Here is my contribution to the November 2023 issue of the Fishkill United Methodist Church newsletter.
In view of certain world events and with Veterans’ Day this month, I want to offer some comments about what we, as Christians, can do concerning war.
My grandfather, Colonel Walter Lee Mitchell, Sr., kept a diary of his time while serving in the Army from 1918 to 1944. The first part of the diary deals with his time in France as part of the American Expeditionary Force during World War I; the second part deals with his Army service and travels with his family following the war.
While in France he served as the adjutant for the 34th Infantry Regiment, which was part of the 7th Division. While the Division did not see combat as a unit, parts of the division, including the 34th Regiment did. Based on information I gathered from other sources, it appears that my grandfather used his diary to draft his notes for the official reports.
As such, his thoughts about the nature of war are rather limited. On October 11, 1918, he noted that a member of Company C was killed. In his diary entry for October 4, 1918, he wrote “We are no longer strangers to gas”, referring to the use of chemical weapons by the Germans. He also noted when American forces used gas as a weapon.
Perhaps the one thing that was a constant was his acknowledgment that he was far from home and his wife, my grandmother. They were married in January 1918, approximately three months before he left for France. He longed to receive her letters and noted the days that he received them.
On Christmas Day, 1918, Colonel Mitchell wrote the following in the diary,
December 25, 1918 – CHRISTMAS DAY in a foreign land 5,000 miles from home. Nothing much to do, it is hell.
Perhaps Colonel Mitchell was channeling William Tecumseh Sherman who on several occasions said that war “is a terrible thing”, “is cruelty and you cannot refine it” as well as “war is hell.”).
He would return home in 1919 and serve until 1944, retiring as a Colonel. My grandfather was one of the fortunate ones. He came home from two wars to live in St. Louis with his wife and experience the birth of three grandsons. He would die at home in 1955 during a period of relative peace.
My father was commissioned as an officer in the Army Air Corps in 1943, following his graduation from Cornell University. He served in the Southwest Pacific theater of operation with the 5th Air Force. While he served in combat zones, I do not believe that he saw actual combat.
With one exception, he never discussed his experiences during World War II. The only time he volunteered any information was to confirm the briefing he had received just prior to the proposed invasion of the Japanese mainland. It was estimated that Allied casualties would be over a million; it was this information that convinced President Truman to use the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
My father served as an officer in the United States Air Force for just over twenty years, often stationed at bases that were prime targets for Soviet missiles. My father would also die at home in 1995 in a period of relative peace.
My mother was a secretary in the War Department (now the Defense Department) when she traveled to post-war Germany. To the best of my knowledge, she never discussed the devastation and destruction she saw there.
What I do know is that while my parents disapproved of my anti-war activities, my father was visibly relieved when I failed my draft physical in 1971 and my mother told Petra Mitchell (her granddaughter and my niece) that she was glad that neither my two brothers nor I were drafted.
Other families were and are not so lucky. Their fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters are sent off to war, even if it is not called a war. Some die in faraway lands; others return home, some with visible wounds, many with invisible wounds.
They understood what the Greek philosopher Herodotus wrote,
Nobody is stupid enough to prefer war to peace. Because in times of peace children bury their parents, whereas, on the contrary, in times of war parents bury their children.
I shall not presume to know what either of my parents or my grandfather thought about war. My grandfather most certainly experienced the effects of combat. Some of the pictures that Colonel Mitchell collected show the devastation and destruction of property and human life, but he very seldom wrote about those horrors.
Neither my father, who saw the destruction and devastation of Japan when he was stationed there after the war, nor my mother, who saw similar devastation and destruction when she was in Germany after the war, said anything about what they saw or experienced.
We find that our parents, our siblings, and our friends are not willing to talk about their time in combat or combat zones. Perhaps there is something about war that takes away the glamour.
Following the Battle of Fredericksburg, General Robert E. Lee wrote to his wife and said, “It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.” (Letter dated 13 December 1862).
But I am afraid that some 160 years later, we have grown fond of war as we see it as the solution to our problems, never realizing that war only creates conditions for future wars.
War is certainly not glamourous, and it is perhaps the one activity that does not discriminate between the old and the young, the rich and the poor, sinners and the righteous. War feeds on our fears and our anger.
When a parent loses a child, do you not think that they would like to see another parent lose their children? And how must children feel when they lose a parent, sibling, or friend? Do you think that they will not want to find some way for another child to lose their parents, siblings, or friends? And thus, each generation continues the process of war.
And when we oppress people, because of their economic status, their race, their gender, or their lifestyle, does this not allow the conditions for war to fester and grow?
The patch worn by members of the 34th Infantry Regiment shows the Cross of Lorraine (the part of France where they were stationed). The area of Alsace-Lorraine lies between France and Germany and has been the target of wars between the two countries. How many other areas of land on the planet are the focus of conflict between groups of people?
We have turned war into a reason; we say that we must fight to ensure our security. Yet, not too many people think we are safer or more secure today as compared to a few years ago. We see terrorists around every corner; we have bought into the argument that we must give up our rights and freedoms so that we can control terrorism.
Yet terrorism grows in the presence of fear. Terrorism grows in the slums of the world, where those without the necessities of life are taught to hate those who have them. And we do nothing to remove that cycle of violence and hate.
In his speech to United Nations on 25 September 1961, President John Kennedy said, “Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.”
So, what do we, as Christians, do? The answer was given to us in the Nazareth synagogue some two thousand years ago.
On that day some 2000 years ago, in the Nazareth synagogue, When Jesus stood before his family, friends, and neighbors and began his ministry, he noted that He had come to heal the sick, bring sight to the blind, and free the oppressed. Are those not the same conditions that bring war?
We need to find ways to bring equitable healthcare to all people, not just a select few, not just to those who side with us.
We need to educate all the people of the world so that we are not blind to the problems of the world and are able to solve them. And again, we must do this for all, not just for a few or those who side with us.
We need to set the prisoners free, free from the hatred that fuels war, free from conditions that allow people to seek violent solutions, free from the prison walls of economic status, race, gender, and lifestyle.
While there are some who call themselves Christian, they do not show the love that has been shown to them. As children we memorized John 3:16, “for God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten son.” Are we not to show that same love to all the people of this world, even those who may hate us and seek our destruction?
The challenge is before may seem impossible and we may see it as beyond our capabilities. In his commencement address at American University on10 June 1963, he said, “ Our problems are manmade–therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man’s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable–and we believe they can do it again.
It is our time to show God’s love to all the people of the world; it is our time to fulfill the goals that Jesus laid out before us some 2000 years ago. It is time.
Thoughts From The Heart On The Left 