All of the fanfare surrounding the tenth anniversary of 9/11 left the Calvinistic, dour side of me cold and a bit cynical. Part of the problem was the fixation westerners have, with our base-10 system of math, to give more weight to anniversaries that fall on the five’s and ten’s than, say, to the perfect number, seven. (Is ten years really more significant than eleven?) Another factor is the excess to which American cultural expressions are prone – think the Super Bowl here. When Americans observe anniversaries, birthdays, victories, or even death, they rarely do so with moderation and self-control. Do not discount either the effects of this scribe hearing Christian radio yesterday devoted to 9/11 and how the world changed – FOREVER. It was supposed to be the Lord’s day and devoted to hearing and learning from the word of God. But program managers couldn’t resist devoting the day to the U.S.A.
I certainly understand (or think I can) how the lives of those who lost loved ones changed ten years ago. It also makes sense for New Yorkers to consider how vulnerable their seemingly invincible city was (and still is) to one of the most stupendous attacks in human history.
But what I don’t understand is why we needed to be barraged with a litany of public figures who told us where they were on September 11, 2001, and what they thought in the light of those unbelievable attacks. Even NASCAR drivers got into the act. Over at Yahoo’s sports page some race car driver was featured in a video about his experience ten years ago.
What I find particularly troubling is that these kind of memories set into stone a particular moment without considering what has actually changed over the last decade. By conjuring up all of those feelings from a decade ago, Americans are in danger of continuing to think – which was quite plausible at the time – that they were innocent victims of an irrational and ruthless attack by religious fanatics. And that kind of consideration can lead to the kind of innocence that is so typical of American idealism at its worst. America, so the logic goes, is a friendly and benign presence in the world, and anyone who opposes the United States must be demonic. But if 9/11 showed the world that evil does exist, could it be that the lesson Americans take away from the day is that evil also exists within the souls of Americans? Or is 9/11 simply further proof of our innocence and righteousness?
A better response to the tenth anniversary – better still to conduct it fourteen years out (two times the perfect number) – would be to ask how our minds have changed. In my own case, I have changed my mind about the following:
– the desire for retribution that led to U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was unbecoming and even sinful;
– the United States’ foreign policy establishment may have been wiser to keep an eye on China than Al Qaeda;
– paying $2.29 for a gallon of gas is cheap.
Again, I don’t mean to minimize the loss that relatives and friends experienced from the attacks on 9/11, or the national sense of vulnerability. The good Mrs. Hart reminds me that I said on that morning of September 11, 2001 from our kitchen in Southern California, with tears in my eyes, “I would never say another bad word about New York City.” (I believe I broke that promise the year the Yankees beat the Phillies in the World Series.) The attacks shook me, indeed. But ten years should produce more reflection and prudence than trembling.
Old Life 
Very true, anyone want to guess how many “evangelical” churches either cancelled service yesterday or, gave themselves over to the worship of U.S.A. on the Lord’s Day?
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We were the only church in town that did not have either a “Bash America” (local liberal UMC) or “Worship America” (everyone else) service yesterday.
Us Presbyterians just focused on the Ordinary Means of Grace.
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@ Curmudgeon – the TN version of PCC, BJU, etc was one of them. Crown College had a huge production last night at the Knoxville Civic Auditorium. yuk.
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Dr. Hart – you have openly questioned the good ole USA. I now am wondering if you are really born again.
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Did anyone else hear our President read Psalm 46 and pronounce “bow” (the weapon) as if it should rhyme with “cow.”?
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DG – don’t you think the sort of maudlin public ceremony that characterizes the memorials is the result of our religious emotionalism/sentimentalism? Shouldn’t we thank Edwards and the Cane Ridgers and assorted Victorians for this sappy sort of thing?
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I hear Jonathan Edwards is also responsible for Keynesian Economics, WWII, and Bubble-Gum Pop.
