Tough Questions

My cousin recently died in Iraq and I promised myself I wouldn't blog about it because I didn't want to. The story is that he died by a suicide bomber. The thing that makes the story special is that he and his company engaged the suicide bomber and shot him which in turn saved lives. News articles were written in the paper and stories were run in the news about my cousins' death. They interviewed my uncle and how he felt about his death. His neighborhood street was lined with American Flags and yellow ribbons. He was honored in the Iowa Senate. The funeral visitation lasted eight hours. My mom wrote the following in an e-mail sent to me. I only share this with you because I found them quite hard to ponder about and think about. I do not look for sympathy.

The whole thing was overwhelming. There was so much to think about and I am still processing my thoughts on life, war, honor, freedom, military service etc.

• Sacrifice a life for the country's freedom vs Jesus’ sacrifice for our freedom?
• Why the military is steeped with honor and respect and pride and the church is not?
• Why ordinary people would stop and get out of their cars in the middle of the freeway in the cold drizzly weather to stand respectfully with their hand on their hearts or saluting, while the funeral processional went by?
• How when you sign up for the military, the military becomes your family - or does it become your religion, since you are to obey your commander above all else?
• Does showing a military slide show at the funeral glorify war/violence? Isn’t Jesus for peace?
• Did they have a funeral for the suicide bomber? Is him family mourning him the same way we are mourning?
• His brother wants to go to Iraq and get revenge for his brother's death. What do you say to him?
• What motivates the guy who voluntarily drove over 50 miles to put up over 300 American Flags around the outside of the church?
• What would Jesus do?

He did witness to his fellow soldiers about Jesus while in Iraq.
And there are others coming to Christ as a result of his quote.

"It's like this. All the other pretend gods want you to die for them, but instead
Jesus died for you."


This is how I replied:

I admire all the patriotic flag-waving things done in honor of what he did. I'm just not quite sure what to think about all this either I guess. I think I just don't like politics/patriotism and religion mixed together. Those are tough questions. Very tough questions.

• I think Jesus' sacrifice for our freedom trumps all. He died not just serving for a country but died for all of mankind serving God.
• After reading "Jesus for President" and reading about how much of tax payers money goes into the army and war I do not think highly of the Army. I appreciate what they do protecting our country, just don't like the way they go about it. We had a chapel speaker once who would go out in the street and ask people what they thought of Christians and then ask them what they thought about Jesus. They responded that Christians were hypocrites, cults, and responsible for the Crusades while Jesus was God's Son who died for us.
• I don't know what motivated people to stop in the middle of the highway.
• Martin Luther King wrote about law once. He wrote that there is earthly law and heavenly law. Some laws are the same (murder is wrong) and some laws are different. He says heavenly law trumps all. So I guess if an Army commander goes against heavenly law, you follow the real commander of Jesus Christ.
• If I were to make a slideshow at a funeral I would hope it glorifies service and sacrifice, not war/violence. I guess people interpret things differently. I remember seeing a campaign ad supporting McCain and it was a soldier glorifying the war. It showed him close up then slowly zoomed back to reveal that he had lost his leg in combat. I guess that sends a message for war glory.
• I would assume they had a funeral for him. I think their religion glorifies honor and dedication through suicide bombing the same way we glorify it through fighting for freedom.
• On revenge: Leviticus 19:18, Romans 12:19
• I guess the guy who drives that far feels compelled to put up flags the same way dad felt compelled to stick around for the funeral for so long.
• I don't know what Jesus would do. He wept when he learned that Lazarus died and visited their family, but he didn't die in a war or by a suicide bomber.
  
  It's all very confusing and I'm never quite sure what to think. Comments?