December 20, 2002
THOU SHALT NOT KILL:
Ex-Soldier, Now a Bishop, Deals With Blood on His Hands (CHRIS HEDGES, December 20, 2002, NY Times)Bishop George E. Packard has a burden. He carries it with him. There are times in his sleep when it overpowers him and wakes him in agitation. There are days when stress mounts. And in the ticking of the clock, the race toward oblivion that is the fate of all human beings, he seeks atonement in everything he does as a husband, a father and an Episcopal priest.When he was in his 20's, before he went to seminary and became ordained, Bishop Packard was an Army lieutenant who led a platoon in Vietnam that set up ambushes. He and his men killed in each encounter anywhere from 12 to 15 North Vietnamese, Vietcong and perhaps Chinese mercenaries. They did it clinically and efficiently and then stacked up the bodies. He said he stopped counting how many men, and women, that he killed. "But with about 30 ambushes and firefights you can do the math," he said. [...]
"I violated the commandment, `Thou Shalt Not Kill,' " he said. "Nothing will be gained by intellectualizing this. I killed other people. I took lives. It was exactly that. I became in Vietnam a professional killer. I was proud of what I could do. There are days when I meet with people, trying to do what is good for the church, for others, and think I am probably the only person here who has killed another human being." [...]
The commandment, even if broken for a good reason, scars all who must violate it, he said. As an Army chaplain, he has the awful understanding that comes from having been in combat, an understanding that allows him to help shoulder a soldier's burden. He knows the cost. And he finds his greatest solace in faith.
"When my life is all over," he said, "when in those last 30 seconds that I am fighting for breath in some room, I will make a plea to God. I will say that I did the best I could in the oddities life gave me. I will ask to be forgiven."
Today's entry from the Times.
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 20, 2002 3:53 PM
I'll never forgive him for being a moral imbecile.
My father killed hundreds of Japanese. He was more moral than any bishop, but then, who isn't?
I rather suppose that I shall be thoroughly castigated for this but the "Thou shalt not kill" commandment is entirely bogus.
It is an incorrect translation of the of the original Hebrew which is best translated as "Thou shalt not murder"
.
Doubtless this "fact" will not do the good Bishop any good at all, since what matters is, of course, what is written in the book he is reading, no the facts of the matter.
Certainly you have to be able to differentiate between morally justified killing and gratuitous killing. This poor guy should be proud, not guilty.
Posted by: oj at December 20, 2002 6:58 PM