Sarah, this is powerful. What struck me most is the way you trace two collapses—one physical and immediate, the other cultural and slow-moving. The towers fell in a morning; the attempt to pull Christianity out from under the West has taken decades. But your story exposes something the New Atheists never accounted for: you can tear down symbols, but you cannot dismantle a foundation that God Himself laid.
The irony you highlight is profound. The loudest critics of Christianity assumed that removing faith would reveal a sturdier, more rational world. Instead, it revealed how much of our moral vocabulary, our sense of dignity, and even our scientific confidence rested on truths they never bothered to examine. When the dust settled, their arguments looked less like careful reasoning and more like the emotional recoil of a civilization in shock.
Your testimony reminds us that the Gospel doesn’t crumble under scrutiny. It holds. It explains. It illuminates. And it continues to draw people—not through slogans or polemics, but through the sheer solidity of a God who speaks, acts, and anchors reality.
Thank you for telling this story with honesty and courage. In an age still wrestling with the fallout of that cultural collapse, voices like yours help people see that what fell that day was not the foundation. Christ remains.
Great narrative of your experience! I see the failure of significant national debate and discussion of God, Christianity, relating it to our American founding, as well as logical and reasonable, and yes, thinking populist expressions of truth concerning faith, reality, and human existence. That is a spiritual battle I know, not just investigative or literary, and I believe it must be wisely pressed in every way possible. Thanks for sharing.
I likewise recall that morning perfectly, with a similar series of thoughts: my Mom, from Brooklyn, moved to WI after being kicked out of her NYC college after a McCarthy-era arrest, for picketing for a labor union (she still has a soft place in her heart for communism), —took us to the Empire State Building, when I was young; telling us of that floor still-closed, after being hit by a plane when she was 16. So working outdoors at a shopping center I thought the same, “a private plane accident”…until the second tower was hit, as shop owners reported the latest from their doors.
I was saved earlier in history and earlier in my life, at age 21 in 1980, however, after refusing confirmation at 12 in Barack Obama’s denomination, the (northern!) UCC, where my Mom, though not born again, dutifully took us, she having been a cultural Christian.
Sadly, as an aside, when I’d told that same pastor that I couldn’t say “Jesus was born of a virgin” and had “risen again”, he told me “you don’t have to look at it that way!” —[Like you, in your reading of Dawkins, that helped ME lose all faith: not in atheists, but in “fake Christians,” such as were the only ones I’d met so far; or, who were, at least, the most outspoken ones in my life!]
I had been a Christian longer than you, on 911; and was already looking for signs in life that I myself might get those (controversial in our Christian world) “PROPHECIES”, that we are not to “despise”, —from outside our dimension.
As I worked, that day, doing parking lot maintenance, (for some background, I often found tools, money, and even a Luini oil painting, of two ships: a knock off of a well-known artist, a painting that still graces our fireplace)
That morning, I first found a 1/4” nut driving bit (for a hand drill or impact wrench) on the pavement. But it had no hexagonal flats inside, and was useless. Perhaps a Chinese-made manufacturing error. As I contemplated the towers disaster and walked farther, I looked down and found another 1/4” nut driving bit which was functional: and the thought came to me, given this statistical anomaly, and my heightened receptivity to any input that disastrous day, that in the tower bombing, even with thousands already thought dead, we, in this attack we had dodged a bullet, by Grace; as they were reporting the low occupancy at that hour: but that more, and deadlier things were to come. I haven’t shaken that feeling .
Yesterday, as I finally got some vacation with my wife this week in WI (pretty busy this time of year, in my outdoor work, and sorry to drive you from YOUR busy schedule , if you do read this long comment!) I was finally re-reading “The Last Battle”, by CS Lewis. My Mom, in the “fair and balanced” way of the old-school liberal, had read us all 7 Narnia books, starting when I was 8, when my physicist Dad (who didn’t attend church except Christmas) had decided it was unnatural for us kids to be glued to our B&W Motorola television for hours; and refused to take the TV to the lab and fix it one last time…No TV, for four years, was the result.
So many prophetic things about a child’s book! I think every Christian ADULT should read what WWI & WWII and The Lord had taught Lewis about Islam (ref: the Caloemenes) libertarians (ref: the Dwarfs) secular nonbelievers who wish to rid the earth of religion by stealth and syncretism, (ref: Ginger the Cat, and the Calormene General,) and also the social and political Libertarians, who wish neither God nor Satan & the state, to rule them, but wind up in a dark limbo, unable in death to differentiate good from evil, even as they’d been unable, in life, to do so. And your comment about the dissatisfaction with all religion, which followed the brief 911 “revival” of some, is so amazingly illustrated later in that book by the treachery of the secular Dwarfs, who ridicule both Aslan and Tash, [God and Satan] and turn the talking animals toward confusion and inaction.
