Lt. Col. Lyn Brown
Appearances
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
I did meet with one soldier on several occasions to just work through, you know, the commandment. This young man had actually, along with another soldier, had gone forward when the vehicle in front of them had been blown up to hold the hand of a soldier who was not going to survive.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
um you know somebody had told me that you know he was having a tough time and so i went over to him and i just said you know you know what are you thinking and he said i never thought about the killing that would be going on um you know when you're firing at a target you know to practice you know you think of those things as targets not as people
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
And for him to be there and to see, you know, that he had some buddies that were on the receiving end. And he's just saying, you know, the Ten Commandments in the Bible says, you know, thou shalt not kill. And he says, I'm not certain I can go out and kill.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
Well, God wouldn't approve of him doing that. Right. And he also brought up, you know, just, you know, if he were to do it, you know, who could he tell? Because he said, I wouldn't want to tell my girlfriend about this. I wouldn't want to tell my children. And that's why, you know, I went ahead and had a little Bible study with him.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
It was the kind of thing that I did meet with him on several occasions to find out what God had to say about war and where did the commandment, thou shalt not kill, where did that come in? But also to work through other instances where, for example, in the New Testament where Jesus
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
uh meets a an army officer who has a child who's dying and he asks jesus if he would heal his daughter but the interesting thing i would point out is that jesus never condemned the soldier for his job now i also know that when king david wanted to build the temple that god said no he said your son's going to do it because you're a man of blood
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
And so there's a lot of controversy, as you can imagine, as to trying to interpret what God was talking about there. And of course, it seems to reflect on even my role as a chaplain. Why am I wearing an army uniform and trying to deal with people who are out to kill people?
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
Yes. You know, we preach, you know, the love of God and the fact that we ought to be at peace with each other. In the same time, I'm wearing a uniform that says U.S. Army on it. And, you know, I'm there to support them in their mission of, you know, winning a war. And that means taking lives. So I do wrestle with that.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
I mean, there's times that you just kind of go, you know, God, can I resign here? You know, can I get away from this? Rather than having to deal with the questioning that people have and often not having answers. I mean, I think that's probably the biggest challenge that I ever had was, you know, I couldn't just say, just think this way and you'll be fine.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
There were times that they were asking the same questions that I would be asking.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
Well, you know, should we be here? Should we be killing people?
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
Um, I think I'm much more hesitant about having a definite opinion about who should die. Um, just seeing the brutality and the, uh, you know, people's people have got body parts missing or, I mean, there's big holes, there's, um, you know, they died a violent death and it's not pretty, man. It just doesn't seem normal, you know, which it isn't. Um,
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
But also even with the Iraqi culture that there were times that people just said, well, you know, whatever group it was they didn't agree with, they just said, you know, kill them all. You know, and I was going, you know, these are people, you know. And I didn't like that attitude.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
And then I was seeing it even among, you know, the armed forces that there was people that just would just kind of say, well, we just need to kill them all and then that'll take care of it. And I was going, whoa. You know, who nominated you to be God, you know? You know, I just... We all have a tendency to interpret the Ten Commandments in a way that's convenient for us.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
You know, there's interpretation of thou shalt not murder. It shouldn't be a premeditated killing. It has nothing to do with war, you know, those kinds of things. But it just makes me... I'm looking at it as a principle that God says you need to value life and don't take it lightly. Just don't condemn people to death just because that's easy to do. You've got to stop and think about it seriously.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
This is something that God himself doesn't take lightly.