Not A Rice Paddy

The Vietnam War was an insidious time when one never knew who was friend and who might hate you. This morning your Vietnam barber chats amiably and smiles warmly at you while shaving your neck. During the Viet Cong raid tonight he cuts your throat. The America venture in the jungles and rice paddies of SouthEast Asia was a new and different sort of war for us, never knowing who was friend or enemy.

NYT top news headline and photo this morning. Pakistan Arrests C.I.A. Informants in Bin Laden Raid. 

When speaking from the pulpit and writing public expressions, many in the priest business take care to separate church and state, stand back from left and right, red and blue. A minister’s convictions may be as strong as those of the most outspoken politician, but every priest lives among beloved friends and neighbors on all points of the spectrum. It wasn’t always so with Isaiah and the other prophets of doom, but the calling of ordained ministry is the love of God, to preach it and to live it. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” He preached. With friends and neighbors across the spectrum, a minister’s sermons and writings that take sides in political issues are more likely to be incendiary than conciliatory, hurtful than helpful. “Stick to the gospel,” friends and neighbors advise when we disagree. “Preach it,” they say when we agree.   

This morning’s photo and infuriating headline from Pakistan brings to mind the Vietnam barber. That isn’t a rice paddy. Or is it? Insidious is alive and well. And some "friends" are not.

Peace anyway.

T