Support the Troops: End the War!
A sermon preached by J. Stuart Taylor III
St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church
November 11, 2007
In our Gospel reading, Jesus invited the disciples to embark on a voyage to the other side of the sea of Galilee. As soon as they arrive there in a place called Gerasa, Jesus is confronted by a man with an unclean spirit. Mark’s description of the demoniac is frightening and horrific. The demon-possessed man is profoundly marginalized, living among the tombs of the dead. The demoniac howls with pain, as he lashes himself in self-destructive behavior. The demoniac can no longer be bound because no one had the strength to subdue him. The demon tries to subdue Jesus by naming him. But Jesus turns the table and it is the demon that is named. What is your name? Jesus asks. My name is legion for we are many. And then the demon is cast out and sent into a herd of pigs which rush into the sea. What could this story have to tell us? To understand this story, we need to focus on the name of the demon – Legion. In Mark’s world this Latin term could only mean a division of Roman soldiers. There were four such legions based in the middle east to control the eastern frontier of the Roman empire. And one of those legions, based in Palestine, had carried out brutal tactics against the people of Israel who resisted the Roman occupation. This legion had attacked, massacred and razed whole villages, including villages in Gerasa. We must wonder if the man possessed by Legion was one of the victims of the violent repression of the Roman Empire. Maybe he lost members of his family. Maybe he lost his whole village. Maybe as one person suggested in the early service, he was a former soldier himself. And because it was simply too dangerous to cry out against the Roman empire, he took that anger and turned it against himself. The man possessed by legion in our Gospel reading fits the description of some one who is held captive by powerfully destructive forces. He fits the description of someone who is suffering from PTSD. Post traumatic stress disorder.
What is PTSD? I became interested and concerned about it during my work with Witness for Peace in the war zones of Nicaragua. After having been a long term volunteer myself, I worked for several years as the stateside coordinator of our Long term volunteer community in Nicaragua. As men and women finished their terms of service and began to return home it was one of my responsibilities to welcome them home and if possible to ease their transition and adjustment. I began to notice among many the effects of the war and among a few the full blown symptoms of PTSD. I turned to the literature that was beginning to come out about Vietnam Veterans. I learned that people who have been traumatized by violence, especially people who have been exposed to the collective horror of war absorb that trauma into their bodies and souls as a living memory. Those who have been victimized by this kind of violence continue to live it out years, sometimes decades after the traumatic event. There is a whole range of symptoms from anxiety and depression, to addiction and other self-destructive behavior to psychosis and suicide. The largest provider of homeless services in Los Angeles say that today there are 50,000 homeless vets of the Viet Nam era living on the streets in LA County alone! These vets never came home from Nam. They are like the gerasene demoniac living among the dead on the margins of the community. We all know that 58,000 US service men and women lost their lives in Vietnam. But it was not until just recently that we reached the tragic threshold of 58,000 other Vietnam veterans have killed themselves since the war. More than 3 decades later, the war in Vietnam rages on in the lives of our veterans.
Our nation, our government, our church has a sacred obligation to war veterans of past wars and of this current war in Iraq. The Walter Reed Scandal alerted us to how our government is not supporting our returning troops. But a recent story goes even further. I want to tell you the story of how US army Specialist Jon Town lost his benefits. Since Jon Town returned from the Iraq war he has been fighting two battles, one against his body and the other against the US Army. Both battles began in Oct. 04 in Ramadi Iraq. Jon was standing in the doorway of his battalion’s headquarters when a rocket struck two feet above his head. The impact of the rocket punched a piano sized hole in the concrete wall, sparked a huge fireball, and tossed the 25 year old to the floor. Eventually the shrapnel was removed from Towne’s neck but his hearing never recovered. And in many ways neither has his life. A soldier honored twelve times during his seven years in uniform Town has spent 3 years struggling with deafness, memory failure and depression. By September of 2006 he and the army agreed he was no longer combat ready. But instead of sending town to a medical board and discharging him because of his injuries, his military doctors did something strange. They claimed Town’s wounds were actually caused by a personality disorder. He was then booted from the army under a personality disorder discharge that meant he would never receive disability or medical benefits. Town is not alone. A six month investigation has uncovered multiple cases in which soldiers wounded in Iraq are suspiciously diagnosed as having a personality disorder and then prevented from collecting benefits. Our nation has a sacred obligation to war veterans of past wars and of this current war in Iraq but instead of treating a soldier who has PTSD; our military is cheating him out of a life time of disability to save billions in expenses.
