Healing the Moral Wounds of War

Today, we know so much more about the lasting impact of war on soldiers, and how every warrior comes home wounded, whether or not the wounds show on their bodies. I honor his service to his country, but I still lament the fact that such service took him from his family and his community so soon.

And there is so much to lament. We never had any more chances to mark his Dec. 24 birthday with non-Christmas-y celebration. He never knew his grandchildren, three grandsons and two granddaughters. He never saw his own son and daughter grow into maturity, marry, create families and be responsible citizens. He left a young widow who never really recovered from his untimely death. And he left undone all the things he could have accomplished, for he was a man of great wisdom, commitment and talent, and of tremendous love and generosity of spirit.

Now that I have reached the age he was denied, I see his death in greater context, thanks to the witness of United Methodist military chaplains. Even before the start of America's now 10 years of war, United Methodist chaplains were pleading with churches to set up ministries to aid returning veterans. Their pleas were answered in some churches, but in too many places they fell on deaf ears. I think we failed to answer this call to service because it comes laden with so much political baggage about the rightness of wars. I think we have been so selfish about our own political reputations that we have failed to respond to this clear need for ministry in the name of Christ.

Now there is a new focus on the psychic wounds of war, propelled by social and economic realities. The statistics are grim. Consider these excerpts from a New York Times article by Timothy Williams from June 8, 2012:

The suicide rate among the nation’s active-duty military personnel has spiked this year, eclipsing the number of troops dying in battle and on pace to set a record annual high since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan more than a decade ago, the Pentagon said Friday [June 1].

Suicides have increased even as the United States military has withdrawn from Iraq and stepped up efforts to provide mental health, drug and alcohol, and financial counseling services.

The military said Friday that there had been 154 suicides among active-duty troops through Thursday, a rate of nearly one each day this year. ... That number represents an 18 percent increase over the 130 active-duty military suicides for the same period in 2011. There were 123 suicides from January to early June in 2010, and 133 during that period in 2009, the Pentagon said.