“9/11”

In Journalist-theologian Krista Tippett’s Speaking of Faith program on Where Was God?, she interviews 8 great religious minds, concerning the drastic effects that the September 11th World Trade Center bombing has had on America. This reflection has been arranged so that a summary of each person’s views is listed under their name and attributes.

Richard Mouw, Christian philosopher and president of Fuller Theological Seminary

Richard Mouw remembered the “ghastly images” of the buildings crumbing and people running from the rubble, covered with eerie white ash as he cried out and said “Where are you God?” This Christian philosopher even struggled with what the average human does: The problem of evil. He wondered how a God who reveals himself as all good and all powerful could do this to such innocent people. He then began to think of how he can be a spokesperson about God and this problem of evil when he, himself even questioned God. He knew that the Psalms specifically asked these questions to God, he went and read some of those psalms about God being far off. Mouw was not faced with the question about whether there was a God but the question of where God was in all of this suffering. In a specific Psalm it says, “The one who dwells in the secret place of the most high and abides under the shadow of the almighty is in a safe place.” Mouw goes on to say that the only safe place in the universe is under the shadow of God. Psalms give us the permission to question God. Even Jesus questioned his father just before he was about to die: “My god my god why has thou forsaken me.” Jesus quoted a Psalm and expressed the same sense of abandonment. Richard Mouw also said that he has noticed that when our country is at odd ends with a particular Muslim group, it seems that a young boy in Orange County, California gets beat up on his way home from school. “This is horrible,” Mouw concluded.

Joan Dehzad began her interview by saying, “We have 2 schools and at least half the children in those schools are Muslim. And They are extremely frightened that Americans will blame them. More than half our staff are Muslim. And they of course are as horrified by this as I am and you are.” Dehzad said that anger at Muslims is a natural response to this kind of tragedy. This tragedy among us is a terrible thing that has happened to this country, but the murder of Muslims is unacceptable as well as murder of Christians. Dehzad said that these Muslims carried out this act of terrorism out of hatred, not out of religion. Therefore Americans should not be mad at these particular Muslim-Americans that live here in the United States. Even though this was a horrible tragedy, it shows how people of different religions, worshippers who have different names for God, and different cultures can come together and fight for a similar cause, making us stronger. Joan Dehzad said that she gains courage and strength from the Muslims in her community, but she also felt the need to protect them after this tragedy. She was in a very different position, having to protect them with her words, saying these are not the people who did this.

Rabbi Barry Cytron, director of the Jay Phillips Center for Jewish-Christian Learning

Rabbi Barry Cytron had to come to the realization that he would have to look at a bunch of young people on September 12^th and figure out how to deal with this and how to respond to this tragedy. The Jewish law says that at a time of grief, one can only read three books from the Hebrew Bible and the rest are off limits. These three books are Jeremiah, Lamentations, and the Book of Job. He had not thought about it until this tragedy occurred, but all three are about the world being turned upside down. One of Cytron’s coping methods was to study all three of these books with his students. The Book of Job is all about how to respond to the problem of evil. These 40 chapters are railing against God and faith and challenges in Job’s life. Cytron believes that Job is not alone, but this is every man and woman in the world. The 38^th Psalm says. “Then the lord replied to Job out of the tempest and said, ‘Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Speak if you have understanding.’” Job has insistence on the need to confront which has just happened to him. Cytron also addressed the American claim that America deserved this tragic loss. Although, Job doesn’t think like this, but rather in a “come what may” type of thinking. Job does not believe that the world operates like this. Barry Cytron paraphrased what God said to Job: “Listen Job, if you had been there at the beginning, then you would actually know what I know; That the world can be random, and crazy and filled with evil and that’s what creation is and we go forward.” Job responded by saying, “I repent now, knowing I am but dust and ashes,” meaning now that you have said this to me God, I take back my accusations and I now realize how vulnerable life is and I accept this as a human being.

