September 11: The Spiritual Impact of the Grievous Blow

Nine years after the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, I cannot help but consider the spiritual impact of that traumatic day: September 11, 2001.  On that day, much of the world watched the dramatic events unfold.  On that day, much of the world was at one with the United States, sending prayers and condolences and wishes of support.  On that day, the United States was knit together as one nation, indivisible.

Today, nine years later, the events of that September 11 have scarred the psyche of the people of the United States in very profound ways.

Let me be clear about my understanding of the events of September 11, 2001, lest someone attempt to say otherwise:  the attacks of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the downed flight 93 were acts of terrorism.  In 2004, Osama bin Laden took responsibility for these acts in public statements made on video tape.  It was the extremist organization founded by Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, which perpetrated these acts of terrorism.  Osama bin Laden’s rationale for these acts of terror was that the United States should be punished because of her support of Israel. He stated that when he saw the towers in Lebanon bombed by Israel with the help of the United States, he conceived the target of the World Trade Center.

The grievous blow to the psyche of the people of the United States has not healed.  Instead, it is like a festering wound.  This wound is picked-open day after day by the stoking of fears about terrorism which have remained rampant over this decade.  I believe that wound has infected the United States with a growing spiritual disease which affects the way we live. This disease is most evident in the rising tide of intolerance throughout the country.

Over the last several months, many news sources have reported the increase of Islamaphobia.  Islamaphobia is the irrational fear of Islam.  To support this irrational fear, quotations from the Qur’an are used to paint a picture portraying all Muslims as radical terrorists.  Islamaphobia has resulted in attacks on American citizens who follow the Muslim faith, the arson of a thirty year old mosque in Tennessee, and protests against a Muslim center (a facility much like a YMCA) two blocks from the former site of the World Trade Center.

To suggest that the Muslim’s throughout the world are all terrorists like al-Queda is no different from comparing all Christians with the KKK or the Westboro Baptist Church, two groups of terrorists which claim to be Christian.  Viewing all Muslims as terrorists is not just absurd but it ignores obvious facts about Islam. About half of the Muslims in the United States are African-Americans whose families have been in this country for generations and have lived as good citizens.  Further, while Muslim terrorists are depicted as Middle Easterners, most Muslims in the world are Asian.  Muslim views vary just as much as the views of Christians, Jews, and Buddhists.  Indonesia, the world’s most populace Muslim nation, elected a woman as president – something that the United States has yet to do.  Finally, if someone wanted to find a sacred text with hate-filled statements for those considered enemies, a closer reading of the Bible would reveal an outstanding number of prayers and curses toward the enemies of the Chosen People.

While Islamaphobia is an obvious symptom of the spiritual sickness caused by the festering wound of September 11, less obvious are symptoms like the virulent anti-immigrant laws and rhetoric and the forms of social and political anger which divide the country. The grievous blow that occurred on September 11, 2001 has left the United States a fundamentally divided country with seemingly irreconcilable views of the present situation and future of the country.

In the days and weeks after September 11, 2001, the nation was joined as one in prayer and solidarity.  Political positions, concerns over national origin, and divisions about race and creed counted for very little as the nation pulled together to make sense out of enormous tragedy. People gave generously and contributed what they could for causes related to the tragedy.  But fear over-took the country and is holding the nation hostage nine years after the event.  That fear prevents us from healing the wound of September 11.  In place of healing, we are left with anger, distrust, and intolerance.

Just as a child’s fear convinces the child that the Boogey Man is hiding under the bed, the fears stoked in the United States today have convinced many people of things which are not true.  Fear leads to distrust, hyper-vigilance, and the need for heightened security.  This occurs when the fear is an individual phobia like the fear of heights or the fear of snakes.  It also occurs when the nation lives in fear of an unseen enemy year after year.  When left unresolved, fear grows to panic and panic leads to paralysis.

As a nation, we live in fear.  While many other countries bear scars from terrorism, they have faced their fears and have learned to live with reasonable precautions.  In the face of the tide of fear and phobia in the United States, as a Christian, I recall the words of Jesus:  Fear is useless!  What is needed is trust! (See Mark 5:36)

In the face of the fear and phobia which characterizes life in the post-September 11 United States, I believe we need to trust.  As a nation, trust for the future is based on the foundation of our past:  the Constitution.   Thirteen colonies joined to form a more perfect union out of their own history of religious intolerance.  These colonies each had maintained official religions and tolerated only certain life styles.  In almost all of the colonies, Catholics, Jews, Baptists, Quakers, and Mormons were the focus of persistent persecution.  Various ethnic groups were not welcome in some colonies.  Yet, a union was formed based on a vision of freedom and justice for all.  Over nearly two and a half centuries, we continue to grow into the ideal that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are meant for all the inhabitants of this nation.  Yet, though founded on a principle of the freedom of religion, this nation of immigrants is now being torn apart by the fear of diversity and the hatred of the religion of others.

The heart and soul of the country can only be restored by facing the fears we harbor and resolving the grief from September 11.  Just as one never forgets the loss of a loved one, the resolution of grief does not mean forgetting the events nor should it prevent the government from seeking justice for the perpetrators of terrorism through legal means..  Instead, resolving the grief of September 11 a release of the power the past events hold over our present and future. At heart, this is the work of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is releasing the hurt, resentment, and anguished caused by others.  A lack of forgiveness leads to a festering wound in the soul.  Freedom is found in the act of forgiveness which embraces life with hope for the future.

Nine years after September 11, we have the opportunity to remember the events.  But we, as a nation, also have the opportunity to release the fear and phobia.  We enter that process of forgiveness by claiming the heritage of religious tolerance and acceptance of diversity which were part of the foundation of this nation.  We can grow as wiser people who strive to live as our forbears dreamed:  with liberty and justice for all.