Posted on 06/03/2014 11:52:24 AM PDT by Persevero
Bob Henley, former pastor at the(ir) Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood, recalled how friends periodically would ask Bergdahl if he hadn’t crossed some line, if he hadn’t succumbed to some form of the captive-bonding Stockholm syndrome.
But Bergdahl assured his friends he was just doing whatever he could to ensure his son’s release. “I guess you really had to be in his shoes,” Henley said.
The five-year waittook a toll on both of his parents, according to friends and others .
Bergdahl is fiercely intelligent, friends said, yet he dropped out of college, going to Idaho with his wife in 1980 after studying at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He taught himself Pashto. He is religious, at one point making the 300-mile round trip a couple of times a month to attend an Orthodox Presbyterian church in Boise with his family.
Bergdahhas said he grew his beard as a chronology marking the time that his son was missing. Bergdahl also did it in a bid to win sympathy from his son’s captors.
At the time their son was taken, the Bergdahls were attending a conservative Presbyterian church in Boise. Glenn Ferrell was the pastor.(H)e talked at length with Bergdahl, as the father questioned and probed his own beliefs to reach some understanding of the radical Islam driving the Taliban.
Bergdahl also talked with Mark Stephensen, a board member of the National League of POW/MIA Families, who lives in Boise. Stephensen’s father was a Vietnam War MIA for 21 years. Stephensen saw how Bergdahl had changed his appearance and altered his interests to align with his son’s experience.
“I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt,” Stephensen said, “because, by the grace of God, I wasn’t in his position.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Guess what. Bonkers gets the same sentence. Think about the guy with TBI who watched members of his unit killed. Then he went out and slaughtered a bunch of Afghanis in the night. Just because of some meds combined with trauma. He is still in prison. It doesn’t matter if the military should have never sent him on another tour. Bonkers is no excuse.
And those certain things included a note renouncing his American Citizenship and advising them that he was deserting.
How much proof do you need before you acknowledge the truth?
OJ was found not guilty of killing Nicole. What is the truth?
Maybe he was working for the CIA in order to gain intel on the whereabouts of OBL. Like you might find in a spy novel. So he left his Army unit and sought the Taliban. Of course, to prove his loyalty to the Taliban, he had to aid in the killing of some US service members. His dad had to play along with this whole charade. Blah blah blah.
Now this hogwash from WaPo. Sounds like the WH has decided to double down and have told the MSM to start running the "he's really a great patriot" kind of stories.
The liberals will of course buy this BS from their media, and this will be the end of it. Another victory for Obama and the other enemies of the USA.
Maybe he is from outer space. Maybe he's working for the x-files unit of the FBI.
Lol.
I guess the optic of Obama standing in the Rose Garden with the parents could have been worse; the mother could have been in a burqa or the old man wearing a suicide vest. After that image of the father next to Obama the situation could have only done south.
Can’t wait to see what they look like when they attend Sgt. Bergdahl’s White House welcome home MOH award ceremony.
Concerned? Awesome!!
Do you or don't you think Bowe deserted?
Do you or don't you think Bowe converted to Islam?
I know what I've heard and seen....And I've thought about it for some time.
Persevero.........you are sucking on the MSM tit.
Ah...the truth comes out.
Hope you and your friend are ready for disappointment.
Hell, we didn't see Monica give BJC a BJ..but we know she did.
Good gawd woman!! Get a grip!!
Okay. I’m good with that. You have a connection and want to be cautious. I had to ask. No offense intended, FRiend.
Persevero has been a conservative FReeper in my experience. (S)he has a second-hand connection to Bob Bergdahl. Bob’s first-hand connections are likely in denial and defending his actions while the rest of us see Bob for what he is.
This is not unusual. Persevero wants to believe his/her friends and give them the benefit of the doubt. Let’s see what transpires. I’m not ready to condemn Persevero.
I am slow to reach conclusions myself sometimes when I am closer to the issue than others. No harm done yet.
Will wait.................
