September 22, 2003

FOUR WARS—A FRAME FOR MY LIFE

My life has been intersected by four wars. I have never been personally threatened during these wars, as I would have if my homeland were invaded, or if I were conscripted to serve in the U.S. military overseas. And yet, each of these four wars has shaped the culture I live in and has had a powerful effect on the mood of society around me.

I was only nine years old when World War II ended. My memories of the war are few—lights out during an air raid, a backyard “Victory Garden,” lots of war toys for little boys, and the excitement of VJ Day. But the optimism and exuberance of the postwar years left a powerful mark on me. GI loans allowed for the start of creative new businesses all over town, and a lot of them sported “Bankruptcy Sale” signs a few months later. Developments of crackerbox homes expanded the suburbs, and all my relatives seemed to be having babies. During my high school years, I lived in a world where the American Dream seemed not only possible, but likely.

While I was in college, the Korean War marked the end of this euphoria. The world became polarized between East and West. The possibility of a nuclear attack by the USSR seemed real and immediate. Some of my college friends were drafted right after graduation; one refused and was jailed as a conscientious objector. This grim new world helped transform me from a biology major to a seminary student preparing for the ministry.

In a sense, the Vietnam War was an extension of that East/West struggle, but the mood was drastically different from Korean War days, when Americans seemed united on the rightness of their cause. This was a time when hippies, beatniks and flower children popped up all around us. The issues in the Vietnam War were not all that clearcut, and a new breed of Americans were questioning their own government. The Civil Rights movement was demonstrating that our society itself had much housecleaning to do. As I graduated seminary and became a pastor, I found that many of the traditions of my faith and my church were being questioned as well.

Now I’m in what may turnout to be the final chapter of my ministry, and what-do-you-know?—another war! In this one, the “War on Terror,” my country’s unquestioned world leadership is being challenged by opponents who can’t be defined by geography, nationality or economic interest. We label them “terrorists,” and they have an equally horrible name for us. The world order is being transformed before our very eyes and it’s impossible to discern how things will shake down. National economic priorities are having a powerful effect on the lives of the people I serve as pastor. Everybody’s a bit edgy.

Two passages from Scripture come to my mind as I reflect on my four-war life:
“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars . . .; but the end is not yet.”
(Matthew 24:6)

GOD IS GRACIOUS AND HAS GIVEN US MORE TIME TO REPENT.

“Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday and today and forever.”
(Hebrews 13"8)

THE GOSPEL NEVER CHANGES FROM AGE TO AGE, FROM WAR TO WAR, FROM TIME TO ETERNITY.

–Pastor George Van Alstine