Posted by Rev. David on November 11, 2011
When I reflect on the few years after “coming home” from Bosnia, the years before some friends and a veteran counselor helped me to “get my head back on straight”, I realize that I had more than my share of luck. I was lucky to be in a university that had a large and experienced [...]
Categories: Military, Turnings, Veterans
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Tags: activism, Bosnia, chaplain, Chrys Parker, combat stress reaction, David Pyle, faith, History, homeless veteran, homelessness, hunkered in the bunker, justice, Military, military chaplain, Prophetic Voice, ptsd, relationship, responsibility, veteran, Veteran's Day, war
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2 comments
Posted by Rev. David on July 11, 2011
I was determined to give myself a gift at the end of 5 years of seminary, church internship, military chaplain basic training, hospital internship and hospice residency… and I did not know what I wanted. Could I be craving a vacation on a beach in the Caribbean? Well, always… but I doubt I will ever [...]
Categories: Inspiration, Military, Turnings
| Tags: av's, Bosnia, chaplain, colorado avalanche, David Pyle, David Weber, gift, hockey, honor, Honor Harrington, Honorverse, internship, Jim Baen, Military, military chaplain, Ministry, red wings, religion, residency, sci fi, science fiction, seminary, soldier, Spiritual Practice, theology, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Universalism, Universalist, UU, UU Military, UU Principles, war
| 1 comment
Posted by Rev. David on March 9, 2011
I regularly have conversations with conservatives, both political and religious conservatives. Sometimes that is through my work as an Army Chaplain, sometimes through my work as a liberal minister in a fairly conservative town, and sometimes it is through people from my past who seek me out to ask me the question… “what happened? How [...]
Categories: History, politics, Turnings
| Tags: activism, becoming a liberal, becoming a progressive, Bosnia, Christian, conservative, conservativism, faith, fear, God, History, hope, Jesus, journey, justice, liberal, liberal faith, liberal to conservative, liberalism, politics, progressivism, Prophetic Voice, relationship, religion, responsibility, transition, unitairan, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, UU
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Posted by Rev. David on November 8, 2010
Our common conception of how Veterans share a the same experinece of combat is belied by the way that combat actions and environments have evolved over the last 70 years. There is no generalized understanding of what a Veteran is.
Categories: Military, Patriotism, Veterans
| Tags: Afghanistan veteran, Bosnia, Bosnia Veteran, generation of veterans, Grenada Veteran, Iraq War, Korea Veteran, Military, Ministry, veteran differences, Veteran's Day, veterans, vietnam veteran, war, wwii veteran
| 2 comments
Posted by Rev. David on December 23, 2009
It was Christmas, so I called home. That may not sound like much, but after the day I had just had, it was everything in the world to me. I had woken up that morning in my bunkbed made of plywood and 2×4′s, in a bombed out hotel room in Sarajevo, Bosnia. There was no [...]
Categories: Inspiration, Military, Prophetic Voice, Turnings
| Tags: Bosnia, Christmas, Christmas Eve service, Christmas Peace, hope, peace, Prevlaka, soldier call home, Soldier's Christmas, UCE, Unitarian Church of Evanston, war
| 2 comments
Posted by Rev. David on October 26, 2009
There are probably very few people in the United States who are interested at all in the trial of Radovan Karazdic, former President of the Republica Serpska, and the leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the Bosnian war of the mid-90′s. For myself, it has been a long emotional journey, even though I was only [...]
Categories: Military, politics, Prophetic Voice, Turnings
| Tags: Bosnia, genocide, Hague, Herzegovina, peacekeeper, Radovan Karadžić, trial, Unitarian Universalism, war, warcrimes, warcrimes trial
| 2 comments
Posted by Rev. David on July 11, 2009
The morning after I came home from serving as a Peacekeeper in Bosnia, a friend knocked on my door at some early hour. I wanted to sleep in, but he had another plan. There was something we absolutely had to go do, something he had become involved in that he knew I would love. I [...]
Categories: Care of the Soul, History, Military, Prophetic Voice
| Tags: Afghanistan veteran, Battlemind injury, Bosnia, define warrior, Grossman, Iraq veteran, knight, paladin, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, ptsd, SCA, shadow warrior, Society for Creative Anachronsim, soldier, Tick, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Universalism, UU, warrior, warriorship
| 3 comments
Posted by Rev. David on February 9, 2009
It is surprising to me when someone one asks me whether or not I believe in evil. I can see how someone can begin to learn about my theology and come to that question, but it surprises me every time. It is surprising to me because I know exactly how much evil I have seen [...]
Categories: Defining Religious Langauge, Prophetic Voice, theology
| Tags: Bosnia, damnation, Escobar, evil, faith, FARC, FMLN, good, hell, hope, Latin America, responsibility, satan, theology, theology of evil
| 6 comments
Posted by Rev. David on July 26, 2008
In 1996, when I arrived as a Peacekeeper and an intelligence analyst in Bosnia, there was a mission at the top of our list… find Radovan Karadžić. My team and I knew he was most likely in Serbia, probably Belgrade… where we had no jurisdiction and where the U.S. Government had little influence. But we [...]
Categories: History, Military, Principles and Purposes
| Tags: Bosnia, genocide, Herzegovina, peacekeeper, Radovan Karadžić, Unitarian Universalism, war, warcrimes
| 2 comments
Posted by Rev. David on March 27, 2008
It has taken me several days to write and reflect on Hillary Clinton’s claim that she had come under sniper fire when her plane landed in Bosnia in March of 1996. The reason has been that it is hard for me to properly reflect on something when I am angry about it. I began this [...]
Categories: Military, politics, Prophetic Voice
| Tags: Bosnia, character, Hillary Clinton, politics, truth
| 2 comments
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