Bryan Fischer of the AFA thinks that awarding a Congressional Medal of Honor to a soldier who saved two comrades is "sissy".
From his AFA blog:
We have feminized the Medal of Honor…..This is not true, of course (see more here)
We now award it only for preventing casualties, not for inflicting them.
So the question is this: when are we going to start awarding the Medal of Honor once again for soldiers who kill people and break things so our families can sleep safely at night?
But remarkably Fischer goes on to say that is what Jesus would do.
Jesus’ act of self-sacrifice would ultimately have been meaningless - yes, meaningless - if he had not inflicted a mortal wound on the enemy while giving up his own life.You will know they are Christians by their blood-lust, apparently.
… our commanding general claimed the ultimate prize by defeating our unseen enemy and liberating an entire planet from his [sic] bondage.
We rightly honor those who give up their lives to save their comrades. It’s about time we started also honoring those who kill bad guys.
Andrew Sullivan points this out as an example of the "violence and aggression embedded in Christianism".
Meanwhile, let's finish on a high note. This is SSgt Salvatore Giunta, the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since Vietnam. He knows something about honor, heroism and bravery, which is more than we can say for the pathetic Mr Fischer.BLOG NOTE We're getting trolled by some right wingers, so don't rise to the bait or feed them. If it gets too greasy underfoot, the admins will delete as needed.
10 comments:
If ya ain't been there ya can't talk.
Fred, exactly. The right-wing chicken hawk brigade has no business saying anything about heroism to SSgt Giunta. Look at the SSgt's face. He knows what death looks like--and what it's about, in a way that most of us, including the bloviating Mr Fischer, never will.
What!? I can't believe it! This is obviously a man who knows nothing about the military and specifically nothing about the Medal of Honor. This medal is given by those who at great sacrifice and peril to themselves attempt to save their comrades. Yes, there's the SGT. York variety where the honoree manned a gun to hold off an onslaught of the enemy, but the more classic example is falling on a grenade to save others. Most honorees have given the ultimate sacrifice.
Such callousness. Vashti Winterburg, LCDR-R (ret.)
I live in eastern Iowa, where Staff Sergeant Giunta comes from. As you might imagine, SSgt Giunta's Medal of Honor attracted a great deal of media attention here, including interviews with family and friends. By all evidence and witnesses, Sal Giunta is a splendid young man. On behalf of the people of Iowa, I am profoundly offended by the arrogance and stupidity of the American "Family" Association. (Or I guess I should say, "even more offended," since they had already been profoundly offensive about other issues.) The American "Family" Association should get together with their buddies, the Westboro "Baptist" Church, and, as St. Luke puts it in Acts 1:25, "go to their own place."
Like President Obama, "I like this guy" (Sgt Giunta). The fact that he want on the frickin' Colbert Report speaks volumes (don't know, but I'm guessing, he wouldn't have a problem serving alongside Dan Choi, if you get my drift).
Re Fischer? All I can say: PLEASE don't let him be related to me!!!! (my last name doesn't have the "c" in it, but a couple of hundred years ago, it probably did). He wouldn't recognize the actual JESUS if he were crucifying him (which I have no doubt, he would---or metaphorically does . . . though no doubt I do, too, Kyrie Eleison...)
Yes... Christians are known by their blood-lust. Why --we ol' fashioned kind even DRINK blood! and EAT flesh! First sacrificing it on the altar!!!
Whoooohooooo!
I don't follow a commanding general... but, I kinda do smell a lot of sheep stuff, so there must be a shepherd around somewhere.
IT --on behalf of faithful Christians, I apologize for the bile of Fischer. He knows not of what he speaks.
Just sayin'.
I have thought about this all day and I just cannot resist, so letme apologize in advance for the rant.
This man's statement made me cry. I have had friends, clses friends, die in combat. The teaqrs come from the fact i could not save them, though I tried. I have had the need to pull bullet-ridden and broken comrades from the battlefield to safety. The issues this man talks about he knows absoltutely nothing about because if he did he would not use the langauge that he uses and he certainly would not invoke the name of Jesus in the process. If, and this is a huge if, Jesus is present on the battlefield it is not in the killing but in the saving. We take another life only for the basest of reasons and quite frankly, when placed in that position, one does what one does because of training and the need to survive. It is personal, REAL personal. The truth be told we protect each other in battle and we count on that, and so Jesus is in the saving not in the killing. Jesus is in the fulfilling of the relationship not in the breaking of a relationship.
At first i was genuinely angry with this person but I came to pity because he is simply ignorant of the facts and circumstances that surround a battlefield.
Even in battle we know they are Christians by their love.
Fred, thank you. Thank you so much.
JCF, we are all related to Mr. Fischer (but we are also all related to Desmond Tutu), the only question is whether we know how.
You know, I've been very clear that I'm not of the pacifist-type Christianity, but the ultimate, highest, best, and most holy form of Christian service is to prevent harm rather than inflict it. I am a realist, but a realist who knows better people than I rise to the transcendant and should be rewarded and lauded for it. I see violence as a necessity because of brokenness and a tragic necessity, at that, not as a proof of my own holiness!
This Fischer idiot doesn't deserve the right to speak publicly if that sort of rank, self-justifying stupidity is the best he(?) can come up with.
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