It is hard to imagine that any American has not been affected by the events of 9/11, along with what has followed in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the weeks immediately after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Americans found themselves on unfamiliar ground. Their taken-for-granted sense of security and freedom, in essence their way of life, was seriously challenged. In uncharacteristic fashion many flocked to their local church. Most were in search of comfort and answers.
Considerable anxiety spread to air travel industry and concerns about bio-terrorism, along what terrorists could do to water, electrical and transportation systems. The brief window of opportunity, i.e., in regard to deeper spiritual reflection that followed in the weeks after September 11, 2001, has all but closed up. Many Americans are holding their breadth and waiting to see what will happen. The hope is that Sept. 11 was an aberration and that the “clean up” in Afghanistan and Iraq will return life to normal.
Things may or may not return to normal. If normality is restored spiritual directors must be attuned to the fact that the collective psyche of America has been seriously shaken. A major shift in consciousness has occurred. American shores are no longer free from large-scale violence. This has huge spiritual and psychological implications for the entire country.
Beneath the relatively calm exterior of daily life, in America, many have been shaken to the core, especially those living near New York City and the Pentagon. Terrorist attacks in these areas have reawakened former national traumas. The attack on Pearl Harbor, the assassination of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, along with the horrors of W.W.I, W.W.II, Korea, Kuwait and Viet Nam are all being spoken of in the same breath as the World Trade Center.
On another level, many have sustained personal trauma, i.e., in childhood and/or adulthood, and thus are feeling uneasy and restless. The last two decades have lulled many to sleep in the belief that the ending of the Cold War meant an indefinite period of peace and prosperity. Unfortunately, the violence and atrocities that have taken place in other parts of the world, such as the former Soviet Union, Africa and the Middle East have done little to disturb the average American. A booming economy and a safe homeland have kept most of these realities at bay, until September 11. The American belief had been that senseless violence occurred in other parts of the world but not in the United States.
Many Americans were got caught with their shields down. Terrorist threats, coupled with a plunging economy (i.e., which began to occur before 9/11), have taxed the emotional and financial resources of this country. As a result, many are starting to search for a kind of dialogue that can not be found on talk shows or within the pages of self-help books. Quick fixes and seven-step programs to inner peace are not going to work this time. Profound tectonic shifts have occurred in the hearts and minds of Americans.
Many are now in search of spiritual direction. Seeking spiritual care has not been a popular option in the face of ramped jingoism (i.e., as evidenced by our president and the American government’s self-righteousness. The majority of Americans are frightened, angry, and tired of demonizing the enemy. Many are ready to examine the national conscience and make sense of where America is heading both as a people and nation.
Two Scenarios
Two possible scenarios are emerging. The first one involves a reduction of terrorist activity and a return to normality. Secondly, a lull in terrorist activity on American soil will eventually lead to an increase and then continue intermittently throughout the future. In the latter case, fear and uncertainty, the modus operandi of terrorists, will become a part of daily life in America.
The first scenario is actually the more serious of the two, from a spiritual point of view. Individuals in the first case will continue to minimize or deny a host of questions that Americans should be asking in regard to both their conscience and government policies.
Scenario I
September 11 took away the innocence of many Americans. They are no longer able to travel or live in the belief that they are safe from violence and aggression. Many, inside and outside the United States, hate everything about America.
American citizens are currently like homeowners who have experienced a recent break in. They can no longer live in blissful indifference. Locking their doors, becoming hypervigilant and living in fear of an impending attack are now part of their consciousness, if not life-style.
The issue of terrorism raises many questions that have religious overtones and which are not easily answered. For example, are such violent acts the work of isolated individuals, Islamic fundamentalists, Muslims engaged in a Jihad or Holy War or people around the world who resent the intrusion of American pop-culture, consumerism and an amoral foreign policy? Answers to these questions, along with understandings of human nature, religion and what qualifies as an authentic spiritual response to violence (i.e., does it involve violence) places God and religion in the forefront of the American psyche.
Scenario 2
If terrorist activity escalates, especially on American soil, concerns about safety, mortality and the capacity of the United States government to protect its citizens will proliferate. Numerous social changes have already been put in place since September 11. The need for personal identification cards, a restructuring of international borders, racist and xenophobic reactions to people of color (especially of Middle Eastern descent), restrictions on civil and constitutional rights, torture of political prisoners, interment camps, changes in immigration laws, the use of military tribunals, an evocation of executive privilege by the president, along with numerous issues related to justice and accountability are just a few of the aforementioned changes. The lengths that Americas will go to restore former feelings of safety is causing many to seriously rethink who Americans are and what is their moral responsibility (i.e., in regard to taking a stand against many of the actions effected by their government and military).
