BYU’s Wheatley Institute teamed up with the National Museum of American Religion to screen their documentary, "We Are Not Afraid," on the 24th anniversary of 9/11.
The Wheatley Institute screened "We Are Not Afraid," focusing on New York, the nation’s religious communities and their reactions to the attacks. After the screening, students participated in a panel discussion with three of the film’s major contributors.
In the immediate wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination and amid other event cancellations, BYU held fast to their memorial events for 9/11.
The assassination's close proximity to 9/11’s anniversary was not lost on the audience and fueled the overall somber tone of the gathering and the discussion.
The Varsity Theatre’s seats were filled front to back. Though many students had their homework in tow, it was impossible to look away from the screen due to the film’s “immersion in violence, fear and death,” Paul Lambert, the religion initiative director at the Wheatley Institute, said.
According to Chris Stevenson, president of the National Museum of American Religion, the immersive approach was intended to inspire its viewers, “not take a violent response to the attacks, but to go out and seek how one’s religious beliefs can be called upon in a crisis."
Though the film did not shy away from how brutally thousands of deaths affected the nation, there was a heavy emphasis to not lay blame on the Islam faith, but rather how all religious communities banded together.
“The terrible forces of evil must be confronted and held accountable for their actions. This is not a matter of Christian against Muslim,” Gordon B. Hinckley, former president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said near the end of the film.
Shortly after the documentary finished, the Wheatley Institute shared a QR code for the audience to submit questions for the panel discussion.
When asked about the film’s religious foundation, Dr. Melissa Matthes, a scholar of religion, shared, “one of the mistakes that I think religious leaders have made and ministers is that they have thought that using the state to promote religious values, and by doing that, we inadvertently lost the power and autonomy of religious belief.”
Danny Drysdale, the film's director, made a comment in light of the concerns about its objectivity.
"Plenty of documentaries are made with agendas first. But what if you just make a documentary about the information? Let there be space for individual analysis of the viewer."
The final panel question was from a student concerned about their generation’s increase in violence.
They asked, “why should we not be afraid?” The question was a direct challenge on the film’s title.
All three of the panel members confirmed that feeling fear wasn’t something to be avoided.
“Look fear in the eye. Speak out loud to it. Say something to it,” Stevenson said.
"We Are Not Afraid" is the second installment of the "Religious Thought During Times of National Crisis" series at the National Museum of American Religion. The museum is currently entirely online, but is on a journey towards a physical establishment in the near future.