May 31, 2005
Regeneration
I flew four-engine bombers for Uncle Sugar’s Navy during one of the great misunderstandings (aka WW II). I never got shot at or even had a crash landing, nevertheless, I got into Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation by default. It was on the mere technicality of being the right age in the right era and having read enough ‘Daredevil Aces’ magazines and Tom Swift mysteries not to know any better. Forgive me, then, if I dare to flaunt those ‘credentials’ every once in a while.
Brokaw writes about that generation as if there were no other and certainly as if such could not be at all without there being a war or two within its life span. Memorial Day needs at least an octave to commemorate that properly and to remind us not only that hardly any generation has ever been spared a war, but also that, as heaven well knows, their service is beyond invaluably and incredibly selfless.
But what if there were also memorials for peace? Times when the world would no longer be in denial about and no longer tolerate genocide? What if there were those memorable eras when the hungry were actually fed, the naked clothed, the cup offered, and all the millions covered by health insurance in the sure and certain knowledge that the givers were not the point, but the receivers? How about honoring not only the greatest generation, but also a greatest regeneration when, for whatever reasons, our enemies are loved rather than killed.
Do we churchers really, honestly believe that our deciding what is orthodox and what is not is more important in God’s eyes?