Immediately after the terrorist attacks Tuesday, I was consumed by rage and I wanted blood. I screamed for revenge. You know, we could do for the Arabs what we did for the American Indian; only in these modern times, we could do it in a matter of days, not years.

As I grew exhausted from my rage, I finally became capable of hearing myself plot the extermination of millions of people. At that moment, I was suddenly stunned by a memory of something I had once heard Martin Luther King say. I couldn't hear myself anymore. All I could hear was, "Hate us and we will love you. Kill us and we will still love you."

We have a choice.

The Adam, Eve and "forbidden fruit" story is not about sex. I've read it over and over again and it's obvious to me that it has nothing whatsoever to do with sex. It's about free will. God created Adam and Eve and could have easily made them do whatever he wanted. But he didn't do that; he gave Adam and Eve free will. They had only one thing that they weren't supposed to do -- eat of the forbidden fruit. God put them in paradise and asked, "Will you do good or will you do evil?"

Adam and Eve chose just a little bit of evil. They chose to do what they knew was wrong. I think that's what the story is really about -- doing something that you know is wrong.

When someone harms me, my family or my neighbor, my first instinct is to strike back. And I want to give it back tenfold -- eyes for an eye and teeth for a tooth. But Jesus said that's wrong. Jesus said, "turn the other cheek." "If a man steals your coat, give him your cloak as well." Jesus said, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;"

That is what Jesus said to do and it works. It defies logic, it goes against animal instinct, but mortal men have proven that it works.

Gandhi tried it in India and won. He and his followers refused to seek revenge. They bravely stood in defiance of their aggressors, but they refused to strike back. They endured great suffering, but they won their struggle. It's hard to believe, but they toppled a powerful modern government without guns or bombs. It's so unbelievable, in fact, that some have been compelled to explain it as "understandable." After all, there were millions of Hindus and relatively few British. They say, "the Hindus simply outnumbered them."

But consider Martin Luther King and the American Civil Rights Movement. Black people in the U.S. in the 1950's and 60's were vastly outnumbered. They were surrounded by hatred. They had no money, no political power, and no military might. All they had was a Baptist preacher saying, "we will love you." King said, "you can hate us and we will love you; you can drag us out of our homes at the midnight hour and beat us in the streets and we will love you; you can kill us and we will still love you."

In just 11 years, without guns or bombs, they moved the most powerful nation on the planet from Jim Crow to affirmative action. Anyone who has ever tried to change governmental policy will tell you that is supernatural -- it just doesn't happen. But it did happen. It was one of the greatest Christian movements the world has ever seen. It defies logic, but it worked; and it was what Jesus said to do.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth and the laws of physics. As a student of science, I worry that this turn the other cheek, karma, love your enemy principle is a little understood law of physics. I worry that Jesus, as the son of God, was also the greatest scientist the world has ever seen and that he was trying to explain a physical rule of cosmic proportions.

If we wage war and win, what will come of it? Won't those cheering Palestinian children spend the rest of their lives perfecting their hatred for us? Won't they bring that hatred back to our children and our grandchildren? Won't they bring retribution for retaliation? We can easily strike back and win a battle today, but it will come back to us.

The law says, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But we must keep it clear in our hearts and minds that it says one eye for one eye and one tooth for one tooth. It means that we must seek justice, not revenge. It means that we must seek out the ones who are responsible, not the ones who are guilty of nothing more than looking like them or living nearby. We have suffered grotesque terrorism from within our own country. Timothy McVeigh was one of us. A foreigner is not required for an evil act.

Injustice breeds injustice. Even if you do not believe in God, you must know that this is a fact of reality.

We have been attacked by those who claim that God tells them to slaughter peaceful, innocent people. The world is waiting for our response. This is not a time for us to harden our hearts. This is a time for us to prove our resolve for justice, to prove who we are as a people.

9/21/2001

After his speech last night, I thanked God for our president. President Bush said:

"The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them. Fellow citizens, we'll meet violence with patient justice -- assured of the rightness of our cause, and confident of the victories to come. In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may He watch over the United States of America."

In his speech, President Bush asked that we continue to support the victims of this tragedy with our contributions. He named this web site: www.LibertyUnites.org as a central source of information for those who want to give.

To see the full text of President Bush's speech, click here: Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People

God bless George W. Bush.
God bless America.