Now, let me see if I have this right. Real men kill, maim, and inflict destruction. Saving lives and rescuing those in harm's way is, well, feminine. Well, that's the take away from this blog piece by Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association. In response to the Medal of Honor being awarded this week to an Afghanistan war veteran who saved the lives of several of his comrades, here's what Fischer wrote (italics mine):
"So the question is this: When are we going to start awarding the Medal of Honor once again for soldiers who kill people and break things so our families can sleep safely at night?... We have feminized the Medal of Honor."
This claim is so outrageous, it is really hard to know where to start. Do we begin with the direct insult of womanhood contained in the claim? Do we begin with reminding this writer that the paradigmatic expression of love scripture enjoins us to embrace is love of enemy (and not the killing of enemy)? Or, do we move on to the remarkably poor attempt he makes to defend the claim theologically? You know, I think I'll just let a couple of comments from the blog itself summarize for us:
One wrote, "As a woman, I'm honored to have my femininity associated with brave, death-defying, awesome rescues."
Another, a veteran, wrote, " I notice that you never spent a day in uniform. I'm a retired infantryman. I saw combat on three continents in this nation's service, and find your imaginings on war and the nature of heroism to be sickening. As always, you show yourself to be a little man, ever envious of others. SSG Giunta is an American hero in every sense of the word. His name and story will be retold for decades. You? You will be remembered as a bigot who pouted as the world passed you by."
I can hardly improve on that. Come on Bryan, admit your error on this and offer Mr. Giunta, and all your readers, their deserved apology.
Chuck Gutenson is the chief operating officer for Sojourners.
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