As a Catholic Air Force chaplain, Father George Zabelka was given the duty of blessing the men who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He gave this speech on the 40th anniversary of the bombings.

"As a Catholic chaplain I watched as the Boxcar, piloted by a good Irish Catholic pilot, dropped the bomb on Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, the center of Catholicism in Japan.
I never preached a single sermon against killing civilians to the men who were doing it...It never entered my mind to protest publicly the consequences of these massive air raids. I was told it was neccessary - told openly by the military and told implicity by my Church's leadership.
I struggled, I argued. But yes, there it was in the Sermon on the Mount, very clear: 'Love your enemies. Return good for evil.' I went through a crisis of faith. Either accept what Christ said, as unpassable and silly as it may seem, or deny him completely.
For the last 1700 years the Church has not only been making war respectable; it has been inducing people to believe it is an honourable profession, an honourable Christian profession. This is a lie.
For the 300 years immediately following Jesus' resurrection, the Church universally saw Christ and his teaching as nonviolent*. Remember that the Church taught this ethic in the face of at least three serious attempts by the state to liquidate her. It was subject to horrendous and ongoing torture and death. If ever there was an occasion for justified retaliation and defensive slaughter, this was it. The economic and political elite of the Roman state and their military had turned the citizens of the state against Christians and were embarked on a muderous public policy of exterminating the Christian community.
Yet the Church, in the face of the heinous crimes committed against her members, insisted without reservation that when Christ disarmed Peter he disarmed all Christians.
Christians continued to believe that Christ was, to use the words of an ancient liturgy, their fortress, their refuge, and their strength, and that if Christ was all they needed for security and defense, then Christ was all they should have. Indeed, this was a new security ethic. Christians understood that if they would only follow Christ and his teaching, they couldn't fail. When opportunities were given for Christians to appease the state by joining the fighting Roman army, these opportunities were rejected, because the early Church saw a complete and obvious incompatibility between loving as Christ loved and killing. It was Christ, not Mars, who gave security and peace.
Today the world is on the brink of ruin because the Church refuses to be the Church, because we Christians have been decieving ourselves and the non-Christian world about the truth of Christ. There is no way to follow Christ, to love as Christ loved, and simultaneously to kill other people. It is a lie to say that the spirit that moves the trigger of a flamethrower is the Holy Spirit. It is a lies to say that learning to kill is learning to be Christ-like. It is a lie to say that learning to drive a bayonet into the heart of another is motivated from having put on the mind of Christ. Militarized Christianity is a lie. It is radically out of conformity with the teaching, life, and spirit of Jesus.
Now, brothers and sisters, on the anniversary of this terrible atrocity carried out by Christians, I must be the first to say that I made a terrible mistake. I was had by the father of lies. I participated in the big ecumenical lie of the Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches. I wore the uniform. I was part of the system. When I said Mass over there I put on those beautiful vestments over my uniform. (When Father Dave Becker left the Trident submarine base in 1982 and resigned as Catholic chaplain there, he said, 'Every time I went to Mass in my uniform and put the vestments on over my uniform, I couldn't help but think of the words of Christ applying to me: Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing.")
As an Air Force chaplain I painted a machine gun in the loving hands of the nonviolent Jesus, and then handed this perverse picture to the world as truth. I sang "Praise the Lord" and passed the ammunition. As Catholic chaplain for the 509th Composite Group, I was the final channel that communicated this fraudulent image of Christ to the crews of the Enola Gray and the Boxcar.
All I can say today is that I was wrong. Christ would not be the instrument to unleash such horror on his people. Therefore no follower of Christ can legitimately unleash the horror of war on God's people. Excuses and self-justifying explanations are without merit. All I can say is: I was wrong! But, if this is all I can say, this I must do, feeble as it is. For to do otherwise would be to bypass the first and absolutely essential step in the process of repentance and reconciliation: admission of error, admission of guilt.
Thank God that I'm able to stand here today and speak out against war, all war. The prophets of the Old Testament spoke out against all false gods of gold, silver, and metal. Today we are worshipping the gods of metal, the bomb. We are putting our trust in physical power, militarism, and nationalism. The bomb, not God, is our security and strength. The prophets of the Old Testament said simply: Do not put your trust in chariots and weapons, but put your trust in God. Their message was simple, and so is mine.
We must all become prophets. I really mean that. We must all do something for peace. WE must stop this insanity of worshipping the gods of metal. We msut take a stand against evil and idolatry. This is our destiny at the most critical time of human history. But it's also the greatest opportunity ever offered to any group of people in the history of our world - to save our world from complete annihilation."

