Flash Version

Great story and accompanying image sin the Los Angeles Times by Tony Perry and Rick Loomis about four Marines baptized on the battlefield in Falluja at a school from which they’ve been fighting. (all images by Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times)

Sgt. Andrew Jones, 25, of Sullivan, Ind, is among four Marines baptized by Navy chaplain Lt. Scott Radetski in Fallujah, Iraq. “With everything that has happened here,… I thought it was a good place to be reborn,” said Jones. Echo Company is battling insurgents. Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times

Lance Cpl Chris Hankins, 19, of Kansas City, Mo, gets a dunking in the font- boxes of MRE’s lined with plastic. Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times

On Monday, Echo Company battled insurgents for two hours. One Marine was killed and 15 were wounded in the latest and bloodiest of numerous skirmishes.
Then four Marines “ from the battle-hardened company, part of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment of the 1st Marine Division ” asked a Protestant chaplain to arrange a battlefield baptism.

“I’ve been talking to God a lot during the last two firefights,” said Lance Cpl. Chris Hankins, 19, of Kansas City, Mo. “I decided to start my life over and make it better.”

To give the occasion even greater significance, the Marines chose to have Wednesday’s baptism in the courtyard of a bullet-riddled school that they used in their fight with insurgents.

Two Marines died and several were injured in the same courtyard when a mortar round landed among their group April 12. A small memorial has been erected in the courtyard to the two: Lance Cpl. Robert Zurheide, 20, of Tucson and Lance Cpl. Brad Shuder, 21, of El Dorado Hills, Calif.

After Monday’s battle, a memorial was added in the courtyard for the Marine killed in that fight: Lance Cpl. Aaron Cole Austin, 21, of Amarillo, Texas.

Battlefield baptisms are not unusual among front-line troops, said Navy Lt. Scott Radetski, the battalion’s Protestant chaplain. So many service personnel on deployment request to be baptized that the military even has a two-page sheet on how to create a battlefield baptismal font, called the Field Immersion Baptismal Liner Instructions.

Radetski said he performed one ceremony in Kuwait when Marines were waiting to move into Iraq. Three Marines at another encampment in Fallouja also have asked to be baptized.

“When chaos shows its head,” Radetski said, “we need an anchor for our faith. You need that rock that God promises to be. I consider it an honor to fulfill their request.”

For Wednesday’s ceremony, Radetski had boxes containing MREs, or meals ready to eat, arranged to simulate a smallish bathtub. A large piece of plastic was placed inside, and water from 14 five-gallon Marine Corps cans was poured.

Sgt. Andrew Jones, 25, of Sullivan, Ind., said he had been considering getting baptized before he left for Iraq. His combat experiences convinced him that the time was right.

“With everything that has happened here, all the good friends I’ve lost, I thought it was a good place to be reborn,” Jones said.

The fight Monday, in which insurgents hurled grenades and fired rockets and machine guns at the Marines, left many of the young men of Echo Company shaken and emotionally drained.

Protestant and Roman Catholic services held in the Marine encampment hours after the battle drew heavy attendance. On Wednesday, little of the initial pain was evident.

Capt. Douglas Zembiec, commander of Echo Company, said he had tried to console his Marines while reminding them that they have to continue to do their jobs, including launching a possible assault on insurgent strongholds in the center of Fallouja.

“There’s no room for self-pity out here,” he said. “It will get you killed faster than the enemy.”

The four Marines ” Hankins; Jones; Lance Cpl. Kenneth Hayes, 22, of Redding; and Lance Cpl. Michael Fuller, 20, of Spring, Texas ” stripped to their skivvies and removed their combat boots before being dunked individually by Radetski.

Two dozen Marines stood quietly. Radetski, honoring the four Marines’ request, said the baptism was also being performed to show respect for the fallen and wounded Marines.

The elementary school shows the ravages of three weeks of fighting.

Its windows are broken, debris is strewn about, furniture is broken and books thrown to the dusty floor. Bullet holes cover all surfaces. Windows are boarded or sandbagged to hinder snipers.

