Defending this nation’s guardians
Letter to the Editor: Alex Ledgerwood
In response to “A Christian perspective on warfare: Soldiers are vulnerable humans too, and should be viewed as nothing more,” Nov. 6.
To say I was offended by the statements made in last week’s article would be to make a major understatement. As someone whose father served in the United States Air Force during Vietnam (he wasn’t in Vietnam, he just served during that war), both grandfathers served in World War II, great-great grandfathers fought on both sides of the Civil War, whose first ancestor on this continent died fighting in the French and Indian Wars (1689-1763), and who has dozens of friends either in or planning to enter into the service, and who is joining the army after my graduation, I think I may have some perspective on why people serve.
Guess what? I can’t think of one of them who was or is in the service for the cash. Especially since most are enlisted, meaning low to no denaro. Most of them serve because they believe in putting their lives on the line to serve something greater than themselves.
Interestingly enough, it’s the sacrifice my friends and fathers made allowing people to speak like this without punishment.
Concerning our founding fathers’ beliefs, Thomas Jefferson’s deism isn’t indicative of every single founder; George Washington had a full and active prayer life, and we have the prayer journals to prove it. The biggest deist among the founders, Benjamin Franklin, still espoused Christian virtue as the highest form of morality because he found no better.
Then there were the countless common men and preachers who left their homes and pulpits to go defend their country.
I don’t even know why the Civil War was brought up other than to talk about the devastation war can bring, however the appeal from emotion about hating forgets why both sides actually went to war.
While I don’t think the level of the mixture of nationalism and religion was necessarily right, I do think the religious conviction, the love of freedom and the hatred of slavery are things we do need to take into measure.
If we are going to talk turkey about Biblical passages in general, why don’t we take measure of New Testament narratives never having a negative view of soldiers?
It’s a centurion whom Jesus declares to have the greatest faith in the Gospels. Mark has a centurion declare Jesus was the son of God at the Crucifixion. Luke has positive views of soldiers throughout Acts, including protecting Paul from the Jews on his way to Rome.
The use of military allusions in the Epistles demonstrates to us the possibility of military members in those early churches who understood and explained the allusions’ meanings to the people in those churches.
Those who stress non-violence like to ignore the cleansing of the temple, or Paul saying of the Judiazers how he wished they would slip, or even Luke’s account of Christ allowing his disciples to carry swords.
We need to be good citizens of our heavenly kingdom, but this does involve being good citizens here too, as Paul mentions in Romans. Moreover, whether you believe in war or not, respect those allowing you to speak freely and sleep safely at night.
Treat them with the respect they’ve earned. Actively, they put themselves in harms way for you, some sacrificing limbs, other their lives. In truth, those Christian soldiers have gone into the service with you in mind, very much in imitation of Christ.
