What Do You Mean “God is Sovereign”? Four Options

What Do You Mean “God is Sovereign”? Four Options

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A 23 Year Old Combat Veteran from Iraq Speaks

I've known this young man since he was a teenager in our youth group. When he finished high school in 2003, knowing our country was at war, he joined the Army. The Army, as it often promises, allowed him to see the world. It also showed him other things. Below, with his permission, I am sharing his thoughts in his own words completely unedited.

United State of Failure

One soldier’s point of view

As I write this, it is January 8th of 2007, eight days into another year in the history of the world. Here in Baumholder, Germany where my base is located children are playing soccer down at the soccer field. Soldiers are eating lunch over in the chow hall. Back in the States men are just now headed out to work, teenagers are off to school. Somewhere a baby is being born in a hospital, and somewhere in Iraq a soldier is breathing his last breath as an Iraqi whispers “Allah Akbar” to himself and sneaks off unseen. The soldier’s family will get word in a few days of their loved one’s demise, and will set off on the long road of continuing their life wondering what could have been if he had never joined the Army, if the war had never started. But even while that happens, life will continue on in America and in the rest of the world, the children will continue playing soccer and the men will continue to go to work, the teenagers continuing to go to school..and over time that soldier will be forgotten by all but a few that were close to him. And why not? To the average American, to whom the war is distant and unknown, who sports a yellow ribbon magnet on their car and skips past the second or third page of their morning paper where the events in Iraq are listed in as little detail as possible, the war is happily kept out of sight, the growing number of dead young Americans being delagated down to just that, a number. They dont want to see the blown apart young men, to hear their screams as the medic works to save their lives. They are perfectly content to not share in the choices these soldiers make each day, to kill or not to kill..its not their job, its not their life. If given a blank map, most could not point out the nation that the officials they elected into power are sending thousands of young men that will never make it home. So why should they care about one? The answer is simple: they dont. Of course if brought up into a conversation about it they will reply “Aw thats awful” or “ Shucks thats terrible” but they will never grasp the whole picture..ever..and they would not want to if they could. It’s simpler just to call him a hero and go on with the day. Any serious opposition to the war is met with fierce comments of being unpatriotic. The American tradition of dissent and questioning authority has been replaced with an attitude of “Just shut up and go with it”. Protesters like Cindy Sheehan are seen as upstarts and troublemakers. America is quickly switching from “The land of the free” to “The land where you are free to beleive anything we tell you”.
Usually, its the young people of this nation that rise up, that are the most vocal in questioning the powers that be, but the youth of America today have been dumbed down by a school system that crushes individualism and protest to power. High schools in America today more resemble prisons than places of education, with police patrolling the hallways and metal detectors at the gates, random classroom and locker searches, and a general attitude of distrust among the teachers towards the students. It works great for the government; if you teach the population early to keep their heads down and their mouths shut, its a lot easier to get them to accept whatever you feed them when they get older. And with one of the worst education systems in the developed world, they wont have the intelligence to fight back if they wanted to. Never mind what we are doing to the future of our country, Just as long as the few privately educated rich continue to hold power over the progressivly dumbed down population.
Proof of this lies in how quickly America bought into the war-fervor that drove us to Iraq. Most people, not even knowing where Iraq was in the world, and without the education and intelligence to find out answers for themselves, were more than willing to allow themselves to beleive Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, so willing that they looked past the rest of the world telling us they werent quite sure, and jumped right into the worst armed conflict this nation has seen since Vietnam
I’ve been to Iraq. I’ve seen the hatred on the faces of Iraqis as I walked past. I’ve seen innocent people die because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time or just because a soldier felt like shooting somebody because he was bored while on guard. I’ve seen the Iraqi army tie a man upside down and beat the soles of his feet with a bicycle chain because they suspected he might be an insurgent, I’ve seen them hold a blindfolded man down and stick a knife to his neck to make him beleive they were going to cut off his head for the same reason. I remember our rules of engagement; if you see someone looking at you for more than 10 seconds kill them because they might be a spotter, if you see someone on a cellphone kill them because they might be coordinating with insurgents, if you see someone on top of a roof looking at you kill them because they might be a sniper preparing to take a shot, if a man is digging a hole in the ground kill him because he might be planting an IED. Somewhere in the midst of all of this I started wondering to myself, what freedom are we fighting for? The man shooting at me is not shooting at me because he is a member of some terrorist organization, he is shooting at me because of the freedom I’ve denied him, because of the friends and family killed for the most innocent of things. Iraq has turned into a nation fighting to be free of those that are fighting to free them.
Who then are we trying to defeat? If every Iraqi we kill spawns another brother or father or son that picks up a rifle and starts fighting against us as well, then when does the victory come?
We are no longer viewed, at least from my perspective, as liberators and helpers to the common Iraqi. We are viewed as invaders and occupiers,and just as no American would ever put down his rifle if a foreign power invaded America, neither will the Iraqi who’s life is worse now than it was before we came put down his rifle until we are gone. It has become a battle of will, and unlike the common American who lives in his comfortable little box with his MTV and his SUV and McDonalds who will personally lose nothing if America is defeated in Iraq, the average Iraqi lives with the violence and fear and is affected by every event that the American looks past while reading the morning paper, and has a lot more at stake.
One lesson America has to learn from this is that there is no nation or people on this earth that we are superior to..that an American life is worth no more than an Iraqi’s. Its nothing for an American to hear that 30 or 40 Iraqi’s died in a carbomb in Bagdad and give it no extra though, but when they hear that 10 Americans were killed in one attack it seems to hit them harder. If Americans put no concern into Iraqi dead, then what concern do we put into bringing Iraqi peace?
The day seems to be getting closer where America will have to realize what the rest of the world already does..We have failed. We have failed the Iraqi people. We have failed our soldiers. We have failed the children in our schools. We have failed at being the great nation that we imagine ourselves to be. But then again, we dont have a very good track record when it comes to listening to the world, do we?

