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, 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 June 14, 2009
Every few weeks I get an email or a call from someone in leadership of one of our Unitarian Universalist congregations asking how they can set up an outreach program to military veterans, servicemembers, and families. For a long while, I would send them the information I have on the UUniforms program conducted by the [...]
Categories: Evangelism, Military, Ministry, UU Movement
| Tags: faith, Military, military outreach, ptsd, spirituality, Unitarian, Universalism, UU Military, welcoming congregation
| 5 comments
Posted by Rev. David on April 19, 2009
Among the topics that I have written about over the past two years, I doubt any of them have been more sensitive or personal to me than this one, and I come at it with more than a little trepidation. It is possible that some (including those on the Ministerial Fellowship Committee of the UUA) [...]
Categories: Care of the Soul, Military, Turnings
| Tags: awareness, Battlemind injury, combat reactions, combat-related stress, firearms, liberal faith, ptsd, soldier journaling, soldier meditation, soldier transition
| 6 comments
Posted by Rev. David on March 21, 2009
Recently I have been thinking about American culture around military issues these last six years since the beginning of combat operations in Iraq. Specifically, I have been thinking about what it means to be a hero, and why some segments of American culture have attempted to make “heroes” of every single young man and woman [...]
Categories: Military, Ministry, Patriotism
| Tags: American Hero, combat stress, culture, hero, hero soldier, heroic, heroism, power of words, ptsd, repression, society, soldier, warrior, words
| 4 comments
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