Sep 12, 2026 0
Twenty-Five Years, and What We Have Learned
9-11-26, never to forget
Anniversaries. Some people think it means “celebration,” but the root is Annus, Latin for Year (think of Annual); also it stems from Vertere, Latin root of words like Convert and Reverse. So Anniversary actually means “returning annually,” so we celebrate birthdays and yearly holidays.
To call the remembrances of 9-11 an anniversary is correct despite some people regarding it as cold to call commemorations “anniversaries,” assuming it means “celebration.” Whatever it is called, it is touching that people pause and reflect. “Where were you when the planes hit?” “Let us lower the flags to half-staff.” “I watch the reading of the names.” “Have you visited the 9-11 Memorial?” “Never forget!”
We cannot ever forget. Of course. I cannot forget Pearl Harbor, even though I was not born yet: consequential events and disasters sear our souls. It is more than having known a victim, or think about the consequences on our history. We imagine; we identify; we experience fear in spite of any brave responses or faith in our defenders. We all were affected, and continue to be.
I have asked many audiences through the years, “How many victims of terrorism were there on 9-11?” Hands go up, people remember numbers from the World Trade Center, the field in Pennsylvania, the Pentagon. Or they estimate — roughly 3000? Double that with the resulting health aftermath?
“Wrong,” I reply. I point out that 3000+ people died on 9-11 as a result of murder. How many victims of terrorism? Approximately 330-million people. In other words… we, the living, are terrorized to varying degrees.
Because of that monstrous attack – and I am not going to veer into a discussion of conspiracy theories and rumors of behind-the-scenes actors, discussions that are more rife now than 25 years ago – we are all victims of terrorism. Uncountable inconveniences like airport checks, screening, banned substances, delays, multiple crazy passwords, and such annoyances. They add up, and make daily life aggravating. At the other end of the spectrum, the country has, plausibly, over-reacted, imposed intrusive governmental regulations; the world’s sympathy has turned to hostility, and everyone among us has become paranoiac.
The terrorists have won.
9-11 was not the final battle. It was not even the first in this generations-long twilight war of civilizations. Or barbarity versus civilization, if you want to see it that way. Happy anniversary?
This discussion will revert to the most relevant battlefield: not a detour but the essential focus we can have. America and the West are being attacked by more than ethnic groups or sects; more than by countries jealous of our land and resources. The virtual wars we fight surely are more than economic, because we are already bankrupting ourselves without anyone’s arms in our faces. Invasions? We have laid down the welcome mat for unvetted aliens for a generation now, despite the posturing of politicians.
Are we fighting it the best way? And by “it” I mean terrorism and the disintegration of our society, our culture, our nations.
We are not. We are, rather, virtually dedicated to self-destruction. By all the metrics, the statistics about literacy, student test scores, violence, obesity; as well as crime, drugs, alcoholism, abuse, family breakdowns, perversion, and so forth, are traditional markers of doomed cultures. More dispositive perhaps is the historical fact that every powerful country that chooses to become an empire sooner or later rots. First at the extremities of its reach; then from the inside, by populations that lose their way, and their values.
Values and standards that originally inspire strong societies decline in empires – first in the physical and material sense (as they transform into false gods), and then – fatally – decline also in the realms of spiritual values and standards. The only answer to a spiritual crisis is… a spiritual solution.
There is a verse that echoes in Evangelical circles these days that, I am afraid, is a distortion of Scripture that imparts a false sense of security. If my people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. You have heard this verse from II Chronicles many times. But the verses immediately following are seldom quoted, and should shake believers to their core:
But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot you from My land… I will make your temple a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled.
America, and European nations for centuries before, eventually established themselves as virtual temples, cultures built on Christian principles, ruled by Christian leaders, under laws based on Biblical precepts. We have not only compromised such values and standards – we have mocked them, perverted them, abandoned them. We have invited destruction, yet our responses range between excusing our rebelliousness, re-branding sin, and hoping that history, and God, will somehow give our offenses a pass. “9-11? Oh, that was 25 years ago…”
Some Christians pray for Revival. But as I wrote in a chapter of Marlene Bagnull’s new book Write and Live His Answer Now, that is the laziest sort of self-delusion. It is not in God’s nature to send spiritual revival to a people determined to rebel and reject Him and continue in their sins. The “forgotten” verses in II Chronicles state that, clearly.
During these commemorations of 9-11 we hear bells rung for the dead. Wake up, America. The alarm bells are ringing, too.
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