Patricia Hampl, poet and author of A Romantic Education and Virgin Time

As a writer, Patricia Hampl put her faith in writing and she believed that did religion also. She grew up during the second world war and said that after Auschwitz, writing poetry was barbaric. She feels the need to listen to other people during this time of tragedy. She explained how she wants to know and to be brave enough to listen to people tell her why she is so hated. She felt a real quiet and pacing entering a lot of peoples lives. She said she wants to be able to think it through and listen it to this tragedy through. Hampl also explained how many people were experiencing Psalm 28, “Oh lord my God, my savior by day and night, I cry to you; Let my prayer enter into your presence.” Hampl concluded her interview by saying that poetry is the division between reality and your soul.

Linda Loving, pastor at the House of Hope Presbyterian Church, St. Paul, Minnesota

Linda Loving began her interview by mentioning how after this attack on America, People look up at you and they are starved to hear what you have to say and hear what God has to say. Loving said that it is very inspiring to see people flock to churches to try to find answers. Loving said that people live their lives with such an illusion of being in control and that God is on their side and they are not focused on our creator until a time like this. Linda Loving said that she mainly preached on getting rid of ignorance. This preaching focused on the fact that people live every day with this type of terrorism and we don’t know about it. She said that she feels grounded and this is a gift from God. “Who am I? Whose am I? Why does this matter? How can there be enough goodness to rid this evil?” Loving said that people are asking these questions while they are starving for God and words of explanation. Linda Loving finished her interview by saying, “I think People hunger all their lives to know God, I think that’s why we were created, and they’re smack up against it now.”

Mychal Judge was a fellow Franciscan friar of Dan Grigassy and a chaplain with New York city firefighters. Mychal would cut to the core of faith and the gospel. Mychal strongly believed that if you’re going to find your true self then you have to give yourself away. Grigassy thought, “What a better way to die then to be praying to God and helping another person right at the time you die.” Grigassy said that God is revealed in the best of our humanity. He reassured this by saying that God’s presence is right here in front of us and we don’t see it and it takes something like this tragedy for us to see it.

 

“Do you think people have any idea of how good they are?”

-Mychal Judge

 

Cynthia Eriksson, clinical psychologist at the Headington Program in International Trauma

Cynthia Eriksson believes that people need to struggle with the question of innocent suffering. She said that ultimately there isn’t an answer to this question and staying in the gray is the best way to do this. She said that letting people grieve, letting people rage, and letting people question as much as they need to, to find God in the midst of that is the best way for people to cope. She also stated that people want to return to church and are trying to find an answer because none of this makes sense to them. Eriksson said that the grace that we can experience and the grace through other people that we can experience is a critical issue in times like these. “How can I trust God when these bad things happen?” is a typical question and an answer to this, said Eriksson, is that people trust other people to trust God for them when they cant. Eriksson concluded with a statement that social support is one of the ways that people rely on getting through times of tragedy.

Anthony Ugolnik, Ukrainian Orthodox priest and professor of English literature at Franklin and Marshall College

A typical question that people have asked after the tragedy of September 11^th is, “Why can’t people in that part of the world put history aside and forgive and forget?” Anthony Ugolnik said that now all Americans feel aggrieved and feel gashed and destroyed. American’s now know how difficult it is to get in touch with your own capacity to forgive. Ugolnik said that he thinks that the consciousness of Muslims among Americans will grow. When asked the question of ‘Where was God?’, an almost impertinent question, Ugolnik said that the question could be asked at the bedside of any person. This good thing of life is being torn away from them and anyone can ask that question when they lose a child or lose someone that they love. He said that this terrible thing that happened was just but a participation in the human Condition. For a direct answer to this question, Ugolnik said that God is suffering with us, God is with us in this tragedy, God has subjected himself in all of our humanity and our blood. He concluded his interview by saying that God is together with each and everyone of us in this ruthless tragedy. “God is with us.”