Remembering 9/11 - BreakPoint This Week
Breakpoint
Colson Center
4.8 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 September 2021
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John and Maria discuss the impact of 9/11 on our current cultural moment. They revisit the historical significance of the timeframe surrounding the terrorist attacks, also explaining the worldview and ideological challenges we've faced following the 9/11 attacks.
-- Bonus Episode | BreakPoint Podcast Special --
Reflecting on 9/11: Timeless Wisdom from Chuck Colson
John Stonestreet & Chuck Colson | BreakPoint Podcast | September 10, 2021
-- In Show Mentions --
Teaching 9/11 to the Emerging Generation
Instead, for them, it's distant history. Of course, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, the assassination of JFK, and the moon landing are all history for my generation as well. But they weren't nearly as distant. These events were essential parts of our cultural memories.
We were still among those citizens who actually had a shared national memory. That's something that many in the emerging generation simply do not have.
BreakPoint>>
Remembering 9/11 from a Christian Worldview
In the days after 9-11, Chuck Colson offered an incredible gift to God's people: A Christian worldview framework for understanding what had happened and a roadmap for Christians to both speak truth and love to their neighbors. Colson warned against out-of-control anger and against seeking revenge instead of justice, in both our personal and national responses.
BreakPoint>>
Chuck Colson Commentary from September 13
Many neighbors lost friends or loved ones in airplanes and buildings beyond that most americans spent all of Tuesday and the bulk of yesterday glued to the television, as did most of our Children in schools, people are traumatized, confused. They need to talk and we can listen and give a reason for our hope. We can listen and we can be an influence on those around us.
For example, we can love our muslim and Middle Eastern neighbors. Our instinct for self preservation will cause us to see someone in traditional muslim dress or with Arabic features and wonder if he or she represents a threat. At the same time, we know that most Arabs living in America are christians, christians who have fled from the kind of militant Islamic leaders, fanatical extremists who are suspected of Tuesday's terror. Beyond that. The vast majority of Muslims living in the United States are peaceful law abiding people. Christians should be the first to recognize this and befriend those who will find themselves shunned by many.
Chuck Commentary September 14 - Overcoming Evil with Good
One of the reasons I believe the Christian gospel couldn't be a made up religion, as some people think, is that it tells us to do those things which are contrary to our human nature when evil is done to us. The human instinct is to respond with evil. The result is that evil triumphs in this case, if we respond to the terrorist attacks with evil, the terrorists win. But the Gospel tells us to act exactly contrary to our own nature, to respond to evil with good.
Chuck Commentary September 17 - Responding to Terror
Of course, as christians, we are the community of scatological hope. We live in the constant expectation of jesus return. That will be the most glorious day in all of human history, but it's our hope, and though we may talk about it among ourselves, this is not the time to inject it into secular discourse.
Chuck Commentary September 18 - Where was God?
If we would be prophetic, we need to speak out for the right reasons not to find scapegoats or condemn or denounced, but out of our love for our neighbors, rather than demonizing others. We offer an alternative to destructive worldviews that have left many victims, including the victims of last Tuesday in their wake, comments that sound self righteous and point the finger at others, make it hard for ordinary people to see how the christian message differs from the condemning message of the hijackers.
-- In Show Recommendations --
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
Samuel P. Huntington | Simon & Schuster | August 2, 2011 (Orig. Pub. 1996)
20 years on, 'The Falling Man' is still you and me
Richard Drew | The Associated Press | September 9, 2021
-- Recommendations --
I Was There When
Maria Baer | I Was There When Podcast
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Jonathan Safran Foer | Mariner Books | April 1, 2006
The Rising
Bruce Springsteen | Sony Legacy | July 27, 2006
The Only Plan in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001
Garrett M. Graff | Simon & Schuster | September 8, 2020
September 11 | Drive Thru History Special
Dave Stotts | Coldwater Media | September 9, 2021
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to Breakpoint this week, where we're talking about the major news stories of the week from a Christian worldview. |
| 0:06.1 | Today we're going to be looking back at 9-11 on the 20th anniversary, thinking through what it meant for the world, how to talk to our kids about it, and what has changed since then. |
| 0:16.5 | Thanks for listening. Let's get to it. |
| 0:19.6 | Well, welcome to Breakpoint this week from the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. |
| 0:23.5 | I'm Maria Baer, alongside John Stone Street, president of the Colson Center. |
| 0:27.6 | This week, we're really going to take a long look at the events of 9-11. |
| 0:32.2 | It's the 20th anniversary of the attacks, and that feels like a milestone anniversary, of course. And then given |
| 0:39.9 | the recent events relating to our withdrawal from Afghanistan, it feels like in some ways the |
| 0:45.1 | wound has been reopened. And so we really just want to take some time to reflect on what happened, |
| 0:50.8 | how 9-11 really changed the world, and how it affects our worldview today even, |
| 0:57.0 | and even in ways that we might not be aware of, |
| 1:00.0 | and how it affects the worldview of the generation born after 9-11. |
| 1:04.0 | So we have a lot of really interesting stuff to get to today. |
| 1:08.0 | Before we get into it, though, |
| 1:10.0 | so we're recording this on Friday morning, |
| 1:13.4 | the 10th, and last night, President Biden made a big announcement, and we don't want to let this |
| 1:19.4 | detract from our conversation and our kind of commemoration of 9-11, but we know that this is on |
| 1:24.8 | a lot of people's minds, including our own. |
| 1:36.8 | So the president announced last night that he was going to mandate for every company with 100 employees and over, they must require vaccination to remain employed. |
| 1:39.1 | So to get the vaccine against COVID-19. |
| 1:53.3 | And it seems like there's a lot more questions and answers around this this morning in terms of whether this is legal, what, you know, whether it will even stand at the courts, you know, what the motivation is for doing this. |
| 1:59.3 | John, do you have any words of wisdom for us for, you know, people trying to make sense of what's going on here? |
... |
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