Christians
Kathy has this post up at Comments From Left Field which has caused me to think. Now, I am not a person that goes to church every Sunday. I have not been to church, except to see one of my daughters get married, in well over thirty years. But my recollection of the New Testament of the Holy Bible and what Jesus was all about was ‘peace’, ‘turn the other cheek’ and all that. Definitely not about war and killing and maiming and violence.
But in today’s world, it seems as if patriotism, support-the-war and Christianity are all wrapped into one. It got me to thinking about the words of a song sung by Kris Kristoffereon decades ago.
Kris Kristofferson – Good Christian Soldier
Songwriters: Bobby Bare & Billy Joe Shaver
Not so long ago in Oklahoma the son of an Okie preacher knelt to pray
He said Lord I wanna be a Christian soldier just like you
And fight to build a new and better day
Now many years and miles from Oklahoma
That same young Okie boy still kneels to pray
But he don’t pray to be no Christian soldier anymore
He just prays to make it through another day
Cause it’s hard to be a Christian soldier when you tote a gun
And it hurts to have to watch a grown man cry
But we’re playin’ cards writin’ home havin’ lots of fun
Telling jokes and learning how to die
Now the things I’ve come to know seem so confusin’
It’s gettin’ hard to tell what’s wrong from right
I can’t seperate the winners from the losers anymore
And I’m thinking of just giving up the fight
Cause it’s hard to be a Christian soldier when you tote a gun
And it hurts to have to watch a grown man cry
But we’re playin’ cards writin’ home ain’t we hadn’t fun
Turning on and learning how to die
I don’t know if this was written as a war protest song. But that is the way that I interpret it. I consider it the best war protest song that I have heard.
What has this got to do with Kathy’s post I referenced earlier. Well, the good people of South Carolina seem to be some of President Bush’s most rabid war supporters. Is the cross on the license plate supposed to tell every one they are for government sponsored murder?
Tags: Chief
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