As a U.S.-led war on Iraq commences, life under “code orange” has never seemed scarier. But apparently young Christians who live and work in Washington are not an easily scared lot.
President Bush gave a March 17 ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein: Leave the country in 48 hours or consider yourself subject to invasion and removal. Simultaneously, the Department of Homeland Security raised its nationwide terrorism threat assessment to level orange, or “high risk” of attack — the color-coded scale’s second-highest level. The move confirmed predictions by many terrorism experts that a U.S. invasion of Iraq would immediately increase the risk for new terrorist attacks against Americans.
In Washington — generally considered to be the most prominent target of anti-American terrorists — government agencies took extra safety precautions and military agencies increased the frequency of their air patrols over the city, adding to the ominous atmosphere. A guest editorial in the March 17 edition of the Washington Post warned of the ease with which rogue states or terrorist groups could achieve nuclear bombs to set off in Washington or New York.
But in a city full of young, ambitious people who come from far and wide to chase their dreams, many Christians are thinking about their role as beacons of hope in a dark world, no matter their view on the advisability of the war.
“Safety, unfortunately, is never a promise that God has made to us. So, the real goal, I think, is reminding people that God is there,” said Sterling Severns, associate pastor for young adults at Washington’s First Baptist Church.
He noted the Gospel of Matthew begins with the birth of a child named Immanuel — which means “God with us” — and ends with Jesus’ promise in the Great Commission that He will be “with you always, even to the end of the world.” Severns said he took great strength from that: “The whole Gospel is encompassed with this reminder that God is with us and always will be.”
Very few of the young Christians interviewed for this story expressed any fear for their own safety.
“Since a terrorist attack and my mortality is not something I can control and dying really isn’t that bad of a deal for a Christian, and I love working on Capitol Hill, I trust God to have it all under control,” said 31-year-old Greg Foster, a Liberty, Mo., native who attends First Baptist and works as an aide to Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.). “I have faith that God gave me life and will end it when He sees fit.”
Twenty-six-year-old Texas native Sherri King, who works for a Capitol Hill “think tank,” said fear would get in the way of properly exercising her role as a believer in Christ. “I can’t actively love and serve Him and actively love and serve my neighbor if I’m paralyzed by fear,” said King, who grew up Baptist but recently became an Episcopalian.
But that doesn’t mean fearful thoughts don’t plague her from time to time. “More forbidding than, say, instant vaporization is the idea of living another 10 or 20 years with the effects of radiation poisoning or perhaps irreparable and disfiguring nerve damage,” King said, referring to risks associated with radiological or chemical-weapons attacks. “But Jesus didn’t particularly relish the prospect of the cross — yet He submitted, although He was certainly honest with God about His desires.”
And fear for the safety of loved ones is often a more powerful concern to these young adults — many of whom are single — than for their own lives.
“When I think of my own death, I think in terms of seeing Jesus face to face and I’d love to do that,” said Miriam Rajkumar, a First Baptist deacon who lives in Washington’s DuPont Circle/Embassy Row area and works for an arms-control organization. “I’m not at ease about the death of my friends and loved ones, however.” Rajkumar’s parents, who are of Indian descent, now live in the Persian Gulf nation of Dubai.
Severns’ church — located only six blocks from the White House in the DuPont area — has been approached by federal emergency-management officials to serve as a medicine-distribution point in the event of a biological-weapons attack on Washington. It also has an agreement with the nearby National Geographic Society headquarters to serve as a rendezvous point for society employees in the event of that building’s evacuation.
But Severns worries for his 10-month-old son, who is in the church’s day care program most weekdays. “[Being a parent] has given me a totally different perspective,” Severns said. “And I get a sense from the other young parents who have kids here in the day care center that it’s very much on their mind as well.”
But several of the interviewees described their fears — even for their friends and family — as rather insignificant in the face of what many people around the world face every day. “I think that to compare what we live in, and what other people suffer through every day is to trivialize just how awful their conditions are,” said Erika Young, a 23-year-old Michigan native and First Baptist regular. “My chances of getting an education are higher than my chances of being raped, unlike in South Africa. I have a roof over my head, I can reliably expect to eat three times a day — and I don’t have to worry about being blown up on a bus.”
Likewise, Rajkumar said living under the threat of terrorism has given her some new insight into the lives of those who live in highly difficult circumstances. “It has served to make me think more about Palestinian people — and others here and around the world who may or may not be oppressed — who feel acute grievances, real and imagined,” she said. “What sets us free from these chains?”
But is continuing life in Washington worth it — particularly when many young adults toil for long hours and mediocre pay in a city with an astronomically high cost of living?
Jerald Walz, 28, is a Methodist minister’s son who works for the Institute for Religion and Democracy, located near the White House, and who lives just across the Potomac River from Washington in Arlington, Va.
Like the others, he scoffed at the idea of leaving the nation’s capital. “Where else could you work to have such a large impact upon the world?” Walz asked. “Whether in government, civil society, business, or the church, working in Washington affords an opportunity that is not to be found in other places. Being in such a place also carries a risk, but I’ve yet to observe great opportunities in human history that don’t come at the cost of some risk.”
In lieu of First Baptist’s regular Monday-night Bible study for young adults, Severns led about 25 participants in prayer for the nation and world after listening to Bush’s March 17 speech.
He then invited them — many of whom are hundreds or thousands of miles away from their nearest relative — to gather in the church’s ornate Gothic sanctuary for comfort if another terrorist attack hit Washington and it was safe to leave their homes. Severns said providing such comfort was the primary ministry of God’s people in such a time of crisis.
“If you look at the [Christian] church at critical moments in world history when evil was truly present, there are beacons, people who stepped forward and said that here is what church is all about — that the Kingdom of God is at hand even in the midst of all this evil,” Severns said.
(ABP)
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