9/11: America's Greatest Hope and Best Defense Is Our Faith

Are we becoming a Nation of fear?

As horrible as September 11, 2001, was, the terrorists merely struck at our heel. No terrorist group in the world or any other nation, for that matter, is presently capable of destroying this great country. We alone are capable of destroying America, of striking the fatal blow, and we alone are capable of deflecting it.

P>KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - As horrible as September 11, 2001, was, the terrorists merely struck at our heel. No terrorist group in the world or any other nation, for that matter, is presently capable of destroying this great country. We alone are capable of destroying America, of striking the fatal blow, and that is what we are witnessing. This fatal blow stems from our rejection of God and truth, moral corruption, arrogance, incompetence, and the abuse of power, among others. In this article, I will discuss some of the abuses being perpetrated by our government in response to 9/11. Then I will discuss America's greatest hope and best defense--our faith.

When I look back on it now, I got my first inkling of things to come when, in the immediate days following the attacks of 9/11, I witnessed a tank positioned at the entrance to the Miami International Airport in Florida and armed soldiers at the airport in Knoxville, Tennessee. Their orders were to inspect all vehicles entering the area. As I approached the check point, soldiers holding M-16's stopped my vehicle and surrounded it. The experience was surreal and unsettling. I imagined terrorists gathered around their TV sets and watching scenes like this on the news. They were laughing and celebrating as they watched the seed they planted take root in American soil and produce its poisonous fruit.

Americans soon found themselves standing in long lines at the airport while an army of newly empowered Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport security officers rifled through their bags and took their personal effects--you know, dangerous things like nail clippers, eyelash curlers, cigarette lighters, shampoo, and prescription medications. Of course, explosives can be in liquid or solid form and lighters can be used to light other things besides cigarettes, and no one wants to sit in a seat with someone's dirty nail clippings on it.

In addition, airlines are now required by law to gather information on all passengers from an official identification such as a drivers license. The Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), which is under the direction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), also maintains a no-fly list and a terrorist watch list. There are around 8500 names on the no-fly list and about 400,000 on the terrorist watch list. Consequently, many innocent people have been put through extra screening, detained, and even prevented from boarding their flights because their names have been put on these lists due to errors or because their name is similar to someone else on the list. In 2007 the TSA had received approximately 15,000 requests for redress due to such problems.

I am not saying that checkpoints are wrong or that government should not keep any records on its citizens. I am saying that the ridiculous inconveniences and abuses reflect a more fundamental problem. For instance, although humor has not exactly been outlawed, a poorly timed joke or comment nowadays can get a person dragged off the plane and taken to FBI headquarters where they are interrogated for hours. Today's air travelers must be careful not to draw attention to themselves lest they appear suspicious and are reported to the authorities. This is not right.

We are becoming a culture of fear. We are witnessing a rise in paranoia and the abuse of power by government. And nowhere is it more evident today than in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created by former president George Bush, and currently run by an Obama appointee, Janet Napolitano.

Under Secretary Napolitano, the DHS is implementing far more invasive screening procedures for travelers who must submit to indecent x-ray imaging and highly invasive pat downs. These procedures are scheduled to become commonplace as early as 2012. Both procedures are highly controversial. Many people have complained that the high-resolution x-ray machine are a safety concern and produce pornographic quality images. The pat downs are inappropriate and outright indecent. They involve improper touching of men, women, children, the elderly, the infirmed, and the handicapped. According to news reports, many persons have been humiliated and degraded due to these procedures. I find them vulgar and perverted, and I am shocked that the American public has tolerated them. This is the way criminals are treated. Have we lost all self-respect?

Napolitano also seems to have strange ideas about who the terrorists are and what constitutes acts of terrorism. It was reported that she referred to people who protest against these new, invasive screening procedures as "domestic terrorists." And according to a document titled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," she appears to believe that gun owners, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and people dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration, are potential risks in America.

And that is not all, it was also reported that she sent letters to local police departments around the country alerting them to the "potential risk" these average Americans posed to the country. But when she spoke for the first time before the U.S. Congress after becoming the head of the DHS, she reportedly did not use the word terrorism one time. She used the term "man-caused disasters." Napolitano is responsible for the safety of the American people, yet she has difficulty calling Islamist terrorists and acts of terrorism what they are, but she has no problem accusing American citizens of being "domestic terrorists" and "potential risks."