All of the above changes initiate several questions about the policies and practices of the American Government. Our proclivity to interfere in the internal affairs, push our materialistic and consumer-oriented values onto the rest of the world, along with whether our military and economic might gives us the right to police the world on our own terms are matters that need to be challenged in the wake of so many foreign nationals wanting to bring down what many Americans have unquestionably held to be a sacred way of life. All of the above should make Americans consider what their spiritual and ethical priorities are, both as individuals and as members of the most powerful nation on earth.
Americans, in the eyes of many Muslims, are not only infidels and “disbeliveers” but also hypocrites. They advocate democracy, human rights and Christian values while violating the bodies and souls of so many. As a result, at some point it is quite possible that churches and congregations will also become targets of terrorist attacks. How these communities will fair depends a great deal on whether their leadership makes the effort to understand the spiritual impact of violence. It is common in countries seriously affected by violence for many to leave their church and move towards a more fundamentalist community (i.e., one offering black and white solutions to realities and beliefs that have been seriously thrown into question and/or destroyed by the implications of violence).
All of the above should make Americans wonder, if they as a people, either directly through their government or indirectly through their ignorance and apathy, are guilty of violating a host of ethical imperatives.
Such reflections may in part help many understand that the actions of terrorists are not always irrational and that the feelings of fear and depression, experienced by so many Americans, are connected to our collective failure to participate more actively in shaping a more moral domestic and foreign policy.
If America sustains more damage from terrorism then it will be very hard to avoid a large scale questioning of not only our cultural values, but also how our excessive standard of living. Our standard of living is atypical (i.e., in terms of the rest of the world) and is generated off the back of the “underdeveloped world.”
Terrorist events have created a rupture in American consciousness. Whether this has been fully and consciously acknowledged is another question. The following is an attempt to provide guidelines for spiritual directors who are currently or will be soon called upon to address a pervasive and deep-rooted sense of cultural loss (which has several social and spiritual implications). Most importantly there will be a need to make sense of why terrorism exists and what its implications are for the possibility of peace on a global scale.
Acknowledgment of Loss
Directees will need considerable help acknowledging a multitude of losses that they have sustained in regard to their former ways of living. Trusting foreigners less (i.e., especially people of Middle Eastern descent), losing open international borders, no longer feeling safe when travelling at home or abroad, struggling with a drop in their standard of living, living with an ever present threat of death and injury, hesitating to disclose their nationality when travelling abroad are just a few examples of the many losses that may never be restored. More painfully some have lost loved ones and valuable resources as a result of terrorism and the fact that American Service Personnel continue to die in Iraq and Afghanistan. Considerable grief follows in the wake of such losses. As difficult as these losses are to accept their implications are often far more problematic.
Due to an American proclivity to stay on the surface of threatening issues will cause many directees to enter spiritual direction as anxious, confused and without a conceptual framework within which to articulate how all of the above are effecting who they conceive of God, self and humanity. What disturbs most requires a type of support that will enable them, if necessary, to move outside the boundaries of their faith-tradition. Few safe havens exist in which to disclose feelings of shock, fear, anger, revenge, sadness and loss, especially when such disclosures may challenge a great deal of American life, its foreign policy and its traditional spiritual beliefs. A constellation of grief-related losses will be carried into spiritual direction and demand new and wider understandings of human nature, religious difference and what qualifies as systemic evil.
Numerous assumptions and beliefs are being regularly overturned by what is going on in Quantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq. The loss of such foundational assumptions must be named, mourned and replaced by new and more accurate understandings of life and human nature (i.e., that take into consideration the many realities that have been revealed by many acts of violence, along the implications these realities have for future ways of standing in life and relating to God).
Complicated Grief
Many entering spiritual direction will be carrying forms of complicated grief. They will not only be mourning the loss of loved ones and their former ways of living but also the fact that past injuries have been reawakened by the events of Sept. 11 and what continues to take place in Iraq.
Many victims of childhood abuse, abandonment, betrayal, exploitation, civil war and forced immigration feel that the current violence is a repetition of what they experienced at an earlier time in their life. Conclusions drawn then are now reinforced, such as the fact that life is dangerous, people untrustworthy and humans do not know how to live together without resorting to violence.
The events in NYC were, for many, a confirmation of their worst suspicions about life and humanity. Large-scale events are hard to rationalize. Their impact usually hits the mark. Such events have the power to pull back the curtain back of life and reveal material that usually remains in the shadows of human consciousness.
The United States has been involved in at least 6 wars in the last 60 years. Numerous military veterans, along with their families, are now being deeply affected by another conflict that this time started on their own soil and which is continually being reenacted throughout several parts of the world. Millions of Americans are discovering that they are emotionally and spiritually unprepared to be engaged in another war.
