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Oh, For a Blank Slate!
Raymond J. Brown on the Honesty of One Heathen & the Excuses of the Lapsed
It was a rare experience for me: reading the unfiltered, indeed innocent, impressions of an honest heathen encountering Christian believers. And I rather wish that I had been a witness to the event, quiet and pedestrian though it was.
It was Ash Wednesday in Iraq—and the rest of the world. Englishwoman Emma Sky was serving as the political advisor to General Ray Odierno, commander of all the coalition forces in the country. That morning, Sky noticed a black smudge on the general's forehead. Her first inclination—Sky harbors no trace of Very Senior Officer Veneration—was to inform the theater commander of his dirty face and then wipe off the smudge herself.
However, she presently noticed other soldiers wearing similar ashes and soon ascertained the associated piety. And she had previously observed that many GIs were not at all bereft of some old-time religion which she had never known. Indeed, she had noticed the difference between the Americans' religiosity and the corresponding lack in their Commonwealth counterparts, and recalled the comment of one Aussie Digger that Yanks actually prayed more often than Muslims.
I have heard worse testimonies and witnessed worse evangelism.
The Brilliant Brit
The text I read was The Unraveling by Emma Sky. Frankly, I would seldom, if ever, consult a left-wing, anti-military, citizen-of-the-world, secularist intellectual for wisdom on any subject whatsoever. And Sky appeared to be the type who speaks venom to power, if only just to stay in practice. But I have to admit that her book contained more than its share of beneficial insight, and I have recommended it to others.
This Briton in Mesopotamia was the unlikely political advisor (POLAD) to, initially, a rugged airborne brigade commander, and then to the overall theater commander, General Odierno. In her book, she is scathing and painfully accurate on the ill preparation for the occupation of Iraq, the many political blunders made, the profound lack of cultural understanding shown, and many other foibles. But she also comes to own a deep admiration, to the point of tears, for the worthy American soldier.
The respect was mutual, even though Sky eventually discovered that her official codename, Bravo-bravo, stood for British babe.
Emma Sky is an Oxford graduate and possesses prestigious credentials from the halls of academia in several countries. A true internationalist, she is now a professor at Yale. Certainly not born to any privilege, her youth was not at all easy. But her impoverished and twice abandoned mother ensured that her daughter received a first-rate education, if also no introduction whatsoever to matters godly.
Raymond J. Brown is Secretary of the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, a retired U.S. Coast Guard captain, and a security consultant living in New Hampshire. He and his wife Susan, a librarian, have three grown children.
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