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We miss the old days. Whether one calls it "normality" or "normalcy," there is a life-before-September 11 status to which millions of Americans understandably long to return. Perhaps the 1990s will become for the current generation what the 1950s were for their parents and grandparents: a time when life was simpler, the choices easier, and day-to-day existence more salutary and fulfilling.

Of course, people who want to emulate the 1950s have not looked at the decade seriously. Otherwise, they would recall that unemployment was relatively high, jobs often precarious, and legalized segregation rampant. Similarly, if the recent attacks cause us to pine for the good old days of the 1990s, we will, in our effort to find emotional respite from a scary world, ignore many of the salient features of the decade.

What was normal life before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? My wife, who directs a family advocacy group, says that before 9/11, "normal" meant life in a country that had progressively drifted from community and obligation. Instead, it pressed toward the fulfillment of individual desire and the reckless celebration of the self. The phrase I want had become a sufficient ground for action, rather than an opportunity for moral debate. The Word of God was being shoved to the sidelines of our public life. Our political contests had been largely reduced to competitions between interest groups seeking to feed at the public trough. The "greater good" was defined no more broadly than was necessary for short-term political gain.

What has happened since September 11?

We all know that charitable donations to New York City relief efforts have skyrocketed. Public schools have held prayer services without a murmur of complaint from civil libertarians. Church attendance is, according to some reports, on the rise. Perhaps most amazing, American flags now wave everywhere in what had been our increasingly dis-united States.

The Christian observer can be critical. For example, I might wish that a few more of those who lead prayer services would mention the One to whom they are praying. The patriot, too, might demand that the people who fly the flag from automobile antennae and front porches show true respect for it by learning, and following, the rules governing its display. And what about all the other charitable organizations—both Christian and otherwise—that are being neglected as a result of the nation's redirected compassion?

But such carping would miss the larger point: In the wake of this horrific tragedy, we, the people of the United States, are trying to pull ourselves out of the mire of what previously passed for normal. This does not mean that the attack on America was somehow to our benefit, or that, as some misguided souls suggest, we did something to deserve it. It means, rather, that out of the evil that men do, the Lord often will find a way to bring good.

C.S. Lewis's fictitious senior devil, Screwtape, explains to his nephew why war is not necessarily helpful to Satan's cause: "One of our best weapons, contented worldliness, is rendered useless. … In wartime not even a human can believe that he is going to live forever."

Americans are no longer contented, and we cannot afford to be worldly. Unable to escape the plain fact of our mortality, we are thinking more and more about the next world. This means that we as a nation are thinking about God, and what he requires of us, much more than we have in a long time. What is important now, no matter how events turn out, is that we do not lose our renewed focus.

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December 3 2001, Vol. 45, No. 15