Last weekend, a very conservative friend posted a meme in Facebook that proclaimed that everything he needed to know about Islam he learned on 9-11.

My conservative friend would be highly offended if someone argued that a lesson we could take from 9-11 was that Catholic priests are child molesters and that those of the Catholic Christian faith are active supporters of pedophilia. If only one incident defines a religion, the Belgian Report on Catholic Church Atrocities which became available on 9-11 in 2011 contains damning evidence against the immorality that can be found among Catholics. In fact, more Catholic priests actively abused children in Belgium than there were Muslims who took part in the terrorist activities on 9-11 in 2001.

Another 9-11 lesson concerns the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), the faith tradition of Mitt Romney, the candidate who has earned the support and respect of my conservative friend. On 9-11 in 1857, members of the Nauvoo Legion—composed of Utah’s Mormon settlers—disguised themselves as Native Americans and attacked a wagon train near Mountain Meadows. The Mormon militia massacred between 120-140 men, women, and children. Given this 9-11 lesson, it is amazing that my friend still finds Romney to be someone fit to serve as President of the United States of America.

Unfortunately, flaunting anti-intellectualism that supports a simplistic ideology that cannot stand up to even minimal standards of critical thinking is not just a conservative principle. A couple of months ago, a very liberal friend posted a meme that proclaimed that science flies you to the moon while religion flies you into buildings. For him, a handful of religious fanatics define what it means to live one’s life following a spiritual tradition; especially one that places faith in a higher power.

If so few terrorists can define what it means to be religious, I wonder if my liberal friend would find it agreeable to have John Wayne Gacy used as the poster person to define what it means to be gay. Although neither of the two known murders he committed during September happened on 9-11, from 9-11 in 1972 through 9-11 in 1978, bodies of young men Gacy murdered lay buried in the crawl space of his home. By 9-11 in 1978, a total of 26 of the 33 men Gacy was known to have murdered lay buried in his crawl space. Religion flies us into buildings in the same way that gay men live in homes under which they bury those whom they have murdered.

A former student had an important 9-11 message he shared with the class and later as an editorial in the Detroit Free Press. It is a message that could benefit my conservative and liberal friend and all those who choose to pass on memes simply because the message supports their ideological positions.

After 9-11 in 2001, my student wrote of an incident that took place in the predominantly Catholic high school he attended. One day, he heard one of his school mates make an anti-Semitic remark. He was tired of being picked on because he was Jewish. Therefore he turned around and slugged the guy who had made the derogatory remark. Unfortunately, he had decked the wrong person.

My former student’s message—written less than a week after the terrorist attack that now defines 9-11 for Americans—was that if we decide to deck someone, we had better make sure we were hitting the right person. Sadly, neither my conservative nor liberal friend appreciates the lesson my former student learned; that the world is complex and simplistic slogans are not viable solutions.

–Steven L. Berg, PhD