Letter Home from a Marine
Young Mark Reads the Bible for the First Time
Dear Ma,
I trust this missive finds you in good health and spirits, as I sit here in the unrelenting misery that is Marine Corps basic training—a veritable symposium of mud, sweat, and shouted obscenities. It appears that this crucible of discipline and deprivation has offered me the unexpected gift of introspection. Indeed, during the rare moments when I am not being instructed on the finer points of shouting "Yes, Drill Sergeant!" at an ear-splitting decibel, I have managed to peruse that venerable tome you so lovingly bestowed upon me: the Bible.
Imagine my astonishment, Ma, upon discovering that the good book contains actual words—words which, I dare say, bear little resemblance to the weaponized platitudes hurled about back home. And so, armed with newfound literacy and a measure of gall, I must confess: the teachings within have begun to work a pernicious change in my constitution. I fear I may be succumbing to that most dread affliction—a conscience informed by reason, or as it’s styled in our circles, liberalism.
Permit me to elaborate. Consider the matter of lying, which, as you know, is held in deep suspicion among polite society, at least in theory. Proverbs 12:22 declares, "The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy." Yet, in the fevered delirium of our political theater, mendacity is no longer a vice but an art form. Liars, it seems, are not condemned but canonized, provided their fabrications are sufficiently brazen. How else to explain the veneration of men who weave yarns more audacious than Jonah’s maritime escapade?
As for sexual impropriety, I recall the righteous indignation of our elders when the subject arose in hushed tones at potlucks and prayer meetings. Yet Matthew 5:28 admonishes, "Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." How curious, then, that our moral custodians find such latitude for indulgence when the transgressor occupies a position of power, particularly one with access to nuclear codes. Must we now presume that hypocrisy is the eleventh commandment?
Immigrants, Ma—let us turn to that most vilified class. The Bible, it seems, has not spared them its tender mercies. Leviticus 19:34 instructs, "The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt." A radical notion, no doubt, and one that has no place in the policies of our modern Pharaohs. For what use have we for compassion when fear serves so admirably as both cudgel and currency?
Debt, too, is an area where the Bible’s wisdom finds itself at odds with our cherished practices. Deuteronomy 15:1-2 commands, "At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite." Cancel debts? Outrageous! Such egalitarian heresies are surely the work of Marx, not Moses. One wonders if the Almighty Himself would be deemed an economic saboteur by our financial overlords.
All these revelations bring me to a rather unsettling article I stumbled upon, detailing the lamentations of Russell Moore, editor-in-chief of Christianity Today. The poor man decries the wayward course of evangelical Christianity, which, he claims, has grown so infatuated with power that the teachings of Jesus are now considered anemic. Imagine, Ma: quoting the Sermon on the Mount—"Turn the other cheek" (Matthew 5:39)—and being accused of parroting liberal propaganda! If the words of Christ Himself are now subversive, what hope is there for the rest of us?
Of course, no critique of our moral decay would be complete without a nod to our golden idol, one Donald J. Trump. The man is a veritable Samson, albeit one who razes temples not for divine retribution but for the sheer pleasure of watching them burn. Is this the standard-bearer of Christian virtue? A man who tear-gasses the meek so he might brandish a Bible he has likely never opened? Truly, Ma, I must ask: when did humility and love of neighbor become optional in the faith of our fathers?
Do not mistake me, Ma. I do not write these words to scandalize or alienate, but to appeal to the better angels of our nature. Have we not wandered too far into the wilderness, trading the golden rule for the golden calf? Our leaders cry "existential threat" with such frequency that the term has lost all meaning, and we, like sheep, follow their bleating toward the cliffs of perdition. Yet Christ, in His infinite wisdom, offered not fear but love, not lies but truth. Is it not time we heeded His call?
And so, dear Ma, I implore you: pick up that Bible again. Read not the cherry-picked verses weaponized by pulpit pugilists but the whole of it. Let its inconvenient truths convict you as they have convicted me. For if this new perspective renders me a pariah in the land of my birth, so be it. Better to walk the narrow path with integrity than to march lockstep with the mob.
Yours in faith and rebellion, Your wayward son,
Private Mark Moses, United States Marine Corps