Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 316

“How can the warriors have fallen–
in the thick of the battle,
slain upon your heights!
“I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother!
most dear have you been to me;
more precious have I held love for you than love for women.
“How can the warriors have fallen,
the weapons of war have perished!”

Coming to the VA hospital as a non-veteran chaplain, I had never heard the expression, battle buddies.  I had to learn that men and women are given a baptism of fire in combat that creates intense bonds between them. A warrior's buddy who fought side by side and back to back with him in a kill zone may be more dear to him than his sister, girlfriend, wife, or daughter. Years later, a Combat Veteran's spouse may learn that they were not there, and cannot know what their battle buddies mean to them.  

Unfortunately, a sexually obsessed culture, fascinated by bizarre human behavior and ignorant of military experience, can misread David's grief over the death of Jonathan. According to a 2021 Army study, 75% of Americans aged 16-28 know little to nothing about the Army. Homosexuals have read the story in 1 Samuel through an ideology that sexualizes all human interaction. And then they try to prove that homosexual behavior has always been normal and, in some societies, perfectly acceptable.

 

I, for one, don't buy it. True, the behavior has always been there; the Bible attests to that. But as normal, healthy, and natural? I don't think so. As something people do under stressful conditions like intense trauma or inebriation? Yes, it can happen. Sailors isolated from women for months at a time, stressed with intense work, relaxing with alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, and other substances, do strange things. Human beings have vivid imagination and can entertain themselves with anything. 

But normal like a norm for human behavior? 

I don't think so. 

Blessed? No. 

Secondly, we should notice that the Bible is not familiar with ideologies. They are the misbegotten children of Romanticism and the Enlightenment. An ideology says, "This is the way the world should be!" and assesses everything according to that artificial standard. It also discovers minorities where there were only people. Karl Marx created the ideology of the working class who are supposedly exploited by wealthy capitalists. It makes sense to a lot of people; it explains a lot of their experience. But it also demonizes a lot of good people, both the wealthy and those who don't buy the theory. 

An ideology goes on to create a counter-ideology, a fantasy enemy who lives by an opposite principle. Thus a wealthy person becomes a capitalist, a man becomes a chauvinist, a heterosexual person is homophobic, and so forth. Each of these enemies supposedly believes, and has always believed, in their inherent superiority over their unfortunate enemy. 

Ideologies create minorities like race, ethnicity, gender, sexual- and gender-preference. Feeling like victims, or persuaded that they are victims, people discover their anger; some organize into political blocs. Anyone can be a minority. Military veterans, people with disabilities, Catholics, gun owners, or lonely men see a world of us and them. Eventually even the wealthiest, most influential people decide they too are victims. 

And victims are dangerous people; their anger justifies their violence. 

Ideologies have their purpose. Like ultraviolet light which can reveal features invisible to ordinary light, an ideology can discover virtue or malice where they were overlooked. The Civil Rights Movement clearly revealed racism and its roots in society and religion. It's a useful tool, but not the answer to every question.

The Bible celebrates the love of God for the children of Abraham and their mission to the whole world. But it's not ideologically written and not everything in it makes perfect sense by any particular standard. There are many contradictions in it. If you're looking for a Gold Standard of Truth, which you might call The Gospel, you'll be disappointed. The Word of God is more mysterious than our most subtle ideology. 

The Bible knows that God's people should be holy, they are called to holiness. And it knows they fail to be holy. The Chosen will suffer God's punishment for their impiety, and will suffer the world's abuse for being set apart. 

An ideology justifies its members and its hatred; the Bible does not. Believers can never say, "Thank God I am not like the rest of men" (Luke 18:11) for they are not. Rather, they are grateful for their knowledge of God who is good, all good, supreme good. 

Unlike ideologues, they have animosity toward none.