The School of Hard Knocks...

When people know my life story they realize the richness of my time spent here on earth. I have worn church, parent, military, psychological hats and am most grateful for the opportunities afforded me to continue to grow as a human being from parentage, teachers, friends, and on-the-job training throughout my 81 years. My Mom educated me in my best learning from the School of Hard Knocks; I realize now I follow my mother's spirituality of hope and future newness which was honed in historical disappointments. I spend my time in this series in the spiritual arena that addresses the world-wide condition of human beings, the military and religion. This is my Apologia Pro Vita Sua, an explanation of my life borrowed from Cardinal Henry Newman of the late 1800's as he converted from the Anglican Church changing hats to become a Roman Catholic. State, Church. and the general population of people who inhabit this planet are deeply intertwined in my spirituality, my religion, and my patriotism, all are inseparable in my daily life story.

San Francisco Bay was choppy with heavy swells and the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet was receiving visitors. I am eight and still today I can feel the impacted thrill of being lifted from a long boat onto the deck of a United States battleship in 1937 and eating on board as the government advertised the navy to the American public in the Great Depression. My widowed Mom advantaged the four McMahon kids, teaching us that we were Americans and the military was my friend and protector. My patriotic archetypes are deep.

In 1940 at 11, I would altar boy at a confirmation at the Presidio of San Francisco, Bishop Thomas Arthur Connelly, Military Ordinarite presided. We processed under swords drawn by army officers in brilliant dress uniform and we ate in formal banquet with uniformed men. Some day I fantasized I too would be a priest who would wear a military uniform. My religious archetypes are deep.

USS Nashville off the Mare Island Navy Yard, 4 August 1943

I was 13, third year seminary when my brothers enlisted in the Coast Guard and Navy respectively during World War Two, our mother becoming a repair electrician on a battle cruiser. We were Americans with a duty to bring peace to the world. My brother Jim would return home on leave, his ship the Nashville hit by a kamikaze as American forces prepared to retake the Philippines. His visit to the seminary was the worst day of my life and I contemplated leaving seminary to join the service as Pop Rock, the Sulpician rector invited my brother to stay for dinner and yet did not allow the students to talk during the meal. I was so angry and humiliated; here we were healthy bodied men with draft deferments and my war hero who had narrowly escaped death was treated shabbily. Church clergy on the whole had no idea of our being at war. We were so isolated and over protected.

My country and church had lost its moral compass...

I would go on to be an ordained priest in 1954 and commissioned an officer in the United States Army in 1960. My tour of duty was not always happy. I was given a letter of commendation by the commanding officer of Fort Sill, Oklahoma while I found it most difficult to watch minority draftees being sent from Fort Ord to their death in Vietnam. I have stood at the Vietnam memorial in Washington,D.C. in tears contemplating the names of young men who were so wrongly slaughtered. I knew at Ord that when I gave communion to a latino draftee I was offering him viaticum, a religious last rite. The American boy-priest in me sailed as temporary chaplain on board the Aircraft Carrier Ranger on flight and sea maneuvers in 1962 experiencing elite honorable naval flyers, some of whom would be shot down in Vietnam. My patriotism and a disturbed moral order clashed, reaching a crisis climax as American soldiers killed innocent American students on the campus of Kent State University while government lies concerning the incident in the Gulf of Tonkin greatly disturbed me. I had remembrance from the days of General and President Ike Eisenhower of his warning of the national danger involved in the American military-industrial complex. I listened carefully to a senior Rabbi at Fort Ord as he publicly condemned the war in Vietnam and the ruthless slaughter of civilians and military personnel. My country and church had lost its moral compass. As I spoke of my conscience problems the advice from my idiotic bishop was "Tom, it is time for you to grow up".

John F Kennedy (1917-63 President of the Unites States of America 1961-63)

How could I be a follower of Jesus and be in military service? In deep depression I resigned my military commission. I still salute our flag while harboring a mistrust of the way religion has slowly become a bedfellow in military evil. I support our troops overseas while continuing to protest the government's involvement in world politics under the guise of building democracy and a free world. From the days of the phony war with Mexico Manifest Destiny of Thomas Jefferson has become empire building, with might making right. I felt betrayed as a Catholic American both by my church and my government. I rejoiced with John F. Kennedy as he politically and peacefully outmaneuvered Russian missals in Cuba … and then this voice of sanity was assassinated. Politics and religion were in confusion and silence surrounded persons in positions of authority.

Where was the voice of my church? I hear nothing from Roman leadership as my archbishop immersed himself and the archdiocese in materialism, building more churches and becoming financially powerful. Where does the church of my youth stand on the beatitudes of Jesus who is my personal savior?

I was horrified to read GOD, THE ARMY, AND PTSD, by Tara McKelvey, a New York Times article of 26 February 2010 concerning the ordinary soldier returning in 2010 from the battle zones of Iraq with PTS (spelled out at length for those who refuse to face reality it is an illness called POST TRAUMATIC STRESS brought about by exploding roadside bombs) and army chaplains counseling wounded personnel that it is unpatriotic to tell the American people anything about this inflicted harm, particularly to the brain and its glorious complex functions. My wife and I watched the HURT LOCKER, a video of the violence confronting our military in Iraq; at the end of the movie the sergeant in the bomb removal squad reups for a 2nd tour of duty, leaving behind his infant child "because the army needs men to deal with violence". The same military type power that killed Jesus is alive and well in the present day crucifixion of the human race. We are today a culture of violence.

The 'business of religion' suffocates 'a Jesus spirituality'...

Given the worldwide lack of Roman clergy there are only 300 or so catholic priests in military service today, mostly older men; I grieve to have witnessed young seminarians signing up for reserve military duty with the hope of future commissions in service, this long before they are ordained and have any experience in ministry. There is big money for the individual at the expense of being followers of Jesus and service to the People of God. Yet my seminary easily complies to religious military power as dictated by the Military Ordinariate, the Roman Catholic Bishop in New York in charge of Catholic chaplains in this duping of now innocent candidates for the priesthood. The 'business of religion' suffocates 'a Jesus spirituality'. The bishop of Rome today has contributed greatly to the continuation of cultural violence which has its roots in Pope Urban and his crusades battle cry "Deus Vult".

As the Winter Olympic Games close in Whistler in Vancouver publically I ask a question that has long bothered me about the sport world: Are all sports, and here for two weeks an Olympics paraded before the world on TV, a silent propaganda tool promoting physical fitness, competition, and athletic combatic skill, virtually a disguised peaceful war among nations that prepares the human mind for violence and keeps it alert to combatative conduct? I am suspicious of being #1 and "getting the gold" whether it is in pee wee league baseball, at Whistler Mountain, or any professional or amateur sport. The call to the young is to dominate with speed and power, a possibility reserved only to the elite. Deep down the sports organizational world depends on a society obsessed and dominated by the military mind and the making of money. Is this genetic in the male since the days of Alexander the Great (and again great at what?) Is it the pathway of Jesus? Is humbleness (true recognition of the human condition) now seen as a weakness and outside the pale of spirituality?

Continued next week…

Tom McMahon in San Jose. (01/03/2010)

©2010 Tom McMahon

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