Interesting discussion I had with a minister tonight...

[blur256]

My wife (who is a United Church of Christ minister, UCC) and I attended a beautiful wedding for two gentleman who are also UCC ministers. At the reception we were talking to another UCC minister, who was talking about the Vietnam War and how the UCC church protested the war, and how a lot of UCC chaplains quit because of it. Apparently that opened the flood gates for a lot of other denominations to come in and take over as it were as chaplains. I would just like some thoughts on this from anyone who knows how this could have affected the military as it is today. I have my own thoughts, but I thought I would open up the discussion first! Thank you. As a caveat, the UCC church at large is very liberal.

[Warpy]

1. When I was a kid in NC in 1962, the only protests were by the Quakers

who stood silent vigil once a week. I joined them.

The UCC might have been protesting outside the south and they might have started later, dunno.

[blur256]

2. I honestly don't know either

I grew up Presbyterian in the Midwest so this is all new to me. But I do know that the UCC (what used to be called the Congregationalists) still rule New England.

[blur256]

3. But I also wonder what happened after

This person said that the Southern Baptists came in hardcore after that... I just don't know.

[bobbieinok]

4. See problems at Air Force Academy

Mikey Weinstein's group started out investigating the religious
right's influence on cadets' lives and expanded from there in response
to requests from service men and women in all branches and from all
or no religious affiliation. Chris Rodda wrote a lot about this.

[blur256]

6. That sounds interesting

I will check it out. Thank you!

[luvMIdog]

5. I'm not a Christian , but I think somebody has to take a stand against throwing away young lives so

brutally and needlessly for political wars. I'm just going to give input on one soldiers story and the song that was written for him by Tom Waits. It's just food for thought. I think the choice to protest the war was a good one.

*TRIGGER ALERT*

Any vets with PTSD might find the story link and the song a trigger


Story about Jeffrey Lucey

http://carnegieendowment.org/2007/08/06/american-suicide-what-war-did-to-jeffrey-lucey-pub-19476

Song about him as some offensive language

[blur256]

7. Thank you for sharing.

And I agree, it is good to protest such military actions. I think the UCC was right to protest the Vietnam war but honestly this was before my time. I think what I found most interesting about this conversation is how much the views differ between here and the midwest where I grew up. I know several people from around here who have gone into the military to serve their country. I knew plenty of people back in the midwest who went into the military because they wanted to serve God first and then country.

[judesedit]

8. The Bible says "Thou shalt not kill"

[Igel]

9. It says

לֹא תִּרְצָח .

The rest is interpretation.

However, war is not prohibited, execution is not prohibited. Provision was made for accidental murder, even though that was not without penalty, so it's not included. So whatever תִּרְצָ is understood to mean, it's not those things.

Xian pacifists have usually found their rationale not in Exodus, but in the gospels: "My kingdom is not of this age." I'm too far removed from those in my former church who went to jail in WWII because they refused to fight, but I've known people who knew those few. However, with pacificism also went a rejection of participation in the electoral process. It used to be a fairly common evangelical attitude; the '70s killed that off, for the most part.

[jonno99]

10. Hmmm... when I drop לֹא תִּרְצָח into Google translate, it responds with:

'Do not run'

Perhaps that is the 'English Lady' translation...