate that God was still in charge. One suspects that this claim covers a deep suspicion, seldom spoken by human lips, that no such God exists and that we are alone in this vast, chaotic and frequently painful world. When tragedies occur and no divine protection is forthcoming, human hysteria forces us to struggle to restore our protective, parent God to believability.” But Spong is a believer. By an unbelievable ‘theistic’ God, he means one whose finger can turn planes aside. He writes: “God is not an external, supernatural being, ruling over human history. God is rather the power of love, which flows through each of us, calling us to life, inviting us to step beyond whatever binds our humanity, even if it is the old images of God… The worship of this God, who is life, love and being, will never be a magic potion, which exists to keep us safe. It will, however, call us to move toward universalism, to move beyond the need to find acts of revenge that only expand the cycle of violence. It will build in us the commitment to live our lives in such a way as to create a new world in which everyone has a better chance to experience God by living fully, loving wastefully, and being all that they are capable of being in the infinite variety of the human family.”

§         The Atheist: Also that week on Beliefnet there was atheist Richard Dawkins, Professor of the Public Understanding of Science, University of Oxford, and author of influential books like The Selfish Gene, and The Blind Watchmaker. He said it’s no wonder that if people leave dangerous religions lying around, promising paradise, someone may use them.

Last week (middle of November '01) Beliefnet was presenting evidence of  a reformation starting in Islam, with links to websites by moderate Islamic scholars who are speaking out. It’s worth a visit.