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On this Day...



Over recent weeks I have kept my own counsel regarding the two big controversy's that are orbiting this year's anniversary of the dreadful events of 9/11/2001 (I bow to the illogical US date order of m/d/y on this day alone); the so-called "Ground Zero" mosque and the threatened Koran burning by Terry Jones (not the Monty Python member, but the Pastor of the misnamed "Dove" World Outreach Centre in Gainesville Florida). There is enough coverage out there without me having to add my ill-informed comments from thousands of miles away, and indeed I haven't even offered links to the stories, because if you haven't come across them then you probably haven't been on the planet for the past 2 months.


There is an extent to which the oxygen of sensationalist (and at times grossly innacurate) reporting has exacerbated both stories and the response of the wider world to them. On that subject I would like to flag up 2 pieces... one prompted by each story. One is a piece by Charles Strohmer about the non-mosque at Ground Zero (I'm endebtted to Maggi Dawn for this one) and to another by Steve Stockman here in Northern Ireland, reflecting on the role of the media in the "Koran burning" story, and indeed our well publicised problems here. I think Stocki may be expecting the impossible in the world of 24/7 news... but as Christians we are called on to argue for a better world in the one in which we find ourselves.


But actually on this day I'm probably with my friend Lynette Fields, in Florida when she said in her facebook status for today...



the best way to honor the anniversary of 9/11 is to turn OFF the tv and radio, have a moment of silence to remember all those who lost their lives, and then say a prayer for ALL Americans--Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, atheists...--and while we are at it let's pray for all God's children around the world and that we may have peace. Take a break from all the noise!


ps. In the wake of all the "noise" the blogger previously known as Zoomtard, published an interesting piece about our friend, Mr Jones, over on his new site at creideamh. Meanwhile over on Connexions, Kim has published an excerpt from Godfrey Rust's haunting poem about 9/11, which I previously flagged up here, while of course a number of people have posted this cartoon asking "What would Jesus do?"









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Patrick said…
Great idea. There is something pythonesque about both the press and Terry Jones in this story that is ripe for satire. But maybe on another day.
Saturday, September 11, 2010 3:18:00 AM
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