Lessons Learned From 9-11

Here are some of the lessons that I learned from the events of 9/11. I think I can promise you that you won’t like what I’m going to write today.

It might even make you very angry with me. My dream is that you would be so angry with me that you would set out to prove me wrong, not in words but in deeds. Alas, the citizenry of the United States has dashed my dream at every turn for the last several decades.

The United States is not longer the American ideal envisioned by the founders. Not only have the historians misrepresented the dreams and intentions of the Founding Fathers, they have pretty much ignored any history prior to the beginnings of the Progressive (read Socialist/Communist) movement in the 1880s. How can I say that? Have you looked at a Common Core history curriculum?

Perhaps you’ve heard that the Founding Fathers were essentially atheists. Not true. Have you read the original documents and their personal writings? Again the truth has been manipulated. And, yes, I’ll once again point my finger at the Progressive movement.

Do you know that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are riddled with references to biblical passages? Were you taught that in school? I wasn’t and that was 40+ years ago.

You might have heard that many of the early settlers of the country were only schooled up through 8th grade. In fact, my grandparents were alive when that was still true at the turn of the last century. Ohh, and the first thought that comes to mind is that they were obviously uneducated oafs.

Have you seen any of the materials they were expected to understand, not to mention being able to argue for or against? School wasn’t about memorizing in those days; it was about understanding the material and concepts. I don’t see that critical thinking skill existing these days, except perhaps among the home schooled. I dare say that most PhDs aren’t that capable today.

Speaking of college or university, do you realize or know that most students entering Princeton, and other similar schools, was 14, not 18, in those days? “High school” did not exist. High school is another “progressive” innovation. That’s why most of the folks only went to the 8th grade. Depending on when you were educated, I’ll bet there’s a good chance you didn’t know that either.

What’s this got to do with 9/11? We’ll get there.

Well, let’s touch on that just a little. September 11, 2001, was an epic failure on the part of the citizens of the United States. I don’t mean that the government didn’t catch onto the hijackers, or that the hijackers were able to create the physical damage and loss of lives that they exacted. Those were tragic, no doubt. But, it was the citizens' reaction to the tragedy that they were after. And, I have to say that they’ve succeeded spectacularly. Those are fighting words, I know.

Why did people originally come to the shores of the United States? No, they didn’t come for the adventure. They came because of religious persecution. They were caught between the Roman Catholic church and the King of England (among others) who wanted to control what they believed. However, the settlers who came to the shores had read the Bible for themselves and knew that they were being lied to and used.

The trip wasn’t a 5-hour flight across the water either. It was a couple of months of rough sailing in boats that were often overloaded and short on supplies. A lot of people didn’t make it to the “promised land.” But, they believed it was worth the attempt to make it to the Americas. Even after they arrived, there were challenges and hurdles to conquer.

Some colonies made it; others didn’t. Was it the Indians that made the difference? No. It was how they governed.

Some tried the same system of government which they’d just left…centralized control and a strong leadership (one might even say, local kingships). Those are the ones who failed. This should have been obvious since history is replete with examples. As the saying goes, if you don’t know your history lessons, you’re doomed to repeat it. Even Jesus said (and I’m paraphrasing just a little) people have eyes and don’t see, they have ears and can’t hear or learn.

So, what did work? Every person or family was given rights to private property which they could then use as they saw fit. Each learned the skills that interest them and became self-sufficient. Markets developed where one could sell their extra products or services. An economy developed that ensured the survival of the colony.

Okay, cool. What’s this got to do with the Bible? Glad you asked. The motivating voices behind the changes were the ministers of the churches. Yes, they got their ideas and concepts from the Bible.

We’ve all heard about the separation of church and state, right? Yeah, of course. We’ve all heard about the lawsuits to take religious symbols off of government buildings. That, however, is not what they meant when the Founding Fathers included the phrase in the Constitution.

No, no, no. You have look at it from their perspective, not from our modern perspective.

Remember, that they came to the United States because governments were dictating the form of religion they were allowed to believe. Their intent, which is borne out in their writings, was to get government out of religion and not religion out of government.

