lessons of war

So I am reading The Ugly American for my Lit class. I found the chapter Lessons of War, a wonderful parable for what the modern church is experiencing. To sum up the chapter, there is a war going on in S. Asia. The French are trying to secure a base with no success. The French general, Monet, and two Americans, Tex and MacWhite, are talking about why they are not having success against the commies. One of the Americans, Tex, is a prized officer with much experience. He realizes that the war they are fighting is a new war. It is a new war with new rules. The commies have changed the game without letting them know and when the French learn of this new game and study the new tactics, they finally win a battle. It is too win the war, but they finally win the battle.

Once they safely leave the battle area, they are having a meeting with their superiors and getting lectured about their crazy use of these ridiculous tactics that the commies use. The tactics are outlined in a pamphlet written by Mao. This is where I wish to pick it up.

"General, as you know I was the one who requested this session," Gilbert MacWhite said calmly. "Since December of 1946 the French have been fighting a war which has been maneuvered by the Communists precisely along the lines which Mao outlined in this pamphlet. You are a military man-you will excuse my bluntness-but you made every mistake Mao wanted you to. You ignored his every lesson for fighting on this type of terrain. You neglected to get the political and economic cooperation of the Vietnamese, even though Mao proved long ago that Asians will not fight otherwise - question. Have any of you ever read the writings of Mao Tse-tung?"

There was a moment of silence. The senior French general, a man of wisdom and excellent connections, turned slightly red. The other French generals blanched. MacWhite leaned forward in his chair waiting for an answer.

"If you are suggesting, Ambassador MacWhite, that the nation which produced Napoleon now has to go to a priministic Chinese for military instruction, I can tell you that you are not only making a mistake, you are being insulting, the senior French general finally said.

"That's not what I said," MacWhite answered. "I asked if any of you had read Mao?"

"Hell no, they haven't read him," the American shouted. "And neither have I."

And he bit his lips as if he were keeping himself from saying more. MacWhite knew that only his personal fortune and his political connections were keeping the general from ordering him out of Hanoi under armed guard.

MacWhite shrugged. "Apparently you gentlemen refuse to use your own eyes and ears."

Monet pushed back his chair and stood up. He was pale and his hands were trembling.

"Gentlemen, I am entirely responsible for the operation which we have just described to you," Monet said in a steady voice. "It contradicts everything that I was taught at St. Cyr and everything this American general was taught at West Point. But it worked. I tell you it worked. If I had the opportunity, I would multiply this operation a thousand times. In the months of fighting in Vietnam, it is the only complete victory I have commanded. Multiplied a thousand times it might give us a total strategic victory rather than an unimportant tactical success. If anyone is to be punished, it should be me. But I beg of you, do not ask me to change my mind on something that my own eyes and my own experience teach me is what should be done.



I read the preceding and couldn't help but see the parallels. Like I said before, I am reading through McLaren's The Church on the Other Side. He starts out describing that our world is experiencing a shift. A massive shift like none other in our history. I don't think that it need to be explained, but to make the point as clear as possible, "Think of the automobile and its effects on the environment, the economy, the family unit, and even courtship and sexuality (especially when the car is equipped with a back seat). Think of radio, air travel, birth-control pills, antibiotics, and the cathode ray tube....Then came the tidal wave of social change set in motion during the sixties.....Think of space travel and the personal computer, the cellular phone and the microwave, the fax machine and the Internet, the compact disc and genetic engineering." This was written a few years ago....do I have to update you throw the changes of the last 15 years. I will mention one...the blog.

What are the effects of all these changes and them happening so fast? One can only imagine, for we are still in the midst the change. The earthquake hasn't stopped yet. Our world is still being shaken.

The question for the church, for Christians, for you and me, is how are we going to respond. Are we going to respond with the same ole tactics and ways that things have always been done. That is fine and good, and no one is saying that those ways are wrong, for they have preserved the church. But I beg the question, are those ways going to still work in world that is moving faster and faster away from all that we have known. This is a new war, a new world.

So, far, I feel that MacLaren is being not only fair, "We should not underestimate either side of the equation - what must change as well as what must not," but real. He understands that the church needs to seriously look at where it has come from and where it is going. Are we wanting a place to come and gather with those that are like minded and share the same values? Are we trying to preserve a safe place to raise our families, away from the evils of this world? Or are we trying to shine in this dark world like stars in the darkness? If the former, go join the Amish. If the later, let's explore how we can be a new kind of church for a new kind of world.