On Veteran's Day
I was sitting at my desk eating lunch today and just finishing up reading an interesting article from Newsweek on Veteran's Day (click title to see), and I started thinking about the possibility of Veteran's Day (like Thanksgiving) being a holiday that Christians could really redeem. There were some interesting quotes and passages in the article I would like to comment on:
Hunkered down near the beaches of Anzio, a 23-year-old Army private from Oak Ridge, Tenn., sent a despondent letter home. "Take a combination of fear, anger, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, loneliness, homesickness," Paul Curtis wrote to a younger brother who wanted to know about war, "and you might approach the feelings a fellow has." Nothing can ease his depression, not even the prospect that the war might end. He is certain that war will "rise again." After all, he writes, "peace will be settled by men who have never known combat and ... hold no dread of another war for they don't know."
~ I like this passage because it reveals, I think, a real picture of the brutality and evilness that is war and it tells a truth of the reality of a world in which sin exists and wars will never cease.
If history is a guide, only a few of these new veterans will join antiwar movements; most will proudly support their country in any future entanglements it may face. But many of those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq will doubtless join a tradition of brave veterans who quietly hate war. They can teach us why war is never romantic, but may sometimes be worth fighting all the same.
~ I like what history has to speak to us here. I like to think of men who have fought, who have developed a healthy hatred for war, and who are willing to still fight again when the calling comes. I like the last statement of this passage. I must admit, I had to wrestle a little bit with the idea of war not being at all romantic, but I think this must be true. My basis: first, as a Christian I am called to hate death and to love life and though a war may be fought for the love of life, the war first exists due to a love of death; second, I am reminded of the stories of great warriors like Odysseus who long more than anything to be at home with their wives and children, or the great General Maximus from Gladiator who also longs for home and for peace; and third I remember the passage from Deuteronomy 20 and the type of men that are biblically chosen to go to war, the type that understand far better than young men what an evil interruption war is to life and yet what a necessity it may be at times.
Other military families are less eager for combat; still, if it's war, their sons will fight. Some think it dangerous to dwell on war's horrors. Man's "destiny is battle," said the thrice-wounded Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. "If it is our business to fight, the book for the army is a war-song, not a hospital-sketch."
~ I appreciate this passage's understanding that in times when war is necessary, then we go into it with faith, bravery, and courage . . . we do not dwell on the pain and death that is inevitable, but we think of what "life" we may save by giving our own.
It is the privilege of the old soldier, then, to speak realistically of war, and idealistically of peace.
~ This line was written to speak only of Veterans, but I think as Christians we could apply this still further. We all are in an ongoing spiritual war, and those of us who fight to overcome sin's corruption know well the weariness, defeat, and pain that come from different battles; but we also know of the hope in which we endure, the belief in the everlasting peace we fight for, and the redemption we are willing to give up our lives for -- for One has gone before us, Who has endured, Who has fought, and Who was willing to give His life that we might be assured that we do not fight in vain, but that victory is already ours!
* * * * *
Getting back to the earthly world though, I think Veteran's Day could be a day that reminds us of the physical battles we do fight as Christians and to praise our brothers and sisters who have given their lives in wars. I think as Christian men we are called to know when or when not to fight, and to realize that when the time to fight has come then fight we must, without hesitation, and hopefully we have already been well-trained. I get the feeling we may have lost a healthy perspective and understanding on this in the American Church. Husbands are called to protect their wives, and they have Christ as an example; parents are called to protect their children; brothers should protect sisters. This idea should extend up through the Church, and we must not pretend that it will never come to physical combat.
Hunkered down near the beaches of Anzio, a 23-year-old Army private from Oak Ridge, Tenn., sent a despondent letter home. "Take a combination of fear, anger, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, loneliness, homesickness," Paul Curtis wrote to a younger brother who wanted to know about war, "and you might approach the feelings a fellow has." Nothing can ease his depression, not even the prospect that the war might end. He is certain that war will "rise again." After all, he writes, "peace will be settled by men who have never known combat and ... hold no dread of another war for they don't know."
~ I like this passage because it reveals, I think, a real picture of the brutality and evilness that is war and it tells a truth of the reality of a world in which sin exists and wars will never cease.
If history is a guide, only a few of these new veterans will join antiwar movements; most will proudly support their country in any future entanglements it may face. But many of those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq will doubtless join a tradition of brave veterans who quietly hate war. They can teach us why war is never romantic, but may sometimes be worth fighting all the same.
~ I like what history has to speak to us here. I like to think of men who have fought, who have developed a healthy hatred for war, and who are willing to still fight again when the calling comes. I like the last statement of this passage. I must admit, I had to wrestle a little bit with the idea of war not being at all romantic, but I think this must be true. My basis: first, as a Christian I am called to hate death and to love life and though a war may be fought for the love of life, the war first exists due to a love of death; second, I am reminded of the stories of great warriors like Odysseus who long more than anything to be at home with their wives and children, or the great General Maximus from Gladiator who also longs for home and for peace; and third I remember the passage from Deuteronomy 20 and the type of men that are biblically chosen to go to war, the type that understand far better than young men what an evil interruption war is to life and yet what a necessity it may be at times.
Other military families are less eager for combat; still, if it's war, their sons will fight. Some think it dangerous to dwell on war's horrors. Man's "destiny is battle," said the thrice-wounded Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. "If it is our business to fight, the book for the army is a war-song, not a hospital-sketch."
~ I appreciate this passage's understanding that in times when war is necessary, then we go into it with faith, bravery, and courage . . . we do not dwell on the pain and death that is inevitable, but we think of what "life" we may save by giving our own.
It is the privilege of the old soldier, then, to speak realistically of war, and idealistically of peace.
~ This line was written to speak only of Veterans, but I think as Christians we could apply this still further. We all are in an ongoing spiritual war, and those of us who fight to overcome sin's corruption know well the weariness, defeat, and pain that come from different battles; but we also know of the hope in which we endure, the belief in the everlasting peace we fight for, and the redemption we are willing to give up our lives for -- for One has gone before us, Who has endured, Who has fought, and Who was willing to give His life that we might be assured that we do not fight in vain, but that victory is already ours!
* * * * *
Getting back to the earthly world though, I think Veteran's Day could be a day that reminds us of the physical battles we do fight as Christians and to praise our brothers and sisters who have given their lives in wars. I think as Christian men we are called to know when or when not to fight, and to realize that when the time to fight has come then fight we must, without hesitation, and hopefully we have already been well-trained. I get the feeling we may have lost a healthy perspective and understanding on this in the American Church. Husbands are called to protect their wives, and they have Christ as an example; parents are called to protect their children; brothers should protect sisters. This idea should extend up through the Church, and we must not pretend that it will never come to physical combat.
posted by Brian | 11:36 AM
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