A Torture Paper Trail

I've always liked Eugene Robinson. Not only is he a Washington Post columist and MSNBC talking head, he's a native of Orangeburg, SC.

When other talking heads turn to shouting, he keeps his cool. I like his style.

He begins his piece in the Washington Post today like this:

I still find it hard to believe that George W. Bush, to his eternal shame and our nation's great discredit, made torture a matter of hair-splitting, legalistic debate at the highest levels of the U.S. government. But that's precisely what he did.

He finishes like so:

Barack Obama has stood consistently against torture. John McCain, who was tortured himself as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, has denounced torture as well -- and, although he voted against restraining the CIA with the same no-exceptions policy that now applies to military interrogators, he has been forthright in saying that waterboarding is torture, and thus illegal. On Inauguration Day, whoever wins the presidency, this awful interlude will end.

A clear and urgent duty of the next president will be to investigate the Bush administration's torture policy and give Americans a full accounting of what was done in our name. It's astounding that we need some kind of truth commission in the United States of America, but we do. Only when we learn the full story of what happened will we be able to confidently promise, to ourselves and to a world that looks to this country for moral leadership: Never again.

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The way we treat our fellow human being, enemy or friend, reflects the true core of our soul.

Did not Jesus teach us in Matthew 5:

43 "You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don't even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don't even the Gentiles do the same?

These words were given not for intellectual, theological discourse, but for a guide for how we are to view our enemy. Our enemy is a human being, just like us, who's sin can cause us harm and cause us to fear. Jesus knew that our sinful nature causes us to mirror the sin of our enemy so he calls on us to be and do exactly the opposite.

Our country tortures the enemy. We have become what we say we abhor.

I Used to Like to Play with Dominoes

I used to like to play with dominoes. Don’t misunderstand me. I didn’t say I liked playing dominoes. That game was no fun at all. I liked lining the dominoes up and then tipping the one on the end so I could watch the whole rest of the line topple over. I even got pretty good at making fairly intricate patterns for an elementary aged kid. All of the time it took to space them out and arrange them was worth the couple of seconds I got when I was finished. I liked the sight and I liked the sound.

I don’t like dominoes anymore.

Sunday afternoon, between 4:30 and 7:00 p.m., the weather was kind of hot but pretty. No storms, no wind. On a quiet, still day, a large piece of an oak tree too high up to notice being dead decided to let go and come crashing to the ground. It contacted the power service running from the pole at the street to the house and pulled everything off of the house. As bad as that was, I had no idea that it was only the first domino to fall. The noise had only begun.

The call to the power company was responded to almost immediately but the new he had was not so good. There was not a thing that they could do until a contractor had come to rebuild the service on the house. Fortunately, I know some electrical contractors who were on site first thing Monday morning and completed their work before noon. I thought we were well on our way to having power back on by supper time.

