Why They Pray - The trials of war strengthen many soldiers' faith

The Wall Street Journal ^ | March 9, 2007 | Andrew Carroll

[Zakeet]

"How can there be fairness in one man being maimed for life, suffering agonies, another killed instantaneously, while I get out of it safe?" Pvt. Walter Bromwich wrote to his pastor back in Pennsylvania during World War I. "Does God really love us individually or does He love his purpose more?" he continued. "Sounds rather calculating, doesn't it, and not a bit like the love of a Father."

Bromwich's sentiments are hardly unique. "If God's chief work has been the creation of this earth and man on it, to date He and His work have been a glorious failure," Lt. Russ Merrell concluded in a July 1944 letter to his wife after seeing the aftermath of the horrific Normandy invasion.

Whoever coined the now well-worn phrase that there are no atheists in foxholes--Ernie Pyle is believed to have been the first--was demonstrably wrong. They exist (there is even a statue, albeit small, erected in their honor in Alabama), and they have long argued that wartime faith cannot possibly be sincere or authentic but is merely a grasping and short-term reliance on divine intervention that desperate troops cling to in the maelstrom of battle.

Faith undoubtedly offers comfort and strength to those in need, especially troops confronting their own mortality. But this does not explain why so many soldiers go to extraordinary and potentially fatal lengths to worship a higher power.

[Zakeet]

This article has so much to offer that it is impossible to reasonably excerpt. Persons with interest in the topic are strongly advised to read the entire story.

The author is the editor of "Grace Under Fire: Letters of Faith in Times of War" (Doubleday), published this week.

[Eagles6]

save

[Dick Vomer]

But this does not explain why so many soldiers go to extraordinary and potentially fatal lengths to worship a higher power.

written by someone who hasn't seen combat....'nuff said.

[Gamecock]

"How can there be fairness in one man being maimed for life, suffering agonies, another killed instantaneously, while I get out of it safe?"

No one gets out of life alive son. It's not about fair. It's about where you will spend eternity.

[xzins]

The tsunami victims....wasn't a happy time they had to go through that.

The Katrina victims...wasn't a happy time

Cancer...isn't a happy time

Altsheimers...a happy time

death...isn't a happy time

Jesus resurrection....God's hope for the ages.

[jesseam]

My Iraq tour made me a much stonger Catholic. There is nothing like coming under fire to reinforce the certainty of your mortality.

[ASOC]

If I may--
My Iraq tour made me a much stonger Catholic. There is nothing like coming under fire to reinforce the certainty of your mortality.

Combat ... forces one to confront their own mortality.

[jesseam]

Better said, that is what I meant.

[ASOC]

Thank you, wasn't trying to put words into your eeerrr, post -just a simple restate - you were right on.

Also

I believe it was Shakespeare that wrote "It's not the going, but the being ready that counts. I think Old Bill's reference shows that no man truly knows his time. Ones time, of course, in combat, does seems awfully close at times.