Gregg Easterbrook responds

Thanks for your note. Am just leaving on a trip and want to reply in more detail later. But let me say this. I derive my faith from the Gospels, as opposed to from religion, if you get my point. Jesus said we should not worry about our food or clothing, or about the lengths of our lives, that these are matters for God. By this I take him to mean that the natural world had already been completed by divine power and we need not concern ourselves with it (though of course could study it). Human society, by contrast, is far from complete nor did Jesus view it as complete -- he constantly advocated reform of human society.

So to be a Marine and be willing to fight evil is not a failure of faith, there are times when evil must be fought. Fighting must be only a last resort; it was was the Nazi darkness was spreading, and we are all glad Christians of that era took up the sword. Whether Jesus himself would have been capable of doing so, I don't know.

Warm regards,

Gregg