Two recent events have started me thinking about Vietnam in terms of religious symbolism. First it was the speech of King Richard (Nixon) who in solemn and self righteous tones announced to us the fate that he had decreed for Vietnam (i.e. the bombing of Hanoi).
Next it was the exhortation of High Priest (Billy) Graham, urging us to see that the issue in this was really “a matter of the heart”. To him the significance of the gospel seemed to extend no further than the confines of the human psyche. He missed the contemporary crucifixion taking place in Vietnam.
There is no crucifixion without a cross, and the cross in this case is the battered, torn and ravaged land. A gnarled and wooden tree would not suit the refinements of our age – behold we present a pock-marked, rubble strewn, defoliated burning land sick with the stench of death.
Nor will we be satisfied with driving a few nails. No – we shall nail the people to the ground with fury upon fury – a torrent of screaming raging bombs exceeding in sheer magnitude any war that men have ever fought. In our mad rage we will level all life from the land if they will not confess to us that they were wrong – and give up their claims of being “sons of the land”.
And yet they will not die! As Jesus, when they had done their worst to him, saw his spirit rekindled alive in dead men’s hearts – so they suffer and as they die, their spirit grows in valiant determination that will not yield.
Day by day the panorama of crucifixion parades before our eyes. One choice remains – with whom will we side – the crucifier or the crucified!
Iowa City, 1970
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