Rally Call Founder Says Terror Unmasked 'Face Of Evil'

13 September 2011

 Bob Long is the Founder of Rally Call ministries in Austin, Texas.

By Cindy Mallette | ResonateNews.com

AUSTIN, Texas — Bob Long’s granddaughter is 15 years old this year. The preacher and leader of Rally Call Ministries here is concerned that the young woman — who was just 5 years old when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks occurred — will not be raised to fully appreciate the change that took place in America physically and spiritually on that day a decade ago.

“Culturally one of our greatest strengths is moving forward, being irrepressible, unbeatable. But in that, we don't teach our generations to remember. We don't intentionally build a sense of nationhood into our young people. I have a real concern for the next generation because, for them, it's just a history thing. They need to be more aware of what happened that day,” Long said. “We need to look at the videos from that day. We need to do it more often. Not so it will result in making us angry, but so it would push us toward understanding the spiritual reality of events like that. There is a spiritual significance.”

America has a tendency to pack away painful moments in time until the rawness has passed. Long said that is a weakness — one that causes Americans to avoid confronting and dealing with the truth of good and evil in the world. “If something is true, then I have a responsibility to embrace it. If something's true, then I feel an innate, instinctive responsibility to respond to it, embrace it, be aware of it,” Long said.

When two passenger jets slammed into the World Trade Center in New York City and another into the Pentagon and the world learned of the desperate midair struggle of the passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93, people were confronted with the stark reality that evil exists, Long said. 

“It was a spiritual wake-up call, not only to our own mortality and America's vulnerability, but to what is in the heart of man and his capability to do evil. That is a spiritual issue and it has to be responded to on a spiritual level. That's where it starts,” Long said.

When people saw what Long called “the face of evil” 10 years ago, they began to eagerly search for the face of good.

“Suddenly churches were filled. People were praying and they were seeking God. People were crying out to the God of the Bible,” Long said. “Everywhere you went, there was that sense of seeking. Evil of that magnitude can only be spiritual. And I think people who'd never considered those things before were considering them. I think we've lost some of that, but jumping ahead 10 years, I think some of the battles we're facing in the culture, and even politically, are causing people to awaken.”

Long said the hearts and minds of Americans were stirred as a result of the attacks — and that stirring led to a renewed sense of solidarity with their fellow man, to a sense of national pride and a desire for liberty. It planted the seeds for a movement of people who wanted to be more engaged in the future of their country.

“The cultural result in American's hearts was that people said, ‘Well, I've never been involved, I've never been to a town-hall meeting.’ Some of them said, ‘I've never voted before.’ Eight years after 9/11, I believe they began to sense a loss of liberty, a loss of freedom in our nation, and there was something instinctive in them that said, ‘this is not right,’” Long said. “In this country, we're at a crossroads. I am convinced we are in a political awakening that is leading to a spiritual awakening. If there's an honest seeking, that's going to lead you to spiritual answers. Now the church has to step into this political awakening and herald the truth on every level.”