Reading this also reminded me of Keith Lowe's Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of
World War II. It can be safely said that war foments and breeds evil. It is
a case of Providential restraint being withdrawn and depravity is put on
display, even unleashed.
And yet, our culture glorifies war. Following the lead of the
Hollywood myth factory our churches glorify it and celebrate it. And yet it's
done in a superficial manner, in which the evils are glossed over and the scars
(if acknowledged) are not dealt with but assuaged. Men ridden with guilt for
the things they've seen and the deeds they have committed are comforted, rather
than encouraged to repent.
Kill Anything That
Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam by Nick Turse is a sickening but necessary read. I guarantee
that if you read it you will respond differently when you see the crop of
Vietnam Veteran hats parading down the street or even the stickers on the backs
of cars. Little of it was new information for me but putting it all together in
one volume made for powerful (if disturbing) reading.
The people who have really seen war and who have felt its
gravity don't celebrate these things. They don't want to talk about them. In
some cases they simply hide and retreat to the forgotten corners of society.
Filled with shame, remorse and regret they don't want to revisit painful
chapters of confused character, self-disappointment, moral failings, seeing the
worst of man's depravity and the doubts they must necessarily wrestle with
concerning their friends, fathers, society, nation and the cause they were
enlisted to fight for.
Those who are smug and filled with hubris, those who want to
be thanked and praised are usually either phonies or literal Sons of Belial,
men without consciences, men who have sold their souls for the fiction of
peace, and yet it's a peace they know is short lived as death and a final reckoning
loom large. Some are almost filled with a rage, a cathartic vengeance of
self-justification and self-righteousness. John McCain was such a man. God help
us if more of them get into positions of power.
These are stories the public doesn't want to hear. They don't
really want to know how their young men, their 'boys' behave when out on the
rampage, when given power over others, when there are others to exploit. Semper
Fi, always faithful is the motto of one branch. Semper Coinquinari (Always
Defiled or Polluted) would be more appropriate. The military is a den of sin
and wickedness that is only amplified during times of war. The commanders know
it and quietly encourage it. It's a fraternity of blood and power.... and all
the sick things that go along with that ethos.
What continues to amaze me are the fathers who encourage
their sons to enter the military. Knowing what they know, whether during war
time or peace... to want that for their sons? They know how military men
behave, they know about the whoremongering and wild behaviour... especially
when overseas, in lands subject to the Empire. And yet they feel no guilt and
want their sons to do the same?
I must confess a deep unease when finding myself in a
congregation where one or more of the elders is a retired military man. I
cannot bring myself to respect a man who wears that badge as one of honour.
Their glory is in fact their shame but on another level... it is what it is.
American Evangelicalism is nigh unto apostasy. But on one occasion the fact
that the elder was a retired military man, and that he had encouraged his sons
to pursue the same career... in the Marines no less.... that was just too much.
Is it possible to maintain one's integrity in that
environment? It's possible but only if you shut your eyes to what's going on
around you and despise it all... including the institution you've enslaved
yourself to. Those who glory in their 'service' have not done so. They are
either willfully blind or have abandoned conscience. They may live by a
mythical code supporting a mythological narrative but the reality that
surrounds them screams otherwise.
And as far as keeping your integrity... that also includes
closing your eyes to what you're doing every day... your job, your mission, the
war machine you're part of.
Veterans should not be honoured in the church. They should be
pitied, they should be encouraged to repent. If they really understood the
Gospel, they would hide their military past, it would be a shameful thing to
bring up or talk about. The only instance I can think of in which this would be
otherwise would be in the case of wanting to publically denounce it and expose
it as evil.... something I am certainly keen to do.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0743760/
(A great episode of The Walton's that deals with some of these questions)
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