I was deeply disappointed in church on Sunday when our pastor remarked that Memorial Day was when we were supposed to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers and remember the men and women who gave their lives for our freedom. This he did in the context of the message to the children, an interlude in which he invites little ones down front and interacts with them before dispatching them to Sunday School. (I suspect that this practice was invented to discourage parents from drooping off their small children at Sunday School while they enjoyed an hour or so of childfree bliss instead of attending church.) He encouraged the kids to remember the war dead and maybe even to decorate a grave. All this he said as if dying in war was a good thing.
Sigh. I have been troubled by this episode for two days now. It disturbed my sleep last night. I fretted that one of those children would one day throw his life away for the state thanks in part to what the preacher said in church on Pentecost. There we were ready to celebrate the coming of the Holy Ghost, and then the preacher had to throw in some gratuitous crap about how wonderful it is to get killed for your government. It’s not wonderful, and it’s this kind of bizarre glorification of it that inspires kids to go off and get killed for no good reason. It even has the imprimatur of Christian legitimacy thanks to the preacher and to my patriotic coreligionists.
What should I have expected? My church desecrates the sanctuary with a federal government flag. Frequently, prayer requests are offered up for “our” troops, not to bring them home but to prosper them in their murderous endeavors. The preacher always prays for peace, but I suppose that he is politically unable to advocate forcefully for peace or to deliver a strong peace message. My church is very active in giving and ministering in the community and through missions around the world. It is actively seeking to plant new churches and to transform Southern Dutchess County. But it all but entirely avoids the issue of the war, except to collect Halloween candy for soldiers.
The pastor recently concluded a sermon series on “The Church: Why Bother?”, and I am really starting to wonder why I bother. I reckon if it weren’t for choir, I wouldn’t attend. I am seriously considering whether to resign my membership or whatever you do to leave the church. I don’t feel that I am active enough in the church to bring up my concerns with the pastor.
The Unitarians, who do not claim to follow the Prince of Peace, are more active in the peace movement than my church.
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1 comment:
D,
TALK to your pastor. Maybe he's just been misguided by all the patriotic claptrap and he needs to be enlightened that his parishioners want MORE from him regarding Iraq than just the usual formulaic b.s.
T
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