Faith under fire
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US army chaplains struggle with faith with war in Iraq
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18367801/site/newsweek/
By Eve Conant
Newsweek
May 7, 2007 issue - Army Chaplain Roger Benimoff heard the IED blast and saw the smoke rising. From his vantage point at a forward-aid station on the morning of June 7, 2005, he peered through a fog of dust as .50-caliber machine-gun fire erupted in the distance. Then the guns went silent. Benimoff helped medics get stretchers ready for the wounded. But when the soldiers of Fox Troop returned to station near Tall Afar, all they had was the bloodied corpse of one of their men. Benimoff began a familiar death ritual. The heat was closing in on 100 degrees; a smell of diesel fumes filled the air. Benimoff gathered the medics around the corpse of their comrade in the shade of an armored personnel carrier. Ignoring the din of rumbling engines and radio chatter, he began to pray in a strong and reassuring voice, quoting Psalm 121: I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He prayed for the soldier's family. He prayed for the medics who had wanted so much to help. He prayed that God would look down upon their small circle and surround them with his love. -
Benimoff's journal ends Jan. 22 of this year. The last lines read: "I do not want anything to do with God. I am sick of religion. It is a crutch for the weak ... We make God into what we need for the moment. I hate God. I hate all those who try to explain God when they really don't know." By late March, during his first interview with NEWSWEEK, he was recovering his faith but the pain had not subsided. "The symptoms are still there; this past year has been the most challenging of my life," he says. "But I have a new relationship with God. I tend to be much more blunt with him."
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Chaplains are unarmed, but they go where the troops go. They help in any way they can. "When there were 17 or 18 bodies, it was more than mortuary services could handle," says Army Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Dick Olmstead, now retired, speaking of his deployment to Kuwait and Iraq in 2004. "Maybe it's not the brightest move to have chaplains opening body bags to place 40-pound bags of ice on dead soldiers, but you have to go where your hands and heart are needed." Still, after 20 or 30 ramp ceremonies, he says, "you can't help but wonder if God is really listening to you."
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He's racked by contradiction. He is "getting to impact soldiers spiritually ... and personally as they go through this difficult time ... I am in the middle of history and I have a captive audience!" Yet looking back, he says, he could see that he was reaching a point "when your cup of grief gets full, you can't hear another horrible story." In a single two-week period there were four suicide bombings in the area he was stationed. He counseled his men on many questions he was struggling with himself. "They would ask me: if I'm a child of God, then why isn't God protecting me?" he says. "In the book of Job we see that God rains on the just and the unjust, but that's not always easy to accept. Some soldiers stop believing in God, others grow closer to him. Everything is accelerated in a war zone."
Mebbe this is what Davidche means in his divine intervention thread.... -
God cannot intervene because it is human fighting human out of their own free will.
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I really pity these soldiers...sent to the mince meat machine....
In these times, it's naturally that pple's faith are shaken.... -
War is where u can really lose or strengthen ur faith. Anyone agrees?
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^ It's true. It's suffering that tests your connection with the Divine One.
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It is not merely life that is lost in war, but souls as well. God bless the chaplains.
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If u are a chaplain, seeing your fellow soldiers dying by your side everyday, will u lose faith too?
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hard to say until we are in that position...Originally posted by laoda99:If u are a chaplain, seeing your fellow soldiers dying by your side everyday, will u lose faith too?
people are going to look to your for faith, yet if you lack it....i can't say you are going to be an effective chaplain... -
depends on the person i guess. The Catholic missionaries i talked to seem to get stronger though.Originally posted by laoda99:If u are a chaplain, seeing your fellow soldiers dying by your side everyday, will u lose faith too?
Just 3 weeks back, i was talking to this Sister. She told me how some of her friends got raped and killed in Brazil 2 years back (one at point blank
). But tht didn't seem to put her off. In fact, i think it strengthen her desire more.
i am always so impressed by these missionaries. They are so brave! -
Why do Charismatic pastors in singapore claim that God speak to them (as in.....speak lor...got sound one)....but chaplains in war dun? Haizzzz