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This guy seems to have served with honor during his firt tour. Evidently, he served with honor for a year during his second tour.

Calling the guy a coward is a little bit rich for my blood.

It was unfortunate that his conversion came mid-tour. It sounds like he tried to make the best of it, but the military didn't have to play along and they didn't. I don't necessarily blame either party if the guy was genuinely changed by his conversion.

The military might have been better advised to place the guy in a non-combatant slot where he could have served productively. They didn't have to. They didn't. That's it.

I was raised a Seventh-Day Adventist and still believe their teachings. I do however feel that it is evil to face evil in the eye, and refuse to stop it. Therefore I do believe in the righteous role of the combatant.

The U.S. isn't trying to conquer anyone. They are simply demanding the terrorists live in peace, or face destruction. That is not evil.

Too many good Christians fail to understand this.

Taking a life should be the last resort. In this case, it is. The U.S. didn't drop into a peaceful nation and try to conquer it. They dropped into a hell-hole and began the process of stopping the slaughter.

If Christians can't sign on to that, they sure don't read the Bible I do.

I found this on another site:

***The initial position of the SDA church was that they were "compelled to decline all participation in acts of war and bloodshed". However, they accomodated to society by creating noncombatant roles whereby they could fulfill their military duties. In the ensuing years, situations arose where this precedent could not be followed, especially with foreign governments. The church then determined that the bearing of arms should be "a matter of individual conscience," backing away from their initial official church position. They have instead encouraged obedience to civil authorities and focused on offering spiritual support to members in service. ***

http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/sevn.html

He has two rows of ribbons so he did something right in his first tour. ;-)

He sure screwed up here tho. A BCD is not what you want on your record. Offering to do mine duty was a nice touch tho.. but if they still use bayonets at all, how can he say he doesn't want to carry a weapon? (I know they have other gadgets for mine detection these days, but nothing like the old tried and true method to detect a mine.)

This photo provided by the Adventist News Network shows U.S. Marine Cpl. Joel David Klimkewicz, right, with his wife, Tomomi of Birch Run, Mich., Dec. 14, 2004, at Camp Lejeune, N. C. Both are members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Klimkewicz was court martialed for refusing to obey an order to get a weapon from an armory. He was sentenced to seven months in jail. Adventist church attorneys are seeking to get the sentence reduced. (AP Photo/Adventist News Network, Mitchell A. Tyner)

'If Christians can't sign on to that, they sure don't read the Bible I do.'

Apparently not.....

Rom 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but [rather] give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance [is] mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.....

Rom 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Rom/Rom012.html#21
http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Rom/12/21.html

Luk 22:14 And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him.....

Luk 22:38 — And they said, Lord, behold, here [are] two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough. http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Luk/Luk022.html#38
http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Luk/22/38.html [They weren't going on a crusade with two swords:

'.....They must now in some degree suffer with their Master; and, when he is gone, they must expect to suffer like him. The servant is not better than his Lord. [1.] They must not now expect that their friends would be so kind and generous to them as they had been; and therefore, He that has a purse, let him take it, for he may have occasion for it, and for all the good husbandry he can use. [2.] They must now expect that their enemies would be more fierce upon them than they had been, and they would need magazines as well as stores: He that has no sword wherewith to defend himself against robbers and assassins (2 Co. 11:26) will find a great want of it, and will be ready to wish, some time or other, that he had sold his garment and bought one. This is intended only to show that the times would be very perilous, so that no man would think himself safe if he had not a sword by his side. But the sword of the Spirit is the sword which the disciples of Christ must furnish themselves with. Christ having suffered for us, we must arm ourselves with the same mind (1 Peter 4:1), arm ourselves with an expectation of trouble, that it may not be a surprise to us, and with a holy resignation to the will of God in it, that there may be no opposition in us to it: and then we are better prepared than if we had sold a coat to buy a sword. The disciples hereupon enquire what strength they had, and find they had among them two swords (v. 38), of which one was Peter’s. The Galileans generally travelled with swords. Christ wore none himself, but he was not against his disciples’ wearing them. But he intimates how little he would have them depend upon this when he saith, It is enough, which some think is spoken ironically: "Two swords among twelve men! you are bravely armed indeed when our enemies are now coming out against us in great multitudes, and every one with a sword!’’ Yet two swords are sufficient for those who need none, having God himself to be the shield of their help and the sword of their excellency, Deu. 33:29.......' Matthew Henry http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Luk/Luk022.html

Mat 26:52 — Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Mat/26/52.html

2Cr 10:4 — (For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/2Cr/10/4.html

Jer 23:29 — [Is] not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer [that] breaketh the rock in pieces? http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Jer/23/29.html

Hbr 4:12 For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Hbr/4/12.html

Nowhere in my Bible do I see where Jesus calls CHRISTIANS to take part in war. On the contrary HIS LAST WORDS before His Ascension:

Mar 16:15 — And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Mar/16/15.html

Maybe if we had paid more attention to THAT, there wouldn't be so much evil to contend with in the world today.

Sorry that's not the popular view. God's Word never was:

Mar 7:13 — Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Mar/7/13.html

Mat 15:6 — And honour not his father or his mother, [he shall be free]. **** Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Mat/15/6.html
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Psa 20:7 Some [trust] in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Psa/Psa020.html#7
http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Psa/20/7.html

Now, do what you want, but if it's not of God, just don't be calling it 'CHRISTian':

2Cr 6:3 Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/2Cr/2Cr006.html#3

and for your own sake, take note:

http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Gal/Gal001.html#9