Making space for veterans
If soldiers make it home, the war comes with them. Every day, about 18 of them implode in suicide.
As a combat veteran, I find it tragic that election day always falls just before Veterans Day. Every couple years, the nation waits breathlessly to see who will sit in Washington for them. Nobody seems to have any energy left a week later to remember those who sat in foxholes for them. Despite all the cheap jokes about how sleazy politicians are, Americans seem more concerned with these politicians than with the “Next Greatest Generation.”
Maybe you think Americans pay enough attention to our troops. But how many Americans know that veterans have a suicide rate more than twice that of non-veterans? Or that suicide is the leading cause of death in the Army?
These facts often catch people by surprise, even though they’ve been the case for at least seven of the 12 years we’ve been at war. I hear from pastors and laypeople every year around this time (as well as around Memorial Day). They describe worship services and Bible studies that echo assumptions and expectations about war and soldiering—assumptions and expectations formed not by the Bible or our traditions, but by popular culture and the media. Veterans and service members are often asked to stand and be recognized in worship. Preaching on soldiers seems to stick to the familiar passages about centurions, passages that do not reflect soldiers’ experiences in war.
