ISIS has taken over the town I love

        


    As I approach the completion of my final year of academics in seminary I have attempted to commute back and forth between Gettysburg and home weekly. I have attempted to do so for two reasons; family and the Sunday school class I am teaching on Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Interreligious dialogue has become a passion of mine. It has become a passion of mine for a number of reasons, but one reason is because it gives me an opportunity to share a voice that most do not expect to hear.

I fought against Muslim fanatics. I literally fought against extremists who sought out my death. Now, I am not saying this as a supply clerk or administrative personnel Sergeant (no offense to you guys, I respect the old adage “without supply rounds don’t fly’). I was an Infantry Marine deployed to the Al Anbar Province of Iraq during 2005. This was an incredibly violent time when insurgent forces were forced out of Fallujah towards our area of operation in response to the offensives during the 2004 missions. During our deployment 46 Marines and 2 Navy Corpsman were killed from our Battalion during combat operations. To put it simply, it was a brutal, violent, and shocking time in my life I will never forget. I was a 26-year-old Corporal at the time serving in a city known as Hit (pronounced Heet), Iraq. During my deployment I wrestled with my understanding of Islam, especially militant Islam. What were the differences? Were they different? I had NO idea. I was mad, however. I wanted revenge every time I received word of another casualty.

Upon returning home I never thought I would find myself in seminary but God’s grace got me through my experiences by faith through Christ. Because of this I followed a call that took me on a journey to not only seminary, but Israel and Palestine as well. It also landed me in the Quran, into dialogue with other Christians and Muslims as well. I didn’t go to Seminary to study Islam but I learned about the importance of love, which led me to a deeper appreciation for Islam. So here I am, a deeply religious Lutheran Christian (fairly orthodox confessional Lutheran, also known as a “grumpy wannabe theologian”) combat vet, intrigued by Islam. I love Judaism and Islam for their beauty and particular focus on the unattainable nature of the divine. I also found I could combat militant religion by focusing on their beauty. That’s right, I am still fighting terror by recognizing the heretical view of a religion that I don’t even claim as my own! It should be hypocritical but here is the problem; I don’t want the Muslim brothers and sisters I have come to know associated with these people who have perverted how they practice their faith through hate. I don’t want to make allowances for that anymore than allowing anyone to associate my Christian faith with the Westboro Baptist Church.

So, tonight I was putting my daughters to bed and one of my daughters had a minor meltdown. I try to make the weekends I am home special since I am away at school during the week. I told them what I was planning to make for breakfast in the morning and my oldest began to cry. When I asked her why she was crying she told me because she wanted pancakes. I’m not sure why but I became frustrated. I told her that there were boys and girls in Iraq who don’t even know where their Mommies and Daddies are (I know, a bit overboard, sorry). She seemed surprised that any child wouldn’t wake up to their Mommy or Daddy being there. I asked her if it was really important enough to cry over pancakes and she admitted it wasn’t as she rolled over and went to sleep.

As I came downstairs I thought “I need to get a grip”. I needed to relax and just enjoy my weekend home, stop thinking about the Middle East all the time. As I came down the stairs my wife asked me if I had heard the news. It was then that she informed me that the city I had lived in, fought in, and many of my brothers had died in, had been taken over by ISIS. To be honest I was surprised. I had assumed the city had already been overrun. None-the-less I called many of my Platoon mates from nearly 10 years ago to see how they were. I called my best friend, my RTO, and my best Squad mate. Everyone was okay but my RTO reminded me of the kid we used to see daily on patrol. He was about the age of my oldest daughter today, back then. He and his brother used to bring us bread and water. We would chase them, put our helmets on them, play with them. They were the children I had in mind when I scolded my daughter tonight. It was in that moment I realized; “Merciful and Loving God, protect that boy” because it was in that moment I realized that this child we had all come to love is of age to serve ISIS as one of their own. He is probably of age to fight now, and he very well may already be fighting or worse, dead. The thought drug my heart into my stomach.

Tonight Iraq has come home. Not because the city I fought to keep out of the hands of people like ISIS has fallen to ISIS, but because of the human faces in that town. I care about these people. I fought for these people. My brothers fought for these people. Some of my brothers died for these people. They are members of our shared humanity. I’m not going to make suggestions about foreign policy but I will make suggestions about our view of our shared humanity. Paul Tillich once suggested in a sermon that only love can transform calculating justice into creative justice. He claimed that love makes justice just, but then clarified that a love that swallows justice could only result in chaos and extinction. He later defined his claim in stating that he was speaking of a “love in which justice is the form and structure of love”. I believe that if we consider ourselves members of a shared humanity called to be instruments of that shared creative justice in this world, we can defeat the hatred that plagues our world in the form of disease, violence, and hate. It isn’t easy or nice but it is just. It may not be the justice we seek, but God’s justice fulfills the needs of God’s world. With the intention to serve God’s community in the world, I hope we can consider our role as leaders in this shared humanity. It will take more than bombs; it takes justice in the form of God’s creative love and work in the world. The answer is God’s reuniting love and justice, law and gospel for the sake of God’s mission in God’s world.

            To my brothers of 3/25, lift your heads high, there is no reason to feel shame. To the people of Hit, Iraq; you are heavy in my heart and mind. To the militants of ISIS; I will lift you up in prayer. I will pray that God’s wisdom, love, and peace guide your way before your way is lost. It is never too late to fight for a shared cause of creative justice through love and mercy. At the height of many of the Islamic Caliphates, the models you claim to follow were often instruments of that love and mercy. They oftentimes protected Christians and Jews as people of the book and “dihmmi”. The true Caliphate also protected shrines, temples, churches, and synagogues that predate Islam until ISIS came and destroyed them. This isn’t a form of God’s work in our world. It is human brokenness and evil. So, I pray that you can turn back to a true path before your legacy becomes a permanent blight on the conscious of our shared humanity. I pray that it’s not too late. I pray these things as a member of our shared humanity.

سلام, שלום, and Peace