Christians?
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 ...
‘What was that “Allah the merciful” Arabic chant all about? Why didn’t they praise Jesus?”
I don’t know. The article seems to explain why dad learned Pashto and etc. I can’t defend any references to “Allah” the “merciful.”
“Crap. They didn’t see him walk off base...???”
They weren’t eyewitnesses to his leaving. We don’t know why he left.
He could have been a deserter. Drunk. Looking for fun. Up to no good. Exploring. Cracked. On a mission. Making a mistake of some kind. Kidnapped. Tricked.
I don’t know. And no one saw him go.
“Persevero.........you are sucking on the MSM tit.”
Actually, the bulk of the media seems to be promoting doubt about the Bergdahls right now.
Get back to me...when you realize the truth.
I haven't heard a single word about Jesus or the persecution of Christians by the Taliban from any of the Bergdahl "Christians".
Are they ashamed of the Gospel? Or are they Muslim "christians" now?
For a couple of Calvinist Christians they certainly have put on the front of being Muslim sympathizers.
They have nothing to fear by condemning the slimeball Terrorists who have been holding their son and killing Americans and Christians with impunity.
Can you tell I'm a bit irritated by people who are defending the deserter and his Taliban looking dad?
So be it....
You are actually writing and talking like the WH press secretary.....
You aren't endearing me to any of your weaseling...
FWIW-
I don’t think the family is a sleeper cell. I do think the father is mentally disturbed from this ordeal. But it simply isn’t his father that I find disturbing about this.
What bothers me about this is the liberal canonization of this soldier. He served honorably?
He did not.
Not by any stretch, even a liberal stretch of the mind did he serve honorably. It is an insult, knowing what the government did, that they promoted him while he was with the enemy. This is a man who should be punished for what he did, and severely. Instead they tried to portray him as a heroic figure. It is a disgrace.
That is what bothers me. And the opinions that matter to me are those of the men who served beside him, not his pastor, or even his parents. It doesn’t mean I don’t feel pity for his parents and the ordeal they went through, but that is not the issue. The issue is whether Bergdahl is called to full account for his actions, and the resulting deaths of his countrymen who were ordered to search for him while he may well have been providing information to the enemy to help them kill our men.
It is astonishing to even consider this.
And even if I have any compassion for Bergdahl and his ordeal, it is tempered and far overpowered by the odiousness of the things he has done, and the lives of good men he has cost.
And the lives he may yet cost.
But what makes it worse is knowing how close he came to coming home to a hero’s welcome, and the knowledge that he will likely never be obliged pay for what he has done.
He will, in the words of someone he probably admires, be guilty as sin and free as a bird.
THAT is what bothers me.
Christians?
I find that fantastic. Especially given the sentiments of those who served with him, that he was adept and strident enough to be vocally anti-American and anti-military, yet so simple he thought he could just go on a walkabout in an area where the cruelty to captives is well known. You don't suppose any of the long conversations that certainly took place between those men as they spent that much time together didn't often stray into what would happen if they were captured.
Even if it had been one man who came forward and said these things, I could leave a little room for doubt.
But when multiple men come forward separately and pretty much paint the same picture of him in a non-anonymous public manner, I am inclined to trust their version of events over the sentiments of his pastor and his parents.
To give him that out that he could go through basic training, advanced training and be deployed yet be so simple he couldn't figure out he couldn't just walk away, well...that is either a scathing indictment of the effectiveness of home schooling or an encompassing description of Bergdahl's unsuitability to be a working member of society, never mind the military.
I just don't see how one can reconcile those things.
The family isn’t on trial. Although, there are questionable actions by the father, it is the son, who is being questioned.
The father’s actions are suspicious, but the father didn’t desert his unit, as at least 4 soldiers have confirmed on national TV. And the father didn’t collaborate with the Taliban as one other soldier, believes.
Now, when the father states, “ I am most proud of the actions Bo took to save the Afghan children “, I’d say his sanity and patriotism are also in question.
That is an odd thing to say, unless he is indirectly confirming his son going over to the other side. Not one statement regarding the six Americans killed trying to look for this sack of spit.
Nothing good to say about America or our military. I think his a typical nutcase leftist who allowed his son to grow up with no foundations. Left to wallow in a sea of relativistic nothingness, Bo had the perfect upbringing to be a deserting traitor.
He was a Renaissance Mountain Man as well! Another leftie pastor comes to the rescue. Valerie Jarrett must have been on the phone all night long trying to scare up defenders of this guy.
As a parent, I can understand the desire and drive to do anything necessary to get your child back. I have no problem with that. My problem is that his son, through his chosen actions, got a lot of Americans killed and injured. I don’t understand why Bowe even joined the military if he had no intention of fighting the enemy.
But the biggest reason I am outraged over the situation is Obama trading five extremely dangerous enemy combatants for Bergdahl. What their son did was disgusting. And Susan Rice told us he “served with honor and distinction”. He certainly did not.
This is quite impressive. It puts a much different light on the matter. I commend you, Persevero, for your own investigation. I believe it merits a thread of its own.
I will admit to having negative feelings towards the Baghdahls; some of that is because of the actions of their son and a large amount of it for being stage props for Obama.
However, the Pastor’s words touched this father’s heart. I believe that FReepers, especially Christians, need to see the Pastor’s words.
Al-Bergdahl’s Dad: “I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners. God will repay for the death of every Afghan child, ameen.”
This really touches my heart.
If one can try to view this as a statement of a man driven by by love of his son - driven to a place he may not have ever thought to go, then perhaps some Christian compassion might be evoked.
My contempt is reserved for Obama using them as stage props. I have pity for them allowing themselves to be used. But, I am done with trashing them.
Well not MSNBC, Rachel Maddow is defending Bergdahl was praising him as a hero last night and painting conservatives as being in a conspiracy to get his former platoon members to speak out against him to discredit Obama. THAT is who is on the Bergdahls side in all of this, you have the Administration and the leftwing media supporting him. Whereas the rest of us see his comrades-in-arms, who were there with him, heard what he said, saw the things he did stating categorically that he deserted and may have even cooperated with the enemy. we have a hard time taking the Administration/Maddow’s side against them.
exactly. it’s about JUSTICE.
it is telling that there isn’t even ONE of his platoon members who can defend him or what he did, or even say it’s open to question. Even one who has said he was a fairly good friend of Bergdahl’s.
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