Justice and Respect Letters
Response of a Fellow Conservative, contin.
by Sonia Balcer (Sep. 22, 2001)
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Justice and Respect Letters
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After issuing a strong challenge a week earlier to Rev. Jerry Falwell (and Rev. Pat Robertson) on account of his hurtful scapegoating of his opponents (9/13/2001) for the terrorist attack on American soil, and reading their statements of 9/17/2001 that (unlike the later apology of 9/20/2001) only reiterated their previous comments, a followup letter was sent.
While unpleasant to issue such challenges, it is believed that the degree of hurt inflicted during a time of national grief requires a forthright response. Since so much is at stake in terms of the hearing of the Good News, such public spokespersons must be held accountable for being faithful ambassadors of the Gospel.
Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 23:59:18 -0800
To: Rev. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson
From: sonia balcer
Subject: reflections from a fellow conservative, contin.Dear Rev. Falwell, and Pat Robertson
I am writing to you again in response to the 9/17/2001 statement ("Why I Said What I Said") which was ostensibly an apology for your remarks made on 9/13/2001 in which you pronounced that ACLU, gays, lesbians, feminists, abortionists, PFAW, and other groups you perceive to be "secularizing" America must "take a lot of blame" for the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001.
(Dear Pat Robertson, based upon careful reading of your Press Release and Statement of Sept. 14th, I believe all the comments below apply to you equally.)
In your essay, Rev. Falwell, you claim that your comments were taken "out of their context" from a theological discussion, and that "no one other than the terrorists" are responsible for the attacks, and that you had "...no intention of being divisive". Yet it was you who declared most directly, "I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'" Honestly, I can see no indication that your comments were in any way misunderstood by those who were offended. Of you these words of Jesus from Matt. 23 seem to apply:
The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.In your essay, several paragraphs were spent describing how you held prayer services, got invited to the National Cathedral, and gathered donations. While that is admirable, it proves absolutely nothing in regards to the inappropriateness of your statements. Their inappropriateness is not washed away by other acts of piety.
But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.You state your belief that "... God's protection of us as individuals and as a nation is dependent upon our obedience to His laws." In some sense there is truth to this, that sin tends to separate us from Him and by extension the interventions He might otherwise extend in our favour. Yet, the opposite can be true as well (the "scourging" of Hebrews 12, discussed in my previous letter). Moreover, God's wrath was kindled upon the friends of Job because they presumed to know why disaster had befallen him. And Jesus went out of His way to declare that some afflictions are for the revealing of the works of God (John 9:3), that the rain falls on both the just and unjust (Matt. 5:45), and that tribulations are inevitable in this world (John 16:33). Therefore I think it is both theologically inappropriate and outrageously insensitive to make sweeping pronouncements that purport to "explain" the cause of tragedies such as the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.
....Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
In reflecting upon what you meant, you mention a burden for revival and need for national repentance and prayer towards that end -- something which many Christians share. However, I fail to see how this ties in with pointing the finger at others -- particularly when it seems the groups you criticized were so tailor picked for those who don't fit your socio-political agenda. No mention whatsoever was made of a great myriad of sins (greed, pride, and a host of others listed in my previous letter) which are equally destructive individually and corporately, but which perhaps would not serve your interests quite as well as those you singled out for mention.
But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.You claim that it was simply a lack of time which caused you to "fail" to "... point the finger at a sleeping, prayerless and carnal church". Given how much time you spent blaming your opponents, it would have taken a really vivid imagination to somehow fill in those blanks and infer that you "really" meant to be calling the Church to acknowledge its sins.
Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.Finally, it seems the primary lesson you learned was that you "... should have mentioned the national sins without mentioning the organizations and persons by name." To me this sounds like regret that you were called to account for pointing the finger, and that your resolve is to cover your tracks better next time.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.I regret to say all these things, Rev. Falwell (and Pat Robertson), but as a fellow conservative Christian, I would be remiss if I did not vigorously take you to task for your egregious statements which, I say with heavy heart, have offended countless of those whom the Shepherd refers to as "little ones that believe in me". I urge you to look again, with reverent fear, at the applicability of Matthew 18:6.
With strong rebuke, nonetheless in His great love,
Sonia Balcer
[signature and url's]
See partial transcript of the comments of 9/13/2001 which are the original subject of the first letter , along with the statement of 9/17/2001 which are the subject of this letter.
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