Terrorists took Jeff’s body from us, but they couldn’t take his life’
Terrorists took Jeff’s body from us, but they couldn’t take his life’
May 2, 2011
By Bridget Doyle
TribLocal reporter
Jeff Mladenik
Christ Church of Oak Brook lost one of its associate pastors in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Hinsdale resident Rev. Jeff Mladenik died when American Airlines Flight 11 was flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center.
On Monday, Senior Pastor Rev. Dan Meyer reflected on the death of the man responsible and Mladenik’s legacy in the community and the Christ Church of Oak Brook. Meyer accepted and answered questions via email. This is an edited transcript.
Q. How is the Christ Church of Oak Brook remembering associate pastor Jeff Mladenik? Almost 10 years later, what does his legacy mean to the church?
A. When that first plane hit the twin towers, the terrorists took Jeff’s body from us, but they couldn’t take his life – not in the fullest sense. Jeff’s intelligent and passionate faith, his wonderful sense of humor and the generosity of his love made an everlasting mark on his family, his friends and our church. We miss him dearly, but we have much of him living within us. We believe we’ll see him in heaven one day and are trying to live in such way that he’ll be proud of us when he sees us coming.
Q. There are a lot of people celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden today. What do you think of this? Are they justified in celebrating his death?
A. Having had several of my loved ones murdered through the years (one by Bin Laden on 9/11), I can’t criticize or condemn anyone for celebrating today. It is only natural to be glad that someone who preached hatred, commissioned mass murder, and left so many people with tears and fears will do so no more. We all know that profound challenges and threats still face us, but for a lot of us the world feels slightly safer and more just this week than it did before May 1.
Q. What is your message to people following bin Laden’s death?
A. At the same time, I don’t believe that bin Laden’s death comes close to achieving “justice.” Even if we were to capture and kill a terrorist for every innocent life lost on Sept. 11, it does not “even” the score. It can’t bring back the precious lives lost on that day or since. Taking “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” certainly creates a feeling of momentary satisfaction. But staking our hopes on justice by retribution only gives us a world where there are a lot more blind and toothless people in the end. We’ve got to do more than high-five one another that bin Laden is dead. We need to keep working together to create a world in which the social and spiritual conditions that breed the ignorance, hatred and hopelessness on which Al Qaeda feeds are no more.
Q. What do you think bin Laden’s death means for the future?
A. I lived for two years in Belfast Northern Ireland during the worst of the terror there. I saw how much the hostilities between the antagonists there depended on neither side ever really getting close enough to one another to build real relationships. We may not be able to do much today to affect the view of hardened extremists overseas, but Christians and Muslims in the United States could be doing more to cross the walls that keep us in relative ignorance or suspicion about one another. Perhaps the events of this week will provide impetus for a new level of relationship-building.