Bullet: ‘...inculcating the Warrior [note capitalization] ethos is into all soldiers of both the active and reserve components is one of the top priorities...” Bullet: “The Warrior ethos statement contained within the new Soldier’s Creed –I will always place the mission first [before the rules even?]. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade—is a key aspect of The Soldier focus area.” Bullet: “This is about shifting the mindset of Soldiers from identifying what they do as a Soldier— ‘Í’m a cook, I’m an infantryman, I’m a postal clerk’ toward ‘I am a Warrior’ when people ask what they do for a living.” Bullet: “American soldiers, possessed of a fierce warrior ethos and spirit, fight in close combat....” Bullet: “No soldier can survive ...without ... continuous immersion in the Army’s Warrior culture.” Bullet: “This will require the deep and personal commitment of every member of the Army team—every leader, every Soldier, civilian, and every family member.” Did you notice all the confessional religious language and allusions? Ethos, spirit, Creed, mission, immersion (as in baptism), commitment. And the change described is eerily parallel to Christian conversion. Recall Paul’s language in Eph 4 and Col 3 of taking off the old self (civilian) and putting on the new self (Warrior). Or recall II Cor 5: “If anyone is in Christ, she is a new creation.” Parallel that with, “If anyone is in the Army, he is a new creation; the old (cook or postal clerk) is put away; the new (Warrior) is put on.” All of this lends credence to the common adage that the Army breaks you down and rebuilds you into the kind of creature they need. Do they fully succeed? By God’s grace, no. Even the Army can’t totally erase the created way in which we reflect or image God. The extent of change also varies immensely from one person to the next. But their efforts to recreate a person into a killer does immense damage at that very deep DNA level, the level of self. Training already does that; combat exacerbates it. Like the enemy they were trained to dehumanize, they too are partly dehumanized. That’s why soldiering is arguably the most self-sacrificial of callings. Not just because of the risk of physical death or injury but because it sacrifices the self at a very deep level. That’s why soldiers so often experience post-traumatic stress disorder with all of its devastating consequences. Already years ago I read that about 90% of Viet Nam combat veterans were divorced, and that we lost more to suicide than to enemy action. U.S. active duty soldiers today experience similar statistics- n a recent period about 562 combat deaths and 568 suicides. Reliable figures indicate U.S. veteran suicides average 18 per month; sorry 18 a week; no, really 18 per DAY—20% of all suicides in the nation. That is just veterans. It doesn’t include those 568 active duty soldiers. And there are hundreds of unsuccessful suicide attempts each month. With exaggeration some have said that the combat dead are the fortunate casualties. They suffered for seconds, minutes or hours before death. The walking wounded suffer for life. Think of what his Rawanda experience did to our own General Romeo Delaire. And it’s not just the training, the killing, the visions and recollections of killing that torture victims. It’s also that moral ambiguity that eats them for the rest of life; ambiguity like that of our first story; ambiguity they know no one will understand; ambiguity that questions whether the horrific things they have seen and done were really justifiable; and sometimes ambiguity that they are forced to keep inside knowing that sharing it might result in long and humiliating prosecution and punishment under the official rules while the very existence of the real rules is denied. All of this is depressing. But, speaking through Isaiah and Micah, God promises a future not just without war, but without even training for war. Now it would be easy to dismiss that as meaningless until Christ returns. And it is true that perfect fulfillment of that prophecy awaits His return. But in anticipation of that great day and in preparation for it, we are called right now to begin exchanging guns for garden tools and atomic bombs for medical isotopes. As God’s people, let’s work hard for justice and peace. Let’s work hard to prevent and end war. The Lord will finish the job when He returns, but he expects us now to begin to make into reality that prophecy: They will beat their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, Nor will they train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine And under their own fig tree, And no one will make them afraid, For the Lord Almighty has spoken.