A Deeper Wound

A DEEPER WOUND: As Evening Falls on September 11

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Jesus Christ – Matthew 11:28-29)

“I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” (Habakkuk 3:16, 18)

“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (I Corinthians 10:13)

America came under attack this morning. The first attack on the World Trade Towers occurred two hours before I woke up. Throughout the day, images flashed on the TV screen and seared into the American memory: a “live” coverage of the 2nd attack on the World Trade Towers; “real time” videos of the twin towers collapsing; a cameraman on motorcycle bringing out some of the first video footage on the destruction at the Twin Towers; the big “hole” in the Pentagon complex; firemen and policemen in grief and in shock, even as they performed their duties. Yes, even distant pictures of people jumping out of the windows of the twin towers.

The President flew around the country, from Florida to Louisiana to Nebraska, then finally to Washington, DC where he addressed the nation. Throughout the day, statements were made that everything is under control. Here in Los Angeles, the airport was closed down early in the day. This evening, churches all around Southern California convene special services. The Roman Catholic cardinal echoed the president’s call to look into our inner selves for light. The Muslim community is rallying a blood drive. Across the country, people are flying the American flag and singing “God Bless America.” It is touching.

Night is falling. I am sitting in a second-floor auditorium of the Whittier chapter of the American Red Cross. Having signed up to give blood at 3:35 pm, I was told that it would be a long wait. I am waiting for the 7:00 pm roll-call, to see whether they will take my blood tonight. As I looked across the jampacked room, there were probably two hundred volunteers – more women than men, quite a few Hispanics along with Caucasians, and some Asians. A very young crowd, some of the volunteers came with their babies and toddlers. Why, a cross-section of Southern California’s population! At the far side of the room, the blood donors are stretched out on beds, Red Cross volunteers monitoring nearby. There were bottles of drinking water, newspaper, snacks strewn everywhere. It was a moving sight. There’s a lot of “heart” in the USA. We are coming together this evening as a nation.

America is grieving. The American people is under shock. America is, as President Bush encouraged us to, gathering her resolve to dig through the destruction, to respond to those in need, to do whatever is necessary, so that life can return to normal. America is struggling for words to say to her children: can we assure them that they still have “freedom from fear”? What about adults when we take the next airplane flight? All day long, words pour forth on TV and 2 the radio. Yet we are, in the final analysis, at a loss for words. Every so many hours, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw just stopped talking (on ABC and NBC TV), and let the pictures speak. The pictures do not comfort.

America is wounded tonight.

We are wounded because we have exposed ourselves as vulnerable to attack. We are wounded because thousands have perished, and many injured. It will be a long time before we would learn of the names of the casualties! We do know that about 200 firemen perished as they worked to evacuate the World Trade towers. We are grieving because thousands of American families are grieving tonight. Here in California, there is an eerie feeling because all four of the hijacked flights were bound for San Francisco and Los Angeles.

We are wounded because two of the landmarks of the American landscape had been attacked. The twin towers of the World Trade Towers is a testament of the American marketplace: 21 floors were rented by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter! How can we ever forget that, in the first attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, these towering office buildings (along with a third) simply vanished into dust? And the Pentagon: the hijacked airplane penetrated the first, second and the third ring of this bastion of American defense. If the plane struck on the opposite end of the compound, the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff would have perished!

We are wounded because this is a terrorist attack on American soil. Organized, coordinated attack. We are used to be the strongest, the only Superpower in the post-Cold War world. Though we are aware of terrorist groups around the world, we believe we have built ourselves up, through economic, military and technological might, into Number 1. Tonight, Number 1 stands humbled – hurting, vulnerable. To be sure, our Allies have expressed their sympathies (even Arafat of the PLO!). But the grief runs deep.

Perhaps we would go to war. Perhaps there will be a public outrage. The American people is angry, even if it is, as George W. Bush put it, “a quiet anger.” But when the dust settles, when we have buried the dead, when the retaliatory actions have been taken, what will we remember about the wound of September 11, 2001?

