Navy SEAL Apologist

 

I had an interesting surprise this morning. At the “Men’s Bible Study” at Center Church they played a video of John Bevere talking about a Navy SEAL whom he had meet that went through seminary and later became a Navy SEAL. Then the Pastor Steven Sheller commented “Being a Christian among a bunch of Navy SEALs must have been a challenge, SEALs are stone cold killers”. Being a former Navy SEAL who has experienced combat, I had something to say. I mentioned that “I went to church and was confirmed and baptized but I hadn’t had that personal connection with the Lord but we all called on The Man while we were getting shot at on that run way. Then when I actually had my realization that God and Jesus Christ were real I was going to take it upon myself to inform all of my heathen buddies about the glory of God and Jesus Christ and they all told me ‘We know, we were wondering when you were going to figure that out”.

Now my mind has been on that run way quite a bit over the last couple of days. I was thinking about Isaac Rodriguez and how I had so much guilt over not stopping to give him first-aid but kept running into the fire fight. I had to resolve how I didn’t shoot him or how I didn’t cause the medivac HELO to take two hours to arrive because the pilots were scared and that he already had the chief Corpsman working on him. But I remember how I reacted when we were flanked by about 15 Panamanian troops and three of us engaged them and after shooting about 50 rounds in their direction I had snot and saliva all over my face. I was angry and I wanted to kill and deliver pain to those who had attacked us, killing and wounding my friends. A couple of years later it was confirmed that they found four bloody drag marks in the direction I was shooting and a couple of years later I found out that I was the only one shooting in that direction. I feel no remorse for killing them if it were my bullets that shot them. I am a little concerned about the blood lust I was feeling while I was pulling the trigger.

At 3:00 AM the next morning when they called a cease fire I started thinking “The imprint of Reuben Lowing could have been wiped away like a wave washing away writing in the sand” I made two major decisions, 1. I was going to sniper school because the next time I got into a fire fight I wanted to be far away and I didn’t want anyone to see me and 2. I was going to tell my wife to go off of the pill because we were going to work on having a boy. I wanted to leave a legacy.

My buddy Raul Valdez and I both really hurt our backs carrying the dead guys, I never could have imagined how much more gravity affects you when you are dead. An Air Force Para Rescue (PJ) who was with the guys from SEAL Team Six gave us some muscle relaxers which made us feel like brand new again but Raul and I did all kinds of back and leg exercises after that just in case we were ever in that situation again.

When I went to the Indian Ocean as an anti-piracy security agent I brought my Bible with me and other faith based books and one night all four of the former Navy SEALs who made up the team and it came out that they were all either agnostic of atheists which didn’t really bother me. I just told them “That’s okay, you are young. You will eventually figure it out”.  To me it was no big deal but they hated me after that. They challenged me by asking “How can you kill someone if you’re a Christian?” I may have to answer to God for it but I would have no remorse killing anyone who is trying to kill me or harm my loved ones. The greatest concern for me is developing that constant focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t believe that we need to be passive if we are Christians. The meek might inherit the earth but that is not where I want to end up.

Don Thompson my Executive Officer at SEAL Team One had a plaque behind his desk which read “The majority are passive, predators have the edge, I like that”.  You might not think that is very Christian but you need to listen to "Lioness Arising" by Lisa Bevere.