Easter on the FOB
Somewhere in the distance I heard an alarm clock, a wretched sound, but not one that could evade the swift maneuver of my hand hitting the snooze, repeatedly, with skill. While I was still in a haze, my roommate walked to my bunk and asked me, “Is this when I’m supposed to start throwing stuff at you?”
“Yes.” I said. Then I rose from my weary sleep. My roommates are trained to make me get up after I ignore several alarms. They have to be, because every morning feels like I am shaking off an eternal slumber. Certain precautions are necessary when one’s at war in Iraq - especially when he has agreed to help with music at the Easter morning church service.
Eyelids sagging, I got dressed in my ACUs, grabbed my weapon and trekked to the Chapel, a rectangular building surrounded by large cement barriers to add protection in the event of a mortar or rocket attack. Inside I met with three other soldiers and a KBR employee to practice for an hour before the service started. After praying with the Chaplain, we delivered thirty minutes of lack luster worship before a stone faced congregation (though I nearly played the strings off the bass…or not). The Chaplain then began his short sermon on the resurrection, speaking about the importance of Christians believing that it actually happened, because it is fact, and that forgiveness of sins is the single important effect of the cross for humanity. This is where he and I were at odds.
Not that I disagreed with him. I’m not even on the same playing field when it comes to matters of theology. The things he preached were, ultimately, true, but it seemed like I was again sitting at home in my parents’ conservative Evangelical church (Army Chaplain…go figure). Though it has a very real and vibrant faith, it is largely ignorant to culture and the movings of our pluralist society. At times like these I want desperately stand up during the service and shout to everyone that Modernism is dying. I want to ask the congregation, even more the pastor or Chaplain, why we Christians are living like society is a stable entity that never changes and, in more earnest, why we are submitting to it.
What bothered me most was the notion that fact is an authority in itself. That all people have to do when in disagreement is find out what the facts are, to step outside their respective stances and see the topic in an objective light, and truth will be made known to all who question. This was the Chaplains method, proving that the resurrection was an undeniable fact, therefore worthy to be believed. What he didn’t seem to understand, what many refuse to accept even today, is that objectivity is impossible. What one believes will determine more about what he accepts as fact than what he accepts as fact will determine about what he believes. The cause and effect is reversed.
Maybe I can see things a little clearer than some because I am too young to have let the age of fact, of Scientific Reasoning, sink on me with a firm grip. Or maybe I have just been reading too many British Christian writers. Who knows. I could be completely wrong about everything as well, that is one claim on objectivity. I spend as much time as anyone wondering and questioning, but when something seems clear I can’t easily hold it inside.
Such were my thoughts late Easter Sunday morning as I made my way from church to work. The journey is about a twenty minute walk, already warm at ten-thirty in the morning, causing me to sweat. My job in the army is not that exciting: I work on radios. That is what I do…all day, nearly every day. Sometimes I try to trick people by saying that I dress up in a beard and turban and travel the local villages searching for insurgents, averaging two enemy kills per night in hand to hand combat, but few ever believe me. Regardless of my will, I rarely get to leave the FOB, which has earned me one of the most highly respected titles for soldiers deployed to Iraq, a name adapted from Tolkien’s famous trilogy: fobbit.
I and four other fobbits work troubleshooting and repairing radios out of a workshop that has been crafted from an old military trailer, rigged with electricity and air conditioning, outfitted with a wooden porch and steps in front of the door. If busy, the days pass quickly, if not, slow. People bring us problematic equipment and we try to make it work, otherwise we find ways to occupy ourselves, occasionally productive to America’s military effort. Often we are left with time to discuss the important issues in life. We are small people trying to understand big things like how to make sense of reality, what Christianity is, which officer is most frustrating today. Some of us care, some don’t.
Posted on April 16, 2007 12:00 AM
Comments
the name is actually "Binsfeld," but the one up there is close enough
Posted by: Zach Binsfeld | April 16, 2007 4:48 AM
Took care of it. Sorry, Zach.
Posted by: John Pattison | April 16, 2007 7:42 AM
I agree with the conclusion that Binsfeld finished this with, that Christ is the key to understanding anything and everything about life. I do have to say that, in opposition, we of the western culture have pampered the whole post modern mindset for far too long. Are there multiple worldviews? Yes. Still, a fact is a fact. Just because I have a different worldview than my wife (who grew up in western Europe) doesn't change the fact of gravity, now does it? Because I worship Christ, and not Allah, doesn't change the fact that I can not flap my arms and fly. There are facts in this world. There are absolutes. Post modern thinking doesn't want to accept absolutes, but that doesn't make them go away. We need to remember and stick to the absolutes, otherwise we will drown in this pluralistic world, and we will not have made one bit of difference for the kingdom of God.
Posted by: Russ | April 20, 2007 1:00 PM
Russ, what are the absolutes you're talking about?
