April 8, 2002

EDITORIAL:
Let's drain the 'swamp' that breeds global terrorism
___Every Palestinian suicide bomb, Israeli mortar round and al Qaeda arrest etches another line of history. We live in world-changing days. The actions of 2002 are certain to reverberate through the years of our lives, our children's lives and our grandchildren's lives.
___And if Tony Campolo is right, that's just the short view of history.
___Campolo is a professor of sociology at Eastern College in St. Davids, Pa. He also is a prompter of conscience and quickener of souls. He provokes Christians to look beyond headlines and easy answers to examine how biblical faith should respond to issues of the day.
___Christians' responses to the No. 1 security issue could have millennial consequences, Campolo warned. "What's our answer to terrorism?" he asked at a North Carolina Baptist Men's conference. "It's going to set missions back a thousand years. We're going to kill them. We're going to root them out and kill them."
___Those words are hard to hear, particularly in the shadow of Sept. 11. But Campolo has been right on so many issues through the years--race, hunger, poverty, medical ethics, criminal justice and globalization, to name a few--he deserves a hearing. Even when he's annoying.
___Of course, we can build a case for just-war today. The unprovoked Sept. 11 attacks targeted innocent civilians. They struck our deepest vulnerabilities. They eroded our freedom. They violated international law. They contradicted the doctrines of the terrorists' own religion. They debased something of what we mean when we say we are human beings and citizens of the world.
___America and its allies have not only a right but also a responsibility to make this planet a safer place. Ridding the world of terrorists seems like a good start, and even the latest news reports indicate this campaign is enjoying success.
___But Campolo contends we must be careful, lest the solution becomes worse than the problem. Ridding the world of terror by killing all the terrorists is like trying to wipe out malaria by killing mosquitoes, he insisted. "You get rid of malaria by destroying the swamps in which the malaria mosquitoes are bred. There's a swamp out there called poverty and injustice."
___Campolo has a point, and it echoes recent history as well as biblical teaching.
___Israeli military might will not end suicide bombings as long as Palestinian teens face circumstances so dire zealous recruiters can convince them their lives are worth more blown to bits among the sinew and tissue of Israelis than they are worth marrying, raising families and growing old. Allied carpet bombs and special forces operations will not eliminate terrorist organizations as long as Pakistani families are so poor they cannot raise their sons and instead place them in radical Islamist indoctrination schools and Third World mothers are so starved they cannot nurse their young.
___This is not to say America and its allies should lay down our arms. Sometimes waging peace means bearing arms to prevent adversaries from inflicting evil on innocent people. This is such a time. Sept. 11 really happened, and we would be negligent if we did not do everything possible to prevent future Sept. 11s.
___But doing "everything possible" means more than killing or imprisoning terrorists. It means changing the conditions that produce terrorists. To use Campolo's metaphor, it means draining the swamps where terror breeds.
___You remember--or remember studying--the Marshall Plan. At the end of World War II, when the military battles had been won, the United States led a global effort to restore Europe from the decimation of war. D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge were decisive in the war, but the Marshall Plan was decisive in creating a peace that spanned decades and changed not only the face of Europe but the world as well.
___We need a "Campolo Plan" to re-shape the world for the good in the 21st century. We cannot forget that all people are created in God's image, loved by God and deserving of nurture and love. In the Holy Land, Israelis and Palestinians alike need safety, security and simple respect. In Afghanistan, Pakistan and many parts of the Arab world, children need food and education, and communities need basic infrastructure so their parents can see even the slimmest possibilities for the future.
___American Christians, of all people, should step forward to support such a cause. Jesus told us, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Luke 12:48). Jesus also commanded us to serve "the least of these" (Matthew 25:40, 45). Who could be more "least" than the younger brother of a Palestinian suicide bomber or the mother of the bomber's victim? Who could be more "least" than an Afghan woman abused by the Taliban or a Pakistani orphan boy?
___We should be willing to invest at least as much to give these people hope for the future as we are spending to remove terrorists from their midst. Of course, they need more. They need the gospel. But Jesus, our guide, not only offered people spiritual Living Water. He also healed their bodies and fed them bread and fish. We will earn the right to be trusted with people's souls when we demonstrate we are concerned for their lives.

___ —Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

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