The Newspaper version of "What's in a name?"

What’s in a name?:
The Dangers of Historical Irresponsibility
Shortly after September 11, 2001, President called the impending war on terror a “crusade”. Across the world, people reacted to his poor choice of words. The Christian Science Monitor reported on Sept. 19, 2001: "President Bush's reference to a "crusade" against terrorism, which passed almost unnoticed by Americans, rang alarm bells in Europe. It raised fears that the terrorist attacks could spark a 'clash of civilizations' between Christians and Muslims, sowing fresh winds of hatred and mistrust."
“Crusade” is significant: it recalls the historic crusades initiated by Pope Urban II in 1096, and to many non-Christians it represents the worst of Western and Christian colonialism and expansionism. The term “crusade” separates the world into one group who thinks itself superior, and all the rest who fall short.
It is problematic for interfaith relations, and presents an obstacle to genuine dialogue about faith. The word is not only offensive to the Muslim community. History reminds us that Pope Urban called the Crusades in effort to unite the warring princes of Europe and to end the division of the Church; he chose to make war the vehicle for unification. As the crusaders marched to the holy land, red crosses of Christ emblazoned on their chests, they destroyed Jewish communities and massacred thousands of Jews. Muslims in Jerusalem were brutally slaughtered. Greek Catholics and the eastern Christians in Constantinople were tortured and killed on account of their different interpretation of the Nicene Creed and theology of the Holy Spirit. The Crusades were an unprecedented unleashing of ethnic and religious hatred, all in the name of Jesus.
I caution Christians against labeling themselves “crusaders”. I caution the international organization Campus Crusade for Christ against the use of the term in its name. The crusading concept is dangerous, as it holds one group to be superior to others and one way of experiencing the divine to be true and all others to be false. It impedes attempts to create relationships based on respect of diverse traditions, ways of living, and ways of encountering the holy. Alliteration is nice, but relationships built on mutual understanding and love of neighbor – absent desires to change or convert that neighbor – are far better.