Finding God in War?

AuthorHouse

Chapter One

The strongest organizational cultures in the world are found in military services. Every member of a military unit knows what the unit stands for, what the mission is, what the values are, and what behaviors are expected.

The military has rules, strict rules, and penalties for breaking rules. The military trains its members to endure enormous stress and to always, always follow orders - provided they don't contravene international law.

One civilian said to me when I mentioned I was writing a book about religion and military ethics, "Ethics," he said, "What ethics? You shoot or get killed or go to jail. Where's the ethics in that?"

Indeed many civilians, and even some soldiers, believe there is no room for individual religion and personal values for members of the military. Many believe warriors give-up any freedom to think about personal values and beliefs when they enlist. The military's values become the soldier's values.

But talk to any warrior who has seen his or her share of action on the battlefield and you will get a sense of an unquestioning belief in something transcendent - something bigger than us that somehow has a hand in all of this. They say, "there are no atheists in foxholes."

As civilians, we may not be able to grasp the full impact of the soldiers' connection with the sublime. But any member of any military family will tell you the internal changes of their beloved soldiers are profound and long lasting - sometimes turning them bitter but many times making them a deeper thinker of things spiritual.

A warrior's direct experience in war is like a lifetime of tragedy compressed into several months or longer. They see a lot; they experience a lot; and they think an awful lot. It's like the moment they step off the plane and onto enemy soil, their own mortality becomes a very, very real concept, not just something that will happen when they're older. Their lives could be over within minutes. Coupled with this new mindset are the visible signs of tragedy surrounding them on a daily basis. A man who can speak with authority on these sudden spiritual awakenings is Chaplain Father John Hannigan, Commander, US Navy, 7th Marine Regiment. Having served in Iraq alongside Marines, he speaks with profound respect for the grunts and exudes a deep and genuine humbleness found only in those rare few who have lived their vocation both within their hearts and by putting their own lives on the line to serve those who need spiritual guidance the most - in this case, young warriors facing the prospect of death every single day.

Without hesitation, he explains the sudden interest in God many Soldiers find when they step into battle for the first time:

When they get over to Iraq, they realize they're not invincible, not water tight. They realize they can die. They see first hand their buddies dieing in their arms. Eighteen to 22 year olds see death for the first time directly in front of them. They see dead enemies on the street. They see dead people close-up and not dead in the sense of a beautiful casket death but dead as in a body in the street; dead in the sense of a dead body in their own arms. They realize they could easily die and they wonder, "What's on the other side?" When they get out of their vehicles and look for improvised explosive devices, they literally get out of their vehicle and walk the road with rocket propelled grenades flying over their heads or the enemy opening fire. Mortars will hit their buddies. They see everything going up in flames; they hear their buddies scream as they're being burned alive. So that makes a great impression on them. That which follows is "So where have they gone?" and God comes into the picture. Chaplain Father John Hannigan, Commander, US Navy, 7th Marine Regiment

But exactly what place does religion have in the military? Is there any room for religion in making soldiers more effective in their roles as warriors?

"I Could Die." "It hit me - I could die." Captain Christiana Cioffi, a US Army Gun Truck Platoon Leader, trained at West Point with her twin sister, drew upon her Christian faith to give her strength when she was handed this dangerous job unexpectantly:

I didn't think I was going to come home alive. I grew up Catholic and started going to Church every Sunday in Iraq - something I didn't normally do back home - and that was the highlight of my week. It was a chance to really think about what was going on around me, to mourn the people that were lost in the brigade, and to talk to God in my own way.

Christiana, a slimly built woman with gentle demeanor speaks with the confidence of a true leader who thinks profoundly about her experiences:

Fighting in Iraq is a mind opening experience. You start to realize how valuable life is and how easily it can be taken from you. For me it was a matter of talking to God. He knew whether or not I was going to live. He knew whether or not my soldiers were going to live. He knew what was going to happen. Going to church was a chance to pray and face whatever was going to come ahead.

Leading with Faith. Major Jonathan Velashak speaks frankly and honestly about the difficult decisions leaders have to make on the battlefield and how religion can help those leaders deal with the full impact of those decisions:

Leadership is hard and people under your command are put in harms way and sometimes they don't make it. The decisions we make are moral and ethical in support of the mission ... and you have to continue. You can't rely just on DVD's or movies to sustain you. You've got the have something that intrinsically motivates you.

