See that guy up there? His name is Bryan Fischer. He’s the “Director of Issues Analysis” for the conservative Christian group the American Family Association… and he’s not happy. Why? Because President Obama awarded Army Sgt. Salvatore Giunta with the Medal of Honor.
Giunta’s resume? While chasing down a group of Taliban insurgents that had just ambushed his unit, Giunta noticed that they had captured a fellow soldier and were dragging him by his legs into the night. Giunta ran them down, and rescued his colleague.
So what’s angering the old white guy in the picture up there? He’s upset that we are rewarding the saving of life, as opposed to rewarding the taking of life. No, seriously. From his blog:
“But I have noticed a disturbing trend in the awarding of these medals, which few others seem to have recognized.
We have feminized the Medal of Honor.
According to Bill McGurn of the Wall Street Journal, every Medal of Honor awarded during these two conflicts has been awarded for saving life. Not one has been awarded for inflicting casualties on the enemy. Not one.
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?”
Understandably, Fischer took some heat for those comments and clarified in a subsequent post:
“Christianity is not a religion of pacifism. Remember that John the Baptist did not tell the soldiers who came to him to lay down their arms, even when they asked him directly, “what shall we do?” (Luke 3:14).
War is certainly a terrible thing, and should only be waged for the highest and most just of causes. But if the cause is just, then there is great honor in achieving military success, success which should be celebrated and rewarded.
The bottom line here is that the God of the Bible clearly honors those who show valor and gallantry in waging aggressive war in a just cause against the enemies of freedom, even while inflicting massive casualties in the process. What I’m saying is that it’s time we started imitating God’s example again.”
To be honest, I don’t think “imitating God’s example” is the problem here. Theoretically, the wars and violence recounted in the Old Testament were kosher because they were commanded by God. It seems that plenty of people imitate God’s example and declare our own bloodshed to be ordained as well. Bryan Fischer seems to be one of those people.