Flabbergasted, then angry, then sad

Notebook

The following was recently posted and reflects how far things have deteriorated in our country. I am so exasperated by this kind of reverie it is hard to compose a response. Mr. Chandler is certainly entitled to his quandary but to exercise it as an embargo in prayer for troops who find themselves--through no fault of their own--in an ambiguous situation is the height of effete self-absorption.

Reflections on praying for our armed forces, by David Chandler

[Episcopal Life] The Book of Common Prayer has a familiar prayer that likely we have all prayed. It is titled "For those in the Armed Forces of our Country," and is on p. 823:

Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I confess that I struggle praying this prayer, on moral and theological grounds. Morally, it seems to me that any realistic assessment of praying for our troops necessarily entails a prayer that sooner or later those who are against our troops will be injured or killed. Morally, I have become my enemy in such a situation. I have adopted their morality. This is simply wrong, not an option. Put another way, as a Kantian in ethics, I must treat the enemy as an end in herself or himself, never merely as a means. To me that means they are of absolute value, regardless of any danger they may pose to me or my cause.

What have we come to? Perhaps the author should accompany me to Iraq the next time and the occasions when soldiers turn to the following prayer (page 118) in "A Prayer Book for The Armed Services" and ask me to pray for their enemies,

"O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth; deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

On one occasion I recall a young Marine requested this prayer after a sniper had been firing at him for over an hour. We would do well to expand our sense of prayer; those serving seem to be way ahead of us in that regard. +gep

Greeting New Chaplains in Newport

Notebook

Brook and I travelled up the coast by train on a sultry Saturday on a visit to the Naval Chaplains' School. We just missed Reinel Castro who, as Reservist, had finished a portion of his training and returned to Florida. But we did get to have lunch with Manny Querido and Andrew Hayler before they graduate on August 9th. Both of our new chaplains expect to be initially stationed in the southwest United States: Andrew at a Marine air station in Yuma, Arizona and Manny at 29 Palms Marine Base in California. During their time at the School they were told to expect an Iraq assignment in early 2008. Please welcome our new brothers! +gep