Where Was God on September 11?

Seeds of Faith and Hope

edited by Donald B. Kraybill, Linda Gehman Peachey

Study Guide written by Cynthia Hockman-Chupp of Canby,Oregon. Hockman-Chupp currently home schools two of her three children. She says she “loves to write curriculum” and extends thanks to the adult class at Zion Mennonite Church, Hubbard, Oregon, who tested parts of this leader’s guide material.

This Study Guide are also available for download in PDF Acrobat format.

See also Where Was God on September 11? in the MPN online catalog.

Introduction and Learning Styles
Lesson 1	Chapter 2	Chapter 3
Chapter 4	Chapter 5 & 6	Chapter 7

Chapter 7 - Another Way of Responding

Early class preparation
read the seventh chapter of Where Was God on September 11?

Materials needed:

chalkboard/chalk or newsprint/markers

1. Sharing our stories

As a class, brainstorm as many words and phrases as you can to describe Bin Laden and the men who committed the terrorist acts on September 11. After a few minutes, ask students to brainstorm the words and phrases that Bin Laden and his followers might use to describe United States government leaders.

2. Reflecting on our stories

How are the two lists similar? What descriptions remind you of sound bites from the evening news? How can changing our view of these men help us to invent alternate responses?

3. Hearing one another

Read “The Challenge of Terror,” by John Paul Lederach. (chap. 7, p. 180).

4. Conversing with the text

Discuss:

What steps can we take in order to avoid “creating the environment that sustains and reproduces the very virus we wish to prevent”?

Look at the three suggestions Lederach writes at the end of the article. What do these mean for us personally? How can we work in our communities to “develop quality relationships with whole regions, peoples, and worldviews”?

Concluding the lesson

In “Peacemakers Need to Listen, Too,” (chap. 7, p. 181) Karl Shelly writes, “But to stay silent now is to keep our light under a bushel basket” (Matt. 5:14-15). Do you agree? How are we called to “witness for God’s peace”?

Take some time today to reflect on this study. Spend some time discussing the following:

What new insights have we gained?
What new questions has the study brought to mind?
What steps can we take to answer these questions?
Which activities and/or discussions were especially meaningful? Why?

Conclude with a reading from the end of Shelly’s article:

“We must find a path that is neither self-righteous sloganeering nor immobilized listening. That path, I believe, includes speaking words of lament and comfort as the psalmist did. It includes sharing the prophetic vision that God has given us through Jesus—a vision of loving enemies, seeking justice, casting out hatred, and standing with victims wherever they are.

“We are to speak this vision boldly, knowing that it holds little currency among the dominant opinionmakers in our country. We are to speak this vision sensitively, being aware of the concerns of those who disagree. We are to speak this vision confidently, assured that goodness is stronger than evil, love is stronger than hate, and life is stronger than death.”

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy …"

-Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Mennonite Publishing Network