Insurgents are holed up in houses a few hundred yards away, their weapons aimed at the school, hoping to kill Marines with a well-timed shot.

Still, the four Marines thought that the courtyard was the ideal spot to make a public profession of their religious belief.

“What better place to do this than here, in the middle of hell,” Fuller said. [Via The Beacon]

I got this from Tim Curlee’s blog, The Beacon. This piece really hits home with me. I know I have thought about all of these things but Rich brings it all together and with greater meaning.

http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry200404280850.asp

Rich Lowry on Samuel Huntington’s latest book, Who Are We?. (cheers to BobbyC for the tip).

He writes that few Americans now anticipate the dissolution of the United States. But few anticipated the collapse of the Soviet Union either. Huntington warns, "The greatest surprise might be if the United States in 2025 is still the country it was in 2000 rather than a very different country (or countries) with very different conceptions of itself and its identity.

Huntington sees an America gripped in a "crisis of national identity." What is that identity? It is partly based on what Huntington calls The Creed, our belief in liberty, democracy, individual rights, etc. But The Creed has a particular source: America’s Anglo-Protestant culture, which includes "the English language; Christianity; religious commitment; English concepts of the rule of law, the responsibility of rulers, and the rights of individuals; and dissenting Protestant values of individualism, the work ethic, and the belief that humans have the ability and the duty to try to create heaven on earth, a ’city on the hill.’"

This culture forged a country where people from across the world could arrive and become rich, happy and free — if they assimilated. Huntington writes, "Throughout American history, people who were not white Anglo-Saxon Protestants have become Americans by adopting America’s Anglo-Protestant culture and political values." He notes that this is "an argument for the importance of Anglo-Protestant culture, not for the importance of Anglo-Protestant people." The continued vibrancy of this culture is crucial for the country’s future. Without it, according to Huntington, The Creed that sprung from it is in danger of collapsing — thus eliminating the two fundamental supports of America as it has been defined for centuries.

But Anglo-Protestant culture has taken a pounding during the past three decades. From multiculturalism, which rejects the idea of a dominant culture. From the assertion of group identities based on race, ethnicity and gender. And from "denationalized" elites, hostile to America’s culture and determined to weaken it in myriad ways. "These efforts by a nation’s leaders," Huntington writes, "to deconstruct the nation they governed were, quite possibly, without precedent in human history." All these forces have weakened the nation’s ability to assimilate immigrants, just as it is experiencing a massive, decades-long wave of immigration. Feeling less pressure to learn English or naturalize, the new, largely Mexican and Hispanic immigrants have been able to establish unassimilated ethnic enclaves.

Huntington worries that this dynamic could create "a country of two languages, two cultures, and two peoples," as America’s distinctive culture and The Creed atrophy. Huntington hopes for a better future — for the sake of all of us. "Americans should," he writes, "recommit themselves to the Anglo-Protestant culture, traditions, and values that for three and a half centuries have been embraced by Americans of all races, ethnicities, and religions and that have been the source of their liberty, unity, power, prosperity, and moral leadership as a force for good in the world."

A world of grief awaits Huntington. He will inevitably be misunderstood and smeared. On the contrary, only a writer of Huntington’s stature has a chance to punch through the oppressive pieties surrounding these issues and force a forthright debate of them. Huntington says he undertook his new book in the spirit of "a patriot and scholar." A courageous one.

[Via The Beacon]

My wife got some bad news at the doctor's office. He says she has a hernia and they need to operate. He went on to say that after the surgery she will need to stop riding horses for two months and to expect recover about 80% of her original abdominal strength. My wife's world just crashed down on her. She rides about six horses a day for much of the week. Many of her clients rely on her ability to get up on their horses if necessary to fix problems. All of that has changed! My wife is one unhappy camper and there is nothing I can do but listen and sooth. I doubt that will be enough.

I am not sure how I found this page but the first quarter Church Relations Newsletter for Habitat for Humanity is online and can be found at 1st Quarter Church Relations News for Affiliates.