More things like this, though, and any hopes I might have of visiting family out west seems less and less advisable.
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This next article is:Smith, Wilford E. (1977, Summer). Church and state in America in the twenty-first century A.D. Military Chaplaincy Review, 28-40.
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This next quote falls in the context of Milton Konvitz's arguments (from the book Religious Liberty and Conscience, Viking Press, 1969) demonstrating how conscience trumps everything else, including all kinds of external institutions, in moral force, and to disregard conscience in favor of an external force is to "forfeit dignity.""The Nuremberg trials establish the principle in international law that the defense acted pursuant to orders of the government or a superior officer does not absolve a defendant from responsibility." (p. 31)Now you can hardly deny that that, at least in many cases, those who participated in Nazi war crimes might have faced more difficult consequences for lack of cooperation with the Nazi Wehrmacht than the Vienna missionaries would have experienced for not cooperating with the mission leadership, although when the threat of making you go crazy was a very real possibility that might have been approaching Nazi terror. But there had to even have been leaders who were willing to make such (usually tacit) threats. And, I submit, that just like in the Nuremburg trials, and just like in a million other places where human rights is an issue, the enactors still bear responsibility for their actions, and you cannot put all the blame on the decreers and the planners. Those who "simply obey orders" like so many stooges (as if they could just set aside any personal responsibility and conscience), are not really stooges.
Who told them they were stooges? Did God say they were stooges? Did God say that they would be absolved of all responsibility for their actions in such a situation? I don't think so. Whatever gave them that idea? Somehow to me, personally, it sounds rather suspiciously like something that Satan would say:
Genesis 3:4-5
King James Version (KJV)
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
I don't agree with Konvitz, though. I guess I see his point that the formal church can be wrong, although our church leaders should be there as guides for us. They aren't infallible though, and also need to be held accountable. And we all, as Christians, need to be accountable to Scripture and to God, as well as to one another. God did create in us a conscience and we can educate it to be in tune with His will, and we as Christians have the Holy Spirit within us, so on these bases, to a certain extent we can look inward to make moral decisions, but that's not and shouldn't be, the only resource we have. I'm talking as Christians here. Missionaries working in the Vienna mission learned to rely on this a lot, though, because working in East Bloc countries meant you couldn't talk to a lot of people about your moral concerns.
And as to how I was treated and possibly how others might have been treated, even if it wasn't quite on the scale of my treatment, the individuals at the mission are all going to be held responsible for their part in it. And if they remained silent when they could have spoken up or if they were just "an innocent bystander" but could have done something, they might even still be held responsible. My life was really ruined because of how they treated me, although other things happened later, but I was broken in spirit from them and really a changed person because of them.
And the socialization process that makes people sort of take a blind leap of faith trusting all to the mission (i.e., not holding back) without it being reciprocal, you're going to be answerable fot that at some point too. That is, is God going to agree with the Vienna mission administration that you should leave your free thinking and freedom of conscience at the door? Might Good hold you responsible for things you participated in with the mission, even if you didn't understand them (because you agreed to check your free judgment in at the door and let the administration do all the heavy thinking for you)?
I don't care how prestigious the mission was, that is wrong. They can call me crazy till the cows come home, but I kept my values the whole time I was there and they couldn't get me to say what was wrong is right.
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
I don't agree with Konvitz, though. I guess I see his point that the formal church can be wrong, although our church leaders should be there as guides for us. They aren't infallible though, and also need to be held accountable. And we all, as Christians, need to be accountable to Scripture and to God, as well as to one another. God did create in us a conscience and we can educate it to be in tune with His will, and we as Christians have the Holy Spirit within us, so on these bases, to a certain extent we can look inward to make moral decisions, but that's not and shouldn't be, the only resource we have. I'm talking as Christians here. Missionaries working in the Vienna mission learned to rely on this a lot, though, because working in East Bloc countries meant you couldn't talk to a lot of people about your moral concerns.
And as to how I was treated and possibly how others might have been treated, even if it wasn't quite on the scale of my treatment, the individuals at the mission are all going to be held responsible for their part in it. And if they remained silent when they could have spoken up or if they were just "an innocent bystander" but could have done something, they might even still be held responsible. My life was really ruined because of how they treated me, although other things happened later, but I was broken in spirit from them and really a changed person because of them.
And the socialization process that makes people sort of take a blind leap of faith trusting all to the mission (i.e., not holding back) without it being reciprocal, you're going to be answerable fot that at some point too. That is, is God going to agree with the Vienna mission administration that you should leave your free thinking and freedom of conscience at the door? Might Good hold you responsible for things you participated in with the mission, even if you didn't understand them (because you agreed to check your free judgment in at the door and let the administration do all the heavy thinking for you)?
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"If the time comes when the government takes over religion, it will be because churches have invited it into the tent, so to speak, by accepting piecemeal grants and subsities (and their inevitable controls)." (p. 40)Can I paraphrase this? (The author is talking about the USA.)
If the time comes when the government takes over Christian missions, it will be because missions have invited it into the tent, so to speak, by accepting piecemeal grants and subsities (and their inevitable controls).Now did I get your attention? One of the member mission, arguably the most powerful mission in then East European missions was taking money from the CIA, although I don't know that my sending mission or the Vienna mission was. But how about having military reserve chaplains staff your human resources department? (That is, the whole department being consisted solely of chaplains.) And relatedly, having our annual conference at a U.S. military conference center (Hitler's Crow's Nest)?
I don't care how prestigious the mission was, that is wrong. They can call me crazy till the cows come home, but I kept my values the whole time I was there and they couldn't get me to say what was wrong is right.
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That's it for this article.