Personal Emotions After the Attack
John Michael Talbot - Wednesday, September 12, 2001

In the wake of yesterday's terrorist attacks, and after my initial letter, I have reflected further on some things I would like to share with you. I must say that I am shaken to the core of my being through these unspeakable acts of terror. I find myself experiencing a broad range of emotions, from sadness to alarm, to anger. But mostly I am experiencing emotions which are beyond words of description. All I can do is occasionally cry and constantly pray. Yet these in no way weaken my calm or resolve to process this thing through and in Christ.

I am also concerned that more people through the media are using the words "anger," and "retaliation," These things are not the way to peace.

In scripture the People of God are chastened when they have departed from Him through natural disaster and war. We have definitely experienced the former through the erratic weather patterns caused in part by our environmentally unfriendly lifestyle. Now we can say that we are experiencing the latter as well. We are now in a terrorist war. God is trying to get our attention.

Also I could not help but be reminded of the biblical Tower of Babel when we saw the World Trade Towers fall. Beyond the sheer atrocity of these terrorist acts I believe that God is trying to humble our individual and national external might and internal godless pride through these events. This in no way justifies the immoral acts, and misguided religious fanaticism, of terrorism and the terrorists. But it does call us to reevaluate our own life with God, who has allowed these things to happen to us as a nation.

So I am emotionally and intellectually undone. I am humbled and spread out prostrate before God. I recognize the folly of relying on my own strength alone. My legs of self-sufficiency have been pulled out from under me. I am asking Him to show me personally where I need to change because of these overwhelmingly tragic events. I ask you to do the same.

Perhaps the landmarks that were hit are symbols in themselves for where we could change for the better in the will of God? Here is what they represent to me:

The World Trade Center represents our capitalist economic system and its expanding influence throughout the entire world. I must ask myself, do I contribute to unjust companies through my mindless support of their unnecessary products? Do I perpetuate a mentality of consumerism and materialism through my through my habitual and mindless buying into this whole system without raising a voice of respectful challenge? Trade is a good thing if it is carried out in a godly manner. But without good ethics and morality it becomes a false god that will eventually be brought down.

The Pentagon is the symbol of American military superiority. I am not a military person, so I cannot speak in depth about this symbol. I do know that the military has been used without the American people's full knowledge to carry out questionable campaigns in developing countries in a way that outrages some of my military friends and brothers in Christ.

On a more personal level I must ask myself, is there any unresolved anger or militarism in my heart? Am I really at peace through Christ? In my earlier letter I addressed how to restore it if it has been lost. Even in the name of "justice," or under the guise of religious clothing this remains alien to the real way of the true God.

Lastly, there is the symbol of the airlines that were hijacked and crashed. This may seem a bit obscure, but it too has a lesson of repentance to teach. These represent the new western lifestyle of families and businesses being spread our across a cities, states, and countries of a continent, and the continents of the world, and so many having to travel almost constantly to do business. This is also connected in some ways to the expansion of consumerism and materialism addressed above.

Environmentalists tell us that much of the erratic weather we are now experiencing has been caused by the breakdown of the atmosphere around our earth through the pollution coming from automobiles and other rapid transit technologies.

Sociologists have said that the breakdown of the American family is related to the invention of the automobile and other forms of rapid transit. The things that promised to bring us closer together actually have torn us apart. First we broke down the extended family through spreading out, then the nuclear family broke down through lack of familial support. We also cut ourselves off from each other physically through the design of the suburbs.

This is all symbolized for me in the terrorist's use of the commercial airlines to accomplish this act of war.

I ask the community and myself the following questions: Do we use the gifts of modern travel in a responsible way? Or do we use them frivolously, as if they are an endless resource without any consequences? I use them just like other ministers and monastics. But I can still do more. Could we stay in our own locality more often, and use rapid transit only when there is a real need to travel? Again, the technology is not bad, but we must periodically ask ourselves if we are using the good thing in a good way.

So I ask you to use these days of mourning as days of repentance as well. Mourn the loss of life, and the serious injury of so many. Be repelled by the immoral acts of terrorists. But also ask God how what He might be saying to us through these terrible acts. Biblically, when things like this occurred through the instrument of godless and immoral nations, God was often trying to chastise His people through humbling them and bringing them to repentance. Let us seriously consider that this is what God might be doing with us as well.

May God bless us all during this time of national grieving.

John Michael Talbot