Violet Voices

Keeping Today’s Terror Threats In Perspective

I’m a mom. It’s part of the job description to worry about and try to protect my kids. I don’t like waking up to news of terrorist plots to blow up airplanes. As an author and speaker, I am the one most likely in our family to have to fly somewhere. I have grown used to the little voice in my heart that, during the moment of final hugs and kisses at the airport drop off curb, wonders, “Is this goodbye for ever?”

But I also get angry at the way our media, our government, and even at times our churches do their level best to cultivate and enhance those normal fears. We have become a fear-driven society. Just turn on the television today and watch the talking heads. What are they focusing on? Are they praising the police and security officials whose investigative skills uncovered this alleged plot? Or are they focusing on the “what might have been” of “mass murder on an unimaginable scale”?

What is the point of cultivating this sort of fear? Could it be that the more we are paralyzed by fear, the less we question the atrocities carried out in the name of that fear? Are we being controlled and manipulated, cowed into silence by the fear of possible disaster?

I think this is especially pertinent to those of us who claim to be followers of Christ. Our Bible says, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.” Where is our love? Where is our faith? If God has given us the power to not be controlled by fear, the power to love and to face life with reason and thoughtful choices, WHY are we letting the daily disasters and near-tragedies overwhelm us?

Part of me wonders how real this plot was. There has been so much propaganda, so much spin, so many times of crying wolf, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t. But regardless of what the truth is, I know that my God is in control and that He loves His creation. He loves everyone–terrorists, politicians, soldiers, people on airplanes, and my family safe at home.

I don’t need to live in fear or make decisions based on the fears of others around me. I don’t need the government to “keep me safe”–though I appreciate sincere efforts to do so. My life and the lives of those I love are in the hands of God. None of us will live a second longer than He plans, and none of us will die in a way that has not been appointed by Him. He is my security, He is my hope.

So I’m going to keep the TV and its cacophany of nervous, jittery talking heads turned off. I’m going to go shopping. I’m going to buy plane tickets for my next writers conference. I’m going to support politicians who are committed to pursuing peace and justice for the defenseless. I’m going to shout to whoever I can that the best security measures our country has are those that involve building cooperative relationships with the rest of the world and walking in humility and an attitude of service to others, like Jesus did. I’m going to encourage myself and my children to learn to see the world through the other guy’s eyes, to walk in her shoes awhile instead of pointing fingers and acting in self-preservation. To listen, to think, to learn. To reflect and not be hasty. This is my responsibility as a woman, as a writer, and as a mother.

I found an essay written about a month ago by a Catholic woman, a nun. I think, in light of the events that we’ll be having shoved down our throats for the next week or so, her observations and insight are especially appropriate. In her essay, “What Else Could We Possibly Have Done?” she writes:

And here, in the United States, paranoia grips the land. The Constitution is being shredded one line at a time. We are facing a decade-long moratorium on social issues, because all our money is going into war against whom we don’t know and where we’re not sure. In the meantime, the richest country in the world cannot have universal medical insurance, day care services, subsidized housing or welfare programs, and the army is where the young go to get an education. If they make it back in any condition to go to school.

No, the world did not change after 9/11. We did.

The question is , what else could we possibly have done? Is there any kind of response that would have been more effective than what we did? And if so, why aren’t we doing it?

This is the type of reason and reflection and soul-searching that is the perfect antidote to fear. My guess is that Joan Chittister is not sitting glued to her television today, letting the voices of our culture carve out an ulcer in her stomach. Hers is the sort of woman’s voice of which we need to hear more.

The Keeping Today’s Terror Threats In Perspective by Violet Voices, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Written By: Meredith Efken
Posted under: Women's Voices .  Email This Post