It is truly a doctrinal/theological problem more than
anything else and even those who are 'uncomfortable' with the patriotic tone of
American Evangelicals have in many cases failed to penetrate to the heart of
the problem.
When it comes to this issue and not a few others, our society
has fallen into Orwell-like sloganeering. The Church has proven anything but
immune. There's no antithesis and so it has easily been subjugated in this
regard.
Christians echo the lies of the Empire's propaganda machinery
and have in many cases forged what can only be described as blasphemous
theological frameworks to sustain their false form of the Christ's Kingdom...
the Pseudo-Zion, the Babel that is Christian America.
We should not venerate the troops. I am offended when I see
bumper stickers with the lie that proclaims 'I Served'.
You didn't serve. You were part of a raping, stealing and
killing machine. You served a lie.
I expect lost people to go about brandishing these stickers
on their cars and wearing the hats that declared what murder and lie-operation
they're a veteran of. Of course they will worship the Empire. It's their source
of hope and life in this world.
But it offends me. I am like Lot, vexed sore at the deeds and
proclamations of the wicked.
But when I see Christians engaging in this type of
behaviour... well, I know the enemy wields a strong hand in the apostate
Church.
And my anger and offense is right and proper. They are worse
than the moneychangers in the temple.
Vance is right, on one level the government is certainly
responsible, but those that participate in and execute its evil decrees are
just as guilty. They have no excuse and we need to quit making excuses for
them.
As I've said before I can understand and sympathise (a bit)
with an 18 year old who was drafted in 1966 and sent to Indochina. He felt like
he had little choice. He'd just come out of a school system that had worked to
brainwash him. He went and he regrets it. He is sombre and full of remorse.
I can understand that on a certain level.
But for someone to walk around with a hat or sticker
proclaiming how proud they are to have 'served' in that butcherous prevarication,
that's a person that I think of as pretty evil.
And certainly since Vietnam every American with any kind of
moral sense ought to know better. Every war since then has been clearly a case
of fabrication and deception and it seems to be getting more brazen and
blatant.
I am deeply ashamed to have ever worn the uniform of the US
Empire. On one level I'm glad I went through the experience and was forced to
wrestle with these issues. God saved me from the ideology and the actual
circumstances.
But, I am still ashamed of the fact and would never march in
a parade, advertise that I'm a 'veteran', and I would never think of getting a
break on a loan or deriving any other kind of benefit from my affiliation with
the legions of death. If I was eligible for a pension I would have to refuse
it. My uniforms and medals went into the rubbish bin. I've kept a few of the
certificates but they're not hanging on the wall. They're in a drawer serving
as evidences of a past, not objects to be celebrated. My most prized memento of
my time in the military is my DD214, my discharge papers.
