Sunday-School Goodness In The Arena Of War (May 9, 2004)

I am a big fan of the late Stephen Ambrose's books on World War II - D Day, Band of Brothers, and Citizen Soldiers. In one of his books (can't remember which) he talked about the difficulty of trying to gauge the likelihood that a young man would act heroically in battle. Sometimes the macho, strong, tough guy in boot camp would turn into a whimpering coward under fire, while the quiet, nervous fellow morphed into a Medal of Honor recipient. One pattern that emerged, Ambrose noted, was that the heroes tended to come from peaceful Christian homes where the children all went to Sunday School. Contrary to stereotype, the guy you wanted in your foxhole was the soft-spoken, clean-cut Bible reader - not the tattooed, foul-mouthed dispenser of venereal disease.

The need for a devout Christian presence in our military has been heightened in recent days by the release of all those sick photos depicting the abuse and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. A question that crossed my mind in seeing those pictures was, "Weren't there any Christians guarding those Iraqis?" Apparently not. I like to think that a simple, Bible-believing Christian would have acted to prevent the abuse. Even if he could not stop it, a humble Christian would intervene as best he could, rebuking the perpetrators and reporting the matter to his superiors. The real Christian knows that he must always do the right thing no matter what, because, ultimately, he is answerable to God.

On October 8, 1918, a Christian sergeant named Alvin York did the right thing by heroically firing bullets into the heads of 28 German combatants. He and his small squad of eight men captured 132 soldiers that day, all of whom meekly surrendered rather than face the wrath of God's little warrior. But York was no bloodthirsty sadist. He was a kind-hearted Christian man who labored mightily in prayer before he overcame his reluctance to kill.

York was the kind of hero we needed in that Iraqi prison, because the Christ-centered man who is strong in battle is also humane in victory. A hero is a hero whether he is vigorously killing the enemy or conscientiously sheltering prisoners of war. Likewise, a creep is a creep whether he is running from battle or forcing the vanquished into positions of homoerotic barbarity.

As I have followed the Abu Ghraib scandal, I have seen all the usual excuses for our soldiers’ bad behavior, like "They were just following orders." Oh no, not that again. There is never a good reason to followa bad order. As I discussed this matter with my son Peter, I explained that the Holocaust resulted from ordinary people following bad orders. He responded (showing how well he understood) that Hitler did not personally stuff six million Jews into ovens. Right. Atrocities happen when cowards numbly carry out the dictates of villains, and not enough good people object.

Another excuse I've been hearing is that our abusers had received no training in the handling of prisoners. Granted, they should have been trained, but I'm still left wondering, as I look at the goofy grins of American soldiers humiliating their charges, "Didn't anyone ever train you how to be a minimally decent human being? Did you really need to take a class in that?" Maybe they should have gone to Sunday School.