SACRED GROUND?

A new plan for the World Trade Center will not infringe on the destroyed WTC's "footprint". I think that's a sensible (and sensitive) concession and memorial to those who died in the tragedy.

What bothers me is this use of the word "sacred" to describe the WTC site. The linked New York Post article uses the phrase "sacred ground" in its headline today. Of course, "sacred" conveys a religious significance. The Angel of the Lord told Moses from the burning bush to remove his sandals as Moses was treading on sacred ground, made that way by the Lord's presence. But in our secularized culture there is no clear idea what "sacred" really means. The 9-11 attacks have entered the American consciousness as not merely a national (and personal) tragedy worth remembering and memorializing, but also as a sort of civil-religious "holy day" of remembrance, the ground of the attacks being "sacred."

When we use words such as "sacred" loosely, we lose the true significance of their import. I mourn with those who lost loved ones during the 9-11 attacks; I support appropriate memorials and recognition. I do not support this secularized notion of "sacred," a concept that diminishes the true sacredness of God and the things of God.