Veterans' Day thoughts

When I was growing up in the 1950's all the boys in the neighborhood would spend our time "playing Army;" that was a big thing for us as we played together.  I remember talking with my Dad about World War II.  He told me that he hadn't gone to the war because of his work. Dad was born in 1916, married in 1937, and he and Mom had had two children (my older sisters) by the time he received an induction notice in 1942 shortly after the war had begun.  As I got older and reflected on all of this, I assumed that part of the reason that Dad had not been drafted was because he was married, was the sole source of income for his family, and had two children under the age of four.  When I finally asked Dad about this directly, he told me that the Army didn't really care about those issues.  Rather, he said, his boss went to the Draft Board and asked them to give him a deferment since he worked in a "necessary defense-related industry."  You see, Dad worked for Caterpillar Tractor Co., and they were busy churning out earth-moving equipment for the Army and the Seabees.  The Draft Board granted Dad the deferment.

Fast forward to 2002.  Dad was 86 years old, and we had just helped him move from South Carolina to a retirement community near our home in Omaha, Nebraska.  I was visiting Dad one afternoon in his apartment, and he told me about a conversation he'd had that day at lunch with some of his "buddies."  Those men were all approximately the same age, and so the topic eventually turned to what they had done during World War II.  Each apparently had shared where they served during the war, and Dad told me what he had shared with them.  "You know," he said to them, "I worked for Caterpillar Tractor Company, and I was deferred because my work was necessary at home to support the war effort.  But I've felt guilty all my life because I didn't go to the war." He could have knocked me over with a feather!  Like many men of his generation, Dad rarely spoke about things that went on during the war, even for him when he was working for Cat.  But Dad went on to relate his lunch conversation... One of the other men, who had fought during the war, looked at Dad and said, "Next time there's a war, Jerry, you go and fight... and I'll stay home... and I won't feel guilty at all!"  Another feather could have knocked me over the other way. Two old men, talking over lunch about events that had happened 60 years earlier.  One talking about the guilt he felt about not fighting in the war.  The other talking about the pain he felt about participating in the war.

I did not go to Vietnam, the war du jour of my generation... because of a complex interrelationship of academics, field of study, and physical issues.  Perhaps not surprisingly, therefore, I have mixed feelings about war and the military history of our nation.  I don't believe I'm naive about the reality of the fallen condition of our world, and about all of the wars that have been fought through the centuries. Yet I also can't see Jesus blessing military interventions, no matter the "justness" of their cause.  Having just engaged in extended discussions on Dietrich Bonhoeffer with colleagues at the Association of Stated Clerks meeting in Louisville, I was reminded of the tension he felt, being a Christian yet participating in a plot to assassinate Hitler.  So I'm not clear about how to come to some unambiguous clarity about all of this in my theology and in my thinking.  However, I am very clear that those who have served and are serving in the military, and their families, need and deserve our care, our support, our gratitude for their service.

So on Veterans Day this year I simply offer two prayers, both from our Book of Common Worship...

Righteous God, you rule the nations.

Guard brave men and women who risk themselves in battle for their country.

Give them compassion for enemies

who also fight for patriotic causes.

Keep our sons and daughters from hate that hardens,

or from scorekeeping with human lives.

Though they must be at war, let them live for peace,

as eager for agreement as for victory.

Encourage them as they encourage one another,

and never let hard duty separate them

from loyalty to your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

And this prayer, attributed to Presbyterian ruling elder, President of Princeton, and U.S. President, Woodrow Wilson...

Almighty God, ruler of all the peoples of the earth,

forgive, we pray, our shortcomings as a nation;

purify our hearts to see and love truth;

give wisdom to our counselors and steadfastness to our people;

and bring us at last to the fair city of peace,

whose foundations are mercy, justice, and goodwill,

and whose builder and maker you are;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.