This is further supported by their statements that “this form of government was only viable for a righteous people.” What the heck are righteous people? They are people who base their lives and principles on the Bible and their belief in God.

So, why did the hijackers do what they did? Ultimately, their game was to destroy America.

Their leaders and organizers saw that Christianity was losing ground in the United States. They saw that as people turned away from God, they typically turn to government and its coercion as a god substitute.

They believed that the rubicon had been crossed. That enough of the people believed in government more than in God. And they were right! And my generation, the generation in charge for the last couple decades, has done exactly that. Their first reaction is to turn to government for the solution, rather than God.

And look at what it has gotten us. Fear of security caused by the 9/11 attack, and many other terrorist events, have caused the people to turn to government for solutions. The solutions the government proposed were the “Patriot Act” and its ilk. It opened the door to centralized control and government determining what we’re allowed to believe.

The exact reason that the founders left Europe to escape. It’s also the very same things that caused some of the colonies to fail. So, from my perspective, the hijackers and their organizations were extremely successful. The return, of self-destruction by the country itself, far outweighed their cost in believers.

Governments have an inherent problem. They seldom get things right. They always seem to be out of step with the people. So, in order to control things, they have to employ coercion to ensure that everyone does as they are supposed to do.

Anytime governments try to use incentives, they are misapplied and work against the population in general. The bigger, stronger, and more centralized the government, the worse the mismatch becomes. This mismatch generates a distrust in the government.

With distrust comes conspiracy theories such as individuals in the government being responsible for the collapse of the buildings. Fairytale theories abound, like the government planting charges to bring down the buildings.

Sorry, didn’t happen. There are still eyewitnesses alive who escaped those buildings. They have memories of jet fuel flowing down through the buildings as they were trying to escape. The smell of jet fuel is not something that one would easily forget.

I’ve seen videos where people are claiming that it’s obvious that timed charges are going off to collapse the buildings. Does anyone understand what happens when you mix fuel with air…and then introduce a spark or flame? Duh! You get an explosion! That’s the very process that motors depend on.

So, let’s use a little brain power here. If you have jet fuel flowing down through the building, at each floor it’s going to cause fuel vapor to exist. All it takes then is a spark or flame to ignite the vapor.

What do all the floors have in common that would breach the fire security of each floor? The elevator shafts and the stairwells! All it would take is fuel vapors in either or both to connect the floors to generate the same effect as timed charges. Sorry…but that makes more sense to me than all those fairytale conspiracy theories.

I place the blame for the decline of America on two groups. The first is the ministers in the pulpit; and, the second is the people for accepting the pulpit for not doing its job.

Why the pulpit? It was their spreading of the beliefs from the Bible and their involvement in establishing the governmental concepts that made America possible. Even when it came to organizing resistance to the British, it was often the leadership of the churches that made it happen. The Christian churches were very much involved in the formation of the country. I would think a case could be made that, if it hadn’t been for the churches, the country would never have come into existence and would still be a territory of Great Britain.

When ministers decided that “politically correct” trumped biblical principle, they abandoned not only the people but God as well. And, the America that was the “shining city on the hill” has been degrading ever since.

Why the people? You have free will granted to you by God. That means you have a choice.

People choose to accept the “politically correct” ministers in the pulpit of their churches. You have subsequently accepted that God is subservient to “political correctness.” This has resulted in the decline of the United States to the sad condition in which you now find it.

I do believe that there is hope in the future. I see increasing numbers of the young folks turning to God and biblical principles. But, I doubt it's going to change significantly in my lifetime. They have a long slog ahead of them; it might even be their grandkids that finally get things righted. No thanks to my idiotic, hippy “free love,” “politically correct,” “government knows best” generation.

It’s to the future generations that I am humbly apologetic for the disaster my generation has dumped in your hands. I am praying that you are up to the task. I am praying that the increasing numbers of believers in your generations will bring about miracles. I am praying that those miracles will right the world faster than I envision. I am praying that you will forgive us for our idiocy. And, perhaps, the singularity of technology will help you to speed up the process beyond my dreams and expectations.

God forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us.

Amen.