DALLAS (ABP) — The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States didn't produce the widespread revival some Christian leaders had predicted, but commentators believe the events of that day continue to affect church ministry.
Five years after the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., the spike in worship attendance that occurred after Sept. 11 appears to be an anomaly. Within a month of the attacks, worship attendance had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels in most places as people returned to daily routines, according to religion experts.
But many churches changed because society changed, other Christian leaders said. Sept. 11 marks the day many Americans lost the sense of security they held close. Since then, people are still trying to make sense of the uncertainty and danger they felt that day, said Martin Marty, an author and former professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
“Reinhold Niebuhr once described America as a gadget-filled paradise suspended in a hell of international insecurity,” Marty said “On 9/11, the suspension cord was cut, and we were dropping into the insecurity most humans had always known and that we could keep at a distance.”
A new, uncertain world challenged believers to rethink what it means to be a Christian in contemporary society and how to carry out the mission of the church effectively, said Bill Tillman, an ethics professor at Hardin-Simmons University.
Terry York, associate professor of Christian ministry and church music at Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary, agreed.
“It probably forced us to think about Christianity and Christ's following in ways we should have been thinking about them anyway,” he said.
The resulting discussion has covered a wide variety of topics from missions and preaching to the relationship between Christianity and democracy. Though believers have taken diverse stances, especially in politics, some commonalities exist, including a strengthened fundamentalist movement, an increased interest in Muslim culture, and a willingness to address political and social issues.
In the years since 9/11, Christians joined fundamentalist theological movements because they offered clear answers, Tillman said. Fundamentalists provide a worldview with identifiable evil and good, as well as a purpose for each person's life. These factors are crucial in a culture where security has been lost, he added.
“I think the episode of 9/11 and afterward helped the fundamentalists because their response is a heavy-handed response,” Tillman said. “It gave rise to a hard-line expression of the gospel.”
This theological sway expressed itself politically through an increase in interest of conservative politics, though many Christians do not want to be identified too strongly with either political party.
Pastors have also continued to speak about Islam regularly, and many churches have studied it in small groups or Sunday school classes, said Jeph Holloway, professor of religion at East Texas Baptist University.
Holloway said Christians seem to want to know more about the Muslim world, since the Sept. 11 perpetrators acted upon fundamentalist Islamic beliefs. As a result, mission work in closed countries — particularly Muslim nations — is on the rise.
“I think it's obvious a heightened interest in the Muslim parts of the world … has come to our attention,” Holloway said. “As a consequence, there is more of a concern to meet the needs that are crying out in those parts of the world.”
But Islam is just one of the issues Christian leaders continue to discuss in the years since Sept. 11. According to a recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, clergy are speaking out on a variety of topics.
More than 90 percent of regular worship service attendees polled heard clergy speak about poverty and hunger issues. Nearly 60 percent heard clergy speak about abortion. Fifty-three percent heard a clergyperson speak about the situation in Iraq.
“[Sept. 11] pushed us into areas we could speak tangibly about,” Tillman said.
Plus, York said, Christians are still grappling with basic questions of their faith. The way they resolve those issues will decide what impact the terrorist attacks ultimately have, he said.
“We're only five years away from 9/11,” he said. “In the history of our country, that's like five minutes. In the history of the world, that's like five seconds. I'm still trying to figure this out myself.”
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