Here is a quote from that book; so many more quotes were equally prophetic; but to keep this comment shorter I’ll only pick one: which stuck out to me yesterday, as I looked also at a Charlie Kirk comment, saying “Islam is the sword the elites are using, to cut the throat of America:”
“FOR A LONG TIME THEY COULD NOT speak nor even shed a tear. Then the Unicorn stamped the ground with his hoof, and shook his mane, and spoke.
"Sire," he said, "there is now no need of counsel. We see that the Apes plans were laid deeper than we dreamed of. Doubtless he has been long in secret traffic with The Tisroc, [an Islamic doppelgänger,] and as soon as he had found the lion-skin [Skin of the lie which will create the “Crislam” religion commensurate with “Tashlan” the antichrist Lewis figure], he sent him word to make ready his navy for the taking of Cair Paravel and all Narnia. Nothing now remains for us seven but to go back to Stable Hill, proclaim the truth, and take the adventure that Aslan sends us. And if, by a great marvel, we defeat those thirty Calormenes who are with the Ape, then to turn again and die in battle with the far greater host of them that will soon march from Cair Paravel.")
The rise of once-“conservative” influencers turncoats, who’d begun with us fighting and ridiculing the Deep State, but now, like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Nick Fuentes (“conservative” since high school) but now slander, and shoot deadly arrows at both God’s Millenial Embassy, Israel, and the Jews & Christians who support them, surely show the “Dwarf” race to have been a piece of prophetic literary genius.
Sarah, thanks for this essay, another one I can relate to so closely, as you know. I had exactly the same reaction to God Delusion, and for the same reasons. And thanks for the plug about 911. God Bless.
On that day I was on the third floor of the Dell Round Rock 5 building working as a software engineer. I remember, when the second plane hit the other tower, explaining to a younger colleague that this was not an accident, rather it had to be a deliberate attack.
Great comments. Similiar to my own journey. I was a Christian, but thought, "let's hear them out." I kept waiting for the New Atheists to present cogent arguments, then was aghast as I read 'The God Delusion'. I thought, "This is it? This is their best arguments?" I went away feeling ashamed for them.
Thought maybe you were going to delve into the current state of NYC. The dust certainly has not settled there as Islam is raising its ugly head once more.
Sarah, this is powerful. What struck me most is the way you trace two collapses—one physical and immediate, the other cultural and slow-moving. The towers fell in a morning; the attempt to pull Christianity out from under the West has taken decades. But your story exposes something the New Atheists never accounted for: you can tear down symbols, but you cannot dismantle a foundation that God Himself laid.
The irony you highlight is profound. The loudest critics of Christianity assumed that removing faith would reveal a sturdier, more rational world. Instead, it revealed how much of our moral vocabulary, our sense of dignity, and even our scientific confidence rested on truths they never bothered to examine. When the dust settled, their arguments looked less like careful reasoning and more like the emotional recoil of a civilization in shock.
Your testimony reminds us that the Gospel doesn’t crumble under scrutiny. It holds. It explains. It illuminates. And it continues to draw people—not through slogans or polemics, but through the sheer solidity of a God who speaks, acts, and anchors reality.
Thank you for telling this story with honesty and courage. In an age still wrestling with the fallout of that cultural collapse, voices like yours help people see that what fell that day was not the foundation. Christ remains.
Thank you.
Great narrative of your experience! I see the failure of significant national debate and discussion of God, Christianity, relating it to our American founding, as well as logical and reasonable, and yes, thinking populist expressions of truth concerning faith, reality, and human existence. That is a spiritual battle I know, not just investigative or literary, and I believe it must be wisely pressed in every way possible. Thanks for sharing.
I likewise recall that morning perfectly, with a similar series of thoughts: my Mom, from Brooklyn, moved to WI after being kicked out of her NYC college after a McCarthy-era arrest, for picketing for a labor union (she still has a soft place in her heart for communism), —took us to the Empire State Building, when I was young; telling us of that floor still-closed, after being hit by a plane when she was 16. So working outdoors at a shopping center I thought the same, “a private plane accident”…until the second tower was hit, as shop owners reported the latest from their doors.
I was saved earlier in history and earlier in my life, at age 21 in 1980, however, after refusing confirmation at 12 in Barack Obama’s denomination, the (northern!) UCC, where my Mom, though not born again, dutifully took us, she having been a cultural Christian.
Sadly, as an aside, when I’d told that same pastor that I couldn’t say “Jesus was born of a virgin” and had “risen again”, he told me “you don’t have to look at it that way!” —[Like you, in your reading of Dawkins, that helped ME lose all faith: not in atheists, but in “fake Christians,” such as were the only ones I’d met so far; or, who were, at least, the most outspoken ones in my life!]