Do you remember Robert Moore sermon in 2005 entitled “On Reaping What We Have Sown”? In that sermon, Robert shared with us about his experiences of going to Europe to provide counseling for veterans of the Iraq war and their families. Let me quote an excerpt from that sermon: “I learned a tremendous respect for soldiers and their families. These individuals, the men and women who are ready to lay down their lives for you and me, are incredible people making incredible sacrifices on our behalf. And the sad thing is, they are not always even aware of this themselves. The lives of sacrifice they lead become commonplace for them, and I counted the most sacred moments I spent with them as those moments when I was able to remind them of the awesome gift they were giving to us back at home. I learned that this precious resource of commitment and talent is something that we dare not waste. It is far too precious to be used in a situation that is not clearly necessary and justified. You don’t disrupt the lives of these people, and send them into harm’s way, unless there is an extremely good reason for doing so. I came away with a deepened conviction that our current policies have created a situation where, not only are these wonderful people, the people of our military forces, being misused, but that there will be some tremendous hell to pay at some point in the not too distant future. ……We have a generation of young families who have been marked in an indelible way by the conflicts in which our nation is engaged. It couldn’t be otherwise. What concerns me most is the nature of these marks. While none of the soldiers I spoke to actually felt able to speak out against the war, several of them were brave enough to at least wonder out loud if all the sacrifices they and fellows had made were actually in the service of a good and just cause. The ones who had the most severe symptoms were those who couldn’t find a moral compass for the atrocities they had seen and committed. They could not deal with the hell they found themselves in because they could not justify or forgive their own actions. And though I did my best to relieve them in some way of their guilt, they knew that it was not enough. They knew in their hearts that their actions were indefensible”. What we have learned about PTSD from the experience of veterans in Vietnam and now from Iraq is that PTSD manifests in its most severe form when the survivor has not been merely a passive witness but an active participant in violent death and atrocity. For these veterans, the trauma of war can no longer be rationalized in terms of a higher good or value. It is the veterans’ participation in meaningless acts of violence which is most traumatic to the human spirit.
Just in the last few weeks there have been a score of films on the Iraq war and the war on terror that have come out. This is a new phenomenon because films interpreting the Vietnam War like Platoon and Deer hunter did not come out until many years later. But now we have a handful of films that are reflecting the public’s deep concern and dis-ease with war in Iraq. Will these films be able to marshal greater opposition to the war? That remains to be seen. But let’s look at the thesis of one of those films, entitled the Valley of Elah. The valley of Elah is a Biblical reference to the place where the young David slew the mighty Philistine warrior Goliath. The film is about a squad of American soldiers who have just returned from Iraq to a base in New Mexico. One of them, by the name of Mike Deerfield is reported AWOL days after his return. When news of Mike’s disappearance reaches his tough as nails father, the ex-military police officer, Hank Deerfield played by Tommy Lee Jones decides to leave his business to find his boy. Hank’s eyes are opened as he discovers what his son Mike and his fellow soldiers went through in Iraq. His investigation leads him through a series of barriers, both military and procedural as the missing persons case turns into a murder investigation. Finding little assistance from his once trusted allies in the military Hanks turns to the police and to a rookie detective played by Charlize Theron. Together they dig for clues, rush down dark allies and encounter dead ends. Only when hope is almost gone does hank learn that the truth has been staring him in the face all along. His son was murdered by his own squad. The soldiers in Iraq have become so dehumanized by the violence all around them in which they must participate that they no longer feel guilt or shame or remorse.
