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- from Ft. Worth, by Helen Woodson
THE TRUTH BEARS REPEATING
November 11, 1984 - March 11, 2004
In the Gospel of Matthew we are told, "No one can serve two masters." Today, as perhaps never before in history, it is necessary for each of us to ask, "Whom do we serve?"
Whom do we serve when we name the first explosion of an atomic bomb "Trinity"? When we call a fast-attack submarine "Corpus Christi" (Body of Christ)? When the spires of the Air Force Academy chapel are shaped like missiles? When we possess 11,000 nuclear weapons, and our military policy is one of preemptive first strike?
Whom do we serve when the President who took his oath on a Bible leads us into a war based on lies and deception? When we explode hundreds of tons of depleted uranium shells poisoning the air, water and soil, and inflicting sickness and death on both civilian populations and our own military personnel?
Whom do we serve when the federal courts, which begin each session by invoking God's blessing, sanction abortion, environmental destruction, capital punishment, and war? When we print "In God We Trust" on the money and then use it to finance death and destruction all over the world?
Two thousand years ago, when people were asked whom they served, they answered, "We have no king but Caesar!" The religious terms in which we clothe our murderous deeds cannot obfuscate the truth; we too have no king but Caesar.
A life of faith calls us to a different answer, one exemplified by two saints of the early Church. Leaving the Roman army, St. Martin of Tours said, "I am a soldier of Jesus Christ; it is not permissible for me to fight," and St. Maximilian, martyred for refusing military conscription, said, "I cannot do evil... I will not be a soldier of this world. I am a soldier of Christ."
In 1984, on the feast day of St. Martin, I was one of four people who went to a Missouri missile silo to witness to that truth. In 2004, on the feast day of St. Maximilian, I am expected to report to a Missouri probation office and accept government supervision of my life and conscience. The Christian life is one of on-going repentance in the service of God, and so again, I must witness to that truth.
November 11, 1984 - March 11, 2004 THE TRUTH BEARS REPEATING
(Helen Woodson wrote this before her recent release from prison, for the action she took two days later in Kansas City. She awaits sentencing.)