I had been a Christian longer than you, on 911; and was already looking for signs in life that I myself might get those (controversial in our Christian world) “PROPHECIES”, that we are not to “despise”, —from outside our dimension.
As I worked, that day, doing parking lot maintenance, (for some background, I often found tools, money, and even a Luini oil painting, of two ships: a knock off of a well-known artist, a painting that still graces our fireplace)
That morning, I first found a 1/4” nut driving bit (for a hand drill or impact wrench) on the pavement. But it had no hexagonal flats inside, and was useless. Perhaps a Chinese-made manufacturing error. As I contemplated the towers disaster and walked farther, I looked down and found another 1/4” nut driving bit which was functional: and the thought came to me, given this statistical anomaly, and my heightened receptivity to any input that disastrous day, that in the tower bombing, even with thousands already thought dead, we, in this attack we had dodged a bullet, by Grace; as they were reporting the low occupancy at that hour: but that more, and deadlier things were to come. I haven’t shaken that feeling .
Yesterday, as I finally got some vacation with my wife this week in WI (pretty busy this time of year, in my outdoor work, and sorry to drive you from YOUR busy schedule , if you do read this long comment!) I was finally re-reading “The Last Battle”, by CS Lewis. My Mom, in the “fair and balanced” way of the old-school liberal, had read us all 7 Narnia books, starting when I was 8, when my physicist Dad (who didn’t attend church except Christmas) had decided it was unnatural for us kids to be glued to our B&W Motorola television for hours; and refused to take the TV to the lab and fix it one last time…No TV, for four years, was the result.
So many prophetic things about a child’s book! I think every Christian ADULT should read what WWI & WWII and The Lord had taught Lewis about Islam (ref: the Caloemenes) libertarians (ref: the Dwarfs) secular nonbelievers who wish to rid the earth of religion by stealth and syncretism, (ref: Ginger the Cat, and the Calormene General,) and also the social and political Libertarians, who wish neither God nor Satan & the state, to rule them, but wind up in a dark limbo, unable in death to differentiate good from evil, even as they’d been unable, in life, to do so. And your comment about the dissatisfaction with all religion, which followed the brief 911 “revival” of some, is so amazingly illustrated later in that book by the treachery of the secular Dwarfs, who ridicule both Aslan and Tash, [God and Satan] and turn the talking animals toward confusion and inaction.
Here is a quote from that book; so many more quotes were equally prophetic; but to keep this comment shorter I’ll only pick one: which stuck out to me yesterday, as I looked also at a Charlie Kirk comment, saying “Islam is the sword the elites are using, to cut the throat of America:”
“FOR A LONG TIME THEY COULD NOT speak nor even shed a tear. Then the Unicorn stamped the ground with his hoof, and shook his mane, and spoke.
"Sire," he said, "there is now no need of counsel. We see that the Apes plans were laid deeper than we dreamed of. Doubtless he has been long in secret traffic with The Tisroc, [an Islamic doppelgänger,] and as soon as he had found the lion-skin [Skin of the lie which will create the “Crislam” religion commensurate with “Tashlan” the antichrist Lewis figure], he sent him word to make ready his navy for the taking of Cair Paravel and all Narnia. Nothing now remains for us seven but to go back to Stable Hill, proclaim the truth, and take the adventure that Aslan sends us. And if, by a great marvel, we defeat those thirty Calormenes who are with the Ape, then to turn again and die in battle with the far greater host of them that will soon march from Cair Paravel.")
The rise of once-“conservative” influencers turncoats, who’d begun with us fighting and ridiculing the Deep State, but now, like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Nick Fuentes (“conservative” since high school) but now slander, and shoot deadly arrows at both God’s Millenial Embassy, Israel, and the Jews & Christians who support them, surely show the “Dwarf” race to have been a piece of prophetic literary genius.
Sarah, thanks for this essay, another one I can relate to so closely, as you know. I had exactly the same reaction to God Delusion, and for the same reasons. And thanks for the plug about 911. God Bless.
On that day I was on the third floor of the Dell Round Rock 5 building working as a software engineer. I remember, when the second plane hit the other tower, explaining to a younger colleague that this was not an accident, rather it had to be a deliberate attack.
Great comments. Similiar to my own journey. I was a Christian, but thought, "let's hear them out." I kept waiting for the New Atheists to present cogent arguments, then was aghast as I read 'The God Delusion'. I thought, "This is it? This is their best arguments?" I went away feeling ashamed for them.
Thought maybe you were going to delve into the current state of NYC. The dust certainly has not settled there as Islam is raising its ugly head once more.