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Church in a combat zone
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| Rees Ryder Stevens |
| Reprinted from the January 2003 issue of The Christian
Science Journal |
". . . a chaplain visits our company. In a tired voice, he prays
for the strength of our arms and for the souls of the men who are to die.
We do not consider his denomination. Helmets come off. Catholics, Jews, and
Protestants, bow their heads and finger their weapons. It is front-line religion:
God and the Garand." —Audie Murphy, To Hell and Back
For people who are unfamiliar with military life, church and soldiers
in combat seem distant from one another. But church, the living practice of
faith, is a very real and near experience for those facing combat.
In December 1989, while the United States was preparing to intercede
in Panama, I was the chaplain assigned to the leading task force of the 82nd
Airborne Division. The immediate hours before boarding the planes were filled
with many types of preparation, including requests for church services. The
paratroopers wanted to place their faith and trust in a higher power than
combat arms.
The basis of my homilies is the Bible Lesson from the Christian
Science Quarterly. I often take the Gospel story or main Biblical
selections and extrapolate several points from these Lessons.
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| "The Gabriel of His presence has no contests." |
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The Lesson that week was “Christian Science.” I read a selection from Science
and Health to illustrate God’s protective power. It included this
statement: “The Gabriel of His presence has no contests.”
After the short service one paratrooper came up to me and asked to read
that for himself. He was really touched by it.
Twelve hours later, after the unit made a combat parachute assault,
this same soldier was wounded and thought to be dead. He was brought into
the aid station and set down on a stretcher to the side. I felt impelled to
go over to that stretcher.
I rolled back the blanket and recognized the paratrooper. I leaned down
and whispered in his ear, “Do not be afraid. The Gabriel of His presence is
with you right now.” At that he started to blink his eyes and cough, and I
got him medical attention.
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| Confronted by life and death in their most immediate
terms, soldiers . . . reach out to God. |
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When confronted by life and death in their most immediate terms, soldiers
from all types of backgrounds reach out to God. They come together and pray
silently and aloud. They read Scripture. This is the worshiping church in
its simplest, purest form. Those with whom they work, and on whom their lives
depend, pray together.
It is a moment to mentally, spiritually, reach out to a familiar touchstone—faith.
The faith experience that says to their hearts, “When it really counts or
you are in great need, reach out to God, trust in Him.”
Faith and trust in God enable the combat soldier to calm the myriad
fears that haunt his thoughts and heart both before and after combat. Experience
shows that the soldiers’ greatest fear is being frozen by fear so as not to
be able to do their duty for their squad mates.
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| Field worship services proclaim God’s abiding law of
Love. |
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The field worship services meet these fears with a practical proclamation
of God’s abiding law of Principle and Love. Often after these services, individuals
will ask for instructions on “how to pray” or they will want to know where
God is in all of this.
They may ask for a Bible and look for a familiar Psalm. They may say,
“Chaplain, do you know a couple of good verses for me to memorize?” These
are all common requests as soldiers reach out to faith, that familiar source
of strength. They intuitively seek spiritual ammunition for the trials they
are about to face.
There is a connection between faith practice and operating in a moral
manner toward enemy soldiers captured, wounded or dead, and also civilian
non-combatants in the operational area.
The field church worship events remind the soldiers of who they are
and what they represent—those higher moral qualities that are the true superstructures
of moral freedom and action. The free democracies of the world have chaplains
in their units as an active ingredient to keep the moral fiber of the command
in its proper place.
Front line religion is an immediate, practical thing for soldiers in
harm’s way. At these times, the veneer of busy lives is stripped away. The
simple issues of faith made practical come through. It is what all Church
is about.
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| Protected by the armor of faith: |
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Science and Health:
567:6-8
King James Bible:
Mark 11:22
II Tim 2:3,4
II Cor 1:10
Ps 23:4,5
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