Ft. Stewart chaplain prays with departing troops: Dear Lord, God of Eternal Battle ..." - CBC video

[Bozita]

Seventeen minutes into Thursday's broadcast of "The National" was a story about troops leaving Ft. Stewart for Iraq.

The soldiers on camera seem apprehensive. Most spout the "We follow orders" routine. Not so for off camera comments like "We're waiting for a new President."

Family members are supportive of their troops, but express hopes for an early return.

Then there's the chaplain. You gotta see it!


http://www.cbc.ca/video/index.html#load-uid_national

[cspanlovr]

1. Whatever happened to Prince of Peace?

[Beelzebud]

2. Jesus "God of Eternal Battle" Christ. LOL

He's not the savior, he's the SLAYER!!!!!

[porphyrian]

3. Who would Jesus tell you to kill?

I cannot understand how so many people that call themselves Christians feel they can discard what Jesus taught whenever it suits them.

[Graybeard]

6. There is nothing even remotely Christian...

... about the so called "religious right" in this country. They have become a death cult.

[porphyrian]

8. Ironically, they are also anti-abortion.

I guess they want more people to subject to their Armageddon.

[MindPilot]

4. I recall one of those pre-mission pep talks in Vietnam

the chaplin ended with "...alright men let's get out there and kill some gooks for the LORD!"

I think it was at that moment my cynicism about christianity and its followers became permanent.

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. "O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle...."

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them – in spirit – we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with hurricanes of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it – for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."

From The War Prayer by Mark Twain

[izzybeans]

10. "It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said."

Thanks for posting this.

[TechBear_Seattle]

15. My pleasure

Any time I hear about clergy blessing troops as they head off to a battlefield, I think of this short work by Twain.

[MindPilot]

19. Several decades later and a little more subtle...

This is the one that always comes to my mind:

He blesses the boys as they stand in line
The smell of gun grease and the bayonets they shine
He's there to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he's a good holy man
Sky pilot.....sky pilot
How high can you fly
You'll never, never, never reach the sky

He smiles at the young soldiers
Tells them its all right
He knows of their fear in the forthcoming fight
Soon there'll be blood and many will die
Mothers and fathers back home they will cry
Sky pilot.....sky pilot
How high can you fly
You'll never, never, never reach the sky

He mumbles a prayer and it ends with a smile
The order is given
They move down the line
But he's still behind and he'll meditate
But it won't stop the bleeding or ease the hate
As the young men move out into the battle zone
He feels good, with God you're never alone
He feels tired and he lays on his bed
Hopes the men will find courage in the words that he said
Sky pilot.....sky Pilot
How high can you fly

You'll never, never, never reach the sky
You're soldiers of God you must understand
The fate of your country is in your young hands
May God give you strength
Do your job real well
If it all was worth it
Only time it will tell

In the morning they return
With tears in their eyes
The stench of death drifts up to the skies
A soldier so ill looks at the sky pilot
Remembers the words
"Thou shalt not kill"
Sky pilot.....sky pilot
How high can you fly
You never, never, never reach the sky

[xchrom]

7. that's america for ya --

gotta love that war, violence, animal torture, national televised personal humiliation -- and to top it all off

THE GOD OF ETERNAL BATTLE!

[htuttle]

9. Was this a Priest of Ares or Mars? I thought they were all gone long ago!

"God of Eternal Battle"???

Did they sacrifice a lamb, too?

[JoDog]

11. Or maybe Odin

[Javaman]

12. To quote "full metal jacket"...

"God has a hard-on for Marines!"

Or

Kay Kyser

"praise the lord and pass the ammunition!"

[JVS]

13. Is this chaplain praying to Odin/ Wotan?

[genie_weenie]

16. Isn't Tyr GrimJaws, the Maimed One, the God of Battle?

[JVS]

18. When I hear "eternal battle" I think of Valhalla where cycles of battle repeat constantly...

thus Odin/Wotan. Tyr is a war god, but something about eternal battle just turns me to Wotan.

[Tom Joad]

14. Read Mark Twain's War Prayer....

http://www.libertystory.net/LSDOCTWAINWARPRAYER.htm

I will leave you to go to the above link and read it. It is fairly well-known now. It was a ardent protest against another Presidents War of Aggression, not only a protest against war in general. I think Mr. Twain's views on imperialism are not generally known.

In the middle of my list of real military heroes (those that refuse) i place this protest against Imperialism, as written by Twain.

From Mark Twain:
I left these shores, at Vancouver, a red-hot imperialist. I wanted the American eagle to go screaming into the Pacific. It seemed tiresome and tame for it to content itself with the Rockies. Why not spread its wings over the Philippines, I asked myself? And I thought it would be a real good thing to do.

I said to myself, here are a people who have suffered for three centuries. We can make them as free as ourselves, give them a government and country of their own, put a miniature of the American constitution afloat in the Pacific, start a brand new republic to take its place among the free nations of the world. It seemed to me a great task to which we had addressed ourselves.

But I have thought some more, since then, and I have read carefully the treaty of Paris, and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem.

Later Mark Twain signed a statement that read in part:

" steps be taken at once to stop … the killing of prisoners, the
shooting without trial of suspected persons, the use of torture, … the
wanton destruction of private property, and everywhere the barbarous
methods of waging war, which this nation from its infancy has ever
condemned
________
These are real American values.

[roamer65]

17. Yet again Americans have to look to the CBC for the truth.

Our media is such a failure.

[kestrel91316]

20. More proof the Christofascists worship a god of war and death.

[Bandit]

21. Everyone get out your plows as we need to pound them into swords

Isn't that what Christ preached?

[frylock]

22. takest thou the holy hand grenade in thy right hand..

[spanone]

23. "God of Eternal Battle" sounds like Monty Python.

[Graybeard]

24. It is some sick shit alright.

...and they keep drinking the Kool-aid.

[Initech]

25. Um... wasn't Jesus a man of peace?

[JVS]

26. He never said "God of eternal battle" he said "eternal King of battle"

Slight but noticable difference

19:17 in the tape has the prayer