Some called it “the day that changed America forever.”

One year ago this Wednesday, a band of nineteen outlaws piloted jet airplanes into New York City’s World Trade Center and the seat of American military power, the Pentagon. Another jet, apparently bound for the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., plowed into a field in Pennsylvania. At the end of the day, nearly 3,000 lives had been lost, the second and third tallest buildings in the United States had been reduced to rubble, and a nation had been traumatized.

As the first anniversary of September 11, 2001, arrives, what’s changed? Not much, it seems.

Want proof? Think about it — what was the biggest story in the news this week? The war against al-Qaeda? Airport security? The potential threat of biological or nuclear attack? Nope — what’s had America buzzing the loudest is the critical question of whether Kelly or Justin would win the title of “American Idol.” (Kelly won, in case you’ve just returned from vacation in Peru.)

In the aftermath of what we have come to call “9/11,” life in these United States has continued pretty much apace. Sure, the check-in lines are a little longer at the airport, but in my experience, airport lines have always been interminably long. It takes a few minutes more to enter a ball game or amusement park, and you can’t take as much stuff in with you as you formerly could. I can live with that. I believe most people can. But has the substance of our lives changed? Not so you’d notice.

I don’t mean to minimize the loss experienced by those whose loved ones died in the terrorist attacks. Without question, their lives were irrevocably altered. But in a materially different way than anyone else who’s had a family member murdered, or killed in an accident, or succumbed to a painful illness? Granted, not everyone’s death is replayed ad nauseum on the evening news. But still, death is death, and will be mourned no matter who, or how many, die.

Many speculated that the tragedy of 9/11 would turn more people to religion. Perhaps it did, momentarily — to that brand of religion that offers gentle homilies and smooth platitudes while demanding no true conversion or spiritual growth. That effect, like the effect of all self-centered and materially based religion, fades quickly, like dew evaporating off the hood of a car in summer. I haven’t seen any evidence that more people are seeking genuine truth as God’s word presents it, or that people have been motivated to significantly change their approach to spiritual things. We remain as shallow and superficial a people as we ever were. Which is too bad, really.

Human beings are remarkably reluctant to change. We manifest an uncanny resistance against doing or becoming anything different from what we’ve always done or been. Even the most horrific events in the world around us rarely improve us for very long. And even the sternest warnings of possible disaster fail to cause us to redirect our behavior.

Jesus told His disciples that as the destruction of Jerusalem approached, “Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:5-8). Did the Lord’s warning change the conduct of the citizens of that city? Did it turn them back to their God in great numbers? No more than the warnings of Noah changed the people of the antediluvian world (Matthew 24:37-41). And people today are no different, I’m afraid.

We always seek the silver lining in dark clouds, the happy outcome of every tragic event. That’s why, I think, Americans want to believe the evil perpetrated last September 11 has made us a better country. We’d like to hope that out of such bitter catastrophe some good might come. First, though, we’d have to be willing to change — to turn from our worldly ways and become a truly God-fearing people.

Unfortunately, that’s one aspect of our national character that always remains the same.