Comments on: Memorial Day

By: Drewster2000

Drewster2000 — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:17:44 +0000

I think the difficulty we find in discussing the soldier is that we’re trying to figure out how to reconcile apples in a world of oranges. War is an evidence of our brokenness. Christ came to mend that brokenness, not make it fit and feel better.

Until Christ is in all of us and we in Him, hate and evil will still have a respectable place in our hearts and there will continue to be war.

I was in the US military and had to give myself a good reason why I would kill another human being in the line of duty (which I fortunately never had to do).

There IS no good reason. You have to make one up the best you can, shed some tears, and understand somewhere deep down inside that you were going to give away a part of your heart every time you committed murder on behalf of your country or kin. Later at the cemetery the only thing you can do is grieve for the whole world and pray that the Lord will come soon. In the meantime have mercy on our souls.

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Like to make money with GDI business using GVO's powerful marketing tools — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 19:50:34 +0000

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[...]Memorial Day « Glory to God for All Things[...]…

By: hexmode

hexmode — Thu, 31 May 2012 01:13:02 +0000

We must do no harm, yet as fathers and brothers we may harm others to protect those we love.

From my childhood in South Arkansas, though, I can remember lots of assertions of the second bit (“protect those we love”) and almost none of the first (“We must do no harm”).

And the State, being the State, encourages that confusion.

By: Michael Patrick

Michael Patrick — Wed, 30 May 2012 17:32:21 +0000

Mark Basil,

While sympathetic with your thoughts on this, I have a hard time believing we can succeed comparing Christ’s kenotic “war” and victory against death –the enemy of us all– with our wars against men. We must love all yet obey our masters. We must do no harm, yet as fathers and brothers we may harm others to protect those we love.

There is, I think, no way to reconcile things or justify ourselves in these horrible conflicts. All I know is that my life and my death must both be for God’s glory and I must be willing in a moment to give them both, for in Christ both life and death are already irreversibly reconciled. Lord have mercy.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 30 May 2012 03:58:26 +0000

Reblogged this on sojourner and pilgrim.

By: simmmo

simmmo — Tue, 29 May 2012 23:18:23 +0000

I concur with your sentiments MarkBasil

By: simmmo

simmmo — Tue, 29 May 2012 23:16:21 +0000

True that Father. That’s why I visited the War Cemetery – to give honour to those who had fallen during World War II in PNG, many of them my countrymen. Many of the tomb headstones simply read “Known only to God”. We should be grateful for those who sacrificed their lives for the greater good. It’s still just sad though. Tremendously sad.

By: PJ

PJ — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:12:09 +0000

I share your uncertainly, Mark, though it’s one thing to let yourself be crucified and quite another thing to let your helpless neighbor be crucified. “Creative resistance” can only do so much. It really depends on the nature of the opponent. India 1947 was not Europe in 1941. Creative resistance would not have stopped Hitler. Sometimes, perhaps, the only thing you can do is sin and ask forgiveness. Or maybe not. These questions torture me, too.

By: markbasil

markbasil — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:05:26 +0000

I suppose I have some lingering concerns with how we memorialize soldiers fallen in war.
I feel there is the conflation of rightly honouring those who courageously gave their lives, and state interests to keep a citizenry of ‘potential warriors’, by emphasizing only the self-sacrifice and heroism, while failing to mention that an ideal soldier does not give his life, but takes other lives.
This dovetails with my second concern, which is precisely that a soldier’s job is not to sacrifice his life for his country, it is to kill his enemy.
This can be done for the noblest of reasons- protection of the weak and innocent. However it seems at odds with the way of the Cross, which is stregth in weakness, and does not resist an evil-doer in kind.

It can also generate a false dichotomy- that we must either use violence or be overrun by evil and injustice.
Christ did not seem to accept this dichotomy, when he willingly went to his unjust death and did not call down a legion of angels at his command.
The martyrs followed this way- not defending themselves with arms, but willingly dying for the gospel.
Gandhi followed Christ’s way, and consequently led a (mostly) nonviolent revolution. We christians are so steeped in militarism it seems that we do not even consider other means. I know of nuns who lay down in front of tanks- when do Christians hear about these creative alternatives to violence?

It is my opinion that Christianity has been deeply compromised by state and military interests, such that the purity of the gospel expressed in love of enemies and sanctify of life are sacrificed readily by Christians when concerns for justice or national protection arise.

It is all complicated- the more I write to clarify the more ‘open ends’ I see that would need to be bound up to speak clearly.
We are called to love our enemies. This message is lost in memorials. This is my fundamental concern.

Love;
-Mark Basil

By: fatherstephen

fatherstephen — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:30:17 +0000

Markbasil,
Too often, soldiers are memorialized by non-soldiers, who have not known the violence and terror of war. I’ve known a fair number of veterans who were in combat. They honor courage but carry a great sadness and the topic is full of grief. Soldiers, the best soldiers, have an opposition to war that no civilian could comprehend. Those who do not have such a visceral abhorrence are either not soldiers or have been damaged in some way. There are “cultures” of war in some parts of the globe. These cultures are deeply damaged (as are most, I suppose).