America’s pride has been wounded today. It’s been sixty years since Pearl Harbor. We are awakened to our humanity, our finitude, our fragile selves.

A word kept popping up in my mind as I watched the fire and police “rescue operation” this morning. (Actually it was not a rescue operation, because the officers were not allowed to go into the site. They were waiting, and doing what they could on the outskirts.) The word was: “finite.” We are so limited, so finite, so fragile. With the best of manpower, technology and coordination, policemen and firemen simply had to sit on the sidelines for hours.

America’s pride has been wounded. As a Chinese-American who has been a U.S. citizen since 1973, I cannot help but think back on the history of China in the past 160 years. I wonder, how shocked was China when Guangzhou was attacked by British ships in 1839? And how vulnerable did the Manchu court feel in 1900 when eight nations united to defeat the Boxers? How humiliated did we feel when Japan took over Manchuria in September 1931, and ran across the mainland in 1937 and 1938? Nations and peoples who have suffered attacks often do not forget their past too quickly. (I know friends who still will not eat Japanese food or buy Japanese goods today.) But America has very little memory to go by (except Pearl Harbor). Our short- 3 term memory is that of entertainment stars, sports heroes, vicissitudes of the stock market, and the bewildering civil wars and acts of genocide around the world. Tonight, we sit humbled.

I wonder tonight how would my fellow-Christians feel when they watch the news on their TV screens, in Asia, Africa, and Latin America? Do they feel sorry for America, and if so, in what way?

Sixty years ago, America had some resemblance of Judaeo-Christian values in her culture. Today, we are a postmodern, pagan nation, hostile to the truths of the Bible. Sixty years ago, we responded with great courage. Today, in a post-Freud era, many can only grieve and weep. We have been weakened by the rise of modern and postmodern secular thought.

As an American citizen, I have been aware for over 15 years now, that my nation is weak. I do not live in a country where the impact of the church is strong on society; where morals are shaped by the gospel preached from pulpits; where even non-Christians by and large fear God (even if they are indifferent to church attendance). No. I do not live in a country where missionaries are increase in number year by year; the number is decreasing. I live in a country where it is not legal to pray and read the Bible as part of the public school’s regular day of activities. I live in a country where churches ordain gays and lesbians to be pastors.

Yes, our pride has been wounded. Perhaps deeply. But can we turn our injury into reflection and reconstruction? Can we see – as many other nations have seen – that we must live in community with other nations, humbling ourselves, ridding our minds of any pretension to Superpower dominance? Can we see – as many American Christians saw at the end of World War II – that world civilization is in crisis, and that only the power of the gospel can change lives, cultures, and nations?

No, I do not pretend to think that Christians can take over this country. This country was not founded by Christians – our Founding Fathers were a mixed company of Deists (like Thomas Jefferson) and evangelical Christians. But I do believe that when God’s Spirit grants repentance to His people, His church can be transformed. And a transformed church can transform society. Not by forcing our beliefs on our fellow citizens. But by acts of mercy, courage and justice. Beginning with our families, churches, schools, neighborhoods, we can rebuild our nation and deepen our commitment, not just to capitalism and civil liberties, but to the fear of the Lord, to wisdom, to historical hindsight and forward-looking hope – by God’s grace.

Let us do more than nurse our wounds, America. May we learn from them.

“You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning – though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered.” (Psalm 90: 5-6)

“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, Because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, But the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8) 4

“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. (Job 1:21-22)

“Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. He brings prices to naught And reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.” (Isaiah 40:15, 23) “Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.” (Psalm 46:6)

September 11, 2001 At the American Red Cross Whittier, California

Samuel Ling, Ph.D. Samuel Ling is president of China Horizon, a theology and apologetics ministry based in Los Angeles. [email protected] www.chinahorizon.org (Chinese-only website): samling.ccim.org