Nov. 11, 1918 was the day of armistice between the warring parties of the First World War. Pretty much God-fearing nations, all. French, British, Americans et al on one side; German, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and some Arab nations on the other.
It is said there are no atheists in foxholes. I assume the same is true of the trenches that marked the battlefields of the First World War. Imagine all those millions of fighting men praying to God, for their salvation, and the death of their enemies. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
This Nov. 11, as in years past, folks gathered at cenotaphs and bowed their heads, keeping silent a minute, to honour the dead, those God-fearing boys who prayed for the deaths of other God-fearing boys, all sent to war by God-fearing men.
Thou shalt not kill, God commanded, according to the faiths followed by all these God-fearing men and boys. So what happened, to make these God-fearing people killers, hypocrites in the minds of some.
"Lest we forget" is a phrase that was, no doubt, spoken many places on the morning of Nov. 11. Yes, we are gathered to remember the sacrifice.
But how many mentioned the ideal? Thou shalt not kill.
Or are ideals such as this lost in the solemnity of military remembrance to honour those who lost their lives, trying to kill their God-fearing others?
Fifteen million lost their lives in the First World War. Millions more were injured.
Twenty-one years later a new generation of God-fearing men and boys went at it again in a second world conflagration. Over 60 million dead this time. Prayers in trenches replaced by prayers in foxholes.
These too, we honoured on Nov. 11. Lest we forget.
But has the principle been forgotten?
Terry Storey,
Olds