Furthermore, the DHS has come up with certain public awareness campaigns that lend themselves to paranoia and abuse. They are accompanied by cute little sayings that tell us nothing that we do not already know. A couple such sayings are "Homeland security begins with hometown security" and "We all share the responsibility to fight terror and criminal misconduct." Of course, we are to report suspicious activity, but these programs are striving to achieve something that cannot be achieved in a free society. This is exactly how totalitarian societies function. It portends life under communist and other totalitarian regimes, where people live in fear of their government and each other. 

One such public awareness campaign is called the "Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative," which went into effect about six years ago. It is directed at large facilities in the private sector like shopping malls and stadiums. In response to this initiative, the Mall of America set up its own little counterterrorism unit. And based on a report by PBS, it has created an environment of paranoia and abuse. This is no way for American citizens to live.

Another public awareness campaign that the DHS has established is called "If You See Something, Say Something." This campaign encourages all of us to watch for suspicious activity and report it to the authorities. A video introducing this campaign to the public can be viewed on the DHS homepage. The video is highly inappropriate and disgusting. It appears racist, and it shows examples where normal activities are portrayed as being suspicious. The people responsible for this video and the ideas in it are incompetent, possibly malicious. They should be exposed and fired. We are not the old USSR or China.

We clearly need to make some changes and sacrifices in light of 9/11, but that is not what is happening. Our civil rights are being trampled by our government. Our trust has been betrayed. We read hardened criminals their rights and let them go free on trivial technicalities, yet the police no longer need a reasonable suspicion to arrest average, law abiding Americans. In this country, the police no longer need a reason to drag us out of our homes at night and put us in jail. This is not freedom. It is not peace.

Clearly, some of our leaders seem to think that they can do just about anything they want in response to 9/11. They are turning our country into a police state. This is wrong, and it is unacceptable. I know this largely because of my faith. Real hope for our future lies in our faith. Our faith is not just about great mysteries and life after death, it also speaks of our nature and our relationships with each other--spousal, familial, social, and political. And when we take an honest, in depth look at ourselves and our relationships, we see that there is order in the universe and objective truth.

At the level of human nature or persons, this order and objective truth reflect a natural law. The Greeks saw this before the time of Christ. The founding fathers of our country saw it too. They enshrined it in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The laws of our great nation reflect the natural law, and our political leaders are bound to respect the limitations it imposes on them. As Catholics these realities are not hard to see because, as Saint Thomas Aquinas said, grace builds upon nature. Thus, our faith is not in opposition to reason. Rather, faith and reason complement and support each other.

Consequently, Our faith enables us to see the proper role of the state in relation to our great dignity as children of God. And our greatest hope and best defense, then, is for us as a nation to remember this relation and live according to it. The following excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church help clarify this relation. These excerpts focus on the nature of authority and the common good.

"Authority does not derive its moral legitimacy from itself.  It must not behave in a despotic manner, but must act for the common good as a 'moral force based on freedom and a sense of responsibility"' (1902). "Authority is exercised legitimately only when it seeks the common good of the group concerned and if it employs morally licit means to attain it.  If rulers were to enact unjust laws or take measures contrary to moral order, such arrangements would not be binding in conscience.  In such a case, 'authority breaks down completely and results in shameful abuse"' (1903). 

"In keeping with the social nature of man, the good of each individual is necessarily related to the common good, which in turn can be defined only in reference to the human person" (1905). In other words, the individual person and the group are not in conflict or opposition. Therefore, public policy must account for both. The popular notion of a higher ethic based on some abstract idea of humanity and systems over individual flesh and blood persons is false. Thus, "In the name of the common good, public authorities are bound to respect the fundamental and inalienable rights of the human person" (1907). And "...the common good requires peace, that is, the stability and security of a just order.  It presupposes that authority should ensure by morally acceptable means the security of society and its members.  It is the basis of the right to legitimate personal and collective defense" (1909).

Frequent use of the sacraments and knowing what the Church teaches about human nature, relationships, the natural law, the legitimate and proper exercise of authority, individual rights, and the common good will help prepare Catholics to participate in the political arena responsibly and with conviction. And given the extensive secularization of our society and our government's response to 9/11, Catholics may be America's last defense one day.
 
 
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Michael Terheyden was born into a Catholic family, but that is not why he is a Catholic. He is a Catholic because he believes that truth is real, that it is beautiful and good, and that the fullness of truth is in the Catholic Church. However, he knows that God's grace operating throughout his life is the main reason he is a Catholic. He is greatly blessed to share his faith and his life with his beautiful wife, Dorothy. They have four grown children and three grandchildren.

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