What makes terrorists terrible?

A prominent news magazine recently opened up for all to see their internal debate on the use of the word “terrorist.” As in, why is someone who hijacks an airplane and crashes it into the World Trade Center and kills thousands a terrorist, but a Texan who crashes his small plane into a local IRS center and kills two people merely a “tax protestor?”

One inevitable answer, supported by far too much commentary since, is that one is a foreign enemy and the other is not. Too bluntly put? Of course we have come to reserve the word “terrorist” for Eastern, Muslim attackers and the word “criminal” for all others. Hence, torture and infinite imprisonment for some, Miranda rights and American jails for others.

It’s not so much the lack of justice that perturbs me as the wholesale short-shrifting of the word terrorist.

“It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come … “ (Mark 7:20-21)

I imagine that if asked, most Americans would say that they are most afraid of foreign, Muslim terrorists, killing Americans overseas, coming to American to kill more of us here. I can understand – there is something particularly frightening about that elusive, exotic, strange figure emerging as if out of some dark, far-off mist.

How naïve and self-deceptive of us! For the truest fear is that our own worst enemy is ourselves, the lurking dark and angry soul which threatens us from within. Timothy McVeigh, Joe Stack, Scott Roeder, these are us, they look like us and live among us and hold a mirror up to our own darkest and deepest fears. The true evil in the world is not that enemy there, it is my own worse nature that is my greatest threat. It is what comes from within, what we have tended with our anger and carefully neglected with our apathy and willfully watched fester that will be our ultimate destruction.

Yes, Mr. Isikoff, there is a difference between these similar actions, and it ought to be evident which is worse and more deserving of the label terrorist. For while I know there are always enemies without demanding my vigilance and courage, it is the one within who is best armed and most capable of my destruction and against whom I ought be most on guard. It is there that the word terror is rightly applied.

Shame is not helpful. Guilt, on the other hand …

On the radio this morning, a national sports commentator polled his audience, asking if they felt that Tiger Woods owed them an apology. Nine out of ten said they did not. They are absolutely correct.

An apology is not nearly enough. He owes us all much, much more.

The most commonly expressed opinion seems to be that Tiger’s indiscretions, while making for good tabloid copy and titillating news reports, are a private matter between himself and his wife/family. It’s just none of our business. I’m also guessing that for many of the responders (mostly male I’ll bet) somewhere secretly or even subconsciously envy the lifestyle, the power, the women falling at his feet.

I think he owes an apology. But my reasons are much different.

Here is the truth: morality is a always a public matter. Certainly no one deserves to have their personal peccadilloes splashed all over the cover of the National Enquirer. Nor is anything gained by jokes made at the Tiger’s expense. But this is not about the porn stars, the shameful behavior. This is about a real problem in the real world. Adultery.

Adultery destroys marriages in the real world. Every day. Real people’s lives are ruined, spouses and children alike. Real marriages are broken, and we all bear the cost, because this society depends on stable families and good marriages and happy childhoods as its bedrock. For the last decade, people have been running to a ballot box to protect marriage from the supposed threat of homosexuality as if that really mattered. Now, here is the real enemy of something truly vital and important to us all (even those who are not married), and nine out of ten of us think it’s not our business.

Really?

I am not interested in whether or not Tiger is ashamed of what he has done. I do, however, depend on him to appreciate the true guilt that he is now part of a national tragedy. I do, however, depend on him to be mature enough to do something about it.

“From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required …” (Luke 12:48)

Tiger Woods has an unique opportunity. He has the attention of the entire world now. He has a moment given to him to speak clearly and honestly about the tragic decisions he has made, about the horrific pain he has brought upon his wife and children, about what was really wrong, and not just that he has a “sickness.” He has a chance to say in a voice that might actually be heard that adultery is wrong, that it is always wrong, that it is painful and devastating. He has a chance to hold himself accountable, and by extension, lift up the millions of other men and women who need the same chance at redemption. If he could, by some grace of God, cause even one other man to look and see and say, “Man, I don’t want to do that to my life,” and change his path, then, well, wouldn’t that be worth far more than any golf tournament?

And just to say it, let us remember that we are all Tiger now. For all the talk about who is and who is not a role model in our society and who should be and who should not, let us stop all the false posturing and finally accept that each of us are responsible for doing what is right, and when we don’t, for doing something about it. Marriage, like life itself, is a private relationship lived in a public institution, and people are watching. Children are watching. It matters what you do. Being good and doing what is right is not optional, not to the people living around you.

Some people get it. There are millions upon millions of married people who live every day being faithful to their spouse and responsible for their children. It isn’t always easy for them, but they know it matters and they try. They deserve something from Tiger, too. I’ve always been a fan of his. I just hope he comes through now. For them.