9/11 Changed American Evangelicals

This September 11 marks the 19th anniversary of the day that changed America and the world in ways that continue to unfold in the present day. My focus in this post is the ways in which the trauma of 9/11 changed American evangelicals. When I teach evangelicals on how to understand religion I also preface the study with contextual considerations, one of which is our post-9/11 environment. Below I’ll touch on a few examples of post-9/11 evangelicalism, and I encourage those interested in the topic to click on the links for a further exploration.

As we begin, we need to understand how the terror of the event shattered the American psyche in ways comparable to Pearl Harbor for generations past. The stark reminder of our mortality had a number of effects, including a desire to emphasize our worldview against all competitors (particularly Muslims) as form of psychological defense.

In the Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror:

It is much simpler and more common to defend against such alternative worldviews. To do so, people respond to others having different worldviews with a series of psychological and behavioral reactions that serve to bolster confidence in their own worldviews. The first line of defense is to belittle people who are different… By disparaging those with different beliefs, the threat posed by those beliefs is diffused and no longer challenges the received wisdom of one’s own cultural worldview.

Related to this, evangelicals found a new cultural crisis that would come to define their posture toward cultural engagement, and various religions within it. Just as the Scopes Trial and evolution dominated evangelical theology for so many years, so too has 9/11 in different theological areas. the This is the argument Walter Ratliff makes in his book Christians and Muslims at the Epicenter: How the Sept. 11th Attacks Shook and Transformed American Evangelicalism. In his words,

At the turn of the millennium, the Sept. 11th attacks forced the Christian world to not only deal with the pressures of modernity, but also a host of new theological, political and cultural challenges. Whereas theologically-conservative Christianity once primarily identified itself against secularism and theologically-liberal movements, the postmodern world presents challenges from other religions, alongside a variety of systems competing for legitimacy and adherents.

As an example of how evangelical approaches shifted after 9/11, consider the research of Richard Cimino. In his insightful essay "‘No God in Common:’ American Evangelical Discourse on Islam after 9/11,” he discovered a dramatic change in the ways evangelicals conceived of and wrote about Islam pre- and post-9/11. As the abstract for his essay summarizes:

After the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S., evangelical leaders emerged as strong critics and even antagonists of Islam. This rhetoric is reflected in evangelical books and articles that have been published in the last decade, but particularly since 9/11. Through a content analysis of evangelical books on Islam published before and after 9/11, this article finds that there was a noticeable change of emphasis and perspective on Islam after the attacks. Most of the post-9/11 literature draws sharper boundaries between Islam and Christianity and asserts that Islam is an essentially violent religion. This polemic against Islam takes three forms: apologetics to prove the truth of Christianity against Islam; prophetic literature linking Islam as the main protagonist in end-times scenarios; and charismatic literature applying "spiritual warfare" teachings to Islam. The article concludes that the greater and more visible pluralism in American society is challenging evangelical identity, leading to the erection of new boundary markers between evangelicalism and other religions. Such new boundaries can strain interfaith relations, yet they also function to strengthen evangelical Protestant identity in the U.S.

Finally, the impact of 9/11 not only shaped the way in which evangelicals relate to outsiders, those in other religions, and Islam in particular, but also how we look within. Our emphasis on boundary maintenance and fears of syncretism has also led to problematic ways of assessing those who we fear have gotten too close to our “enemies.” Consider the cases of David Benke and Larycia Hawkins. I’ll just summarize her and encourage you to click the links for more, but Benke participated in an interfaith memorial prayer service just days after 9/11. As a result, his denomination suspended him and he was accused of heresy, only to eventually be reinstated. In the case of Hawkins, she made statements on social media about embodied solidarity with Muslim women, and said that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. This led to a conflict with the leadership at Wheaton College where she taught, and she eventually had to step down. While we can debate the theological details about the actions of Benke and Hawkins, the psychological trauma of 9/11 shaped the way in which they were viewed, with an emphasis on theological fence building versus bridge building.

I’ve discovered that sometimes introspection can be very helpful. I suggest that one way evangelicals can best remember the tragedy of 9/11 is to look at ourselves critically and to come to grips with the ways in which we’ve changed.