Archive for October, 2006

Faith in the Military?

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My roomate Jake made me aware of this article published on the website of his alma matter, Olivet Nazarene University. The title of the article is “Faith in the Military,” which is meant to mean “A Christian’s faith in the midst of the military,” but I found it to be an ironic double-entendre about having faith in the military itself.

Steve Foster ’89 often works 18-hour days. He sleeps in common barracks, hundreds of miles away from his wife and two young children. Soon, he will ship out to Iraq as a chaplain, a dramatic change from the life he left behind, living in the suburbs of St. Louis and pastoring a middle-class church. Like other Olivet alumni serving in the military, Foster sees his current position as one of ministry.

“My service to country is a direct result of service to Christ,” he says in the quiet, strong tone of an enlisted man. “The Heavenly Father has broken my heart repeatedly for soldiers and their families. That brokenness is why I serve both God and country.”

Navigating Foster’s comments is an exercise requiring nuance. It is entirely possible to minister to those in the military and be called by God to do so. The military is indeed a place of many broken hearts and families and Jesus Christ must be in the midst of that suffering. We would do well to meet Him and those hurting soliders there. That being said, I am left wondering what Foster means by “service to country.” If by this he means that he is Christ’s ambassador humbling serving those who are in the military by bringing them the gospel, then that is the kind of service “our country” needs. If however he means (and I’m afraid this is the case) that by being a chaplain he is somehow serving the goals of “our country” then I must protest!

Serving the goals of the military is nothing short of pursing an anti-gospel, of giving aid to the enemy of the Kingdom of God. The military does not have a chaplain program so that soliders may grow in discipleship. It exists instead so they might learn to kill more efficently without the crushing weight of the guilt which comes from taking the life of one of God’s beloved children. Chaplains are meant by the military to be “supernatural morale boosters,” whose job it is to soothe the fractured psyche of children of God who have been (re)created as agents of destruction ready to obey the State.

The article continues…

Dr. Stan Tuttle, an Olivet professor of education, had a similar motivation when he gave up 11 weeks of his summer to train soldiers in Kuwait. Unlike Foster, Tuttle’s “official” job wasn’t to minister. But living side by side with the soldiers, his faith often came into play.

What stood out to Tuttle was the selflessness of the men and women who faced imminent danger on a daily basis. “Instead of asking for prayers for themselves or their units, they’d ask for prayers for family members and neighbors. It was the attitude of service — the attitude of other — that was very present in these men and women who were soon to be in harm’s way.”

I find it interesting that there is no mention of these soliders being encouraged to pray for the people they are preparing to kill (although this does happen more often that we might think, it seems rarely to be at the encouragement of chaplains, but rather springs naturally from soliders who recognize the humanity of their enemies). I am not saying Christians cannot serve God in the midst of the military but it seems to me that the options are very very few.

A medic embodies the life and spirit of Christ in that regardless of what “side” someone is on the battlefield medic exisits within the battle simply to rescue, to heal to bring life where there is only death. This job strikes me as one of the most Christlike professions one could pursue.

The chaplain is also a role the Christian can take in the military, bringing counsel and gospel into the midst of violence and destruction and the systematic conversion of children of God into objects trained to kill. The chaplain can bring the gospel, and by this I mean the FULL gospel, not simply a private one that never conflitcs with the solider’s job.

Unfortuneately I think that the Christian serving during wartime as a Chaplain will find they are quickly dismissed if they preach a full gospel. The chaplain who edits the gospel so that children of God may find a smooth fit between discipleship and killing other children of God will probably be very “sucessful” and left alone by the military as they are fulfilling their duty to the State.
[UPDATE: Through our discussion the above paragraph has come into light as pretty much false. Chaplains are aparently very hard to get rid of and preaching peace and nonviolence would not be enough to get you fired.]

The rest of the article continues much as the first, being a Christian in the military mostly means that God helps you get through Ranger training as well as remembering to do the “right thing,” but from the tone of the article it seems that refusing to kill other children of God is not one of those decisions we Christians have to worry about, because we have faith in the military.

Seriously?

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Wow… overused Stock Photos much?

Kara and I are Engaged!

