Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day in America. On this day, Americans remember the sacrifices made by their brave men and women in the armed forces. Even though I am not American, I will still make it a point to remember the sacrifices these men and women have made, not only for the country but for our fragile world. Today, there are some people who would think that America’s military is one of the most hated institutions. They are called “imperialists,” “aggressors,” and sometimes even “terrorists” (!!!) I think that these names are sheer nonsense. They represent not some sophisticated level of moral reasoning but rather, a lack of moral clarity and intellectual honesty. I believe that the U.S. armed forces is one of the most noble, just, compassionate, and therefore, heroic armies in the world. As the sword of the American government, the U.S. armed forces (army, navy, marines, and air force) represent the muscle of the core ideals of the great American civilization: Justice, freedom, compassion, and human rights (core values which, I might add, have their roots in the Judeo-Christian religious tradition). After all, which army in the world is so cautious about applying torture to its enemy combatants? Which army in the world cares to protect the innocent non-combatant on the ground by producing precision-guided bombs? Which army in the world is a more welcome sight by the enemy combatants themselves? Is it not the US armed forces (and subsequently, all those armed forces in the world that hold to those American values)? And it is for these reasons that the US army, navy, air force, and marines are one of the most trusted armed forces in the world.

Now, all this is not to say that there is no corruption or sin or injustice within the world of the military. Like any military in the world, the US armed forces—like the civilization it represents—has its fair share of cowardice, self-centeredness, perversion, lack of discipline, martial injustice, and murderers. However—and please hear me on this one—the crucial point to note is that these people are considered aberrations by the military community itself. They do not represent the ideals or the policies of the American government. This is crucial to note precisely because there are those who presume to use a wretched case like the Abu Ghraib scandal and extrapolate from it a grand overriding principle by which to condemn the whole US armed forces. This is poor and unjust reasoning. Strangely enough, many of the same people who use this reasoning will not use it when it comes to the Islamic terrorists. They will be careful to say that the terrorists do not represent the whole of Islam, which, of course, I agree. However, to then turn around and say that the deeds of bad soldiers represent the policy of the US armed forces and government is a move that is extremely unfair and unjust. We need to simply acknowledge, as good Christians thinking biblically, that the US armed forces is a mixed-bag. There are soldiers that represent the best in morality and there are soldiers that do not. However, the policy of the US armed forces as a whole is good. What does the US armed forces stand for? It stands for the protection and, if need be, the advancement of justice, freedom, compassion, and human rights (look here , here , and here). As a Christian, I cannot argue with these. These values are universal.

So what is a Christian, especially a non-American Christian, to do on this Memorial Day and the rest of the days of the year? He or she should pray for the US armed forces. Give thanks to the Lord for them. Pray that they will maintain their core values. Pray that the individual soldiers, whether or not they are Christian, will believe in those core values and protect those values in their own lives. Pray that the Lord will use the military chaplains to proclaim the Gospel boldly and so arrest the moral decay that so often festers within the ranks of the armed forces. Pray that the forces of chaos represented by the terrorists and their sponsoring states will be broken by the combined efforts of the American armed forces and their allies. Pray that the Lord would have mercy on those men and women in combat and cause them to actively pursue the good of those they seek to protect and liberate.