The September 11th attack
Americans wear God on their sleeve

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer

The crowd rises, waving flags, at the end of the interfaith memorial service held Sunday at Yankee Stadium. Across the country Americans have turned to faith for healing and strength following the terrorist attacks. Associated Press library photo • Sept. 23, 2001

"America has a real propensity in times of trial to blend religion and statecraft," said Douglas Bomberger, a professor of musical history at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. "Usually, we're a secular society, but it seems like a crisis brings out the religious side of people, too."

In the two weeks since terrorists struck in New York and Washington, Americans have had little trouble wearing God on their sleeve, just as they've been wearing American flags and red-white-and-blue ribbons on their lapels. It's part of a very public healing process unlike anything we've needed before, observers say.

"After horrible events, people feel a need for community," Bomberger said. "Religious beliefs certainly lend themselves to community and pulling people together."

Many Americans, here and on the Mainland, have turned to traditional centers of worship as outlets for channeling grief, despair, confusion and anger, officials say. Attendance is up at churches, chapels and synagogues.

On the Friday after the attacks, for instance, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in downtown Honolulu was nearly full and "packed like Christmas" said Patrick Downes, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese. Usually about 50 people attend the noontime Mass.

At the Faith Assembly of God in Mililani there's been a small but consistent increase in attendance, said Associate Pastor Robert Leong.

"Church services allow us to express our feelings collectively," said Cromwell Crawford, a University of Hawai'i religion professor. "Religion is one of the greatest forces for bringing people together. We've all passed through this common experience and it's natural to want to share our thoughts and feelings with one another."

President Bush set the tone in his Sept. 20 address to Congress and the nation with several religious references. "Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them," he said. "In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may he watch over the United States of America. "

Suddenly it was almost cool to be on God's side, or to suggest that God was on America's side. Rock stars and TV news anchors talked about their own faith. "God is great!" a choked-up Julia Roberts told a national television audience during the Sept. 21 telethon to raise money for terrorist victims. Later in the show, Clint Eastwood expressed his wish for "the ultimate triumph — so help us, God."

Bob Hope, 98, has praised the "faith, strength and spirit" of the American people on his Web site, saying: "It is time to hug your neighbor and embrace your nation. God bless you! God bless our country!"

Store owners put "God Bless America" signs in their windows. Letter writers used the line as a signoff. Thousands of cell phone conversations ended the same way.

Sales of Bibles, from $1.99 paperback New Testaments to $100 leather-bound King James editions, have surged. So are books by Christian authors and Christian books on tape, as well as books about Islam, according to Christian book store owners around the country. "People want answers for some pretty big questions," said Bill Webb, owner of The Bread Basket in DeLand, Fla.

The trend found its most common expression when the nation seemed to rally around an 83-year-old, one-verse song, "God Bless America," which seemed to bring both comfort and pride to many people, like a national prayer.

"That's the song that seemed to symbolize what we were all searching for right after the attack," said John Mount, a University of Hawai'i music professor. "It's a prayer song and patriotic, too."

Bomberger said music works much like religion in building a community spirit in times of need.

"There's always been a great outpouring of music in times of war," he said. "A familiar song can really bring people together just like a religious service."

Irving Berlin, who left his home in Siberia for America when he was 5, first wrote "God Bless America" in 1918 for a Ziegfeld-style revue. The original version, however, was more militaristic and was considered too solemn for the comedy show, according to the Library of Congress, which has the original sheet music.

Twenty years later, Berlin changed the lyrics to reflect the mood of America on the verge of world war. Kate Smith's recorded version for CBS Radio soon became the unofficial national anthem during the war. Now, with talk of a new kind of war in the air, the nation is again taking to the song.

Members of Congress joined together on the day of the attacks to sing "God Bless America" on the steps of the Capitol. Broadway troupes began singing the song before each performance. A 10-year-old recording of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing "God Bless America" and other songs surged into the Top 50. Celine Dion's version on national television helped organizers raise more than $150 million for families of victims.

Last Sunday, Mount led the choir at Kailua United Methodist Church in a rousing version of the song in a scene that was repeated in dozens of churches and chapels and at services around the Islands. When a flautist opened the service at New Hope Christian Fellowship at Farrington High School playing "God Bless America," the worshippers joined in spontaneously and cheered when it was over.

"It's like a great rallying cry," Mount said. "The words really are more appropriate right now than the "Star-Spangled Banner" with the references about the rockets and bombardment."

Mount said the song's popularity is an indication of the nation coming together in ways it never has before.

"I've never seen anything like that in my lifetime, with the government and media embracing religion and calling for prayer," he said.

"It's like we've put everything aside for unity."

Even though the patriotic and religious expressions will fade in time, Cromwell believes that the American spiritual psyche has been permanently changed, just like the New York skyline.

"I don't think we can just rebuild the towers and get back to normal," he said. "The place where the towers stood will be like hallowed ground for Americans. The missing space will be a permanent reminder of our greater loss."

Cromwell warns, though, that expressions of faith can go too far.

"It's a good thing people when people find solace in the transcendent, but it can turn bad when the spiritual experience becomes politicized, and we actually begin to think this whole thing is a battle between our God and the evil represented by those who performed this destruction, and when we too readily see God as being on our side."

In a commentary that appeared just a month before the terrorist attack, "60 Minutes" correspondent Andy Rooney said he hated the way politicians end their speeches by saying "God Bless America."

"What kind of meaningless, self-serving thing is that to say, anyway?" Rooney asked. "I just dislike the idea of anyone using God's name to get in good with us, and I'll bet he doesn't like it, either."

Rooney admitted that his opinion would be so distasteful to Americans that it could end his career.

"God Bless America" also is indirectly responsible for another great American anthem. Folksinger Woody Guthrie told biographers before his death that he wrote "This Land Is Your Land" because he was tired of hearing Kate Smith's version of the Irving Berlin song. Early versions of Guthrie's song show each verse ending this way: "God blessed America for you and me."