I was born a few months after 9/11, but the “shared silence” still reverberates through the day’s most iconic media. Bush’s first pitch feels like a singular moment in contemporary American history that just isn’t possible today, like you said. Thanks for sharing this.
Samuel, this post has struck such a nerve for me in that you've put words to something that I've struggled with for years but never understood why.
Context: I'm one of several pastors/elders at a medium-sized church in NE Ohio. My fellow elders and I have an agreement (not a mandate) that we won't use social media for political or social commentary. So if you were to surf through our profiles, you would see a hodgepodge of family and church events, anniversaries and birthdays, and the like. Maybe once in a while you'd see a post supporting a local/national candidate around election time, but nothing inflammatory or algorithmically attractive.
That said, there's been a nagging - sometimes internal, sometimes from people in my church - to "make a statement" when a national event takes place, and the quickest and easiest place to do that is social media. Charlie Kirk's death, the ICE raids in Minneapolis and currently on the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH - there seems to be a desire to "hear what the pastor thinks" on these events as they are folding. "Pastor, what should we think about Charlie Kirk's death? He was a martyr, right?" COVID and mask mandates were pretty divisive in our church, and Ohio had a pretty forward-acting governor and attorney general. "Pastor, we as a church need to know how we should think about these mandates - these are just political moves, aren't they? Do we have to obey them?"
It's true that a church should hear wisdom from their leadership, but I've/we've resisted the urge to be posting our thoughts on our Facebook profiles. Instead we've had ALOT of personal conversations, and maybe an occasional special church meeting with congregation/leader interaction. But if people in our church are looking for our "hot takes" on current events, they won't get them from us online - they have our phone numbers.
In truth, I'm really glad that we have acted this way. But I'd also say that our church is still ingesting social commentary from other believers, and sometimes it's hard to compete (for example, John MacArthur's COVID stance in California was Gospel truth for many in my church). And I'm often guilty myself: the last several weeks included more than one scrolling session for me on how people were processing the downfall of G3 ministries.
If you need ideas for the future, maybe you could write an article for us pastors and even laypeople on the pros and cons of using social media to produce the commentary that surrounds events like Charlie Kirk, 9/11, etc. Because while I don't want to neglect a legitimate opportunity to provide thoughtful help, I also don't want to be bound by the necessity of "making a statement" each time a tragedy occurs.
Thank you again for your work, and sincere apologies for the longer response.
Very valid point. I recently watched Bush’s pitch at Yankees game, and it feels like a completely different world. We are so much more cynical, and social media has taken the gravitas out of everything
After the USA hockey team won gold, watching our players be so happy in winning for their country, I felt nostalgic for the world we lost. The next day, I got online to see it was immediately politicized and polarized into left/right bickering. We can't even be happy about our wins together
Thank you for such a concise summary of many things that I have been unable to articulate.
This is such an important perspective! Thank you for helping us to consider remembering well.
I didn't grow up with cable TV and was homeschooled. I remember so much less of that day than my peers. I simultaneously do and don't envy them.
I was born a few months after 9/11, but the “shared silence” still reverberates through the day’s most iconic media. Bush’s first pitch feels like a singular moment in contemporary American history that just isn’t possible today, like you said. Thanks for sharing this.
Samuel, this post has struck such a nerve for me in that you've put words to something that I've struggled with for years but never understood why.
Context: I'm one of several pastors/elders at a medium-sized church in NE Ohio. My fellow elders and I have an agreement (not a mandate) that we won't use social media for political or social commentary. So if you were to surf through our profiles, you would see a hodgepodge of family and church events, anniversaries and birthdays, and the like. Maybe once in a while you'd see a post supporting a local/national candidate around election time, but nothing inflammatory or algorithmically attractive.
That said, there's been a nagging - sometimes internal, sometimes from people in my church - to "make a statement" when a national event takes place, and the quickest and easiest place to do that is social media. Charlie Kirk's death, the ICE raids in Minneapolis and currently on the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH - there seems to be a desire to "hear what the pastor thinks" on these events as they are folding. "Pastor, what should we think about Charlie Kirk's death? He was a martyr, right?" COVID and mask mandates were pretty divisive in our church, and Ohio had a pretty forward-acting governor and attorney general. "Pastor, we as a church need to know how we should think about these mandates - these are just political moves, aren't they? Do we have to obey them?"
It's true that a church should hear wisdom from their leadership, but I've/we've resisted the urge to be posting our thoughts on our Facebook profiles. Instead we've had ALOT of personal conversations, and maybe an occasional special church meeting with congregation/leader interaction. But if people in our church are looking for our "hot takes" on current events, they won't get them from us online - they have our phone numbers.
In truth, I'm really glad that we have acted this way. But I'd also say that our church is still ingesting social commentary from other believers, and sometimes it's hard to compete (for example, John MacArthur's COVID stance in California was Gospel truth for many in my church). And I'm often guilty myself: the last several weeks included more than one scrolling session for me on how people were processing the downfall of G3 ministries.
If you need ideas for the future, maybe you could write an article for us pastors and even laypeople on the pros and cons of using social media to produce the commentary that surrounds events like Charlie Kirk, 9/11, etc. Because while I don't want to neglect a legitimate opportunity to provide thoughtful help, I also don't want to be bound by the necessity of "making a statement" each time a tragedy occurs.
Thank you again for your work, and sincere apologies for the longer response.
Very valid point. I recently watched Bush’s pitch at Yankees game, and it feels like a completely different world. We are so much more cynical, and social media has taken the gravitas out of everything
After the USA hockey team won gold, watching our players be so happy in winning for their country, I felt nostalgic for the world we lost. The next day, I got online to see it was immediately politicized and polarized into left/right bickering. We can't even be happy about our wins together