Sometimes theologian Stanley Hauerwas is right. His pacifist response to 9-11 was typically nonsensical but he did say: “Our response is to continue living in a manner that witnesses to our belief that the world was not changed on September 11, 2001. The world was changed during the celebration of Passover in a.d. 33.”
It is frail human nature to imagine the events of our own time are uniquely extraordinary. But there is nothing new under the sun, and the catalogue of human horrors across centuries recurs but should not surprise. Many of us twenty years ago assumed that 9-11 changed everything. Maybe elderly people who recalled Pearl Harbor were more dispassionate. The terror attacks of that day were horrific and changed the world a great deal. But upon reflection that day did not open up a new unparalleled epic in human history as some assumed.
Many of us believed that 9-11 opened a new multigenerational struggle against the paramount threat of Islamist terror. It would be like the Cold War. Many of us who were alive during the Cold War thought it would endure forever, or at least the rest of our lifetimes. And then it suddenly ended, surprising almost everybody. What next? An unending era of peace, free markets and democracy? Until 9-11 and the War on Terror.
The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is perhaps a bookend on the War on Terror, or at least the first major chapter. Taliban rule is odious but no longer as ominous, at least to persons not living in Afghanistan, as twenty years ago, when it hosted al Qaeda, which on 9-11 killed 3,000 Americans, cost the American and world economy hundreds of billions of dollars, and precipitated at least two wars. America and its allies liberated Afghanistan from the Taliban. Twenty years later, most Afghans, through active support or apathy, have allowed Taliban tyranny to resume. There will be future U.S. conflict with the Taliban, but not likely on the order of 20 years ago.
One justification for the pivot away from Afghanistan and the War on Terror is the threat of ascendant China, whose despotism, wealth and arrogant nationalism potentially make it more fearsome than the Soviet Union at its height. America rightly organizes its resources to resist Chinese influence. But China is not the inevitable hegemon of the future. Our rivalry with China may endure many generations. Or this standoff may recede within our lifetimes. It seems possible and even likely that Chinese economic growth, already ebbing, will slow further under the weight of renewed totalitarianism after decades of economic liberalization that lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese out of millennia of poverty. Tyrants always overreach. Ask the architect of the 1,000-year reich, who died by his own hand after 12 years of maniacal rule. Or ask the Bolsheviks, who supposedly consummated history but barely extracted 70 years.
Yes, Hauerwas, although wrong about so much else, is right that empires do not endure and are typically vanities that strut their hour upon the stage until their usually ignominious end. He would, of course, count America, which he disdains, among the vainglories of this world. The United States may end someday, if the Lord tarries, although it is not the fragile porcelain too many Americans imagine, often quoting the fable of Ben Franklin’s warning: “A republic, if you can keep it.” To the extent America remains faithful to its aspirations of justice and liberty, under God, it may endure for centuries more, outlasting its tyrannical rivals, and its native critics. Nations last as long as God finds them useful.
Current conventional opinion does not find America very useful right now. Supposedly it wasted the last 20 years destructively fighting unwinnable and unnecessary wars. Among nations even at their best there are always waste and hubris. But some wondered after 9-11 if America’s superpower status was ending. The conquests of Afghanistan and Iraq ended much of that talk. When Iraq turned messy, it became the bad “war of choice” in comparison to the more widely supported “good war” in Afghanistan against the Taliban and al Qaeda. It will be a paradox if the current Iraqi regime endures while Afghanistan degenerates.
And while, to many present critics, Iraq and Afghanistan loom large, to what extent will they be recalled in 100 years? The U.S. war 120 years ago in the Philippines was costlier and more brutal than either, deeply controversial, with consequences leading directly to World War II. And yet how many today vividly recall that conflict, which for a half century or more made America a colonial power in the western Pacific? Great nations and empires, even in their ascendancy, ebb and flow, retreating from unsustainable commitments not dictated by imperative interests.
Hauerwas thinks nations and empires are both wicked and largely inconsequential, about which he is wrong. But he is right that God is sovereign, and that the events of 33 AD supersede all else. Christians rejoice and mourn with all others in times of victory and tragedy. But Christians should not join in hysterias, fanaticisms or extremisms that conflate the political statecraft of this world with eternal and cosmic forces.
Like almost everyone else, I have made these conflations. On 9-11 I cluelessly boarded a metro train outside Washington, D.C. and was irritated when it was stopped before the Pentagon, where a passenger explained there had been a bomb. The train eventually passed through and then crossed the Potomac, where we could all see black smoke rising from the Pentagon. Nobody spoke. Later, a passenger claimed the World Trade Center had collapsed, which I dismissed as absurd. In my downtown DC office we received the unbelievable news. Over the coming days as I lay in bed on mornings fighter jets could be heard in the sky overhead. Rumors of new attacks swirled. It all seemed unique and surreal. My grandmother had died the week before, and I recalled her memory of listening on the radio, while she ironed, to FDR’s 1941 declaration of war on Japan, in far more terrifying times.
The future will include calamities we cannot yet imagine, but they will not be entirely unique. America for now endures, and will endure, so long as God wills. He has purposes for all nations. But, as Hauerwas noted, the supreme event He gifted to us was in 33 AD. Providential sovereignty and redemption continue, along crooked paths, but towards a clear destination.
