A different 10-year retrospective

Now that the national catharsis of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 is behind us, perhaps we can set aside emotion and calmly look at what that decade has wrought.  Vox called it 10 years ago:

It is said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, but that vigilance must be applied within as well as without. A thousand suicide bombers could not destroy America, but America is quite capable of destroying itself in the pursuit of any number of false idols, among them wrongheaded and illusory notions of security at any price. Individual privacy, like private property, is one of the foundations of our freedom, and it must not be thrown away out of fear. Anonymous cell phones or encrypted e-mail missives could be used by a terrorist, true, but the same is also true of a razor blade or a flight simulator. … 

I believe the main reason for our overreaction as a nation is that we have become so enamored of this life that we will protect it at all costs.  Our hope is no longer in God, it is in the State; our joy and peace is found in creation, rather than the Creator.  The Bible tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of self-control.  How much of these three characteristics has been evident in our nation the last 10 years?

I'm not minimizing the need for external vigilance; indeed, our laughably porous borders are a constant criticism of mine.  But it's high time to ask the question, who is really benefiting from the constant strip-search of Americans at airports, the loss of any vestige of privacy or domains where the government may not enter, and the drumbeat of "yes, sir" patriotism blared by every media outlet?  Given the frenzied reports of "possible terror" for the anniversary of 9/11, I don't think it's the general public.

Christ promised that in this world we would have trouble, but that He had overcome the world.  By clinging too tightly to this world, we create even more trouble for ourselves.  As my pastor pointed out yesterday, freedom is not found in destroying our enemies.  It's found in Christ.

Despite the packed pews of Sept 12, 2001, we still haven't figured that out, a decade later...