I need to say here that I do not believe that soldiers committing atrocities are inherently evil people. I am convinced that anyone of us put into the same circumstances of war would be capable of the doing the same. This is especially true of a counterinsurgency war like the war in Iraq, in which most Iraqi civilians are assumed to be hostile. This makes it all the more difficult for soldiers to have sympathy for the civilian victims of the war. At least until those veterans get home. In a USA today article, Marine Corporal Sean Huze was quoted as saying, “I saw a dead child, probably 3 or 4 years old, lying on the road in Nasiriyah. It moved me less than if I saw a dead dog at the time .I didn’t care. Then you come back, if you are fortunate enough, and hold your own little child, and you think about the dead child you didn’t care about...You think about how little you cared at the time and that hurts”. The Nation magazine did an investigation recently asking returning Iraqi veterans to explain in detail their experiences of operating patrols, supply convoys, setting up checkpoints, conducting raids on homes. And arresting suspects. The stories go on and on in horrific detail. And the conclusion: Fighting in densely populated areas has led to the indiscriminate use of force and the deaths at the hands of our troops, of thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians. IN the news recently was a survey done by our military on the soldiers in Iraq indicating that only 47 % of soldiers, and only 38% of marines, agreed that civilians should be treated with dignity and respect. This de-sensitizing occurs in us as well. After Abu Graib, Guantanamo, and Haditha, the Congress has just confirmed an attorney general nominee who cannot say no to torture. Cannot decide if water boarding is torture or not. We are all possessed by Legion. We are all held captive to the demonic power of violence. We have all become numb to the violence being done in our names.
I close with Robert Moore’s words. “The costs of unjust war must finally be figured in terms of lost and damaged souls, and those who conduct unnecessary wars must be prepared to pay. My friends make no mistake: a bitter harvest has been sown and awaits us in the years ahead. This war, which all of us bought and paid for, is going to have lasting consequences for us all—not only in terms of increased turmoil in the Middle East, and the billions upon billions and counting which was not spent on more worthwhile projects, but in the way it will impact our brothers and our sisters, our cousins and our nephews, and their children, and their children’s children”. Yes, we must support the troops. As a nation we bear a profound moral responsibility to them. They are not villains; they are as much victims of this war as are the people of Iraq. Let us support the troops by making a national commitment to their well-being and healing. Let us support the troops by never allowing our government to lead us unquestioningly into an unjust war. Let us support the troops by ending the war. And may the God of Jesus, who cast out the demon of Legion free this nation from its captivity to violence and set us on the path to healing and peace.
--------
Quote
not used in Sermon by Ken Moe, executive Presbyter of Grand Canyon Presbytery
in Address calling on the church to minister to returning veterans.
“I want to close with a story of healing and redemption. In his book, Out of
the Night, the Spiritual Journey of Vietnam Vets, former Army Chaplain William
Mahedy described the experience of Timothy Sims, a Marine who lived through the
siege of Khe Sahn. Sims told of encountering a Lutheran Chaplain at Khe Sahn. This
chaplain walked among the embattled troops, “preaching no sermon, simply going
among those of us who were left with bread saying, ‘the body of Christ, the
body of Christ’…With the smell of our dead buddies, stacked in empty bunkers,
still in our noses, he walked among us with another broken body.” It is
significant that this chaplain refrained from preaching in that situation.
Preaching does not help and often gets in the way of ministering among those
who have known the depths of hell on earth. Sims found himself in a spiritual
wilderness as a result of his combat experience, intent on exorcising God from
his life, but the sacramental presence of that chaplain stayed with him. Crying
out in rage in the midst of what he described as a gulag experience, Sims had a
mystical encounter. About this he later wrote, “My vision was of heavenly
Mother, crying and howling with me, seeking to hold me to her comforting
breast; the vision was of heavenly Father, grieved and wounded with me, holding
me with aching arms. God’s mystic presence would not leave me alone, so I
decided to give his ‘dirty bride’ another look.”11 His reference to the dirty
bride was his term for the institutional church. The Bride of Christ the church
may be, but it is stained with loveless moralism and failure of compassion.
Sims returned to this less than perfect institution, drawn by the sacramental
presence of the wounded Christ and by images of the healing nature of God.
Timothy Sims journey back into the life of the church led him in time to
ordination as a Lutheran pastor.”