 Posted Tuesday, September 12, 2006 9:24 PM
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With all the attention on yesterday's 5th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks I was thinking back to where I was that morning. It was my sophomore year at Prin and they used to always have the TVs in the concourse tuned to CNN. As I walked through the concourse on my way to class, I briefly caught a glimpse of something about an attack but didn't see enough to know the full extent of what had happened. There was a little bit of buzz about it in my economics class that morning. One student ran out of the class in tears after learning that the Pentagon had been hit, because her father worked there and she didn't know if he was ok. However, class went on without her. When class was over I had to walk through the concourse again to go back to my room. By then, there was a huge crowd of students watching CNN. Overall it was quiet in there but you could see the horror on people's faces. Suddenly one girl stepped out of the crowd and announced that we all needed to pray about this and we shouldn't stand there and be mesmerized by error.
I can remember how fiercely angry I was with that girl that morning. I wanted to yell at her to shut her mouth and have some sympathy for all our fellow Americans who had just died. I wanted to tell her she was an idiot for thinking that wasn't really happening. Unfortunately, I said nothing, I just followed everyone out of the concourse and went back to my room. No classes were cancelled that day and it seemed like everyone was pretending nothing had happened. I think they had a candle-lit hymn sing in the chapel that night, but I was too mad to attend.
In a strange way I am glad I was at Prin on September 11, 2001. The cold and unsympathetic CS community response to 9/11 was one of the reasons I began to question and dig into the religious teachings I had been raised on.
Courtney
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Posted Wednesday, September 13, 2006 10:55 AM
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As a fellow Principian, I can picture everything you describe in detail. I'm sure most of your classmates were struggling with how they "should" feel that morning -- needing to feel horror, sorrow, fear, and anger but feeling that those emotions were not really appropriate. Ugh -- I never want to go back to that way of thinking.
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Posted Tuesday, September 26, 2006 7:31 PM
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well courtney, you and I must have been walking down the concouse at the same time cause i vaguely remember someone saying that we should pray about the situation and steer away from the material picture. I think it was approaching "quiet time" and I had just gotten out of a class....but can't remember which one. Maybe you didn't get the memo...but I was informed about an immediate quiet time talk to address the situation from a metaphysical standpoint. I think I went...the whole time not really comprehending the reality of what had happened. The rest of the day certainly was very quiet. QUIET....a sign of not knowing how to react. I'm suprised they kept CNN on through the duration of the day.
toodles
Fully Relying On God for Salvation
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Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2007 10:51 AM
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I'm so grateful I was at Principia on 9/11. The entire country was consumed with fear and I was glad to be at a place where I felt safe and loved.
Jenny
(Edited by Moderator at the request of the author)
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Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2007 6:17 PM
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Hi Courtney,
Thank you for sharing your perspective on the 9/11 attacks and the response at Prin.
I know and respect your thinking and your belief that they were unsympathetic. But that is just your opinion and belief. You really do not know what people were feeling in their hearts.
They were just doing what most CS'ers would do in that situation. This is their religion and their beliefs, and they were acting in accord with their beliefs.
I understand your anger and wanting to shout. But I think their response was one way of dealing with the attack, as would anger and yelling be another response. One way is not better than another, or more right than another.
Obviously, you prefer to not act like CS'ers do anymore, and that is to be respected. But they have a right to act like they do and continue to do so. That is what makes this country so wonderful, the freedom to practice whatever religion people want to. Their is not one way to Heaven or one belief system.
So to me it is all understandable and even commendable, that is their response to the attacks.
I, myself, not being a CS, but into spirituality and New Thought, had a similar response to the attacks, almost like what you described their response to be. And I am not unsympathetic or cold, but am very compassionate and caring. But my spiritual teachings over the years reminded me that death is not the end, and all those souls are on the other side and not to grieve for those who died.
Now, some would think I was very cold and detached, but I was just following my spirituality and my beliefs, thinking it was doing the best good I can do in that situation. If I reacted with anger and hatred and wanting war, I thought that would only contribute to more hatred and anger and war.
