I remember reading a story by Matthew Stannard in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled "The War Within." The article profiles Blake James Miller, a U.S. soldier who was dubbed "The Marlboro Man" after an iconic photo taken of Miller's dirt and blood smeared face was reprinted in over 150 newspapers in 2004. The photo made Miller a "poster-boy" of the Iraq war and garnered gifts and attention from people across the United States, including President George Bush who sent him a box of cigars. In 2006, however, Miller returned from Iraq and suffered severe post-traumatic stress, which led to psychotic breakdowns, alcoholism, and ultimately the dissolution of his marriage. Miller was raised a Christian and at one time wanted to be a pastor. In preparing for battle he brought his comrades together for prayer and encouragement, often quoting scripture from memory. In trying to understand the nature of Miller's suffering his adopted grandmother, Mildred Childers, believes it is a spiritual suffering, a crisis of faith that destroyed Miller's sense of self. Stannard writes:
She [Childers] still remembers Miller's call just before the assault on Fallujah, and his terrible question: "How can people go to church and be a Christian and kill people in Iraq?"
"He was raised where that's one of the Ten Commandments, do not kill," she said. "I think it's hard for a soldier to go to war and have that embedded in them from small children up, and you go over there and you've got to do it to stay alive."
How much of the post-traumatic stress that returning soldiers undergo is due to the impossibility of reconciling our country's reliance and celebration of murder alongside God's command to refrain from killing? What kind of cruelty are we inflicting on our youth and children when we teach them in Sunday school, youth groups, and schools like Sidwell to "love your neighbor" and further, "love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you" and then expect them to become patriotic supporters of a country that regularly kills civilians?
If our young people are going to be formed in Christian faith with Christian values, if they are to be encouraged to follow the non-violent Jesus, then shouldn't our churches, our pastors, the adult communities that surround our young people become actively committed to non-violence, to supporting leaders committed to ending the wars? If we choose to raise our children in schools and religious communities that practice peaceful conflict resolution, why can't we choose leaders who uphold these same values and practices?
If we can't find leaders committed to "that of God" in everyone, then maybe the kindest thing we can do is to stop sending our kids to schools and churches that indoctrinate children in Christian principles. Maybe the best thing we can do for our children is to stop the hypocrisy and start forming schools and religious communities that embody the beliefs and practices that we actually trust.
Rather than teaching Malia and Sasha conflict resolution, Sidwell should teach preemptive violence against kids suspected of future wrongdoing. Instead of promoting "thoughtful listening" with people from "different perspectives," Sidwell should train students to identify and eliminate the "bad guys." Why not raise Malia, and Sasha, and other young people in schools and churches that allow teachers to chain, isolate, and water-board groups who harbor or interact with students suspected of terrorizing other students? Why not create schools and churches that reflect our real beliefs, our real faith, so that Malia and Sasha and all the other children growing up in a country committed to multiple wars, won't have to suffer the hypocrisy and humiliation of being sent to a school of make-believe, a school out of touch with adult problem-solving, a school whose commitments are as silly and impractical as the life of Jesus?
For training and resources in non-violent resistance and conflict resolution go to www.paceebene.org.
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