Weblog Entry - 09/10/2002: "The day the world changed?"

09/10/2002 Entry: "The day the world changed?"

September 11th 2001 will be remembered for a long time as a day when a terrible evil was committed. The dreadful loss of life in the heart of a major city in the most powerful of the world's nations should not be lightly forgotten.I'm not convinced though that 9-11 deserves the title, "the day the world changed". The world is not unfamiliar with evil; the slaughter of innocents is almost a commonplace in history. Two things mark out 9-11 from the rest: it was played out on live television to an audience of millions, and it was perpetrated in a nation that had assumed itself to be beyond the reach of any foreign assailant. What changed that day was not the world, but the United States. It was the day the US realised that even with all its military power, a small but determined attack can inflict a grievous wound. In the history of the world I believe the day will come to be seen as a waymarker rather than a turning point. Even the "waymarker' analogy might be a false one, since this should be an indication of progress on a journey. If 9-11 shows anything, it is how little progress there has been in the affairs of humankind.The tragedies of our history provide us with little comfort, and often merely repeat lessons determined to go unlearned. Massacre and misery, violent death and vile injustice are the chapter headings of our story. "Man's inhumanity to man" is a cliché, but a cliché rooted in reality.The despair of this reality can only be tempered by one intervention. Not the military victory in Afghanistan, nor the continuing "war on terrorism", both likely only to continue the thread of injustice which is woven in history. The only event that matters, on September 11th or on any other day, is the real turning point in our history, the point at which God intervened and revealed the depth of his love. He comes in Jesus of Nazareth, bone of our bone, suffers the fate of a criminal in weakness and humiliation, and yet is raised in glory and honour - his own vindication and ours. This is God's chosen way of dealing with evil: costly, self-sacrificial love. If we are to respond to the events of a year ago, and we must, how can we dare to take any other path?