But wait. The city building inspector has to approve the contractor’s work before the power company can do their part. Inspection was completed with time to still hope for power Monday afternoon. But apparently the inspector waits to fax his confirmations at the end of the day. So…another night without power…a night without air conditioning.

First thing this morning, 7:00 a.m. sharp, the power company was here to execute their work to restore power to the house. An hour later, lights appear, clocks blink and refrigerator motors whine to life. Thanks Mr. Power Company Man!

But wait.

Why isn’t the air conditioner starting up? Something in the surge has messed it up. A call to the repairmen first thing returns a promise to be out before the end of the day.

Oh yeah.

Tied up with the bundle of lines coming from the street was the coax for the cable. A call to the cable company at lunch time has a man here a couple of hours later.

As fate would have it, everyone arrives at the same time. Nobody’s job appears to be that simple. They are under the house, on the house, in the house, too.

Did I ever tell you I used to like to play with dominoes?

Dunno Whether to Laugh or Cry

Thinking About a Friend's Observation

I've got a buddy from seminary who lives and ministers in a town and a church situation similar to my own. I keep an eye on what rattles his cage over at Momo's Musings.

It has amused me in the past that, though he links to Blog Itch, he does so with a bit of a caveat.

Momo's most recent musing is around the existence of his blog. A line or two around the content of Blog Itch, along with the fact that his caveat is more pronounced, has caused me to go back and review my posts.

Even before I read Momo's post, I have found myself wondering why I've felt so driven to post more on politics than anything else lately. Of course, I've enjoyed observing the push and pull of political ideas since the Carter/Reagan years so this year just continues that little avocation of mine. Some might be surprised that I was a McCain supporter in 2000. Yeah! Even over Gore! I'll give you a minute to get over the shock. That said, I don't believe the McCain of 2000 would vote for the McCain of 2008 or vice versa. The differences between the two candidacies are stunning to me.

I've been reviewing the archive and reflecting over the content with a large, regularly refilled, mug of hot, black coffee this morning. Here is my evaluation:

Seven of the 41 posts to date in July relate to things other than politics or policy.

* Our Youth at MFuge
* A Musical Score for Disease
* Church Leaders: Don't Miss this Web Article
* Litany/Call to Worship for This Sunday
* A Classic IMonk Quote: On Consumer Christianity
* Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection
* This Guy Must Have Peeking In Our Windows

I think it's worth asking if the other 34 posts have anything in common within the broad scope of politics and policy.

Let's eliminate the four jabs at McCain as a canditate:
* McCain Needs a Map: There is No 'Iraq-Pakistan Bor...
* John McCain Still Can't "Get Online" By Himself
* Hypocritical: McCain Blasts Congress For Taking A ...
* McCain promises to balance budget -- in 4 years!

Let's omit the four posts of political ads and/or speech excerpts:
* Jousting
* He Finally Said Something I Agree With...
* DNC Web Ad on McCain and Iraq
* Check Out This New Radio Spot

Let's set aside the post involving media process:
* McCain’s Victory Dividend

If I count right, and I can't swear that I have despite the excellent coffee I'm enjoying, we are left with 25 posts. Is there a common theme?

Though the context is certainly American party politics, the common theme is not American party politics. The common theme is justice.

If Bush administration and McCain campaign of 2008 policies were being pursued by members of the Democratic Party, I would be equally appalled. It's not about "my team" winning. It's simply about this. In order to preserve "truth, justice and the American way," our government is throwing all three out the window.

I guess my evaluation is this: I think I am posting about theology.

Two of the most prominent words on the gospels are "Fear not!" But we say, "You don't live in 21st century America, God! We have a lot to fear! So much so that we ignore your Son's example. We'll do whatever it takes to 'protect' ourselves, even start living like 'goats' so that I can live to call ourselves Your sheep."

Restaurants Skimming Their Servers Tips

By Federal Law restaurants can pay servers as little as $2.13 an hour. Our tips are supposed to bring those wages up to minimum wage and at a good restaurant well beyond that. But, lets face the facts here. Most servers are barely making it. They mostly work at diners and low priced restaurants and are hoping to just get a 10% tip and are lucky if they get a 15%-20% tip. Like me most people leave the tip on the charge slip and just add it to the total bill at the end of the meal. But, if you do this your server may not see that total tip.

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