The Presence of God in World Trade Center

[Soldier4Christ]

The Presence of God in World Trade Center


(AgapePress) - When Steven Spielberg remade War of the Worlds, my biggest complaint was that, amid all of this mayhem, the audience never once sees Ray Ferrier, the frantic father, pray. Unlike the 1953 original, in which everyone across the country was huddled in churches petitioning God for deliverance from the Martian spacecrafts, by 2005, I guess, no one had an inclination to call out to the Almighty as heat rays were vaporizing everything in sight. I just didn't buy it. But where family-friendly Spielberg, who made The Prince of Egypt, could not find a place for God in his remake, in steps Oliver Stone -- an equally accomplished, if often subversive, filmmaker -- and surprises everyone. His God-infused World Trade Center is the most spiritually honest film of the year. Stone uncovers every Christian aspect of this true story and gives it full voice. The results linger long after the lights come up.

World Trade Center (opening today, August 9, in U.S. theaters) tells the real-life story of Sergeant John McLoughlin and Officer Will Jimeno, both from the Port Authority Police Department in New York City. Answering the call on September 11, 2001, men from the Port Authority rushed to the scene. But nothing could have prepared them for this nightmare scenario in broad daylight. The twin towers of the World Trade Center were blazing, people threw themselves to their deaths from the upper floors to escape immolation, and more were trapped inside trying to find a way out. Five brave volunteers from the Port Authority stepped forward to do what they vowed -- to protect and serve. They entered the tower to get others out and found themselves in the middle of the most horrific building collapse in history. After helping others to freedom, three of the five died, and McLoughlin and Jimeno were trapped. And deep in the twisted rubble they did what most people would do: they talked, they pored over their lives, and they prayed. From prayer comes comfort, and, out in the world, sacrificial action; action that moves from death to life.

A Prayer in the Darkness
When people pray, things happen. As Jimeno and McLoughlin lay trapped beneath crushing debris, barely able to move, each calls out to God. Jimeno first begins to pray, but is distracted as explosions rip through the other buildings that continue to fall about them. McLoughlin, pinned down as the deafening roar of new debris threatens to extinguish what little hope he has, screams The Lord's Prayer. Imminent death has a way of removing pretense and revealing the heart. Viewers who have come to see The Lord's Prayer as a rote exercise will not think so again -- ever.

Certainly others prayed on 9/11, and perished nonetheless. We cannot know how God dealt with each one of their souls. Was God speaking to them, comforting them in their final moment? We have no way to know. There are secrets that belong only to God. But Stone does not shrink from the spiritual experiences of these two men who lived. And theirs is a story of a God who answers prayer, comes to them in their need, and calls others to their aid.

Religious Vision
As McLoughlin and Jimeno lie entombed, Jimeno is given a vision. But rather than another one of those impersonal long white tunnels that the nearly departed swear come for them, Jimeno sees something else; or rather, Someone. Looking down upon him, Jimeno sees the image of The Sacred Heart of Jesus. He is not calling Jimeno to heaven. Jimeno says, "I saw Jesus and he held a bottle of water. He's telling us something, Sarge. He's telling us to come home." It is this hope of making it out alive that gives Jimeno the strength to keep tapping on a pipe in case a rescue unit should come by. It encourages Jimeno and McLoughlin to talk so that death will not take them in their sleep.

Skeptics will call Jimeno's vision "wishful thinking" or hallucination. But as C.S. Lewis explained, "If a skeptic has already decided that miracles do not and cannot occur, then even if one should take place right in front of his nose, he would simply dismiss it as a coincidence, a natural anomaly, or, like Scrooge, as the result of 'an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato.'" Stone does not look away, or try to dismiss the vision with a wink, or give a "rational" explanation for this non-rational event. He lets the story speak for itself and allows the audience to experience the comfort that Jimeno sensed as God spoke to him in the darkness. And He was speaking to others as well.

Calling and Sacrifice
All the way over in Connecticut, retired United States Marine Corps Staff Sergeant-turned-accountant David Karnes sees the impact of the airplanes on the towers, and goes to church to pray. God speaks to him there. Karnes tells his pastor, "I've got to go down there. God gave me a gift. I feel Him calling on me for this mission." As he walks on the rubble he is mysteriously joined by another Marine, Sergeant Thomas, and together they call out, searching for survivors. Ultimately they discover McLoughlin and Jimeno. Quickly, a team is assembled and the rescue begins in earnest. All the men involved risk their lives in the perilous debris for the faint hope of pulling these two men out alive.

How is a viewer to react to Karnes' claim in the film that he was gifted and called by God to locate and help rescue victims at the World Trade Center? Stone simply presents the facts and lets the viewer decide. In doing so, Stone has done about as much to redeem soldiering as a vocation as Spielberg did with Saving Private Ryan's Christian sniper, Private Daniel Jackson, with one crucial difference: Staff Sergeant Karnes is no fictional character -- he is the real deal. Maintaining Karnes' Christian witness was integral to the telling of his story, and Stone did not hesitate.

Throughout the film, viewers are also confronted with scenes of unimaginable sacrifice. The debris pile on which the rescue workers labor is unstable, threatening to engulf them at any moment. They continue without flinching. Even each of the buried men, whom one would suppose would do anything to get out, is willing to literally sacrifice himself for the other. If a film more beautifully depicting greater self-sacrifice has been released this year, I haven't seen it. Virtue upon virtue, it is stunning to behold.

