“Look What They’ve Done to My Song Ma” is a 1971 hit by Melanie Safka. Listen to it. It’s painful. She complains not only look what they have done to her song but what they’ve done to her brain. Let us look at what the feminists have – be they radical or conservative, egalitarian or even the complementarian – done to our brains.
As one whose congregation in 2001, 2004, and 2007 submitted resolutions asking the Synod to declare herself opposed to women in combat so as to give women a basis for conscientiously objecting to registering for a military draft; as one whose own congregation passed such a resolution in 2008; as one who has served in the military completing Airborne and Ranger training 40 years ago (okay so my perspective is dated); as one who served as an Army Reserve Chaplain from 1983-1995, I have been asked to give my perspective on Resolution 5-11A “To Protect Christian Consciences and Address Conscription of Women” adopted in the last Synodical convention.
My paragraph above is my first insight. Why must we make our resolutions so torturous? Dr. David Scaer’s test was whether an Iowa West hog farmer could follow it. I could barely follow it and I have read a great deal on this matter.
I wished the resolution had cited our Augsburg Confession, Article XX, Good Works, paragraph 2 which says “They [Lutheran teachers] have taught what well what is pleasing to God in every station and vocation in life.” At no time did our Lutheran teachers teach that women have a vocation to defend men. Men are called on to defend women and children. One wonders if the Christian freedom referred to in lines 30-31 of the resolution includes her talking up the vocation of defending men.
Read the book Ashley’s War which is a Te Deum for woman in combat. It’s how the U.S. Army in 2010 covertly got women into combat and why they did so. It was to ameliorate our enemies disgust at having their females interacting with our male soldiers. Spoiler alert – Ashley is blown to bits from the waist down, and dying right next to a Special Forces soldier is proof that women have arrived.
In principle I am not opposed to women serving in the military. I went through Airborne School with Army female nurses. I could see why it would be advantageous to have women who were qualified to jump. Of course, in the 40 years since, the wages of nurses have skyrocketed and men go where the money is, so there is no shortage of male nurses.
The problem with having women in the military in general is that the military makes no promise to keep them out of combat. The modern battlefield in some cases makes this hard to do. In other cases, there are women and men in the military looking for ways to put women in combat. Before the nightmare of women in combat became a reality, the Military Police was already known as “the chick infantry.” In none of these scenarios do the women involved have to meet the same standards of fitness or training as combat soldiers which makes them a liability to themselves and others.
My final perspective is: it’s about time the sleeping giant of the LCMS awoke to what feminists have been doing to our brains. They have made us defensive about opening doors, guilty for not having women acolytes, and troglodytes for not having women voting. And all of this was leading us down the garden path of seeing women suffer, be humiliated and die like men in combat. It’s about time we woke up and started singing our song rather than theirs.
Thanks should be given to Robert H. Miller, CAPT, USN (ret.). After reading my book Why is Feminism so Hard to Resist?, he brought to my attention the issue of women in combat. He worked tirelessly, interdemonationally, and thanklessly to see this come to fruition. He tried approaching LCMS leadership and professors. He was greeted for the most part with limp handshakes and even limper enthusiasm. Credit is to be given him and the Young Turks who would not give up on this issue and finally started the LCMS singing a new tune that’s very old indeed.
