From: FACN34B@SAUPM00.BITNET (zane of dhahran)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Subject: comment on military
Date: 11 Nov 92 05:16:07 GMT
Organization: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, S.A.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
X-Acknowledge-To: <FACN34B@SAUPM00.BITNET>

Carol,  I hope that your son continues to walk with our Lord, and that he
will be a shining witness of Christ's life to those men and women he works
with.
    I was in the Army so I don't know much about the Navy, and what I know is
mostly from stories of the bars in the Philipino bases like Subic Bay.  Not
much there I want to talk about.  I was glad to hear that the naval bases in
the P.I. have been shut down.  There must have been some good reasons for those
people turning away the millions and millions of dollars the bases pumped into
their economy.  There are so many fantastic brothers and sisters in the P.I.
I hope you get a chance to meet some of them here.  Certainly we will in the
future.
    When I was in bootcamp, the reason most soldiers went to church was because
if you stayed behind in the baracks, you had to spend the time either cleaning
up the place or reading your "smart books" the little books you are given with
military information to memorize etc....That was even more boring than the
Church services.
   During my military experience and then an additional three years working in
the private sector closely with the military, I became more and more aware of
the incompatability of the military/military industrial complex, with the
Christian life.  I handed my sword over finally in 1987 and by the grace of
God will not pick it up again.  We all have to follow the Lord to the level
of our awareness.  I don't condemn those Christians who feel led of God to
join the military.  On the other hand, I met many Christians while in, and
working with the military who gradually came to see that something is very
wrong with trying to be Christian and military at the same time, but wanted
to stay in there just a little bit longer so they wouldn't lose their retire-
ment pay.  Or so they could feed the family....  I have a feeling that the
reason we don't see the problem is more a cultural/historical problem than
anything else.  Protestants are more Roman Catholic than they think.
    I wish if the reformers thought they were restoring the position of the
ancient Church, they would have kept with it and gone back to the beginning -
not just back to Augustine.  It would have better to have been crucified with
the Anabaptists than to have taken up the sword, or to have jumped in bed
with the kings of this world.  Most of us still haven't gotten out of that
bed...we just want the freedom to choose our man.
    I am sure God uses the military for his purposes.  He also used Mao,
Hitler and Son of Sam.
    I'm really a lot mellower than I sound here.  I want to get off this
track.  Carol, I want you to know that I really really appreciate your
posts.  They are always a great encouragement.  I am trying to smooth things
out here Carol, because I really don't want to upset you with anything I am
saying here.  I know there is room for other opinions.  Peace, zane.