Out of Darkness, Light
Implications abound. If someone has a calling, there must be a Caller. If someone has a gift, there must be One who gives. The prayers, the visions, the calling, the sacrifice, the sheer risk of it all to save two men who certainly should have died is an overwhelming experience, made all the more so because it actually happened. All of it.

McLoughlin says, "9/11 showed us what people were capable of." He is right, of course, in every sense of those words. The destruction and terror demonstrated the great evil of which people are capable. Stone chooses not to focus on that darker, yet in some ways easier and more visceral, path. Instead, in the depth of the abyss, we see portrayed on the screen, images of the redemption that can arise when people choose faith, courage, and self-denial. World Trade Center is a film that should challenge Christians to pray with expectation, seek to serve, and never be surprised when God chooses to move in miraculous ways.

[airIam2worship]

Amen Brother, this is a movie I want to see. Even though, that was one of the worst days in every American's life, we should never forget that so many died, and this was the day that for once our Nation came togther in prayer. I will never forget that morning as I sat in a Neurologist's office awaiting my turn, as I sat watching the news channel the Tv was tuned in to, I was horrified, to say the least, as I watched live when the 2nd plane hit the 2nd tower.  Apart from crying the only other thing left for me to do was pray. That was what put me thru the next 2 days. One member of my family was missing, thank God he had not gone to work his normal truck route that day, instead he went to a different stop first. And also my son had worked 2 buildings away from the WTC, his company was moving to Colorado and he chose not to go so he was released the Friday before, he hadn't told anyone in the family yet. God answers prayers, anyone could call those things that happened with my family members coincidence, but I know that God hears my prayers for their safety and protection every single day. I know it was God.

[Shammu]

I can remember watching TV, I though the attack was a movie.  Least till the cussing started, then I knew it was real. I saw the first tower burning, and then later second plane hit. 

[Soldier4Christ]

God answers prayers, anyone could call those things that happened with my family members coincidence, but I know that God hears my prayers for their safety and protection every single day. I know it was God.

Amen sister. The hand of God was there protecting many people that day.

I had been sleeping in a recliner while recovering from open heart surgery, not yet able to get in or out of bed without help. I laid there watching the entire thing right from the first broadcast of it. The confusion, the deaths, the fears of so many being broadcast live. The one thing that I saw above all that is how so many were able to escape that tragedy. Many and I do mean many that were either late to work or didn't work that day of people that were always there and on time normally. I saw one man that was going down the stairwell and got so tired that he sat down on is briefcase for a few minutes when the unbeknown to him the building collapsed. When it was finished he was sitting on his briefcase still but on top of the rubble, not under it.

[Brother Jerry]

Yep that is one to go see

[mdcyguy]

Great movie! Everyone should see it!

Mick


Oops, removed links to the my blog where I posted a review... should have read the rules first.

[airIam2worship]

Oops, removed links to the my blog where I posted a review... should have read the rules first.

Thank you, Mick. Welcome to CU 

[Sapphire W34P0N]

When Steven Spielberg remade War of the Worlds, my biggest complaint was that, amid all of this mayhem, the audience never once sees Ray Ferrier, the frantic father, pray. Unlike the 1953 original, in which everyone across the country was huddled in churches petitioning God for deliverance from the Martian spacecrafts, by 2005, I guess, no one had an inclination to call out to the Almighty as heat rays were vaporizing everything in sight.

Yeah, but in the actual book (which was written in 1898) he doesn't pray either. So really in that respect, Spielberg was more accurate. The movie still sucked, though.

Anyway, World Trade Center is just Hollywood using a tragedy as an excuse for more money. It wouldn't be so bad if they waited a little longer, or if they didn't use actors that are already too rich for their (or anyone else's) own good. I personally can't support this movie that plays on people's emotions just so the rich can get richer.

[ibTina]

I saw this movie over the weekend, it was ok. I guess I expected more from all the hype I have heard. There were 20 people pulled from the collapsed buildings. So I wonder why we did not get all 20 peoples 'stories'? I understand that maybe not all want to do this, but I would have been interested in them too. In any event, God Bless them all and I hope that they are all doing well.

[David_james]

I'm canadian and I think it's too soon. Also it's abit unfair just to show one story.
The United 93 movie was good though

[airIam2worship]

I'm canadian and I think it's too soon. Also it's abit unfair just to show one story.
The United 93 movie was good though

Hello David, welcome to CU 

David a lot of people do think it's too soon, it will 5 years on that infamous day 911 yet it seems like it was yesterday. Yes sometimes it seems like the pain will never end. As Sister Tina said there were other people that survived too, and as she said perhaps they are not ready to tell their story yet, it is a very hard thing to live with. Just thinking about the family, friends and co workers they lost, and what they went through must be so terrible to live with. I pray for these survivors, and for the families that lost loved ones. I have a cousin who lost his wife in the first tower that went down. They have 3 children, and it has been agonzing for my cousin and his children. He won't even talk much to the family about it. I can fully understand 

[Soldier4Christ]

I have a friend that was lost in the 911 attack on the Pentagon. His family to this day cannot talk about this without crying. It is a difficult thing to deal with.