Comment by Dan W on September 11, 2021 at 11:54 am
¨the world was not changed on September 11, 2001. The world was changed during the celebration of Passover in A.D. 33.”
Amen! I needed to read that today. I was on an assignment in Las Vegas on 11 Sept ‘01 and heard about the attacks from my co-worker who called about 7:00 AM local time. He had been scheduled to fly from Atlanta to Laguardia that morning, when all flights were canceled. Las Vegas felt like a ghost town, believing they might be a target for terrorists. I couldn’t fly out until Friday morning. Three days in Las Vegas with no shows, no lights, no fountains, no tourists – casinos were open but deserted.
Comment by Ken Dean on September 11, 2021 at 7:07 pm
I’m not a pacifist. I’m a realist. The world did change drastically, for the worse, after 9-11. Western Europe has seen a dramatic loss of churches. American churches are burning or so empty that the night sky seems to team with more life than Any church doorway on a Sunday morning. Satan rules China and it’s military expansion is frightening. Islam is spreading faster than church rumors about an errant PK. Maybe the author(s) of this post should open their own eyes. Christianity is being attacked by Perverts and those that worship them.
Comment by David on September 12, 2021 at 10:23 am
Europe had long dealt with terrorism prior to 9-11 and things did not change so much there. When I went to London in 1989, I was astonished at the security in Heathrow compared to that in the US. London was experiencing IRA bombings and there were postings throughout the city on what to do in event of a threat.
The US had faced some urban destruction such as during the Civil War, the Revolution, and the War of 1812. The Atlantic and Pacific “moats” tended to insulation the country and we never experienced the ruin that was commonplace in other parts of the world. After 9-11, the US had to catch up with Europe and elsewhere.
The move away from religion earlier took place in Europe and Canada but has belatedly reached the US that, in a number of ways, is a socially backwards place.
Let us remember that the two-day loss of life from Covid-19 in the US exceeds that of 9-11 or military deaths in Afghanistan. Yet, we have people here working against efforts to control the disease. Are they as bad as the terrorists?
Comment by Daniel on September 12, 2021 at 2:46 pm
I would like Mark’s opinion on whether he thinks Hitler or the Soviet Union would have lasted longer if they had the technological tools of Facebook, Google, etc. as well as the technological surveillance state run by the U.S. intelligence agencies at their disposal. I can visualize Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler, as well as Stalin, waxing ecstatic about how their rule would last forever with the ability to watch everything that every citizen does all the time. Zuckerberg, Dorsey, and the Google gaggle are just the same as Krupp and Speer were. And ex-intelligence “leaders” like Brennan and Michael Hayden are now shown to be political toadies cut from the same cloth as Himmler, IMHO.
Comment by Dan W on September 12, 2021 at 2:49 pm
“Are they as bad as the terrorists?”
Are you referring to people who have recovered from Covid-19 and don’t want to be vaccinated? Vaccinated people who don’t want to wear masks?
Are they as bad as the people who murdered the crew and passengers of 4 airliners? Who slammed three airliners into the Pentagon and Twin Towers, murdering thousands more and indirectly causing longterm health problems/deaths of survivors?
No, these people are nothing like the 911 terrorists, and mean no harm to anyone. They just believe in Liberty.
Comment by David on September 12, 2021 at 6:08 pm
I was thinking more in terms of unvaccinated persons who refuse to wear masks and are threats to other persons such as children who cannot yet get the injection. George Washington mandated smallpox vaccinations for his troops and I suspect he understood the meaning of “liberty.” There are times when the greater good takes precedence over liberty.
Comment by Mike on September 12, 2021 at 9:13 pm
David, it has been proven over and over that children are in no real danger from Covid, that they do not transmit it, and that wearing masks is a whole lot worse than any possible risk of Covid at their age. They need to enjoy the socialization of seeing other faces, and talking freely, both of which are inhibited by mask-wearing.
As for adults, it has also been proven that the average adult, in reasonably good health, will likely not suffer greatly from Covid, often will not even feel it. and too is healthy not wearing a mask. This mask business is the biggest hoax since evolution was fostered upon the public, but that’s another story.
Comment by Douglas Ehrhardt on September 13, 2021 at 12:34 am
Mike ,you must be socially backward. The vaccine that isn’t a vaccine does not prevent covid. I have covid as we speak..I’m 68 and in reasonable good health. Since I have announced to people that I am sick, I have heard over and over again from people who were jabbed and now are sick. Almost all of them are younger and just as sick as I am. Many people have told me of bad reactions from the shot including dead strokes. I’m most interested to know how this disease whichI believe is from a laboratory got released on the Human population.
Comment by David on September 13, 2021 at 6:50 am
It seems we are dealing with a rejection of science. All medicine is based on risk vs. benefit. There are those who can die from aspirin, yet it is freely available and many take it as it is beneficial to the overwhelming majority. No vaccine is 100% effective in preventing disease and some people have side effects. My first Covid vaccination resulted in a slightly sore arm. The second produced an extremely sore arm and a fever of 100.2 for just under a day. Too often there are stories that are simply “post hoc” fallacies, after this, therefore on account of this. By the way, children do get Covid. Nearly everyone where I live wears a mask outdoors and businesses require them for entry.
