May 25, 2009

Memorial Day Reflections

Celebrating Memorial Day in a foreign country can be complicated. When the country in question is overwhelmingly pacifist in its sentiment it can become even more dicey.

Of course, Brazilians are not really "in tune" with American holidays to begin with. Heaven knows, they have enough of them already. In fact, I would venture to guess that almost the only Brazilians who are celebrating Memorial Day today are the ones that work in the various consular offices scattered accross US territory. (That has to be one of the sweetest jobs ever, because they get both US and Brazilian holidays off, which means they work perhaps half of the year...)

However, though I live in the midst of a "pacifist" society (which does not mean it is a "peaceful" society--more on that later, perhaps), I recognize the enormous contribution of US soldiers to the work that I do. The following is almost certainly an incomplete list of those contributions:

1. The soldiers of the American Revolution founded, with their blood, the nation which has been the cradle of world missions from almost that point on. I find it interesting that it was shortly after the Revolutionary War that American Christians began to look beyond their own shores to a lost world. The equation is simple: no American Revolution, no missionary movements of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries.

2. American soldiers have defended religious freedom on every corner of the globe. Can you imagine where missions would be if--for example--Hitler had dominated the western world, or if Imperialist Japan had dominated Asia? American troops have an honored and noble tradition of taking out thugs who cannot stomach the thought of Christianity. Think what you will about the Iraq war, can you conceive of Christian missionaries in that country if US soldiers had not expelled Sadaam Hussein?

Here I must note that brave men from my adoptive Brazil--for all of her pacifist posturings--played a heroic role in trouncing Mussolini.

3. American soldiers played an indirect part in the start of Baptist missions here in Brazil. The victory won with great difficulty by Northern soldiers in the Civil War caused some southerners to emigrate to Brazil. There they founded a colony which inluced the first Baptist church in this country. Upon visiting relatives at that colony, a former Confederate soldier was impressed with the great need for missions here, and started the first Baptist missionary work. Again, the equation is fascinating: no northern victory, no Baptist missions in Brazil.

4. Believing US soldiers had their eyes opened to the worldwide need as they were helping to defeat the Nazis and Imperial Japanese. Upon their return they started a missionary movement in the late forties and early fifties--the effects of which continue to this day. Our own field in Brazil was greatly impacted by this movement.

While chatting with my Mom this morning she reminded me that we have ancestors who served in the American Revolution and Civil War. This is a part of my heritage of which I am very proud.

While not all US soldiers have behaved themselves in admirable ways, and while their cause has not always been as just as the national anthem would imply, their impact on Christian missions has been, and continues to be, enormous. The prayers of the Comings family are constantly with those who are serving today around the world, and with those families who are suffering with the loss of a soldier son, daughter, husband, wife, father, or mother.

I would like to close this post with a couple quotes. The first one is of dubious authorship, being atributed at times to George Orwell or Winston Churchill. Whoever said it, it is true:

We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.

The second is the version of the hymn Eternal Father, Strong to Save sung by the group Acapella. Each verse addresses a different member of the Trinity, and relates to a different branch of the service. I get teary-eyed every time I hear it.

Eternal Father, strong to save, whose arms hath bound the restless wave
Who bids the mighty ocean deep its own appointed limits keep
O hear us when we cry to thee for those in peril on the sea

O Christ, the Lord of hill and plain o'er which our traffic runs a-main
By mountain pass or valley low: wherever Lord, our brethren go
Protect them by thy guarding hand from every peril on the land

O spirit, whom the Father sent to spread abroad the firmament
O wind of heaven, by thy might save all who dare the eagle's flight
And keep them by thy watchful care from every peril in the air

O trinity of love and power, our brethren shield in danger's hour
From rock and tempest, fire and foe, protect them where-so-e'er they go
Thus ever-more shall rise to thee glad praise from air and land and sea

Posted by Andrew on May 25, 2009 9:46 AM.

Comments

Posted by: Jungle Mom at May 25, 2009 1:24 PM

Posted by: Andrew at May 25, 2009 2:06 PM