Posted by: Jordan Green | April 20, 2007 1:33 PM
Jordan,
I was merely speaking as in whole. There are absolutes. (As I said, gravity, etc). The point I was trying to make, and maybe I didn't do so well at it, is that if we can just get the post modern world to concede that there are in fact absolutes in this world, maybe we can open their eyes to an absolute, loving God. Until they are willing to say that, yes, there are things that are truth no matter how you look at it, they won't be open to the truth of Christ. Maybe I'm naive, but if a person believes that one thing can be absolutely true, then maybe just maybe, something else could be absolutely true, and so on. In that, the mind can be open to, and not immediately opposed to, the truth of a creator and savior.
Posted by: Russ | April 20, 2007 1:52 PM
I'm not arguing that there is "Absolute Truth", but how can any human outside of Jesus profess to know what that is?
"Absolute Truth" isn't even definable from a human perspective. Is it a list of theological and moral beliefs? And if so, which of the hundreds of Christian theological stances has it right?
Maybe I'm misinterpreting here, Russ. Are you referring to Christ as the only absolute truth?
Posted by: Jordan Green | April 20, 2007 2:11 PM
In the very statement you've made that Jesus himself is absolute truth is in fact saying that you, a human, can know what absolute truth is. Do I think that any of the many denominations have it right? No. There in lies my frustration. Not that I have it all figured out either. As someone who has accepted the absolute truth of Christ, an entire universe of absolute truth is now available for us to know. The Holy Spirit which Christ himself has promised us conveys this truth to us everyday. Our sin nature causes us to not hear the Spirit at all times, but the ability to know absolute truth is there for humans to know, because the Spirit of God makes it so.
Posted by: Russ | April 22, 2007 9:59 AM
The concept of "absolute truth" (or universality) is as tied to human philosophy as post-modernism and relativity.
Theoretically, I get where you're coming from, but the truth is that different people are convicted by different things at any given time, and two people who are equally reliant upon God could come up with two different answers to the same question.
You mentioned gravity, for instance, but from planet to planet the rules of gravity change and gravity doesn't even exist within the vacuum of space. Since God created the universe, there is an absolute truth behind it all: He understands the rules which govern every shred of creation.
But I disagree that a human has the capability of understanding absolute truth, just as a human isn't capable of omnipotence or of eternal judgment. A human being that professes to know absolute truth about anything is treading on dangerous, if not heretical, ground.
Of course, Russ, I'm probably WAAAAY off base on this. I'm not advocating a complete moral relativism, where everyone picks their own laws to follow...we take what our finite minds can comprehend from God's Word and the Holy Spirit and we follow as best we can. Sometimes, though, this results in bombings of abortion clinics or in fooling ourselves into ignoring our own sin.
Posted by: Jordan Green | April 22, 2007 12:07 PM
"As someone who has accepted the absolute truth of Christ, an entire universe of absolute truth is now available for us to know." - Russ
Russ, I just wanted to point out that this statement has extreme gnostic overtones. The Gnostics believed that Christ brought "special knowledge" that was only made available to certain individuals. There are many more beliefs of the Gnostics that were declared to be heretical, but there is not time or reason to dive into them here.
As Christians, it is obvious that we do not have a stamp on all that is moral and ethical. Sadly, in many cases I run into more non-Christians who are more socially aware and active than my Christian brethren. If we are to defeat evil with good (Aleksandr Menn) we should not fight for our "absolutes" rather we should snatch up the opportunity that postmodernism allows. I say it is because of postmodernism that Christians are allowed back into the cultural conversation at all.
Instead of fighting for absolutes, we should fight against the apathy that is crippling the church in America. Faith is meant to be personal and deep, not an easy-bake meal of absolutes.
This is such a gray subject I understand and it is one that causes tension. But as human beings we must live in the tension of praying for and pursuing absolute truth (I count myself in this group) while acknowledging the great mystery and breaker of our presuppositions that is Yahweh.
Posted by: Emelia | April 22, 2007 11:09 PM
I agree with you both. I don't believe that Jesus has made truth available to only certain individuals, just that through the Holy Spirit, He has made it available. I do agree though, it is a world of finite human minds trying to understand an infinate God. I am not saying that we can understand ALL truth, I'm just saying that truth is there for us to know.
God's word is there for us, and the Holy Spirit can help us understand. Is it true that two people can look at the same thing and some away with something different? Yes. I do believe though, when two people, who can be totally opposites of each other, read God's word in all its context, can come to an agreement on what God is saying.
The apathy or, on the other extreme, fanatacism are acts of people who are doing as Jordan pointed out, picking and choosing what they want. You have to take God's word as a whole, not just what tickles the ear.
We actually probably agree, but as with anything via email, or posts like this, something is lost in the translation.
Posted by: Russ | April 23, 2007 6:31 AM
We're definitely on similar pages, just trying to avoid sounding fundamentalist at all costs because it has become so pejorative.
It's a battle for meaning with a language that is flawed and a perception that is jaded . . . it's all uphill my friend. Keep thinking it through, it's worth it!
Posted by: Emelia | April 23, 2007 11:36 AM