In the shadow of September 11
Twenty-five years later, we review Presbyterian responses to this pivot point in American history
On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 men, operatives of the radical Islamist group al-Qaeda, hijacked four commercial aircraft and piloted two of them into the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. Twenty-five years later, we review Presbyterian responses to this pivot point in American history.
Within months of the attacks the United States would invade Afghanistan and overthrow its government for harboring al-Qaeda. Within 16 months, the United States would invade Iraq with the claim that that nation was also a state sponsor of terrorism, and would undo its secular nationalist regime. By 2005, with the so-called Global War On Terror in full swing, prominent elected leaders would call for the War’s expansion into Iran. Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee — a Presbyterian — would in December 2005 call for a "full spectrum of measures" to be applied to Iran, "before a regime that has denied the real Holocaust unleashes another."
No single part of the 21st century overshadows American civic life the way the ash of the World Trade Center does. This eventuality was probably seen by some observers. Certainly the sudden irruption of historical events into a late-1990s global consensus "end of history" would be represented in fresh terms: good and evil. Believers would have something to say about those two presences.
The presence of evil would become a refrain in Presbyterian responses to the attacks of September 11. General Assembly Moderator Jack Rogers offered a prayer that "those whose hearts are filled with hate might be turned away from evil." J.C. Austin of Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York prayed for relief from the "temptation to strike out," and that God’s people would be examples of grace "even in the face of evil."
Writing in the November 2001 issue of "Presbyterians Today," editor Eva Stimson emphasizes that evil isn’t eradicated by human hands, but is in God’s hands. She instead turns toward what is certain amid uncertainty, comforting her elementary-age daughter. "God is our 'safe place,' I tell my 10-year-old daughter. When images of fiery destruction haunt her dreams, she creeps downstairs and into bed with her mom and dad, seeking refuge from new fears."
Presbyterians also sought to comprehend the attacks of September 11 in historical context rather than as manifestations of metaphysical evil. Vernon Broyles III, writing in the November 2001 issue of "Church and Society," says that framing the attacks as acts of war has a salutary effect — it allows us to understand how al-Qaeda saw the attacks. Broyles goes on to describe the militant group in ways that later Osama bin Laden would describe it in his "Letter to the American People": a multinational force, seeking the removal of American military power inside the world of Islam, inspired in no small part by the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
In parsing out the ways we use the terms "war" and "terrorism," Broyles offers: "The fact is that whenever a nation or individual sets out to define 'terrorism,' it is always defined as violent acts perpetrated by someone else. For example, when the Israeli Defense Force occupying the West Bank and Gaza bombs, strafes, and rockets an apartment building killing dozens of innocent civilians, or assassinates a group of Palestinians by firing rockets at their automobile, the Israeli government describes those as 'security actions.' When a car bombing is perpetrated by Palestinians, with similar loss of life, it becomes 'an act of terrorism.'"
Like the majority of Americans, Presbyterians were moved to patriotic fervor at the time. The November 2001 "Presbyterian Survey" found that in the weeks after the attacks of September 11, Presbyterians gathered in larger numbers at church, felt closer to God, and contributed to funds meant for the relief of victims. Between two-thirds and three-fourths of all congregations sang patriotic songs at worship on September 16, and about a quarter held a special recognition of the United States flag. 78% of Presbyterian elders reported flying or wearing the flag more than before; 77% of church members supported the war in Afghanistan when it commenced October 7.
On the first anniversary of the attacks, Moderator Fahed Abu-Akel asked Presbyterians to consider many acts of commemoration: "Observe a day of prayer and fasting. In your prayers, remember the victims of the attacks and their relatives; our nation and its leaders, especially President Bush and members of Congress; and the peoples of the world. Pray that swords will indeed become plowshares and that justice will roll down like an everflowing stream."
One significant response to the attacks that was also mentioned on the PC(USA) webpage on the 2002 anniversary was the Interfaith Listening Project. From September 10 to 23, 2002, the PC(USA)'s Interfaith Relations Office, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, and Presbyterian Peacemaking Program convened a gathering of international faith delegates at Stony Point, New York, bringing together pairs of speakers — one Christian and one Muslim in each — to deploy around the country, visiting Presbyterian congregations and mid councils. This was undertaken with the hope that participants would "accept God’s call to struggle together for the well-being of our communities, society, and the peace of the world." Three Muslim men invited to the Project were denied entry to the United States. A second cohort of invitees participated in events across the country in 2004.
In that November 2001 survey, Presbyterians also reported asking their pastors why God permits evil in the world. The incomprehensibility of the violence affected many people’s ability to make sense of reality and those around them, and Presbyterians were not immune to conspiracy theory. In a 2005 book, the Presbyterian mission worker and minister Arch Taylor questions whether the Bush administration had foreknowledge of the attacks. David Ray Griffin of Claremont Theological Seminary would write in 2006 that the attacks of September 11 were a “false flag” meant to spark off long-planned wars in southwest and central Asia; his publisher, Westminster John Knox Press, would later disavow his conspiracy theory.
Others managed to carefully bear Christian witness to the reality of American economic and military power and its after-effects. Greensboro, North Carolina’s Z Holler for example, on that first Sunday after the terror of September 11, told his audience that "this is not a time to answer hurt and hate and fanatical despair with massive, angry retaliation that can only lead to greater hurt and hate and senseless evil." He urged them, after speaking on Matthew 5:38-45, to "listen to Jesus’ words of hope, let them sink in and guide your thoughts, your prayers, your imagination, and all your relationships and communications during this dangerous moment when, for all we know, the future of civilization on this planet, as we know it, hangs in the balance ... At the very least we followers of Jesus can begin trying to think of the terrorists who hate us as neighbors on this planet earth, whom we are somehow to love as ourselves."
What else could a Presbyterian be called to do in that time? Vernon Broyles, back in November 2001, quotes William Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury: "The only way a Christian has of getting rid of his enemies is to love them into being his friends." The refusal to be enemies is a consistent theme in Presbyterian responses to September 11, and in crises since.
In a December 2001 broadcast by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., general secretary Bob Edgar challenges the "war language" deployed by American elected leaders and religious leaders, instead calling for intensified interfaith dialogue, saying believers must "use the shadow of September 11 as a time to learn more about each other." Twenty-five years later that shadow remains, as does the responsibility to learn more.
If you have sermons from September 16, 2001, in audio, video, or text, or prayer vigils on video from the week of September 11, 2001, please contact David Staniunas at PHS: [email protected].
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