Gesprek: Het Garnizoen van Becky, Satirist

Lees meer

Logan Laituri: Moedige Lafaard

Vandaag schoppen wij van de nieuwe gesprekken sectie van Jesus Manifesto door te interviewen Logan Laituri.

JM: Hello vertelt Logan, ons een klein beetje over wie u bent.

Goed, kan ik niet veronderstellen beantwoordend die vraag zonder kort te richten wie ik was. Ik groeide binnen Oranje Provincie, CA, die aan me het materialismekapitaal van de wereld scheen te zijn. Zijnd lagere middenklasse, voelde ik zeer benadeeld. Mijn mensen deden een ontzagwekkend werk dat ons voorziet, niettemin, en ik viel in de routine van de de jeugdgroep nadat ik voor het winkeldiefstal plegen bij 14 werd gearresteerd. Mijn ouders hadden verdeeld en ik voelde blijkbaar die een grote manier was om wat aandacht te krijgen. vier jaar in hoge school, droeg ik bijna letterlijk mijn godsdienst op mijn koker; Ik zette het aan terwijl ik bij kerk was en het weg nam zodra ik naar huis was. Krijg me niet verkeerd, ik hield van mijn kerk (en nog, keer terug ik telkens als ik naar huis) ben, maar ik zag heel wat oppervlakkig geloof, en ik dacht werkelijk die allen was waren er aan het zijn een Christen. Mijn geloof was enkel een reeks dingen ik niet verondersteld om was te doen (drank, rook, geslacht, enz. hebben). Het christendom was een simplistische, restrictieve levensstijl dat ik zeer bij tussenpozen volgde. Ik nam dat perspectief met me toen ik omhoog voor het Leger een paar maanden ondertekende alvorens ik een diploma behaalde.

Looking back on my past, I am very grateful for the things I learned, the easy and the really difficult lessons alike. I completed my Military Service Obligation (MSO) a few weeks ago, and I am hoping to start college next fall. In the meantime, I am working for peace in every way I can find. Currently, I am employed as a developer for a very small but ambitious nonprofit. Additionally, I am very active in an organization called Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), because as a Christian, I feel it is imperative that I reject war in all forms, and I also happen to be an Iraq War veteran. I might be a unique member in that I came to these beliefs not as some political reaction to the war, but as a direct response to the call of Christ to be nonviolent; to love, not destroy, our enemies. I always hesitate to call myself a pacifist, however, because the root of the word implies that such a person is passive. Nonviolence, and similarly Christianity, is quite a vigorous endeavor, far from being docile or merely a reaction to the culture around us. One should take close notice that in the Beatitudes, the folks who most directly reflect God’s character (who are called ‘children of the Most High’) are called to make peace (not keep, or enjoy or just promote it); to deliberately and actively create peace where there is none. I hope that I am known as a peacemaker, as a blessed son of God.

Yours is an interesting story. There are (thankfully) many peacemakers in our world, but you’re the first peacemaker I’ve talked to who came to their nonviolent convictions while enlisted. What led you to the conviction that you cannot love your enemy while trying to kill them?

The first time I considered that I might have the wrong take on the Bible was many months after I had returned from my combat tour in Iraq. I had met a family that really lived out the word of God everyday. They knew the Bible was not just a Basic Instruction Manual Before Leaving Earth (B.I.B.L.E.), it was a romance novel describing the dynamic relationship between the Creator and His creation. When I sought advice about various issues, the father of the family almost had a script it seemed. Every question I brought before him was answered by a simple “It’s about love Logan.” A four letter word contained the solution to every problem I could imagine. It seems a bit too simple minded, but in a world that is as individualized and materialized as ours, you realize that it really is very complicated to apply that ideology. Christ even said that we would be persecuted and cursed because of it!

When I began to accept the truth in what he had taught me, I knew I had to objectively consider whether I could fulfill that great commission while employed in very indiscriminate forms of violence as a forward observer in the US Army. When I returned to him to ask his thoughts on justice and war, the story changed. He expressed his belief that we were serving divine justice in the Middle East through our violence against Muslims. I had had discussions with other Christians within the military and heard similar thoughts, but none of them jived with the repeated exhortations by our King to love our enemy. Regardless of where I went with nonviolence, my mentor reminded me, he would respect and support me, as it was a decision he had never been asked to make, and he could sympathize with the immense pressure I faced in concretely answering no to violence and yes to grace. As much as I could explain the roots of the Christian practice of vicarious suffering (wherein we adopt our neighbors’ sufferings as our own, never forcing that yoke upon their shoulders), it will forever be a bit of a mystery, a sacrament of the Church, that must not be displaced from it’s centrality in Christian discipleship.

Read more