Last night we watched a documentary on Sky AnytimeTV (on demand) entitled, 102 Minutes That Changed America, that was assembled from video footage from over 100 people who experienced the horrors of September 11, 2001, in New York City. Without any narration, the events unfolded from the perspective of the eyewitnesses who captured an amazing sense of the emotion and drama and disbelief. You can watch some of the footage on the History Channel’s website.
While doing a little more research on 9/11 this evening, I ran across the YouTube trailer (below) concerning an upcoming documentary on the serious health problems being experienced by thousands of ordinary people who voluntarily took time off to help in the search, rescue, and clean-up at Ground Zero. Quite a few of my co-workers (from the Florida Baptist Convention) drove to New York City as part of the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief effort. Their compassion for the victims translated into actions that may eventually threaten their own lives. The documentary, Three Weeks in September, will air sometime this Summer 2009. Here’s the video:
At the risk of being labeled a kook and a weirdo, I have watched a number of documentaries that question the official story behind the events of 9/11 and I think there are a lot of unanswered questions, perhaps of the same magnitude as those that should have been asked of the German government as it carried out the systematic slaughter of six million Jews. We often wonder, don’t we, why the good and honest people who lived under Hitler’s regime did not question their government’s actions? A growing number of Americans are joining The 9/11 Truth Movement, a grassroots collective that seeks to shed light on what really happened. Part of their stated mission is:
To expose the official lies and cover-up surrounding the events of September 11th, 2001 in a way that inspires the people to overcome denial and understand the truth; namely, that elements within the US government and covert policy apparatus must have orchestrated or participated in the execution of the attacks for these to have happened in the way that they did.
I have never believed that an airliner crashed into the Pentagon or into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Why? There’s no recognizable debris at either site that remotely resembles a large passenger plane: no landing gear, no engines, and no remnants of the fuselage or its contents, especially seats, bodies, and luggage. Look at the photographs and you will not find any evidence of a commercial airliner, just a large crater in a remote rural location and a relatively small hole in the side of the Pentagon. So we’re just supposed to believe the official story in spite of these glaring anomalies?
The separate incidents above cast suspicion on the World Trade Center (WTC) attacks as well, in my opinion. How did those towers simply collapse perfectly into their own foundations at near-freefall speeds that experts have declared to be virtually impossible without the aid of controlled demolition charges? And how else would the leaseholder, Larry Silverstein, of Building 7, also part of the WTC campus, know to have this third building rigged with explosives so he could give the “pull” order at 5:20 pm, seven hours after WTC 1 collapsed? I didn’t even know about the mysterious collapse of Building 7, but it would have taken a team of demolition experts several weeks to prepare a 47-story building for a precision “pull” (as Silverstein himself called it during a later PBS documentary).
As a nation, one day we may deeply regret our collective naiveté and trust of our elected leaders concerning this national tragedy. I’m not sure our generation can handle the truth of what really happened on September 11, 2001, as I think about the consequences it would bring. But I do believe that The 9/11 Truth Movement has the right idea when that time comes:
To seek justice and redress for those wronged on September 11th, or as a result of the events, beginning with complete disclosure of all records and evidence; reversal of all domestic and foreign policies following from the false premises of the official story; and full accountability for any and all individuals inside and outside the US government involved in the attacks who engaged in crimes of commission, facilitation, complicity, gross negligence, cover-up or obstruction of justice after the fact.
I ran across an excellent article by Tom Sine, entitled “Church Re-Imagined,” in a Christian magazine* this past week. Sine is co-author of a book, The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time
“Does the future have a church?”
“What will a post-Christendom, post-institutional, post-Western, post-congregational future for the Church look like?”
“Is it possible we have got what it means to be church wrong?”
“Is it possible that many of us unwittingly accept this popular cultural notion of church as a place we go for two hours each week to have our needs met?”
Basically, our brother and fellow pilgrim points us to the New Testament, using the radical language of family to describe what we have become when we take that first step of faith in Jesus Christ. What matters is not our genetic code, but our shared spiritual DNA that recreates all of us into family members—rich, poor, young, old, multi-colored, slave, free, male, and female. He describes our new family like Read more
One Jewish carpenter. A hand-picked team of twelve working class Jewish men who were required to leave their occupations and follow the carpenter around the regions of Galilee. A message about the present reality of God’s kingdom. Miraculous cures of the sick: people raised from the dead. Spiritual eyes and ears opened by the life-changing message and the power of an unseen member of the Trinity accompanying them. Religious systems overturned and conservative theologians of his day unmasked as religious bigots, blind charlatans, imperialistic traditionalists. The weak, marginalized nobodies given priority over the powerful and wealthy elite of his day. Imagine being part of it all!
When Jesus asked the question of his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” he discovered that most people thought he fit the profile of a prophet. According to the disciples’ answers, some thought he was John the Baptist back from the dead (beheaded just prior to the above conversation) and others felt he was a modern-day reincarnation of Elijah or Jeremiah. The most important question, however, was directed at the Read more
…where the “five purposes” are not just words on a banner
…brimming with life and growth and joy in the Holy Spirit
…where everyone knows—really knows—everyone else
…where love is shown to everyone in unmistakable ways
…that experiences a “we can’t wait to be with one another again” spirit
…where encouragement runs freely without being artificially forced
…that feels like a loving, normal, extended family
…where ordinary people do what needs to be done because they want to
…where worship happens spontaneously, rather than being scheduled
…that reaches people wherever they happen to be
…becoming more a sense of identity and purpose than a geographical location
…no longer obsessed with maintenance and stability, but transformation
…that gives 100% of its resources to benevolence, missions and social action
…where lives and homes and things are shared openly with one another
…where each person participates and shares their spiritual giftedness
…where the Christian faith is an authentic life experience, not just a system of belief
…that causes people to ask questions like, “What makes your life so different?”
…that creates thirst within others for the Living Water that only Jesus can give
—Bill Lollar—
I spent several hours in Her Majesty's Courts yesterday: my first glimpse into the British system of justice and a very interesting experience in comparison to the American courts. Monday I received a phone call from a desperate mother whose 22-year-old daughter—a serious heroin addict and prostitute—was facing serious charges. A minimum six-month prison sentence was the expected outcome of yesterday's court appearance; that is, until God intervened.
Those who have kept in touch with me since our arrival in Wales nearly four years ago might remember Steve, another heroin addict that God brought into our lives. We took Steve into our home for several weeks and eventually discovered Betel of Britain, a faith-based drug rehabilitation program in Birmingham, England. Through contact with Betel, I arranged for a telephone interview and he was offered immediate placement. He graduated their eighteen month residential program just a few months ago and has now become a member of their staff at a brand-new ministry location in Sydney, Australia. When I was speaking about God's True Fast (Isaiah 58) a couple of weeks ago, I used that encouraging example as an illustration of God's amazing grace.
Someone shared that sermon illustration with a close friend, the mother of a young woman that I will call Jessica. She asked if I would meet with her and Jessica later that afternoon. The mother did most of the talking, until the stepfather joined us, and I listened to their painful ten-year journey. Jessica faded in and out of conscious Read more
Here's a challenging word from Jonny Woodrow over at The Crowded House blog:
If the gospel is about the past and the future then church simply needs to be a gathering outside of life that gets you to look backwards to the cross and what it achieved and forwards to future glory. It becomes a moment in the week where we leave life in the town and go up to the hills to look behind us and out in front of us. Sometimes we’ll invite our non Christian friends up to the hill to see the Read more