Major Velashka believes his religion makes him a more effective leader. The stresses of war - the loss of soldiers, the concern for family, the disquieting uneasiness of making critical decisions - are difficult, very difficult for anyone to make. To help with the decision making process, the military has built-in safeguards, like the presence of those one is surrounded by, including the sergeants, the lieutenants, the XOs, the clergy. They are there for a reason. But when a soldier has a religious foundation, he has a framework within which he can personally reflect. Self reflection, according to Major Velashka, is essential to the well being of military leaders and enables them to have peace with themselves. "I don't think there was a night when I didn't go to sleep and not say a prayer for the next day. I prayed for my soldiers to be safe, for my family at home to be safe and secure, and for my own peace of mind."

Major Jonathan Velashka uses biblical inspiration to supplement his tactical decisions. On one occasion, he made the decision to pull back the reigns on a mission because he felt it was the right strategic move. He saw warning signs and garnered the wisdom to exercise tactical patience from the Book of Psalms. And yet, when the moment was right to strike, he found, once again, the inspiration to move forward with confidence that the Lord would be with him and his unit:

Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; Fight against those who fight against me. Take up shield and buckler; arise and come to my aid. Brandish spear and javelin against those who pursue me. Say to my soul 'I am your salvation.' (Psalm 35: 1-3)

View from the Top. Contrary to popular belief, leaders in the military see no contradiction at all in incorporating spirituality into their culture. Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Dowling, Executive Officer of the 7th Marine Regiment, emphasizes the importance of ethical behavior of Marines at war. "We all need a moral compass. The test of ethical behavior is what will an individual do when no one is looking." Personally, he gets his inner strength from Marine culture and his Irish Catholic upbringing, "It's tough out there. We need God."

While Colonel B. P. McCoy, 7th Marine Regimental Commander, sees the level of commitment among this generation of Marines as excellent, he sees a place for spirituality in sustaining that high level of commitment:

We have a duty to execute the mission and come out of it on the other side whole. My job is getting them to kill and exonerating them for that killing so they can come out of it whole, without burdens. We asked for forgiveness before we entered Iraq. Each Marine needs to keep his faith and his relationship with his creator on an individual level. On one mission, I gave every Marine the Dark Side Credo:

Commit yourself to the unit and mission, trust your brothers, make peace with your maker, and fight with a happy heart.

Warriors at all levels experience profound spiritual awakenings due in large part from the environment they find themselves in and due to their ability to connect with the underlying value of the mission itself.

They are driven by the higher principles that make societies great - freedom, democracy, protection of human life and dignity. They lay their lives on the line every single day because at some level they know the tanks they drive, the towers they man, the guns they carry all act as tools to bring humanity closer to decency. They know the decisions they make are entirely ethical and moral and will ultimately make the greatest impact in bringing peace to the world, maybe not in their lifetime, but certainly at some point in time and to be a small part of that great change is the single most noble contribution they can make to the greater good.

Military Leaders: Instruments of Righteousness

Righteousness is a quality of being that every religious person aspires to achieve. Righteousness comes from the Greek word dikaiosune, which means equity of character. To have equity of character in a Christian sense means to possess perfect qualities of God humanly attainable in perfection and in perfect balance.

The God-like qualities include courage, compassion, love, faith, hope, discipline, wisdom, mercy, justice, truth, power, and holiness. Only those who possess all of God-like qualities in perfect balance can be called righteous and so Saint Paul reminds us, "As it is written, None is righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, no, not one (Romans 3:11)."

Christians believe righteousness can only be had by anyone who believes, identifies with, and relies upon Jesus: "the righteousness of God which comes by believing with personal trust and confident reliance on Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction (Rom 3:22)."

Although righteousness is imputed in us through grace - no one can declare that they are righteous - we must make a willful effort to control our thoughts and behavior so our actions emulate the perfection of Jesus. Righteousness is an act of self-discipline.

The Marines exemplify disciplined behavior in the harshest of circumstances. They are trained from day one to cultivate a mental spirit so that by rote, they will act cohesively in combat to win the battle.

