This is the second story in a two-part series exploring religion in the wake of terrorism.
Senior George Ragsdale has a lot on his mind these days.
A student pastor in the Wesley Fellowship, Ragsdale is grappling with how he thinks the United States should respond to the recent terrorist attacks that rattled New York and Washington, D.C. Sept. 11. "As a Christian, I think violence is never the answer," said Ragsdale, "but as an American, I'm recognizing the need for order and stability in the world, and how to reconcile these things is a really difficult question."
All over the country, religious Americans are trying to decide how to balance their spiritual views with their political ideals, and attempting to reconcile their want for justice with their desire for mercy. Here at Duke, religious leaders are acknowledging the tough issues that face students of faith in deciding how to respond to the crisis.
At a recent forum co-sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, two Duke graduates, including one who was in the Pentagon the day it was hit, discussed the problems that confront religious students in their efforts to determine how best to respond to the attacks.
"It's one thing to have an academic discussion about how the U.S. should respond," said John Inazu, Engineering '97 and Law '00, who now works as a lawyer for the Air Force and was at his desk in the Pentagon when the attack occurred. "It's another to realize there are 200 bodies that they're still pulling out," he said. As a Christian, Inazu told students he was "presumably against violence," but as a member of the military, he was also uncomfortable with total pacifism. "It's easy to say I trust my life to Christ," he said. "But now it's the rubber meeting the road. When the [plane hit], I wasn't thinking OWho can I save?,' or OHow can Christ help me?' It was, OHow can I get out of this building?'"
Jennifer Copeland, director of the Wesley Fellowship and United Campus Ministry at Duke, said that it is perfectly appropriate for religious students to shape their political responses to the crisis based on their faith. "If we believe our faith tradition has any credibility at all, then we have to trust the tenets of that faith to inform the way we live our lives," she said.
Some students say their religious beliefs have significantly impacted their views on U.S. foreign policy. "My philosophy is a combination of both my general philosophy and my religious philosophy," said senior and Hindu Anand Nathan. "My thoughts are that we should be careful not to slaughter an innocent people.... We should be careful not to value American life over the lives of third world citizens and make the Afghan citizens suffer for things they haven't done." But, said Nathan, America must respond militarily.
He cited a passage in the Hindu epic Bhagvad Gita in which five brothers struggled with their cousins to get back a kingdom that was wrongly taken from them. When one of the characters looked at the battlefield and saw all the people he had grown up with at war with one another, he realized he did not want to fight. But he does because, according to Nathan, "it's the right thing and the just thing to do. And how that translates now, is, although we may think we shouldn't respond because people will die--two wrongs don't make a right--it's sort of the right thing to do, if it's not done rashly."
Senior Lala Qadir, president of the Muslim Student Association, is also using her faith to guide her thoughts about the U.S. response. "In Islam, you can seek retribution for what has happened to you if you have been violated, but it's always better to forgive," she said. Qadir said she believes the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks should be brought to justice. "But the mechanism of how that mission is declared is the crucial question. Are we going to target countries or have a more incisive, strategic military operation designed to target only those responsible?"
For American Jews, questions about how the United States should respond to the violence are particularly relevant now. Tonight begins Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. Rabbi Bruce Seltzer of the Freeman Center for Jewish Life said, "In Judaism, in order to give someone forgiveness, they have to realize they've done something wrong, admitted it and, there's even a source in Maimmonides that says, until they come into the same situation and don't do it, they haven't really turned away from [what they did wrong in the first place]."
Seltzer admitted that for religious students, there are no easy answers for how to deal with the terrorism. Because God created a world with free choice, said Seltzer, some of the consequences of that choice are bound to be troublesome. "But a world where there wasn't free choice would also be problematic. Does this settle our questions? No. And I don't think because someone is religious, or because someone is a religious teacher, means you shouldn't have questions.... Sometimes [religious leaders] can help people ask better questions, or better frame their own questions."
For Ragsdale, continuing to ask questions is the best way to approach some of the issues with which he has been struggling. "That's the important thing in some ways--to struggle with it and not to just blindly accept what our leaders come up with," he said.
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