First, I was listening to the news this morning and I was yanked out of my semi-sleep state of mind by one report. This week denotes the 5 year mark of the beginning of the war in Iraq. The swell of emotion that accompanied the mere mention of that fact lingered in me for the rest of the morning. Five years… It has been a long time!
I remember the time preceding the war very well. I had moved to Germany a half year after 9/11 and spent the first year of my acclimation to Europe in the charged context of the build up to the war in Iraq. I remember it being a very difficult period for me. On the one hand, I was dealing with all the outrage and emotion leveraged against the US by my European friends and then on the other hand trying to sort out my own reaction and outrage at what my country was doing. I felt helpless to do anything and yet I felt the brunt end of the raw frustration directed towards US geo-politics. I was deeply distressed by the decisions being made, but at the same time felt defensive at the wholesale criticism of the US. In the end, I think I experienced what many US ex-pats, who were opposed to the war: I was confused.
Since having moved back to the US in 2006, it has been remarkable how far off and distant the Iraq War has become. My work with the Military Counseling Network in Germany had me dealing first hand with US soldiers returning from, going to or deployed in Iraq. I was very close to the gravity and intensity of the war. Here it seems so very far away, neatly tucked away in intermittent news reports.
The nature of this war is that the domestic experience is disconnected with what is directly happening overseas. Yet the subtext of this war is that it is directly shaping our society. The current war in Iraq is the major world issue of our time and it is having a profound influence on our lives in the US from economics, culture, politics, to religion. Although this war is disconnected with most American’s immediate lives and lifestyles (other than those serving in the armed forces or military families), the war is producing a strong undercurrent of change, particularly in the younger generations.
I am studying at a Christian seminary. We talk a lot about the changing nature of Christianity in our society. If there is one thing that hardly gets mentioned at all, it is the war in Iraq. It strikes me how very little it comes up in conversation or in class. I understand it is a scary and explosive topic. I know that people here have passionate opinions about the war that go either way and include all the in-between. However, five years ago Christians were at the center of the debate about the war. Today it is hard to talk about.
I find it interesting, form all the stuff I am learning at seminary, that the church is undergoing a period of tremendous change as the centrality and role of the church is being re-evaluated and marginalized. From what I can tell, there are seismic shifts in the way young Christians understand church. For my generation, the landscape of American Christianity is changing, particularly in the case of how Christians understand their role in society and in the world. It seems to me like there are more young people interested in engaging and taking holistic responsibility for the problems of the world beyond their own countries international policy and involvement. (Politically, there are more young adults voting and involved in political campaigns than ever before.)
The funny thing is that I hardly hear Christians in my context tangibly connect the situation in Iraq to the changing conception of the church and its role. Of course it is more complicated than reducing it to politics. However, I feel the confusion of the debacle of Iraq has permeated the consciousness of young Christians and they are not taking the role of American civil religion, consciously or unconsciously, for granted in the same way as they did five years ago.
A lot has changed in five years.
Second, in regards to attaining a resolution to the conflict, why have we not deployed Chuck Norris yet?
No comments:
Post a Comment