The influence of religious leaders on a nation: A case study

• Author: Viorica Banciu
• Position: University lecturer, Ph.D. University of Oradea, The Faculty of Social Humanistic Science
• Pages: 145-148

THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS ON A NATION: A CASE STUDY

Banciu Viorica 

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on the ways in which la nguage d evelops a nd evolves in times of na tional

crisis. After the events of September 11, thr ough public rhetoric, an act of ter ror became a war. New York

became America’s first city, while Rudolph Giuliani was named the ‘mayor of the world’. Undoubtedly, the

public langua ge (re)created a national identity. P resident Bush used the political discour se in order to influence

and convince the na tion to accept a war against terro rism. His attempt was suppor ted by the religious leader s of

USA.

Key words: terr orism, religion, political discourse.

Introduction

On the morning of September 11, 2001 a t 8:45 an American Airlines jet flew into the north tower of the

World Trade Center . Another plane collided into the south tower a nd the media did not cover the a ccident. This

was confirmed an hour later as another American Airlines pla ne flew into the Pentagon and another hijacked

flight crashed south of Pittsburgh. CNN broadcast ‘Breaking News’ and for several days ther eafter they

announced the ‘Attack on America’. This ‘attack’ quickly became an act of war like ‘Pearl Harbor’.

Nonetheless, the goal in this p aper is to deta il how the particula r r oad ta ken - the constr uction of a

nation a t war – is aided thr ough the stra tegic deployment of langua ge. Through the use of langua ge, we create

and recreate particular worlds of under standing. How did an act of r esponse to ter ror become a war against

terrorism? Walter Laqneur, a famous t errorism specialist, said that ‘the success of a terror ist operation depends

almost entirely on the amount of publicity it receives. This is one of the main rea sons for in the cities the terr orist

could always count on the presence of journa lists and TV cameras a nd consequently a lar ge audience

1.

Power and Persuasion in the Public Perception

Power and persuasion rest in the access to the media and the ability to shape reporting. After the attack,

George W. Bush addressed the nation. Bush’s first statement came forty- five minutes after the first hit, from

Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida. He characterized the situation as ‘difficult for America’

and ‘a national tragedy’. He described the events briefly: ‘Two airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center’2.

The language he used and his remarks show us tha t he was in control–grammatically marked as an active agent.

We must note the use of the personal pronoun ‘I’ and the use of the active voice as Bush marshals the resources

of the state: ‘I have spoken to the Vice President, to the Governor of New York, to the Director of the F BI, and

have or dered that the full r esources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families and to

conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt down a nd to find those folks who committed this act’3.

Attorney General John Ashcroft’s statements are in a sharp contrast to President Bush’s statements. We

can note that his statements are grammatically ’passive’: Cr ime scenes ha ve been established by the federal

author ities. Other statements have no agent: ’the full resources of the Department of Justice a re living deployed

to investigate these crimes and to a ssist survivors and victim families.

President Bush said: ’Terrorism against our nation will not stand and he pledged to find ’those folks

who co mmitted this act’ being both presidential and folksy; he also notes: ’The presidency is still a dammed

informal monarchy’. Reporting that: We created a national tragedy grammatically the President creates a united

nation, under God. Bush uses the pronouns here, what Wilson calls a prono minal window into the thinking and

attitudes of a political leader. The referent for t he pronouns ‘we’ and ‘you’ is ambiguous (as we’ll recall from the

exhortations of our high school teachers to avoid their use). Bush’s ‘we’ is the nation re(created) and united

through his remarks in contrast with the ambiguity in the phrasing by Health and Human Services Secretary

Thompson: It is now our mission to begin the heading from this tra gedy.

President Bush spoke a gain at 1:04 from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana: I want to r eassure the

American peop le that the full resources of the federal government are working to assist local authorities to save

lives and to help the victims of these atta cks. Without being present in the capital he was able to confirm that he

had marshaled the full resources of the state and that his people – the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense,

the national security team a nd his Cabinet had taken the necessary securit y precautions to continue the functions

of ’your government’ who are in service of the people’s sa fety. We have taken all a ppropriate secur ity

precau tions to protect the American people.

 University lecturer, Ph.D. University of Oradea, The Faculty of Social Humanistic Science, banciu_vio@hotmail.com

1 Silberstein, S. War of Words, New York, Routledge, 2002, p. 2.

2 Silberstein, S. War of Words, New York, Routledge, 2002.

3 Ibidem.