The author is an Episcopal priest and was a Chaplin in Viet Nam and here speaks of the "carnage, the atrocities, the guilt and primarily the loss of faith in God, country, politics, and business leaders, by the men and women who fought there." Our view of ourselves as a nation whose "cause is always just" -- scholars call this "civil religion" -- was shattered.

The generation who fought in Viet Nam was born of World War II's great crusade of good against evil. The allies won because God was on our side. Where was God in Viet Nam?

The Viet Nam soldiers' dark night of the soul remained incomprehensible to them and to the public because we have inherited this notion that John Wayne and Jesus Christ are the same. Civil religion remains a powerful "idolatry" [paraphrased from the text] OCT 2004