Christian Nationalist Propaganda after World Trade Center Attack

Art historians can tell us why some pictures have a strong emotional impact on us. In a free booklet (available in PDF format if you can read Danish) issued by the Faculty of Humanities at Aarhus University, Denmark, focusing on the topic "war," art historian Lars Kiel Bertelsen takes a closer look at the powerful and famous pictures taken after the World Trade Center attack and compares them with religious and nationalist pictures, which have a striking resemblance.

There are comparatively few pictures available showing situations of horror, fear, and defeat from the World Trade Center attack used in the media coverage of the event. But there are numerous pictures of tired, heroic rescuers or survivors that escaped before the buildings collapsed.

One of the most famous pictures is that of the fire fighters carrying the dead body of the fire department's priest, Father Symon Judge. This picture is compared with the painting of Jesus being taken down from his cross to be resurrected from the dead. The picture receives the same symbolic value, presenting the dead priest as a Christ or a saint. It is quite remarkable in this regard that the priest's name was "Judge."

Similarly, the picture of rescuers raising the American flag in the ruins of the Twin Towers is a striking parallel to the famous picture from Iwo Jima during the Second World War where American soldiers erected the flag on the top of the island to symbolize victory.

It is unclear whether the images were carefully selected by a skilled propaganda team, or whether they just had a strong emotional appeal to the American people who felt that the pictures communicated national history. Lars Kiel Bertelsen is convinced that in any event the pictures were consciously used to justify the Bush administration's "war on terror."

Regardless of intent, the choice of pictures expresses a cultural background—or a desired cultural background—that one wishes to communicate to others or reinforce in oneself.

In the case of the World Trade Center attack, the pictures communicate the Christian resurrection and victory which has been a recurring theme in the American rhetoric in the war against "the axis of evil." According to Lars Kiel Bertelsen: