Laurence M. Vance: An Alternative View of Memorial Day!

As a veteran of the Vietnam War, I have always found Memorial Day sickening: Churches encourage their veterans to wear their uniforms, as though God himself sanctioned the slaughter of our fellow man! Churches sing hymns of worship to the state instead of hymns about the person of Christ and HIS work. Some churches go even further, and sing "God Bless the USA", or "God Bless America". Too many churches sing the blasphemous "Battle Hymn of the Republic". I know that these practices are widespread, because of the scores of people who have e-mailed me in disgust about what occurred in their churches on the Sunday before Memorial Day. In most cases, it is not even necessary to visit a church on the Sunday preceding Memorial Day to know what goes on inside: Just look at the sign outside the church. Instead of a verse of scripture, or an announcement of an upcoming event, you are more likely to see some patriotic slogan, often with a Christian theme! Yes, we should pray for the troops. The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 2:1 that "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men", but the act of destroying them as soon as we see the whites of their eyes, was not meant by the author of these words. In Vietnam, in our base near Trung Lap, I ordered my "counterpart", Captain Quoc, to direct fire against a nearby village, from where enemy fire came to my advisory compound. In a few hours, a very old man, hobbling on a crude crutch fashioned from the branch of a tree, and an equally old woman, carrying a tiny baby with our mortar shrapnel in her stomach, and lifeless eyes, virtually on the edge of death, asked to see a doctor. Since our team only had a trained medic, I had to summon a helicopter from the nearby 25th Infantry Division. The child died in transit.