Yeah, I remember that and willingly participated in it myself. Fortunately (for me at least), in those days I wasn’t that interested in football or the Superbowl, since it was regarded as a “sin” to indulge in such “worldly activities,” for which God will surely punish you for. :-)

Yes, Lee was a man of his times. I think UBF leaders love to say that, and to some degree I agree with it. His influence and what he did was on a fairly large scale, compared to most people.

Though there was some/much good in what he did (proclaim Christ and the gospel and emphasizing mission), yet his overall lasting influence after his death is not that good, I don’t believe. There is much pathology and unhealthy practices and attitudes that are still widespread and prevalent that I believe can be traced back to his influence, quirks, sentiments, attitudes and practices.

The sad and tragic thing is not that such things happened, since we’re all sinners and all sinners sin, including top leaders.

But the really sad and tragic thing is that it still can’t be seriously and consistently addressed with most/many older leaders, who believe that the past is the past and should either be ignored or buried.

Sorry, that was a flashback to Chicago UBF in the 1980s. Many of the younger people in UBF don’t know this. Each year SL used to schedule special meetings, concerts, etc. to intentionally prevent UBF members from watching the Superbowl. He also pushed fellowship leaders to bring people to worship service “by any means” so that SWS attendance wouldn’t go down. That was back in the day when the UBF Sunday worship service was at 5pm (then moved to 3pm). Anything that kept people from wanting to come to the UBF worship service was considered to be the work of Satan. Anything in the American culture or family life that conflicted with UBF ministry activities was demonized. That is not an exaggeration. Samuel Lee intentionally ran his ministry to create conflicts like this, so that members would be forced to diss their friends and families and culture to put UBF first. Every year, during Superbowl season, I remember this talk about “Superbowl Satan” and cringe to think that I once took part in that foolishness, even though at some level I never fully bought into it.

Kyle’s widow’s moving speech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RDFgyoqZEI) also explains her husband’s utmost desire and intent to protect the lives of his fellow soldiers, many of whom have thanked him profusely for saving their lives.

Finally, I have one person who shares my sentiment about the movie! She posted it on Facebook:

“Ben, that was a well written review! I echo all the sentiments. I have heard that the character that Bradley Cooper portrayed wasn’t 100% true. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, regardless of the fact of whether we should have gone to Iraq. Matthew’s defense of snipers was right on the mark and I was shocked to read that others believe that snipers are cowards. Why don’t you try going in their place?”

Notable quote: “Any time you get to watch those Navy Seals, people that serve our country, and you see it in depth and you see what those guys go through, it puts life in a perspective that we’re just playing a game. You have nothing but the utmost respect for those people.”

I might see this, I like the way the ending sounds, thinking about what war does to soldiers.

When we invaded Iraq, mother barry wrote, “I don’t know why our president decided to invade Iraq.” There will never be any justification for the problems since then in Iraq, or the endless cost of the war we waged there.

The war was ill conceived, culturally mistaken and had unsurprising results to everyone but the US government and media.

I haven’t seen the movie, and it’s on my redbox list (along with the third movie inspired by the Hobbit aka lord of the rings part 6) but what concerns me is that it seems to stoke a lot of the ignorant pride we had when we went in there with all the “shock and awe.” We owe Iraq a great debt. They might’ve very well had it worse under Saddam, but no one should ever think they can make such a decision as we did.

And recent interviews with Bush and Cheney show no regret or repentance . . .

Anyhow, off my soap box.

“There is this analogy between the claims of our religion and the claims of the war: neither of them, for most of us, will simply cancel or remove from the slate the merely human life which we were leading before we entered them. But they will operate in this way for different reasons…I believe our cause to be, as human causes go, very righteous, and I therefore believe it to be a duty to participate in this war. And every duty is a religious duty, and our obligation to perform every duty is therefore absolute.”

He goes on to say that we might have a duty to rescue a person who is drowning, and we might have to die to save him. But “if anyone devoted himself to lifesaving in the sense of giving it his total attention- so that he thought and spoke of nothing else and demanded the cessation of all other human activities…then he would be a monomaniac.”

He concludes that the soldier is simply rendering to Caesar what is Caesar which all ultimately belong to God.

As a Christ follower I am appalled at spinning a killer into a hero. Snipers are cowards in my book, hiding instead of facing enemies directly.

Also, this is site gives a good summary of how the war was sold to the public using the Nytimes: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=9887

I’m not well versed or well read in politics and quite ignorant on a whole host of subjects. (I just like cats, movies, sports, food, theology, church, and my wife and family!) Clearly in hindsight, going into Iraq was a bad/wrong decision. But at the time, it was the general sentiment to go in (both Democrats and Republicans and the whole country), find the WMDs, take down Saddam, and retaliate for 9/11. So, yes, this movie clearly does not address, not even remotely, any of this.

This is really just a story of the toll it took on a soldier who wanted to fight for and defend the country he loved, out of a strong sense of patriotism, even if it cost him dearly, which it did.

Nonetheless, as a movie primarily about one person and his wife in the context of the Iraq war which they had no control over, it was well done, well directed, well acted, well choreographed, and apparently most military vets who saw the movie felt that it was accurate portrayal of their own war experience and they were encouraged by it.