I agree with you. And I can see how a kid who is not all that prepared for war and was homeschooled might think he can leave and go. It’s unpopular around here, but I do consider him a POW.
Thankyou Texan and Squid for your decent words. I appreciate your courtesy.
For all: More food for thought below (publicly posted on Facebook so I’m sharing it) Can you understand why I’m not quite willing to just latch on to the whole “family is a sleeper cell” thing?
“I mentioned recently that Bowe Bergdahl’s parents were members of an OPC church when he was captured by the Taliban and since that time I’ve had a lot of people ask me if they had become Muslims or what was up. I asked their former pastor Phil Proctor if he would mind giving me something I could share, this is what Phil wrote:
“I appreciate your asking about the Bergdahls. I’ve really been saddened about how the Christian community is jumping all over this. Here’s the deal...
I pastored the Bergdahl family in 2003, prior to going to Uganda. We were very close, and remained so throughout my time in Uganda (I just found out this evening that apparently I’m referenced in some important Rolling Stone article from 2012).
Bowe was a young man with all the dangers of home-schooling – a brilliant and inquisitive mind, a crisp thinker, and someone who had never really been exposed to evil in the world. He was wanting to determine whether the Christian faith was his own, or his parents’ and was doing a lot of exploring of ideas – never drugs or alcohol, but trying to be an outdoors/Renaissance type figure. We’ve stayed in close contact with Bob and Jani, especially since Bowe’s capture. Since we moved here to Northern Virginia, Bob and Jani have stayed in our home on a couple of occasions, and I’ve spoken on the phone with Bob once a month or so.
Bob felt (with some justification) that the US government was not going to engage with diplomatic efforts and so decided to try to free his son himself. He learned Pashtun and developed a lot of contacts in the Middle East. The Qatar connection is one that either originated with Bob or, at the very least, became very personally connected to Bob. Bob has, for quite some time, been saying that the closure of Guantanamo is integrally connected to the release of his son.
Whatever one thinks of Bob’s political views, I can attest to both he and Jani’s unwavering commitment to Christ and trust in him. I’ve prayed with both of them regularly. They both have been through a torture mill that I cannot begin to comprehend – 5 years of a living death. It has affected their health, both physically and mentally, as Bob has been completely obsessed with tracking down any possible communication avenue to get his son home. There are a number of things I would disagree with Bob on in terms of political statements, but at the end of the day, I think this whole mess is a WHOLE lot more complicated than a 30 second sound bite can explore – the very existence of Gitmo attests to the complicated nature from the very beginning, and it’s only gotten worse over the years.
To the foundational issue: Bob and Jani both have regularly confessed their dependence upon Christ and rest in him – the most recent being Bob’s conversation with me about a month ago. They are broken people who need prayer, love, and compassion. I personally intend to run as hard as I can in the opposite direction of judging his words in the moment of his crucible – I would HATE to have that standard applied to my moments of stress, which have never reached anything approaching his intensity and duration!
Feel free to forward this and use it as widely as you like.
Yours in Christ,
Phil Proctor
Pastor, Sterling Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Sterlingopc.org
FYI. My most recent conversation with Bob and Jani was 30 minutes ago. Still Christians “
What was that “Allah the merciful” Arabic chant all about? Why didn’t they praise Jesus?
HAHAHA!! Totally laughable!!!
Yeah blame it all on HS'ing....
Geesh, the more you post, the more I think you've zero understanding what your "friends" think, believe, or worship period.
It's dangerous to be so naive.
When it becomes clear to you...let me know. I hope your discernment get's better...fore I think it's seriously lacking right now.
Bowe deserted his post. Period.
You aren't understanding what the Taliban does or wants.
Home schooled had something to do with his deserting?????? You are as dumb as my rock pile out back...in the south 40.
Squid is right.
What the heck has happened to FR...?!?!?!?
“Bowe was a young man with all the dangers of home-schooling –”
I homeschooled all five of my kids and am a huge proponent of home schooling.
Just because I copied the Facebook post doesn’t mean I am going all along with everything said. Just trying to give people some perspective.
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