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September 11th Desecrated Ordinary Life
To commemorate September 11, Institute affiliate scholar Dan Cere of McGill University organized a public letter signed by 11 religious
leaders from diverse faith traditions. The letter was published in the Montreal Gazette on September 11, 2002
The members of the Multifaith Chaplaincy of McGill University prepared this statement to mark the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the
United States.
On September 11th 2001 a group of terrorists destroyed a symbol of world economic power, the Twin Towers of the New York World Trade Centre. However, it was not the destruction of a symbol of global power that triggered public outrage. It was the wanton destruction of the lives of ordinary citizens that provoked grief and dismay. We mourned for them as stories of their lives, their families, and their last words to their loved ones filtered through the media.
September 11th was horrific because it was a deliberate violation and desecration of the ordinary lives of ordinary folk. September 11th wounded the common life of North America. We must recognize that it was also a deadly example of the gruesome acts against civilians that have become part of a tortured daily life for too many men, women and children in too many parts of the world.
The best instincts of the great religions are marked by a profound reverence for the sanctity of ordinary life. They revere the common life of family,
friendship, faith, work, and play as something good and sacred. McGill University philosopher Charles Taylor argues that our religious traditions have nurtured a deep sense that ordinary life is ``the very
centre of the good life" (Sources of the Self).
The core dimensions of ordinary life include the right to live in relative peace, to be free from assault, to speak freely, to move freely, to go about our
daily activities, to share life with our friends and loved ones, to raise our children, to work, to play, to worship freely in our faith traditions. Our religious traditions share a deep conviction that
ordinary human life must be left intact if human life is to thrive.
Ordinary life is soft-shelled and unarmed. We lay down weapons in order to work together in relationships of trust, mutual collaboration, and shared
endeavour. Some religious traditions maintain that the simple goodness of ordinary life can be preserved from violence only by an absolute renunciation of violence. For pacifists the sanctity of life can
only be preserved by an unstinting commitment to non-violent resistance and a readiness to give up life itself rather than to participate in acts of violence. However, for many religious traditions the defence
of the inviolable good of ordinary life is the one and the only ``just cause" for which we can take up arms. This has been the deep insight of the `just-war' traditions of our own faiths -- Jewish, Christian,
Islamic and Sikh.
Historically, just-war traditions evolved as an attempt to protect civilian life from the military games of war lords. Just war is inherently related to
the protection of civil society, the protection of the basic `civic peace' that is a vital condition for the flourishing of ordinary life. Just-war theory rejects aggression against the goodness of civilian
life in the ``name of God" or the ``interests of state." It calls us to be prepared to lay down our lives for the protection of our friends, our families and the communities of life that sustain these
important relationships. The just warrior is one who is willing to give his or her life to defend civil community against the various forms of violence or terrorism that would seek to disrupt and destroy. The
just warrior is a disciplined warrior who knows that the best weapons for the restoration of civic peace are negotiation and dialogue.
The resort to arms in defence of life must always be the very last resort in the face of aggression. The conduct of the just warrior must be exemplary in
its reverence for civilian life and respectful of the path of the conscientious objector who also strives to defend the sanctity of life. September 11th and the events that followed signal a renewed call to just warriors and pacifists of all faiths and all cultures to struggle shoulder-to-shoulder against the forces of violence and oppression that dare to threaten or desecrate the fabric of ordinary life.
Signatories:
Pietro Bozzo (Yellow Door Outreach Centre)
Dr. Daniel Cere (Roman Catholic)
Rev. Robert Clark (Roman Catholic)
Rev'd Dr. C. Abbott Conway (Anglican)
Imam Salam Elmenyawi (Muslim)
Very Rev. Ihor G. Kutash (Orthodox)
Rabbi Shlomo Mahn (Chabad House, Jewish)
Rev. Elizabeth Rowlinson (Anglican)
Manjit Singh (Sikh)
Rev. Helmut Saabas (Lutheran)
Rev'd Gwenda Wells (Ecumenical Christian)
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