By Zachary Bailes
On Monday, it was announced that The Huffington Postwon the coveted Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. Beginning on Oct. 10, 2011, they ran a 10-part series titled “Beyond the Battlefield.”
The series was an exploration of the challenges, victories and problems that catastrophically wounded soldiers encounter after returning home from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. The series highlighted the problematic realities of wounded warriors, but also a country that has forgotten we are still at war. I wonder if our churches have too.
Highlighting the spoils of war extends beyond the Pulitzer Prize. Nicholas Kristof in an April 15 New York Times article engaged the high rates of suicide among veterans. His article, “A Veteran’s Death, the Nation’s Shame,” cuts to the chase stating, “For every soldier killed on the battlefield this year, about 25 veterans are dying by their own hands.”
More than the total number of those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since the wars began is the number of those that have committed suicide — more than 6,500 suicides every year. Soldiers are returning with more than missing limbs, but also with traumatic brain injuries.
Kristof states: “Preliminary figures suggest that being a veteran now roughly doubles one’s risk of suicide. For young men ages 17 to 24, being a veteran almost quadruples the risk of suicide, according to a study in The American Journal of Public Health.” Quite honestly, the greatest worry for those going to war is not necessarily the possibility of dying in war, but the possibility of dying after the war.
After the IED, the bomb blast, or the stray shot that kills a young child, then death becomes a foe with which to wrangle. After one deplanes on American soil, back in the safety of their home, then death creeps in. As Patrick Bellon, head of the Veterans of Common Sense states, “There are going to be one million new veterans in the next five years…. They’re [Veteran’s Affairs] already having trouble coping with the population they have now, so I don’t know what they’re going to do.”
Veterans return home hoping to find employment and settle back into family life. What we once thought helped veterans assimilate back into life no longer works. Moreover, those 1 million veterans will return to communities that churches share. If the VA, the branch of the government created for the purpose, finds it difficult to help veterans, then how prepared are our churches?
It sounds good on Sunday morning to say that we are the hands and feet of Christ, but what are we doing to assist veterans in their struggles — mental, physical and emotional? One predicament could be that churches, especially more “progressive” churches, find the issue of war a political one. Do they endorse wars by caring for veterans? Do they become complicit in the killing by being a safety net for veterans? The short answer? No.
Veterans chose to enter the military, and with that came the risk of entering to war. For many, though, one can hardly blame them: promise of a paycheck, education and “real-life” training. It all sounds good, especially if you’re coming from an at-risk community or low-income family. Getting into the military seems like an escape route. Though the paychecks arrive, and the education comes with it, there’s the risk of a traumatic brain disorder.
Churches, liberal or conservative, have a responsibility to respond to the needs of veterans. They are the children of God, suffering and bruised — internally and externally. Whether or not we like it, we are a nation at war and we are suffering, and will continue to suffer. Churches have a great opportunity to meet veterans where they are, but whether or not they will make it a priority over basketball leagues and knitting groups remains to be seen.
We can count the recent Pulitzer Prize winning series a success on the home front, but on the war front the injuries happen daily. Until we have to stop raising awareness about the spoils of war, the churches must meet the needs of those wounded warriors bleeding from wounds to which no gauze can be applied.