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This past Saturday Kara and I took a trip from Princeton, NJ where she is studying New Testament at Princeton to New York City. While in the city we went to the Empire State Building. After waiting an hour in line to get to the top we finally emerged 86 stories above Manhattan, all of New York City laid out before us.

I quickly spotted our friend, Andrew Zirschky, who I had hide in the crowd to film the unfolding event. As soon as I knew Andrew was filming us I let Kara step up to the front row to look out over Manhattan. While she was in front of me I stashed my own camera, got the ring out and dropped to a knee. She was still enjoying the view so I tugged on her coat to get her attention. She turned around and the rest is history. We’re engaged! She “counter-proposed” and gave me an engagement ring too, marking me as “spoken for” as well, which I’m a big fan of. What a great day! I love this girl so much.

White and Nerdy

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Now that there’s a good conversation going on about my last post I think it’s safe to go ahead and post this video. Enjoy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hFQmdpujxU]

The Need to be Against

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        I got an email today pointing me to a blog post by a fellow Nazarene who is disgruntled with James Dobson. Now as a Nazarene I find many instances in which Dobson gets under my skin and I often find myself saying things like “we Nazarenes apologize for Dobson” when he goes on one of his rants which equate liberals with all that is wrong with the world and neo-conservatives with the eagerly awaited Kingdom of God. I tend to think that liberals (in the classic sense of the word) really do have a lot to do with what is wrong with this world but I can’t bring myself to attach the Kingdom of God to the Republican party like Dobson does (partly because of how liberal they are). So there are plenty of reasons to have one’s feathers ruffled at Dobson’s decrees from on high.
        What I found interesting about the previously mentioned blog post was not that the author, Jeff Carr, had a beef with Dobson, it’s that Jeff was upset when Dobson didn’t criticize the right people in light of the Foley scandal. Even Dobson knew that as a highly visible conservative who has so attached himself to the Republican party he would have to make a statement about Foley’s actions. People were looking to Dobson from the left and the right to denounce the right people. When Dobson didn’t denounce all the right people Jeff Carr was upset. Why? Why do we look to leaders to condemn all the right people? Why does it reflect poorly on a Christian leader if they haven’t condemned widely or evenly enough?
        What if Dobson didn’t say the obvious: that a congressman sexually harassing a teenage boy is wrong. Would we still know that it is wrong, or do we need Dobson to tell us that? What if Dobson acted like the Amish for a second and spoke of redemption for Mark Foley and a path of transformation out of his illicit life? That’s what I’d honestly like Christians to do in public more often. So far I’ve seen no redemptive words about Mark Foley from Dobson or anyone else for that matter. Dobson was very strong in his condemnation of Foley’s actions (as if saying nothing means you yourself are a child molester?!) but offered no words of redemption. And then some Christians pick apart Dobsons words as not condemning enough people or enough systems, etc. What if we put down condemnation for a while and picked up the mantle of redemption?
        I know that I’ve been guilty of this in the past when it concerns President Bush. I’m not a fan of Bush, and I often judge public figures by their outspoken condemnation of his wars, etc. What if we spoke of redemption for President Bush, prayed for a transformation in his heart and actions instead of making sure that everyone we listen to condemns all the right people?

You Dress Like a Gentleman

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Lost is back

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        Tonight LOST is back! Oh how I have waited and pined for thee. Seriously, I need to know about that giant foot statue, the dudes in the Antarctic, what is going on with the Others, Libby’s pre-island connection to Hurley and… and there’s so much! I can’t wait.

Which LOST character am I?

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I did not see this coming.
You scored as Kate. You are Kate! Even with your spotty past of bank robbery and trouble you are a known as a nice girl who loves adventure. You are one of the guys and will always volunteer to go exploring.

Kate

69%

Sayid

50%

Locke

50%

Boone

44%

Sawyer

44%

Jack

38%

Charlie

25%

Claire

25%

Michael

13%

Sun

13%

Shannon

6%

Which “Lost” character are you?
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Will Ferrell and Baby Jesus

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        Wil Ryland has a great post about Ricky Bobby’s American Jesus here. Go thou and read.