Comment by Dan W on September 13, 2021 at 7:59 am
David, this “Science” you think is being rejected, is not really science but a 21st Century religion. The evil and hate that we encountered on September 11th has existed for eons and the Holy Spirit that was given to us on that Pentecost is the remedy.
Comment by Mike on September 13, 2021 at 8:57 am
“Mike , you must be socially backward.”( Douglas Ehrhardt) If “socially backward” is synonymous with being a conservative, Bible-believing Christian, I’ll accept that proudly. If it means that I do not go along with all of the liberal trash that passes for progressiveness, I likewise accept the label proudly.
David may not be quite as belligerent as Hilary Clinton (basket of deplorables), but his liberalism is on full display.
Comment by Jeff on September 13, 2021 at 10:52 am
>> “…It seems we are dealing with a rejection of science…”
No, David. You are seeing a rejection not of science but of scienTISM. Scientism (along with its spawn twins “covidism” and “climatism”) are of the taxonomy of false religions that include marxism, humanism, and materialism.
Scientism isn’t science. It’s a faith-based competitor to Christianity; therefore its apex “deity” is satan. Any time I hear someone claim “the science is settled!” — as you are essentially saying — I realize I am facing off against a priest or layperson that believes in materialism. In other words, a proponent of pagan religion. No thank you! “I know Whom I have believed…”
Anyway, science does not work (and never has worked) on the basis of “shut up and believe the experts”. And there is a great body of actual SCIENCE that rightly questions the scientism of the covidist priesthood.
Comment by Douglas Ehrhardt on September 13, 2021 at 3:46 pm
Mike, I hope you understood that I’m joking. Our local elite is just to much.
Comment by Paul on September 13, 2021 at 6:22 pm
Enough with the COVID 19 comments. This article is about Hauerwas and 9/11. Mark Tooley writes that Hauerwas disdains America. Let’s hear from Hauerwas himself, from a July 2, 2013 article: “I love America and I love being an American. The energy of Americans – their ability to hew out lives often in unforgiving land, their natural generosity – I cherish. But I am a Christian. I cannot avoid the reality that American Christianity has been less than it should have been just to the extent that the church has failed to make clear that America’s god is not the God we worship as Christians.”
Comment by Jeff on September 13, 2021 at 9:14 pm
Paul,
“Enough with the COVID 19 comments”.
Huh? Who died and left you King Moderator?
Anyway, your marxprog buddy david is the one who STARTED in on WuFlu… the rest of us merely mopped up his mess.
Besides, the last Kung Flu comment was nearly eight hours before your “sternly worded reproof”. 😉 ‘Bye now. Isn’t Rachel Maddow on? Shouldn’t you be watching?
P.S. Hauerwas is another marxprog, and a rather uninteresting one at that. What’s happening in real time to the tribes and nations and peoples and languages at the hands of the humanist priests is not only more interesting, it’s more relevant to Christendom than Hauerwas ever will be.
Comment by Mike on September 13, 2021 at 9:14 pm
Yes, Douglas, I realized you were joking. Appreciate your choice of words for “Our local elite”.
Comment by Paul on September 14, 2021 at 6:40 am
Jeff,
“‘Bye now.” And then another paragraph. Oops.
‘Bye now.
Comment by Jeff on September 14, 2021 at 8:46 pm
That postscript (you could look up what that term means, if you need to!) was directed at the reasoning commentators on the thread, Paul. Not to you.
Comment by Paul on September 15, 2021 at 12:01 pm
Jeff, it’s apparent that you love to talk down to people. You wrote “That postscript (you could look up what that term means, if you need to!)” complete with an exclamation point. And “…reasoning commentators on the thread, Paul. Not to you.” Phrases such as “marxprog,” “WuFlu,” “Kung Flu,” and a reference to a TV pundit I seldom watch, are obviously intended to trigger. Quite the opposite. It saddens me that you need to resort to such keyboard rhetoric to feel superior. I hope you find the peace you’re so desperately seeking.
Comment by Jeff on September 15, 2021 at 1:24 pm
You’re projecting, Paul — you of the “Enough of the Covid-19 comments” downtalking scold.
Comment by Paul on September 15, 2021 at 4:52 pm
Jeff, my “Enough with the COVID-19 comments” was indeed unnecessary. I could have simply written my comment that quoted Hauerwas’s love for America, not the disdain for it that Tooley claimed. COVID-19 was never mentioned in the article. That was the point I was making, indelicately at best. As far as David being a “marxprog buddy” and me watching Rachel Maddow, I don’t know David and I’m usually watching our local baseball team on TV at that time. When not, I have many many more choices of things to do with my time. Hope that counters my “downtalking scold.”
Comment by Jeff on September 15, 2021 at 6:25 pm
Fair enough, Paul. I apologize for my harsh overreaction. Peace.
Comment by Paul on September 16, 2021 at 4:12 am
Thank you, Jeff. Peace to you as well.