Chosinness and the Theology of Terror.

Dr. E. Scott Ryan presents a new word, Chosinness, to describe a new and old metaphysic that, justifies criminality. He defines Chosinness as a sinful choice of choosing one God as one's God, only, to the detriment of others. Metaphysical analysis is applied to criminology in indicating how a metastasis of universal spiritual chosenness can develop into a criminal quasi-religious metaphysic of Chosinness. Although this criminological metaphysic of terrorism is evident in some Islamic terrorists, it is not confined to any one religion or belief system. Dr. Ryan cautions all of us as to the dangers inherent in any Chosinness, in our needing to know how to counter this criminal metaphysical metastasis at its source in educating ourselves, as well as others, in new and old ways of thinking and believing.

In looking back to September 11th, we can look forward and back with a new word lot a very new and very old Theology of Terror. Many religious and secular words have been used, but one new religious-secular word defines it best. That word is Chosinness, defined by me as a sinful choice wherein one God becomes one's God, only, to the detriment of others. That new word of Chosinness represents a metastasis of the old word of Chosenness, with the new meaning of a diseased distortion of the monotheistic concept of Chosenness into a "chosin" Theology of Crime contortion that sanctifies terrorism with theology.

Prior to September 11th, our monotheistic religions referred to an anti-God concept of evil; and since September 11th, there's been a new secular and religious adherence to an old intrinsic notion of evil ... in particular, a pro-God proclaiming evil that evokes a God of Terror.

In any war, military intelligence is necessary; and in this Theology of Crime War, it involves the militant metaphysics of evil that our prior intelligence failed to protect us from. Those religious leaders who taught us that evil is a mystery we can't understand have failed us, just as those secular academics who taught us that evil is an unreal religious fantasy have failed us.

The one lesson we've all learned from September 11th is that "never again" should such failures prevail. Nevertheless, we still encounter failed religious and political homilies that fail our need for counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism. Immediately after September 11, we announced to one billion Muslims that we were not an enemy of Islam; and within a year, we broadcasted Jerry Falwell's religious defamation of the Prophet, Muhammad, as a "demonic inspired pedophile." This Jerry meandering Falwellian Chosinness turns our need for a "never again" counter defense into an "ever again" offensive religious encounter that generates more hatred and conflict.

I recall the prayerful invocation of "deliver us from evil," in calling for deliverance from the religious evil of falling into the well of a Falwellian Chosinness ... in creating the most religious enmity for us at the worst time in our history.

It's been said that war is too important to be left to the generals, and politics is too important to be left to the politicians; and it should also be said that religion is too important to be left to the likes of Jerry "Immoral Minority" Falwell.

We do need to pray for deliverance from evil, but in so doing, we also need to think about evil. The problem with countering evil is that our religious prohibitions against committing it, and our secular prohibitions against discussing it, have left us bereft of any analytic foundation with which we can encounter it so as to counter it. The unfortunate consequence is that in attempting, but failing, to prohibit evil thoughts, we've succeeded in prohibiting attempts to really think about evil ... in prohibiting any thoughts about evil in prohibiting evil thoughts.

September 11 made us face our failures in facing up to the necessity of better counterintelligence for the purpose of better counter-terrorism. After September 11, no one could escape the realization that evil is all too real, and that our Theology of Crime War is all too religious.

I use the word "evil" in its most literal sense from the inverted spelling of "live." This terrorist inversion of life, in the literal taking of' thousands of lives, can best be understood as the criminal metaphysic of Chosinness. Evil is an appropriate secular and religious word, for evil doers have done what no others have done before in bringing the ultimate evil terror of a Theology of Crime Chosinness to our shores. That criminal belief system of Chosinness must be encountered in order for counter-terrorism to succeed at the same level that the Theology of Crime terror proceeds from.

The best defense is an offense aimed at the complex points of origin of our enemy.... Chosinness. Offensive religious descriptions of the Falwellian ilk are not only invidiously simplistic, but they are insidiously dangerous in making us more simple targets for the more simple minded. Simplistic axis of evil political responses escape the complex reality and meaning of evil in its varying commissions of wrong and omissions of right. A crusading simplicity will inevitably fail us, but it may well succeed in further endangering and isolating us.

Evil is a real religious notion and the real axis of evil revokes around religious inspired and politically implemented notions of Chosinness ... in choosing one God as one's God for one's group, only, at the expense of others!

Enemies naturally regard each other as evil, but even if one's enemy is truly evil that natural good versus evil dichotomy obscures the not so natural nature of evil. Human nature is not evil, as Calvin taught, but one's nature becomes evil the more Chosin one is taught to become. There's often a reciprocal Chosinness of Terror wherein a metaphysical oneness is chosen by one group for themselves to the detriment of another, who then respond with their own Chosinness of Terror.

