An Old Marine's Thoughts about God and War

I realize there are perhaps those in authority who do not want soldiers [generic term] thinking about death or the hereafter, which gives some good reason to skip this post.  To them I can only offer as reason to not do so is the old trite phrase "There are no atheists in foxholes"

Fact is I have never in my 75 years ever came across an agnostic or atheist who has not turned to God and pleaded with him to "damn" this person or thing for them frequently on a daily basis.  And so, good readers, I respectfully now offer the following post for your consideration.

Having been a professional soldier for 24 years who had the priviledge of fighting as a Marine Infantry Fire Team Leader who was wounded in action and Platoon Guide in Korea and as a Company Gunnery Sergeant and S-5 Chief in Vietnam, and facing down anti-war rioters in Eugene, Oregon during May of 1971 I believe I have paid my dues and earned the right to share my thoughts about God and War with you be you professional soldier, parent, wife. family member, or atheist or agnostic for it is my belief all are concerned with the meaning of sacrifice and duty as concerns our soldiers who bear arms in our name with a special brand of courage and humanity unique to those who have experienced battle.

Currently there are a great number of Marines serving under combat conditions who I believe cherish the belief they fight to free an enslaved people from past and future despotic middle-age oppression.  Though political circumstances may be confusing at times I offer they accept willingly their assignments and many privations, risks, and aloneness while among many, with open mind and hearts.

Let me make clear here that safety in time of war has no relevance.  If both sides in times of war are praying for protection and victory, whose request is God to grant.  In the current war on terror on the one side we find soldiers praying to a God of Love in whose image and likeness they believe they were created while on the other side we have radical extremeist Thugs who five times a day pray to their Allah for the strength to kill, murder and mutilate any and all who do not worship and believe as they. 

This sorta makes mute the question "Whose request is God to grant," doesn't it?  Which God is your God/god?  Is it the one and only true God of Love or the radical, to me, false god, Allah, who demands death of all non-believers and rule through fear and enslavement by strong followers over women and weak men and children of the same belief?

True, during time of war there are those who cry out, "If there is a God in heaven above why does He let warfare go on."

What such citizens seem to dismiss is the fact Our Good Lord gave each of us life's greatest power -- the power of choice -- and over the past 46 years hasn't there been a great effort, by some among us, to use our laws to cast God from our beings, our lives, our schools, our nation, this planet?  The paradox I find here is those who cry out the loudest about God's non-interference during time of war are the same ones who have been championing removel of God from our lives.

Such a percuilar trait of disillusionment, I offer, is charastic of illogical thinking and/or a belief in a personal God whom they think is aware of both good and evil.  In our disillousioned world which is absorbed with materialism and conflict to achieve goals. not only Marines but all military personnel and their loved ones, I believe, have a need to know that God does not create or permit evil: that is a province of the Devil and man.  God's work is entirely Good and within infinite Good, and I use Good with being synonymous with God, there is nothing but perfect safety.

If one pursues the basic laws governing the relationship of God and man, hence Marines, we are destined to learn that danger and disaster result from failure of man to recognize God's basic laws and abide by them and that safe harbor awaits those who live in accordance to God's laws.

Yes, I know, what has God to do with warfare, combat, in the first place?  All I can say here is Jesus' listeners must have had much the same question on their minds.  Remember those of long ago who were living in an occupied nation waiting for someone to lead them in a war of liberation to whom Our Lord declared, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand?"

You can bet your bibpi that many of that day found this to be an absurd answer to a serious question and irrelevant to their needs.  Yet, if you take a hard look at the facts Jesus' ministry, Jesus' life, was dedicated to proving this one single fact was the absolute truth of the matter at hand.  Furthermore, His life illustrated that spiritual awareness of God's Kingdom, God's presence, would transform and enable them to overcome evil in whatever form it may be encountered.

Remember, at one point in his life, Jesus' was the intended victim of mob violence.  Casting Him out of their city and taking Him to a hillside, His enemies were about to cast Him over a cliff, but aware of His spiritual truths and His Father's Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus' walked from their midst untouched and unharmed proving for all time that divine Mind knows no accident, no error, no evil, of any kind.

What I am attempting to convey here is if strong soldiers, like our Marines, who are our sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, who bare arms will contemplate and concentrate on the facts of the Kingdom of Heaven until they are vividly aware of its presence and reality and the consequent unreality and absence of anything unlike it, that, with such complete awareness they will know that God is His Own infinite Mind and expresses all through them.  Is God absent from the battlefield?  You can bet your bottom dollar He isn't as long as your son or daughter or neighbors or mine is a Marine.

When a Marine comes to realize that God is not in or with the evil forces he faces he comes to understand that his cause is just and though he may be killed his cause will not be defeated.  Our soldiers in Vietnam were not defeated.  The same politicians who committed them to the battle became faint of heart and for political and personal gain ordered their withdrawal from the battlefield.  The Vietnamese government did not fail until sometime later and that too was due to political corruption not soldiers in the field.

I offer when we, as a nation, honor the existence of God's Heavenly Kingdom where Good is supreme and accept we live under God's divine rule, then, and then only, will we know our Marines, our soldiers, in the field are armed with a defensive and offensive weapon of unparalled might.  Did you ever teally listen to what Kathern Hepburn was saying to the bad guy in True Grit 2?

When we, when our good friends and neighbors in other nations, truly understand that God, that Divene Love, is the Mind of all, then, and then only, will we eliminate the possibliity that there is a mind capable of hating and destroying our dearest treasures as an enemy.  When we, as individuals, as a nation, as a people, become secure in our knowledge of our oneness with our Infinite Spirit, we will then understand why and how our Soldiers, Sailors, Air Persons, Coast Guard Persons and Marines are not only safe but our fear of the enemy will be eliminated from our minds.

Our Marines, Our Soldiers, are well trained in the use of their weapons and battlefield tactics long before they reach the battlefield; I now pray they are as familiar with their Heavenly armament for I am certain that as I, as all who have gone before me to serve at Hell's front door, have on more than one occasion asked God to be with our us and our loved ones during today's periods of grave national and personal trial.

What I am attempting to project here, to my mind, has been demonstrated and authenticated repeatedly on battlefields for over 2000 years.  I offer it is important that not only Marines but all Soldiers know in the very depths of their souls that they are aware they wear the armament of God and that be they in battle or at home in all truth they are His perfect reflection and that their service to this nation will be limitless in keeping we here on the home front safe from enslavement and annilation.

Much of what I have written here comes from dialog with a good friend of bygone years, Ernest Chappell, the velvet vocie of radio, as well as from much listening, study, meditation and discussion with other Marines and our one great partner in life, the one and only lovely Lord and Saviour.

I do not believe what I am posting to be a sham post, quite to the contrary I believe and pray this post will allow others to now go about their daily business secure in the knowledge that there are constant prayers being said for those in harm's way and that those in combat are as safe in our Lord's arms as we here at home.

And to you the readers of this post the only peace I can offer you is that of our Lord God.  See you on the beach.