| Subject: Repost: SJ: Who Are the Calculated Loss? (2003/01/06) |
Author:
Eugene
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Date Posted: 23:26:59 10/11/03 Sat
There was a very disturbing scene in a movie titled “Enemy at the Gates”: The Soviet Red Army filled up railroad cars of hardly trained men, and threw them into the desperate battle in defense of Stalingrad. As they were getting off the ferries, there were some political officers with conical trumpets shouting propaganda slogans at the frightened men. On the other side was a truck, where rifles and bullets were given to the “soldiers”. However, only every other person got to have a rifle.
A NCO kept repeating the same instructions to the people receiving ammo and rifles: “The one with the rifle, shoot! The one without rifle, follow! When the one with the rifle fell, pick up his rifle and shoot!” They expected that a least half of these men would die, but for the purpose of defending the city bearing the name of their national leader, the killed were just “calculated loss” -- they were expendable.
To a modern day American, throwing your own people into this kind of “meat grinder” battles is simply sickening. Yet many armies fought in this matter and won. The secret often comes down to a combination of pumping people up with propaganda bravado and threatening them with brutality worse than charging into battles. The strategy is often effective, but is it applicable to all struggles?
In order to maintain the image of a church that “does what it is supposed to do”, people are sometimes tossed into ministries and services like the soldiers at Stalingrad. “The one with a ministry, keep going! The one without a ministry, follow and -- when the one in front gets burned out -- pick up the ministry and keep going.” Perhaps, if there are enough people to be burned out, the ministry gets to be maintained. But, should a church strive at the cost of “calculated loss”? Who in the body of Christ is “expendable”?
The propaganda of religious medals (“any good Christian serves”) and the threat of guilt and fear (“those who do not serve have weak, or no faith”) may spur a few people on. But when they are shoved out into the battlefield and everyone sees them perish in burnout, others begin to think twice about serving.
How would Jesus move people to serve? Indeed, WWJD?
Re: SJ: Who Are the Calculated Loss? (2003/01/06)
By: anna
agreed ... you are right. However, sometimes the one(s) behind the push don’t do it intentionally.
To All of You That Have Left Your Thoughts Here (2003/01/12)
By: Eugene
I just want you to know that there are people that care who are reading these thoughts you left, and they are prayerfully seeking a vision of how our church can stop (1) alienation and (2) burn-out.
Keep your thoughts coming, please. We all need a church that resembles the Body of Christ as closely as possible.
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