Because of a dead man...
Posted on Tuesday, October 11 @ 21:36:03 PDT by Randall East |
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ad70lhodges submitted: "One of my favorite blogs is "Tent Pegs" by Patrict Mead, minister for the Rochester church of Christ in Rochester, Michigan. The following was his post for August 18th. Excellent and Powerful!
Here is the link to his blog:
http://tentpegs.blogspot.com/
I drove home last night after our Wednesday night main event, and passed a group of perhaps seven adults and twenty children holding up signs and candles in support of Cindy Sheehan and attacking President Bush. I know that some feel they can't say anything about her since she lost her son (though that idea is debunked thoroughly at Ann Coulter's website: www.anncoulter.com) but I feel a need to speak up about matters of perspective and truth.
I have pacifist friends and have told them that I don't mind them being pacifist at all (it makes it easier to get their stuff), but that I cannot join them. While some would try to convince me that Jesus was a pacifist it is clear that his daddy wasn't and there is still that problematical bit where Jesus tells his apostles to buy swords. Regardless, I would like to live in a world of pacifists, but pacifists can only live in a world where they are surrounded by men ready to do violence to protect them and allow them their illusions of superiority.
I asked one such friend if he would protect his family against attack and he said no. (NOTE: this extreme position is certainly NOT the position of all pacifists) I told them that if my son and I heard screams of pain and sounds of struggle coming from his house we would immediately arm, lock and load, and come in primed to protect them. He replied "I wouldn't want you to do that." I responded, "You can't stop me." I could not live with myself if I didn't go into harm's way and that caused others to die. I will NOT discuss everything in my history, but I will tell you that this is not a purely hypothetical construct to me. The best things I have done in my life is when I have placed it in jeopardy for a higher cause.
I am at my office today because of dead men. When I leave in a few minutes to get lunch I can choose from a huge variety of restaurants and pay a few dollars for a meal... all because of dead men. I can go shopping later, if I want, because of dead men.
Can we have some perspective here? Remember Iwo Jima? It is an island 5 miles long with a collapsed volcano at one end rising up 550 feet above sea level. In a five week long battle 6,821 Americans lost their lives on that horrible lump of worthless real estate. In five weeks we lost three and a half times as many precious lives as we have lost in the last three years in both Iraq and Afghanistan (@1850) . Did anyone demand that FDR or Truman stop vacations and meet with anti-war activists, bring all the soldiers, sailors and Marines home and make nice with the enemy after Iwo Jima? If so, I have never heard of them.
On D-Day, to break the yoke of some of the most wicked men to ever draw breath, we stormed the beaches of Normandy. 2,420 Americans were killed or wounded on that one day. In preparation for that invasion we lost over 1,300 killed in accidents. Are we better off because of that war? Only the most blind would say 'no.'
I believe that, should Jesus delay His return that long, my grandchildren will see a much more peaceful Middle East. Yes, other areas will still be evil and full of violence, but the stranglehold of Islamofacism can only be broken by brave, brave men and women willing to do violence, and lose their lives in the doing. My son will be joining them soon. He has begun applying for NROTC and ROTC programs in Michigan and Texas. We talk openly about losing legs, faces, and lives and that the politicians and clerics who cause such misery and pain will not miss a meal. He is willing to go anyway. He told me that it is what he wants to do; it is important and meaningful -- even noble. And if he dies? Then he died doing what he wanted to do and knowing it mattered.
His determination humbles me. So does that of all who have served before him. Go ahead and light your candles. You can do that because of dead men. Go ahead and say filthy things about soldiers and the US. You can do that because of dead men. But not in my house. In my house, because of a dead man, our Savior, who lives again, I will be kind and gentle to you and offer you the last dollar I have. But I will not respect you when you walk on the back of dead men only to attack them and what they stood for.
And for all of you who served or who had family members who served, may I say from the bottom of my heart: thank you. God bless you for the freedom I enjoy. I can live anywhere on the planet but I choose to live here, because it is the best, freest place on the planet. Because of dead men and the grace of God.
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