Courage

Doug and I will be joining the Toronto Mennonite Church later this month. It is so Duke Divinity to be becoming Mennonite. However, Doug has found really satisfying work on the streets of Toronto ministering to the homeless and is completely at home with the Mennonites. I can't say that I really have any theological disputes. I am still longing for the day in which the Amish rise up, get on their horses, and start preaching pacifism in the US like the early circuit riders. Ahhh! If that is not a pleasant dream. Two weeks ago a very timid Marine came to our church to speak... a war resister.... who fled the war and Iraq in part because his superiors commanded him to practice shoot to kill-make-them-look like insurgents later policy. In part because of the dehumanization of the fellow soldiers he met there. He told a story of another soldier pulling out a wad of picture (including a marine lighting a cigarette off a corpse, a man with his head split open, and a man crying over a dead baby) and laughed and glouted about them. It was clear that all this guy ever wanted to do was be a soldier. That he had no idea what his place in the world was now. That he was harldy ready to be placed in with a crowd of pacifists or to be a public figure in any way. I left very impressed with his moral courage. It is clear that this young hispanic fellah lost everything: his cultural mooring, his occupation, his familes support, when he decided that the war practices were immoral. Of course we all know that such people are always liars, pawns of the left, fabricating their anti-American stories because they are not brave enough to stand combat. Ridicules. Lord Jesus. Alone Lord. Please free us from our idols.
Chilling New York Times Article!