I hope my sharing can help you see the CS'ers reactions in a new context, a new light. You still have every right to feel what you feel, but I hope you understand their reactions better now and can feel respect for how they reacted now in retrospect. And to understand all is to forgive all. Be not too hard on them, they were doing the best they could, just like you and I are doing the best we can at any moment. Steve
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Posted Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:54 AM
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Hi Courtney,
I hope to read a response from you to my post. I was wondering if you find anything helpful in it, or if I am way off.
I felt inspired to share what I did with you, thinking it may be of some help to you to see a little deeper into your interpretations at prin.
I look forward to your response. Steve
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Posted Wednesday, March 21, 2007 7:22 PM
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Hi Steve:
Don't think that us ex-C.S.ers are being hard on anyone - we're only being hard on the belief system, in pursuit of the truth. We're just analyzing it psycho-socially, and not on a level of personal condemnation. But as other posts reveal, Christian Scientists are often at a loss to deal with things in the material world (which we assert actually exists - see the C.S. funeral thread, and others).
And I must grant you, there really does seem to be something to New Age thought. There really should be an ultimate harmoniousness to the universe, shouldn't there? How could a perfect God make mistakes?!
But the problem is that we simply cannot know this spiritual side of our lives except in the most opaque and vague way. Whatever our ultimate spiritual reality might be, the material side is the side of us that our senses can deal with, and that will consequently utilize most of our conscious energy. That's why we have chosen a system that seems more in "harmony" (to borrow a term) with the real world, with it's matter, it's good and evil and it's rendition of who we are and where we came from.
MBE's solution to things is to say that the reality that we're obviously designed to deal with doesn't actually exist, and that we really live in the other world that we cannot sense at all. And what is this world like, according to MBE? Why, whatever we want it to be!
So how should someone react when 5,000 innocent people are murdered? The Christian Science answer here is that this is only an illusion, and that mortal mind has suggested that something wasn't fully harmonious about this situation. Just how we come to this conclusion isn't always clear, but that doesn't matter - we MUST come to it. That's Christian Science practice! Whether one would argue that it didn't happen, or that it did happen, but only in the participants' minds, is anyone's guess - but a Christian Scientist cannot admit that anything is really wrong here. ALL is harmonious - even 9/11, whatever it was in C.S.
Birdstrike
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Posted Wednesday, March 21, 2007 9:33 PM
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Hi Birdstrike,
Thanks for clarifying that you guys are not being hard on CS'ers but are being hard on the belief system of CS.
This is why I am still here at this forum. I like to hear both sides, to hear the pros and cons of CS teachings. If my only source of information about CS is from the Church or CS related sites, it will be very one sided.
By hanging out here, I get to hear the other side and make a more informative decision about what CS can do and cannot do for me.
So I really appreciate this forum and everyone who contributes. Thanks again for sharing your views.
And I agree, the whole thing about there being no matter and ignoring or denying the reality of things that are not good or perfect, as God sees them, is something I am struggling with myself. I am still not clear on MBE's meaning that there is no matter or Spirit in matter. But I am still seeking and trying to understand it. Steve
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Posted Thursday, March 22, 2007 1:26 AM
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| Birdstrike, The only thing I will quibble about is the Why, whatever we want it to be!
part of your post. I don't think that is representative of Christian Science.On the other parts of this message thread. There are only so many times you can watch a plane smash into a building without feeling numb. I agree with how this tragedy was covered on TV in many ways, though. No advertisements, continuous relay of breaking information. However, a lot of people that I have talked to have told me that they had to turn off the TV after awhile. It was just too heart-breaking to watch over and over again.
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Posted Thursday, March 22, 2007 1:32 PM
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I don't know, biggles, but a Christian Scientist might say, "the so-called material world is simply a reflection of our thoughts. Apparent dischord, such as the illusion of conflict between us and muslim radicals, or apparent suffering of the victims, is simply because we have not elevated our thought properly. Certainly, nothing can be "bad" about what the untrustable five physical senses tell us, because God is both "all" and good - so all is good. Except perhaps that we occasionally think that it's bad, of course. It's bad to think about "badness" in Christian Science, of course.
"Someday, we'll understand all of this".
Someday. . .
Birdstrike
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