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I agree, Benjamin, connecting certain dots can be pretty silly. But the tendency also afflicts some of your compatriots in the culture wars who are so fixated that they would have us believe that the leadership and congregants of Redeemer NYC is somehow complicit in (gird thy loins) “child murder.” Would that the prescription being given here for reflection and prudence ten years later help those who are out of their minds indeed, or at least sure speak like it.
http://www.baylyblog.com/2011/09/highest-and-lowest-abortion-ratio-zip-codes-in-new-york-city-created-by-the-chiaroscuro-foundation.html#comments
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Ben & Zrim, some who are much more scholarly than I have attributed the development of the “star system” and the celebrity culture of our country at least partly to revivalism. Evangelists were among the first superstars in this country. Surely worship and church life (in so church-going a nation as we have been) affect the life of the nation and the norms of political and cultural life. I believe Dr. Hart has even written on the wider effects of the demise of more sober, confessional expressions of faith. I guess a prefer a little more stiffness of the upper lip. In most churches a slight quiver, at least, is more valued. The danger may be that if we worship based on emotions we may also vote that way.
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Brad, your point is well taken. Mine was actually to suggest how curious it is for theonomists to make a point about drawing dubious lines when their co-belligerents draw insane ones (designed to instill quivering lips no less).
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DJ, yes, I was, but in Canada.
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Brad, you mean the Puritans and the Dutch nadere reformatie?
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Zrim, I actually assumed as much. 9/11 was a visual, made-for-TV event. It is natural that it stirred us in an unusual way. I believe Dr. Hart’s point is that more thinking (which, like writing or reading, is hard, sometimes tedious work) and less feeling/reacting might have helped and should have taken place. I have chosen not wallow in the visuals, maybe for the same reason that I don’t want to watch realistic war movies. It seems to me that Christians ought to have a pretty good handle on the concepts of evil and sin without inflicting the most graphic depictions of it on themselves.
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DG, now you’re baiting me. I had Piper’s favorite and the wild-eyed, communion season Kentucky revivalists in mind.
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The fact of the matter is that people have been dying over in the Middle East for years. Bombings being as common as dirt. Why should the US get the spot light?
The only thing that I remember changing was seeing m-16 armed soldiers at the Bay Bridge and at SF airport. That and a sudden keen awareness of any Muslim’s presence around me even though I grew up around Afghanis back in the SF bay area.
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Agreed, Brad. Like most, I too can “recall where I was,” etc. But I can also recall recoiling as much from the outbreak of civil religiosity as from that which sparked it. I can also recall the suggestion of restraint earning scorn.
But I’ll have to diverge from you on realistic war movies. Well made ones at least. Speaking of lamentations, they have lines like, “I don’t gripe to you, Reiben. I’m a captain. There’s a chain of command. Gripes go up, not down. Always up. You gripe to me, I gripe to my superior officer, so on, so on, and so on. I don’t gripe to you. I don’t gripe in front of you. You should know that as a ranger.” But I’ll be glad to apply the reasoning and the second commandment to realistic crucifixion movies.
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I agree with Darryl’s post. It reminds me of the analysis offered by Andrew Bacevich in Limits of Power and Washington Rules. I was glad our congregation worshipped God and did not join the remember 9/11 crowd, though the recessional hymn was a patriotic one. Reflecting on the national hymns in our hymnal, it struck me that we have no national music that could be called a confession of our national failings. That is part of the American problem-we are not aware of our failures, though certainly a lot of recent historical writing (post 9/11) has addressed them.
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I think my own reaction 10 years removed was more in line with DGH’s
– the desire for retribution that led to U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was unbecoming and even sinful;
– the United States’ foreign policy establishment may have been wiser to keep an eye on China than Al Qaeda;
– paying $2.29 for a gallon of gas is cheap.