Simplistic religious assumptions about more of God and simplistic secular assumptions about less of God have proclaimed more wrong answers in the name of both pro-God and anti-God perspectives than right questions. The right questions are those that ask all of us for new perspectives with which we can name our religious God or secular Good, so as to break the "chosin" cycle of terror ... for once and for all.

In contrast to the pre-September 11th criminal profile of a terrorist with nothing to lose, the Theology of Crime Terrorists had much to lose in the here and now ... but even more to gain in the hereafter. At least one of them, in addition to being quite mature and well situated, pursued advanced studies at Germany's premier institute of engineering. In that respect, he reminded me of Nazi mass murderers, such as Josef Goebbels, Ph.D. and the Angel of Death, Josef Mengele, M.D., Ph.D. I include their academic and scientific credentials to illustrate that mass murder, high intelligence and elite education can coexist quite easily.

The Chosinness of the Theology of Crime terrorism is new for most Americans; but it's not new for Israelis, in being victimized by this "chosin" criminal belief rationality emanating from some in the Arab Muslim world, as well as some in their own Jewish world, to include the Chosin People who assassinated the political leader of the Chosen People, Prime Minister Yitzhah Rabin. It is not new in Northern Ireland, in not only so-called militant Catholic and Protestant bombers, but also in religious parades wherein one group celebrates victory by denigrating another with the refrain that "God is with us but not with you." It's not new for Armenian Christians, over a million of whom were massacred by Muslim Turks; just as it's not new for Bosnian Muslims in being ethnically cleansed by some Chosin among the so-called Christian Serbs, who described themselves as Chosen in defending Christianity against Islam. Just as the highly educated Arab terrorist reminds me of highly educated Nazi terrorists, and just as the assassins of Yitzhak Rabin evoke highly educated Judeo-Nazi terrorism, the Chosin terrorists who ethnically cleansed Bosnian Muslims had their own well educated political leader in Radovan Karadzic, M.D.

Our greatest enemy is not a remnant of godless Communism, or Nazism, but a terrorist who believes that God is on his or her side. This enemy attacks with a Chosin metaphysic that is a metastasis of universal Chosenness, defined as a universal spiritual choice wherein God is chosen by and for all men and women without any invidious distinction. Chosinness turns the choice of one God into a choice of one God as one's God, only ... in turning one God for all into one's God against all others. That is the root cause of the Chosin metaphysic that drives the Theology of Crime; and whenever and wherever it transcends itself to others, it descends upon them with its terror. It can descend upon anyone from within a plane, a militant group, an oppressive state, a denigrating creed, a racist nationalism or an international cause ... in the name of God or a Godlike substitute.

Is there something we can do to counter this etiology of terror now and in the future? Yes, but it requires something other than one group telling it self how terrible another group can be. It requires every group telling itself how terrible any Chosinness can be, to include its own; and it requires defenders of the faith in Chosenness, for all, fighting those defenders of a faith in Chosinness for themselves to the detriment of others. Those defenders must be spiritual firefighters who rush to the twin towers of religiocentricity and ethnocentricity to put out any cinders of Chosinness before they spread. In so doing, Muslims need to preach to Muslims, as to Jews to Jews and Christians to Christians rather than one group preaching at another. Secular humanists need to be reminded that while terrible people have always brought terror in the name of God, there is no God of Terror. Our politicians have to be cautioned that when they entangle America in group conflicts, most particularly religious conflicts, their political understanding must go beyond standing for what's right for one side to standing for what's right for all sides.

We cannot fight terror from without, without fighting it from within. We cannot be terrorized by fear, nor terrorize in fear. The right question as to how to counter the terror of self-serving Chosinness requires the right answer within ourselves and with others. That answer requires more spiritual warriors to help fight against the God-awful metastasis of a terrorist's God, without allowing a God of Terror to win within ourselves. The spiritual war strategy must be that of convincing the next generation that God is with us, but God is not with us if we believe God is with us only. Anyone or any group who falsely teach that they own God to the detriment of others must he taught that God has disowned them.

Correspondence concerning this article may be emailed to Dr. Ryan at [e-mail].

Dr. E. Scott Ryan. Ph.D., former Woodrow Wilson and Visiting Fellow at the U.S. Dept. of Justice, is author of The Theology of Crime, President and CEO of the International Institute of Forensic Education, and Co-Chair of the American College of Forensic Examiners Task Force on Terrorism.