How to run an automator app which launches an X11 app via shell script multiple times
I figured it out.  I just need to direct the output to /dev/null:

/sw/bin/xemacs "$@" &amp;&gt; /dev/null &amp;


Easy peasy.  The output was getting grabbed by the shell script.  As soo as you redirect both standard out and standard error to /dev/null (i.e. oblivion), the rest of the workflow stops waiting and ends.