On the first count, I’d also add, as I reflect I am concerned with the American tendency to meddle, and how this actually makes the world a more dangerous place. After a decade of war, I am struck by the courage of those who fight, but equally struck by the evil of warfare. I truly wonder if we ever really listened to Eisenhower’s Farewell Speech warning of the tendency of the military industrial complex to overstep its bounds for the sake of profit. 9/11 seemed to be a catalyst for the loss of America’s ability to show restraint and wisdom when wielding their God-given sword.
On the second count, I agree that we needed to address Al Qaeda, but at such cost? While China probably didn’t cross my mind yesterday, one must question our wisdom in accumulating such debt while basically giving away so much of our own productive capacity.
On the third count, I wonder where the price of gas would be if we had shown more restraint after 9/11.
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I remember David Wells lamenting the fact that not much had changed a year or two after 9/11 and saying pretty much the same thing Darryl did. The airs of modernity or post-modernity, which permeates the thinking of modern man, had pretty much been unaffected and taken over the dominant role again in the national psyche. The permanent things, which were talked about for awhile, had not made much of a dent how most people think in the good old USA. It was back to normal without an extended time of reflection or discussion about the whole scenario.
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$2.29 per gallon for gasoline may be cheap for you, Mr. Hart, but not for everyone. Did you mean to say “relatively inexpensive”?
I would add that our weak currency, growing demand from developing nations and our political unwillingness to develop our natural resources greatly contribute to the price of gas being over $3/gallon. I’m not sure what impact our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq play. Afghanistan exports zero barrels of oil (per the CIA World Factbook). The price of gas was cheaper during the hottest parts of the Iraq war than they are now.
Our (PCA) church didn’t celebrate/memorialize/recognize 9/11. I was thankful for that.
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December 8, 1941
– the desire for retribution that led to U.S. wars in Europe and the Pacific was unbecoming and even sinful;
– the United States’ foreign policy establishment may have been wiser to keep an eye on the Soviet Union rather than Germany, Italy, and Japan;
– paying $0.19 for a gallon of gas is cheap.
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Wendell, my point was that I was complaining about 2.29 back then. Oh for the good old days.
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The changes I’ve seen:
– a tendency toward any kind of military intervention against people who look like the terrorists.
– a backlash against Muslims in the United States, including the urging of a pastor in NW Iowa that “the orthodox Muslim should not be allowed to practice his religion on American soil, unless and until he is willing to officially denounce that entire sacred portion of his Sixth Pillar.”
– a new litmus test for presidential candidates: how anti-Muslim are you?
– a greater willingness to trade liberty for security.
In terms of sentimentality, I wonder if it began as a gospel-marketing strategy. DL Moody advertised his rallies as “living truths for the head and heart illustrated by …thrilling anecdotes and incidents, personal experiences, touching home scenes and stories of tender pathos.” I notice that hymns from the late 1800’s tend to be sentimental, like Away in the Manger which includes a description of Jesus as having a “sweet” head as stars looked down and “no crying he makes.”
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OH, it was 9-11 on Sunday?! I knew I forgot to mention something.
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Oh yeah, this one I have literally seen: an elderly farmer’s wife getting pulled aside and thoroughly frisked at the airport. I never felt that robust sense of airline safety until then.
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I’m glad to read this reflection. I was living in the Middle East during 9-11, I’d recently dropped out of seminary and followed my dreams of living and studying overseas. Sometime after 9-11 I wrote a bridge building email to one of your Southern California colleagues about the changes in the world and it was obvious he misunderstood what I was getting at because he replied to my email with an “us” vs. “them” rhetoric that left me feeling stunned, hollow and betrayed. I’m Middle Eastern and the bigotry was sadly all too familiar. In the Middle East university setting we were immersing ourselves in dialogues, forums, what seemed like non-stop discussions about the USA, the Middle East, Foreign Policy, International Law, Human Rights -wonderful, lofty ideas opening the skies in terms of language, diplomacy, accountability and civil society for a young woman who’d grown up behind the Orange Curtain.
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