- Father Zabelka, August 1985

*Here are some early Christians talking to back up what he said

"The professions and trades of those who are going to be accepted into the community must be examined. The nature and type of each must be established...brothel, sculptors of idols, charioteer, athlete, gladiator...give it up or be rejected. A military constable must be forbidden to kill, neither may he swear; if he is not willing to follow these instructions, he must be rejected. A proconsul or magistrate who wears the purple and governs by the sword shall give it up or be reejcted. Anyone taking or already baptized who wants to become a soldier shall be sent away, for he has despised God." - Hippolytus, 218 AD

"We ourselves were well conversant with war, murder, and everything evil, but all of us throughout the whole wide earth have traded in our weapons of war. We have exchanged our swords for plowshares, our spears for farm tools...now we cultivate the fear of God, justive, kindness, faith, and the expectation of the future given us through the crucified one...the more we are persecuted and martyred, the more do others in ever increasing numbers become believers." - Justin, martyred in 165 AD

Thoughts on Home

Well, I've survived being in a small, northern town in Saskatchewan for three weeks now, and almost nothing could be further from my home in the city of Toronto. For example, I don't think I've heard a siren since I left BC, and I've gone to bed for the last ten years hearing them probably every night!

Last weekend, we got the chance to go to Winnipeg for Commissioning - what a relief to be back in a city! The lights, the sounds, the sights, the cars, the protesters! Yes, we saw two rallies going on in Winnipeg, on the same street around the same time actually. We even got to see the Communist Party of Canada in action marching with several other groups against war. While we were in Winnipeg, Jessica and I made sure to stop by a Tim Hortons to get our first, and probably last, iced cap of the summer. I noticed then that all the Tim Hortons across Canada that I've been to are the same - the bathroom's always in the same place, the layout is the generally the same, the colours, the chairs, the uniforms, the food. I could sit in a Tim Hortons in Winnipeg and feel like I was in Toronto or Vancouver. It felt like 'home'. Now I know what they are talking about on their commercials. I hope Tim Hortons never changes.
In a way, going to Commissioning felt like going home, too. You see, I practically grew up at big Salvation Army events. I caught up with old friends, made new, socialized with officers, and met the people that babysat me when I was one year old. And this time, I even was able to see my Dad, who was in town for the event with the staff band. So I couldn't help but get excited when I saw the uniforms, the timbrels, and the brass band (which I have sorely missed this year I might add!) The whole Commissioning experience felt something like coming home for me.

I was talking to Jessica about our perspectives on this issue last night. I guess because I've moved so much that I don't really consider home a building anymore, it is an important place or a family, and I'm happy that I consider myself to have many homes: Jacksons Point, Toronto, Philadelphia, the downtown eastside of Vancouver, and even New Zealand if I stretch back far enough. I love the verse in Mark 3 where Jesus clearly says "Whoever does the will of my Father in Heaven is my brother, my sister and my mother."

Who knows, if I can survive this, maybe I'll have a home in Nipawin, Saskatchewan, too.

Peace,
Megan Smith

61:4 Alabaster

I never thought I would spend any more than a few hours of my life driving through in Alabama.
I'm Texan - that's my southern state!

This week I am visiting 61:4 Alabaster. It's exciting for me as being a part of 61:4 Vancouver to come here and see how we are alike, and different but sill working to restore, rebuid, renew, and win the world for Jesus starting in... the city where we live.

Although things are run very different from my initial introduction to 61:4 - I beieve that the Lord is doing a good work here. The church building is quite small used daily by the Battle School. Battle School here is a program that goes for 1 year and is available to up to 11 men and women in the area. There is a daily rutine and a bed and food are provided to them. There are currently 7, all men and new Christians.

With frequesnt visitations, bold direct words from the Lord and humility the Battle School does a great job at evangelising and investing.

Pray for that the wisdom of the Lord would be in this place. That He would be most imortant and that each person her would keep Him as their center.

I have and am enjoying my stay in Alabama and my visit to the lovely Miss Holly Warren. I must say however, I am quite excited for my next stop in Texas to organize many wedding preperations!