September 11, 2001: A Response to the Terrorist Attack

Article about Sowing Seeds of Faith and Internet Ministry

“September 11, 2001: A Response"

God where were you yesterday?

I looked for you everywhere

You were so hard to find… my father came home from Bible study,

dropped his car keys, a bag of groceries, his Bible to the counter and looked at me:

"This is a crazy world," he said in a voice pained and flat.

I did not understand until he turned on the T.V.

God did you see?

The television flashed black and white footage

two hijacked planes flying into New York

crashing into the World Trade twin towers

God where were you?

When New Yorkers ran through the streets

tucking their faces in their shirts.

The ash and smoke, death and dying

all around in my America?

USA Today Photo

There were men and women…

did you see them, God?

Jumping from the buildings

like birds with clipped wings.

Did you hold their hands

when they made the leap

into your world?

The Trade buildings

came tumbling down

like a child's wooden block tower.

God did you see?

-- From “One Nation Under God” by Kirsten Porter

There are days recorded in history, so crucial, so memorable that we even remember the details of where we were when the event occurred: Stock Market Crash, Pearl Harbor, The President Kennedy Assassination, The Challenger Explosion, The Oklahoma City Bombing. Now we add, September 11, 2001 as a day, which will forever be seared in our brain as a day of unspeakable horror.

There was the corporate president who was delayed taking his son to school. Upon hearing the news, he rushed to his world trade center office and even went partly up the stairs before being forced back. All seven hundred employees are missing. He cried and cried before national TV cameras and vowed to keep the corporation running in order to support those seven hundred families.

There are the firemen and rescue workers working tirelessly night and day, digging through tons of wreckage hoping to find any sign of life. Through cell phone calls, we learned of several passengers who assaulted the hijackers in the fourth plane and averted another possible attack aimed at the Capital or the White House. But what a price they paid for their bravery. Kirsten continues her poem.

God I tried to eat yesterday but my cereal tasted like ash and death.

God I tried to sleep yesterday but my heart hurt and I kept waking

to the memories of police officers pulling people from the wreckage like treasures from a buried chest.

Brave firefighters choking on smoke and tears fighting the fires, the death.

Americans saving themselves, each other and then I found you, God.

An email from a church member: “Here is a question that I have pondered since the bombing. In the Old Testament there are numerous accounts of battles, many of which involved tremendous loss of life. These were warranted and often (but not always) threaded with statements that God was on the side of the victors. In the New Testament Jesus tells us we should turn the other cheek: Pretty blunt.”

“To me this presents a real paradox. My initial feelings were shock, followed by anger, followed by a desire for retaliation. Part of me wants to say we follow the words of Jesus and turn the other cheek, but honestly my strongest feelings are toward solving the problem, which would result in a massive loss of life. I have heard comments that God can forgive; His forgiveness does not remove the consequences of your actions. If the U.S. doesn’t take care of our enemies, they will continue to escalate attacks against the free world. If we do take care of them, a lot of innocent people will suffer. My gut feeling is these concerns are chewing away in our minds.” Thanks. Ray

For part three of Answers: How should we respond as Christians? As Americans? Plus more of "One Nation Under God" by Kirsten Porter -- click here

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Last modified September 20, 2001.

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