Colonel B.P. McCoy in his book The Passion of Command stresses the necessity of every Marine possessing a disciplined mine and spirit:

The Marine Corps is the most disciplined and to outsiders, rigid - in its rank structure. Discipline is based on the insistence that there is a right versus wrong way of behaving. Discipline is what gives the junior NCO the confidence to insist that a firefight be conducted the right way. Instinctively, we understand that in a tight situation, the senior Marine can point to all other Marines, yell an order and all will obey, no matter what their particular unit. Why? Because all Marines share a faith in their battlefield system. (p. xi).

Although there are differences among them as to their religious faith and convictions, they are an inspiration to everyone on how to cultivate a disciplined mind and spirit. When one meets a Marine who is equally dedicated to his vocation as he is to his religion, the impression he makes can be a tremendous source of inspiration for any person who desires to cultivate a mind and spirit of righteousness.

One cannot take righteousness - it can only be given - but God is unlikely to refuse this or his grace if an individual has made a concerted effort to emulate Jesus in his thoughts, actions, and words to the same intensity that a Marine has developed his disciplined behavior of right versus wrong.

Balancing the God-like qualities in us requires nothing less than the discipline of a Marine. As Michael Walzer1 points out in his seminal book on Just War: "For war is the hardest place: if comprehensive and consistent moral judgments are possible there, they are possible everywhere (p. xxv)".

If Marines have grasped the importance of balancing the essential qualities of being a Marine, which, by the way, match nearly perfectly the definition of the qualities necessary for one to be a righteous person, in the midst of the hardest place on earth, then what's holding back the rest of us in society from pulling our own acts together.

In his book, The Passion of Command, Colonel McCoy defines fourteen leadership traits essential for Marines to possess. All of them are also encouraged within the many religious faiths. The Marine traits outlined in Colonel McCoy's book are indicated in the left column: the corresponding virtue found in the Bible are indicated in the right column:

There seems to be no contradiction between being a good religious person and being a Marine with leadership qualities. But imagine the degree of difficulty a Commanding Officer would have in achieving a balance of God-like qualities, which requires courage, compassion, and mercy, in the intensity of a grueling battle where he is making decisions under conditions of high stress and mental and physical fatigue. Colonel B. P. McCoy (2007) recounts the agonizing difficulty he had in accomplishing the mission while feeling some sense of compassion for those unfortunate souls caught, injured, and killed in the process:

I too saw children maimed and killed. I, however, did not feel anything, nor was I moved to act. I abandoned what may have been my duty as a fellow human being and continued forward into the attack, doing my duty as a Commander. Later, I was shocked at my own indifference, at the ease with while I looked at the most pitiful sight imaginable and shrugged it off. Later, as the edges of my Mask began to peel back, I doubted my own humanity. After all, how could I not feel for my own experience with a boy by the side of the road? He was missing his jaw and nose and desperately clinging to life as it ebbed in a bloody froth. His mother pleaded for help in a language I did not need to understand in order to grasp her agony. There was a slow, sinking realization that I might be one of the 2 percent of the population who is remorseless in killing. I felt a deepening disappointment that I was not the person I had hoped I was. I had hoped I was someone who cares for his fellow man and wants to make a difference. This is why I joined the Marine Corps. Instead, I was afraid that I was no different from Saddam's henchmen we had been killing, that I was just in a different uniform. (p. 73)

Colonel McCoy (2007) recounts how later that summer back at his own kitchen table in America, he read a similar story in the Washington Post and began to cry:

I was moved to tears, partly because of the tragic nature of the story and partly because I too am a parent and can at least in small measure imagine the pain and angst the mother must have felt. But, most of all, I wept because I did feel something after all, and I shed tears of relief, relief that I do have my humanity and that I am what I thought I was. My indifference to suffering had been nothing more than a stone mask, an emotional flak jacket to prevent such pitiful scenes from robbing my body and mind of the precious energy and conviction I needed to keep my own men alive. (p. 73)

So how does one garner the wisdom and energy to cultivate the presence of ALL the essential characteristics necessary for one to be righteous? In several occasions within his book, Colonel McCoy reinforces the importance of Marines, including their leaders, to develop, nurture, and cultivate one's own willpower to keep the presence of moral authority in combat.

His own wisdom reflects that found in Ephesians on cultivating righteousness: "And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind. And put on the new nature created in God's image, in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:23-24)."

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Finding God in War?by Sharon Catherine Ryan Paul Jeffrey Prinster Copyright © 2010 by Sharon Catherine Ryan and Paul Jeffrey Prinster, Lt. Col. USMC (Retired). Excerpted by permission.
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