What do Darrell Worley, The Passion of the Christ, and The Apostle Peter have in common? For a lot of people the answer would be "What are you talking about?" My wife, Kelly, and I had a conversation the other evening about the movie The Passion. This combined with talking with my mother, Ann, about the Apostle Peter and the fact that while driving lately, I have listened to the song, "Have You Forgotten," by Darrel Worley have spawned some thoughts. I call it the Peter Principle.

The song by Darrell Worley asks a very simple question, "Have you forgotten?" This simple question he applies to the events that occurred on that now infamous day 9/11. Whenever I hear that song it evokes very strong emotions within me, as I am sure it does many people. It does not evoke the rage that it initially did that day in 2001. It evokes the emotions of sadness and loss. Much the same, I am sure, for millions of people. Recently however it has brought forth questions for me, more so than my observations that I shared with my father in an email soon after 9/11.

The songwriter reminds us that we should not forget what happened. He talks about us having the right to go to war on others. Some even have gone as far as to call it our God given right. I have to disagree with this statement on the grounds of the statement itself. God did not create war. Man did. God gave us, as humans, the right to choose whether to serve him or to sin by not doing so.

Please don't misinterpret that and mark me as a liberal who does not believe in what we are doing around the globe with our young men and women of the armed forces. I support them and their actions and I believe that what they are doing is right and justified. What I am saying is that it is not a God- given right. This foreboding feeling that I have was not from the song itself. It was the combination of it and that of the movie "The Passion".

I went to see the movie the Passion of the Christ several weeks ago. I know that for some it evoked tears and for almost all of those who have attended it appears to have awakened some emotion or in some cases dormant feelings. It made me ask the question "have we forgotten?" We have finally seen a very real portrayal and interpretation of Christ's last days on this earth. I have no quandary about sharing my feelings about it. I was angry through much of the movie as Christ was tortured and beaten. I found myself asking why this had to happen to him. I know the answers to many of those questions. Yet in the heat of the moment I was full of anger and wanted to step forward to protect the innocent. I wanted to help He who needed help. This was what I learned from my parents, my upbringing in the Church of Christ.

I knew that my help would not have been accepted nor could it have been. Christ was bearing the world's sins as he went through this. The pain that he felt internally must have been far greater than anything that the world could inflict on him. He had to go through this so that we could gain the greatest gift of all in eternal life.

I found myself at the end of the film apologizing to God that we were so blind that we had to be forced to see that which we did not want to see. It was all of our sins that we hold inside worn as wounds on the exterior of Christ's body. It was unpleasant and that is why I was angry. We choose - a power God gave us - not to see him. We choose not to see the sins within ourselves and deny the poor choices we sometimes make.

The most amazing part of this for me and for many others, I'm sure, is the power that God granted us from this. For all of the pain and anguish that we put his son through, for all of the hardship we sometimes cause in others, for all of the anger that we exude, he offered us forgiveness. He has given us a chance to make a mistake and make it right again and again as many times as it takes as long as we come to him and ask.

One evening, with all of these thoughts and emotions running through my head, the phone rang and it was my mother. We talked about the usual things to make sure that everyone was holding up ok and everyone was well. We got on the subject of the movie. As we discussed it I found myself combing everything in my head. Put the pieces together as it were. I noticed how much that Peter in the Bible in those last days reflects many of us as humans in the world.

Peter, as many of us know, goes through a cycle in Christ's last few hours on earth. Christ tells Peter how he will deny him. He spells out for him that which is to come true. Peter denies it. He tells Jesus how he would never do such a thing. This is very similar to how we all stand behind the ones we believe in through our lives. Not just in people but also in the causes we take on. One example would be the approval rating of the troops in Iraq. Right now it is at its lowest point. We stood for this cause at the beginning. The rest of the world was against us for the most part.

They did not agree with our choices, but they were our choices. We had been attacked and we were going to stand behind our choices and our beliefs 110 percent. We would not falter no matter the cost.

I am sure that Peter felt much the same way. How could he deny Jesus? He had stood by his side through everything. He had chosen to walk with him and follow him to the ends of the earth if necessary. He believed that what he was doing was right. We do that as well. We believe in what we are doing and that it is right. It was later that Peter would be given his chance to show how much.

After Jesus was gone from the group for awhile not long after the last supper he joined back up with the group of Apostles who waited for him. In the film armed men looking to arrest Jesus appear in the woods. Peter sees this challenge and meets it with rage, anger, and his sword. He takes a man's ear off with his blade. He will go down fighting, as he sees it. He will not sit idle while they attempt to take this man he believes to be his savior. By this very act they are challenging what he believes and he will not stand for it. He will fight for his rights for what he believes in. It is then that he strikes out as we do. Fighting for what we believe to be right. The problem is that we fail to see all sides.

We do not see that what we are doing to defend our own beliefs contradicts the beliefs we have. We justify it by saying that we are defending those that cannot defend themselves. It is a sketchy line. Yet we use it to justify action. I am not saying that Peter was wrong in his actions. I am simply saying that we should look beyond our action based on passion. We must look at what the repercussions are. We must accept the costs of our own actions. We need to look at ourselves before we act in the name of our beliefs.

The denial comes later for Peter, after Christ is accused before the Pharisee leaders. Someone spots Peter and he denies not only knowing Jesus but he denies who he is to himself. He hears the rooster crow after his third denial and knows that Christ was right. At that moment a flood of emotions hit Peter. While later he finds forgiveness it is a time for Peter of regret that he could not see the choices.