Honor is but one of many virtues that seems to be disappearing from the landscape of American culture. The recent revelations about mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq by our soldiers are vivid reminder that moral abdication can happen anywhere.
Of all places in American culture, the military is one of the few places where honor does still exist. Those who tortured the Iraqis with apparent glee undoubtedly didn’t learn such behavior from the military. They probably learned it in one of a million other places where morality is treated as a style that goes out of season as quickly as it bursts onto the scene. It was only a matter of time that this whimsical view of virtue should break through to the military.
Christians know that “The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace. ” [Prov. 3:35] We must assert, however that the kind of wisdom that inherits honor is born out of a fear of the Lord. Sensitivity training will not help our soldiers to regain honor. Only morals that are rooted in what is good and right and true will have anchor enough to hold. Christians will know exactly in whom to find such goodness and rightness and trueness. Without Christ, honor eventually becomes dishonor. God help us if we fail to proclaim him.