The Search for Meaning
Many question why the events of 9/11, coupled with those currently taking place in Iraq, occurred at all. Hasn’t humankind evolved to the point of being beyond such atrocities? The capacity to feed and protect the entire earth’s population is currently at hand. Yet, many wonder why large sectors of the earth’s population are living in poverty while a few enjoy conspicuous and excessive consumption. What the above realities say about human beings and the meaning of existence is very troubling. The desire to make sense of all these apparent contradictions becomes imperative as so much unbridled hatred continues to be directed towards America from the Middle East.
Adaptation
How to adapt to and develop a meaningful life in the face of so much uncertainty is a contemporary challenge. Directees need assistance with developing new forms of living that can incorporate the truths that have been revealed by the experiences of violence and terror that are currently taking place all over the world. People are beginning to realize that no matter how wealthy or powerful they are – they can not guarantee their safety. Similarly the ever-present possibility of death is creeping closer to awareness as is the fact that no human society is absolutely stable or safe. Most importantly, how one is to live with the helplessness, vulnerability and uncertainty that are generated by terrorism requires considerable skill, guidance and a profound sense of interiority. In other words, feeling helpless, empty and staring directly into the Void are no longer the exclusive territory of mystics and spiritual adepts rather they are current realities of the average person.
The above experiences can be used, within a context of spiritual direction, to help directees rethink their lifestyles and priorities while placing emphasis on a more spiritual profound approach to that doesn’t ground itself in accumulation, self-aggrandizement and political indifference.
The best moments that have come out of the many tragedies surrounding the World Trade Center have been when people crossed professional, economic and racial lines to respond to one another as brothers and sisters. Moving out of self-absorption and looking after one another involved a realization that catastrophic events require total strangers to depend on one another. Sadly, it often takes a tragedy to get people to wake up and realize that caring for one another is what sustains us both individuals and a species.
Identity Change
Who one is, what his/her role in society is, as well as how connected s/he is to those living in poverty and distress (i.e., both at home and abroad) are questions that can no longer be held in abeyance by any person of faith (i.e., especially in light of current events).
The magnitude of recent events demands growth and transcendence in order to ensure the survival, not only of certain individuals, but humanity as a whole. Ideally, Americans, as well as those of every race and creed, will be recognized as fellow sojourners struggling to stay safe and maintain personal dignity in the face of an existence that transcends our capacity to master and ultimately comprehend. Humility, along with acknowledging that we all are in this together, can emerge as a result of embracing loss and using pain as a bridge of compassion that connects one to all living things.
It is a time to become wary of nationalism and separatism. It is too easy to categorize others as malevolent. Hopefully, the lessons of the Holocaust and the Cold War have not been lost. Evil rarely considers itself evil. Evil is usually perpetrated under the guise of political and personal correctness. Citizens need to wake up (i.e., socially and spiritually) and speak out against the wide-scale murder that is currently taking place in the name of democracy, religion and human rights.
Despair verses Generativity
The choice to stay closed and revert to narrow positions denigrating ambiguity and the finding of a middle ground must be overcome. Stepping out-side of the box, rethinking the obvious and learning to acknowledge our arrogance and insensitivity as a people (i.e., in regard to the rest of the world) could usher in a new chapter in world history. The United Nations could become a legitimate consortium of equals and not a forum in which five of the most economically powerful countries in the world can assert their will.
The last few paragraphs may seem utopian. Their real intent is to alert spiritual directors to the fact that directees will be consciously or subconsciously struggling with many of the aforementioned issues. Peace can emerge only when small groups across the country choose to raise awareness and stand on the side of accountability, love and compassion.
Spiritual directors are now at a crossroads of change. They will be sought to resolve numerous social, existential and spiritual conflicts that have been brought on by terrorist activity and the response of our government and military (i.e., which contradict and/or undermine everything that was once considered sacred and familiar in this country).
Self Healing and Spiritual Direction
As in every situation, where guidance is offered to another, spiritual directors must work through their own reactions to the issues stated above if they are going to help others. These are unusual times. Spiritual Directors are most likely struggling with many of the same issues that will be brought to direction by their directees. Every person in the United States has been affected by the events of September 11 and the War in Iraq. In these times the boundaries between helper and helpee are not so distinct. The expression “physician heal thy self” has never been truer. It is essential that spiritual directors meet with their supervisors and peers to work through whatever losses and injuries they have sustained in the face of terrorism and our response to the crisis in Afghanistan and Iraq. In this way directees will not have to turn away from uncharted waters and, hopefully, discover that the Spirit exists just on the other side of the former.
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