They call it the 'Kennedy moment' - everyone old enough remembers where they were when they first heard of JFK being shot. Being too young to have had first hand experience of that particular historical moment yours truly can now identify with it in terms of what has become known as 9/11. On the afternoon of 11th September last year I was in the Free Church bookshop when I was approached by my colleague and friend, MTW missionary John Wagner, who was obviously in a state of distress and confusion. Upon hearing the news of the attacks upon the Pentagon and the Twin Towers I immediately went down to Waverly station and before catching my train home sat an watched the unfolding events on the screens in the ‘Waverly’. I will never forget that day. Even a year later I found it too painful to watch all the commemorative events and news coverage.

I lost no friends in the tragedy; I am not an American and therefore did not feel the personal slight associated with an attack upon my country; I have no connection with either the Pentagon or the World Trade Centre. The tragedy was enormous and yet there have been millions of people killed all over the world in the past year and there have been and will continue to be great atrocities committed by human beings against human beings. So why so upset about this? Why has 9/11 become a defining moment in my and many other people's lives?

There are those who will argue that it is only because it was a media event - terrorism played out in real life TV time. There is certainly an element of truth in that - how many of us have had the sheer horror and fascination of that second plane crashing into the WTC , played and replayed over and over again - either in our minds or on our screens? I have not, and do not regularly witness the countless other atrocities inflicted upon human beings throughout the world. The fact that this dramatic and photogenic terrorist attack took place in the home of much of the world's media has undoubtedly ensured that it achieved maximum cover.

There are also those who will say that it is only because it is because of my Waspish cultural perspective that 9/11 has made such an impact. The argument goes that if it were 3,000 Afghans who had died then it would not have had such an effect. There is again an element of truth in that. I can identify more with New York. I have been there. I have friends there. However I strongly resent the implication that it is a question of racial, cultural or religious identification. New York is a world city. People from many different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds were killed that day. Muslims died in the WTC. Furthermore the WTC is not my culture. The world of corporate capitalism is a world I neither understand nor appreciate. Neither do I buy into the idea that because this was an attack upon the West and 'western values and traditions' - therefore I should want to react as though these were somehow to be identified with biblical Christianity. Without denying that there is a great deal within the "Western" culture which has indeed stemmed from biblical teaching, in today's world it just will not wash to identify the "West' with Christianity. The greatest attack to the Christian values of the West come from within, not from without. The silent holocaust of the abortion industry; the greed of corporate capitalism; injustice of much of our society, the godlessness and triviality of most of the media, the lovelessness and mishmash of spineless theology which masquerades as Christianity in much of our religion - these are far greater enemies than Bin Laden or radical Islam will ever be.

I think the reasons for this being so personal are a mixture. Perhaps the strongest one is the sense of futility and meaninglessness that this particular tragedy has engendered. There were a few who rejoiced at the event - delighted that the 'Great Satan' had got its comeuppance. There were more who whilst not going this far and mourning the loss of human life, were nevertheless still prepared to pontificate that there was a socio/political explanation of what had happened. If only American troops were not in Saudi, or the Americans were not supporting Israel, or had not supported the Taleban in its earlier days then perhaps this would not have happened. Whilst legitimate criticisms can be made of US foreign policy - to do so as a kind of justification for the terror of 9/11 is indicative of a mentality which Job's friends would be proud of. Planes with women and children on were deliberately flown into buildings where ordinary people were going about their business. This was not a military operation. It was a suicide attack on civilians. It was barbaric, evil and inexcusable and there are no buts..

Which is why there was genuine mourning in Europe on this dark anniversary. On September the 12th 2001 Le Monde declared , "We are all American". A year later it noted that "we have all become anti-American". I suspect that is somewhat exaggerated. America is the strongest, richest and most powerful country in the world and that will inevitably breed tensions and jealousies. There are those who have genuine concerns about US foreign policy and especially the notion that 9/11 can be used as a justification for an attack upon Iraq. Yet that does not make everyone who expresses such an opinion anti-American. Many Europeans observed the two minutes silence - united in their support for those who died and seeking to show solidarity with the American people. President Jacques Chirac declared "Today France remembers, France knows what it owes America. Today French people stand side by side wholeheartedly with the American people". That is also true for the Scots.

What about the spiritual impact of 9/11? A few weeks after the event I suggested that we should be careful in thinking that this event either had or was going to lead to a revival of biblical Christianity in the US. One correspondent was furious and asked why I dared to question the ‘revival’ in the US. But the warning was sound. Certainly there was, as might be expected, a large increase in church attendance in the immediate aftermath of the 11th of September. In most cases it didn't last. By Spring 2002 church attendance was back where it was before the tragedy and indeed had even resumed the downward trend begun in the 1960's. What is more disturbing is that whilst there was no great turning to the God of the Bible in repentance and faith - there is some evidence of an increased interest in spiritual things being met by mediums, spiritists, tarot card readers and other purveyors of what is at best spiritual mumbo jumbo and at worst an identification with the forces of evil. The TV presenter of the show 'Crossing Over', recorded a series in which he claimed to be able to contact the spirits of those who had died in the towers. Sylvia Brown, a noted clairvoyant, who charges $700 per telephone reading, explained that she had not foreseen the disaster because she is not omniscient. She does however have important information that Osama bin Laden was behind the attack. Big deal. And yet people are willing to pay for this guff. In New York there are now psychic psychiatrists, psychic bookies and psychic accountants. A former psychic Marcus Goodwin declares "since the World Trade Center, everybody feels even more superstitious. They are looking for reassurance from people they see as spiritual." We need to pray that they will look - not for reassurance about their future - but rather for the God who is the only one who knows that future and that only one who can really make a difference. And may the Lord bring a real revival of biblical Christianity to the US.

Finally as we reflect upon this we ask 'has the world changed'? For a lot of people -yes. For those who no longer have husbands, mothers or children who were killed in the disaster , of course it has changed. One would suspect that there has been a change in the collective American psyche - this was after all the first major attack on American soil in living memory. Life has also changed for many Afghan people. There are those who were killed in the war that followed but there is also the positive that the Taleban have gone and in many areas of Afghanistan there has been an improvement. We can only hope and pray that it does not descend into either anarchy or a rejuvenated Islamic fundamentalism.

But what about the rest of the world? Is it a different place? Not really. The world is still a beautiful place marred by sin. There are those who seek to destroy and wound. False religion will continue to be used as an excuse to kill and maim. Perhaps for me things are more clearly in focus but the world does remain the same. But one thing is certain. We will never rid this world of evil. We will never be able to bomb our way to peace or to claim moral superiority for our culture. We are perishing people who live in a perishing world. Thank God for the Good News. He has still got the whole world in his hands.

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