Last Friday's Chicago Tribune featured brief responses to Tuesday's catastrophe from a wide range of Americans. Daniel Creson, an anthropologist and professor of psychiatry, behavioral sciences, and public health at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston, made an observation that I have heard again and again in the wake of the terrorist attack: "There has been this myth on the part of Americans that our world is different, safer, that we stand apart from the rest of the world. Now we have been brought into the world." Many commentators have said we thought we were invulnerable.
As I have read and heard those words, I have wondered who "we" is. I was born in 1948, and my brother (two and a half years younger) and I were part of the first TV generation. Some of my earliest memories of television are of the World War II documentaries that were then ubiquitous. Needless to say, these carefully edited films did not show the full horrors of war, but nonetheless its reality was imprinted indelibly on my mind. I knew that America had won the war, yes—a victory my brother and I reenacted many times—but at a level below articulation I also knew that vast, incomprehensible forces could be unleashed as they had been in the world just a few years before I was born.
And it was not as if America had no enemies in the postwar world. Movies (on TV again) and stories introduced me to the shadowy world of communist spies intent on undermining America from within. It was fashionable for a long time, in the wake of McCarthy's excesses, to mock the fears of communist infiltration. We know now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that those fears were well-grounded. Certainly they did not bespeak a sense of invulnerability.
And then there was that mushroom cloud, haunting. Like most American schoolchildren of that era I went through the rituals of "civil defense" in rehearsal for a nuclear-missile attack, including the absurd routine of kneeling under our desks. Before I was ten years old I had read the first of many post-nuclear holocaust novels that I and countless others were to read in years to come. And when I was 14 I stepped into the newly constructed fallout shelter of a friend.
Was I constantly brooding about such matters? Of course not! I worried more about pimples than about the Bomb. In my faith I had a sense of security, that ultimately all would be well. But neither did I ever suppose that the country I lived in and loved was invulnerable. How could I think that?
The imagination of disaster can be twisted into morbid delectation or, even worse, into slick entertainment, as it has in so many Hollywood productions. But it can also take us out of ourselves and return us to our everyday lives purged of complacence. It can even prepare us for times such as this, when imagination yields to dreadful reality.
Daniel Creson, Ray Bradbury, and Charlton Heston were among those who shared opinions in the Sept. 14 Chicago Tribune article on the aftershocks of last Tuesday.
When Sin Reigns | An event like this shows us what humans are capable of becoming—both as children of darkness and of light. (Sept. 13, 2001)
In the Belly of the Beast | Christians, calling terrorist attack "satanically brilliant," minister at epicenter of World Trade disaster. (Sept. 12, 2001)
Muslims Fear a Backlash | No matter who is responsible, observers feel a reaction will still be present. (Sept. 12, 2001)
A Wake-Up Call to Become Global Christians | The deadly attacks on America will provoke many responses, but Christians are commanded to love our neighbors. (Sept. 12, 2001)
The Future Is Now | You want the news? Read science fiction. (Aug. 6, 2001)
Memorable Memoirs | Whether telling us about the Spirit in the South or the crumbling atheism of a Chinese immigrant, these books provide windos into others' lives. (July 30, 2001)
The Distorted Story of Memoir Inc. | There are many good autobiographies out there, but do those who write about them have to pretend they're the only books worth reading? (July 23, 2001)
Looking for the Soul of CBA | Nearly anything that can be said about Christian publishing is true to some extent, thanks to the industry's ever-enlarging territory. (July 16, 2001)
Shrekked| Why are readers responding passionately about a simple film review? (July 2, 2001)
Debutante Fiction | The New Yorker should have paid less attention to the novelty of its writers and more attention to their writing. (June 18, 2001)
Saint Teddy? | Yes, Roosevelt paid the usual presidential respects to Christianity, but didn't show much explicit personal devotion to it. (June 11, 2001)
History Bully | Christian scholars speak not-so-softly over a big sticking point: Theodore Roosevelt's faith. (June 4, 2001)
'Taken Up in Glory' | The Ascension has been forgotten in many Protestant churches, jettisoning an essential part of the Christian story. (May 21, 2001)
While we pray for peace, we need moral clarity about this war.
We’ve got little information on Jesus’ appearance and personality. But that’s the way God designed it.españolFrançais
Beyoncé’s right. Whether listening to Cowboy Carter or reading theology, diversity is a good thing.
