|
| |
 Coping
with the 9.11.01 Aftermath
In Response to the Terrorist Attack
By: Christopher Hershman
As much as I enjoyed Mel Gibson's recent movie The Patriot, one scene really
disturbed me. British soldiers rounded up civilians, including women and
children, locked them in their church and then burnt it down. I didn't like that
scene. And although there were civilian casualties in the American Revolution, I
seriously doubt the British did such a horrible thing.
If war was ever considered civil, it certainly was much more civil in the 18th
and 19th centuries. Typically, armies marched out into open fields in close
ranks and then fired volleys at each other. By the end of the day there
generally was a winner and a loser. And then life pretty much went back to
normal.
Of course, civilians always risked becoming collateral casualties. Back in
biblical times, whole cities were often put to the sword. Rape and pillage were
commonplace. But civilians were never the direct target. War was really about
armies and valor and victory with honor.
In 1864, when Federal General William Tecumseh Sherman's army marched from
Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, with the express desire to make the Confederacy
'howl," his "bummers" ripped up rail lines, purloined food, burned homes and
barns, but there were perhaps only one or two documented rapes. Despite the
war's savagery, it was also a war of gentlemen. Later that same year, when
Confederate General George Pickett's wife had a baby, Federal officers chipped
together, bought a silver tea set and sent it through the lines in honor of the
occasion.
But modern warfare is not civil. There is no valor when a hijacker diverts a
jetliner at knife point. Nor is there honor in slamming that plane into a office
building filled with innocent people checking their email, sipping their morning
coffee, chatting about last weekend, or day care children delighting in Big Bird
on Sesame Street. There is nothing noble about murdering civilians. Today, the
only true heroes may be the victims, and those who risk their lives trying to
save them.
What we often conveniently forget is that honored heroes of the past were often
guided by deep Christian convictions. Respect, honor and love for one's neighbor
were deeply ingrained into their basic character. And while today it is quite
easy to abdicate responsibility for such pursuits to the perpetrators of
atrocities, the reality is that we all bear responsibility for diluting deeply
held religious principles formerly quite commonplace.
Of course, the question on the tip of everybody's tongue is how a loving God can
allow such terrible tragedies to occur. God does not hold people at knife point
or crash planes into buildings. But God does call us all to faithfulness.
Technology bring us many good and wonderful things. It may overcome many things,
but it cannot overcome human nature. And sinful humans are horribly evil at
times. Technology cannot free us, save us, or offer us any real security or
hope.
The bottom line is that all these things can only come from God. Only faith in
God can offer us true peace or ease our deepest fears. Only God can draw us away
from our intense selfishness and turn us back to seek the good, the acceptable
and the perfect. Ultimately, only God can protect us.
Let us not despair when we are faced with the horrible realities of life.
Instead, we must be drawn to surrender ourselves and our lives into the hands of
the loving God who alone destroys evil and eliminates those who would seek us
harm. Faith in God and his grace are indeed our only hope. Faith alone overcomes
despair with healing.
The Rev. Dr. Christopher Hershman, STS
Licensed Psychologist,
Covenant Counseling Services
 BACK TO VOICES OF REASON PAGE
BACK to Coping
with the 9.11.01 Aftermath
HOME
|
Coping.org:
Tools for Coping
with Life's
Stressors
Coping.org
is a Public Service of James J. Messina, Ph.D. & Constance M. Messina, Ph.D.,
Email: