My brother's world changed on 9/11/2001. His ten year old mind tried to come to grips with the fact that Muslim terrorists had attacked and managed to kill innocent, helpless, unarmed citizens on U.S. soil. He remembered back to the period in history called the Christian Crusades. During that time period, Christians fought to fight off the Muslims and regain holy sites that had been desecrated and stolen from them. Something changed in my brother that day. He started thinking about all of the great Christian martyrs and how they were willing to die for Christ. He started looking at men in uniform differently. He would thank them for serving whenever he saw a military person in union. It was then that he decided he wanted to be a warrior for freedom.
Tommy is "one of the few, the proud." He graduated almost two years ago to the day from Marine Boot camp. He is one of the brave young men that is willing to sign up for the military when he knows we are at war and there is a huge possibility he will go to war. He took a year to do missionary work after high school and pray about what he should do. He took another year at home working, to think about what he should do. After all, it is a life changing and possibly life ending decision. Ultimately, the call to fight for freedom won out. How ironic that the little boy that wanted to be a warrior for freedom and who values religious freedom more than his own life signed up to fight for his country, the model of freedom. Why is that ironic? It's ironic because that same model of freedom that he signed up to fight for is not allowing him to practice his faith. Because of the furlough, military chaplains have been arrested for saying Mass. Of course, the priests offered to do perform their duties for free, but the politicians couldn't make a point then, could they?
The point they have made is a lot different than the point they were trying to make. The point they have made is that this country is dangerously close to becoming what they have always fought against. No longer a model of liberty and justice for all, it has become a model of pathetic contradictions. We scream freedom, yet we don't allow unborn children the freedom to be born. We scream freedom, yet we don't let citizens have a say in whether they want to partake in health insurance plans that go against their morals. We scream freedom, freedom, freedom, yet we don't allow our military to have a priest on board ship while they wait to go into Syria. The soldiers that signed up to fight for freedom are not allowed to scream freedom because they are censored.
God bless Tommy and all of our soldiers. Just because we don't hear them screaming freedom, nobody can take away their faith, their hope, or their love. The government may try to take God away, but they can't. Not only can they not take God away, but every time Christians have been martyred, their blood screams out to heaven and God raises up more saints than before.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/04/catholic-priests-in-military-face-arrest-for-celebrating-mass/
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