Pastor's Corner: Treating moral injury with God's love

Some wounds don't leave a visible scar. Some wounds are a deep part of us, held in secret where no one sees. Yet, those wounds impact us just as much, or even more, than obvious wounds and scars. As a society, we're getting better at paying attention to the unseen maladies, like depression or suicidal ideation. And when Veterans Day rolls around, we remember the toll that post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, takes on our veterans. Yet there's another unseen wound that many veterans carry, and it's called moral injury. Moral injury is different than PTSD. PTSD has to do more with fear. Moral injury has to do more with guilt, shame, and forgiveness.

Moral injury is not new. Wherever and whenever there has been war, there has been moral injury. An ancient Greek playwright wrote a whole play that revolved around a soldier's moral injury. The soldier was heading to Troy to fight alongside Odysseus, but the soldier was badly wounded. Odysseus abandoned his fellow soldier, only to realize later that the only way to defeat the Trojans was to use that wounded soldier's sacred bow. Yet Odysseus couldn't face the man he had left behind; his shame and guilt were too overwhelming. He was living with a moral injury, though that's not the term the Greek author used. The term is new; the concept is not.

In every nation, in every era, we are born with and taught a moral code - for many of us, the Ten Commandments just about sums it up, along with the Golden Rule from Luke 6:31: "Do to others as you would have them do to you." But in war, that moral code is placed to the side, and soldiers find themselves doing things that, in civilian life, would be criminal. Moral injury is when a person has broken their own moral code, and they then live with the distress of that violation. It can happen to all sorts of people and professions. Doctors, nurses, lawyers, social workers, stay-at-home moms - all of these and more are at risk of moral injury. But the highest rates, and the most devastating consequences, are found among veterans.

Nancy Sherman, a professor of philosophy, wrote in the Los Angeles Times that one of the issues at the heart of moral injury is "falling short of the lofty ideals of military honor. That the military code - never abandon a buddy, bring all your troops home, don't put innocents at risk - is impossible to meet doesn't always register deep down. The result may be shame, and all too often suicidal shame." The result is also sometimes homelessness and an inability to function as the person you once were. As Christians, we are called to care for those whose bodies and spirits have been broken by their time in armed service. Sometimes that means recognizing the depth and breadth of their wounds and living out the no-strings-attached love of God.

This Veterans Day, I want to shout from the rooftop these words of Paul from his letter to the Romans. I want every person, veteran or civilian, who suffers from a moral injury to let these words sink deep into their very being: "Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?

Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?...No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow - not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below - indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Amen!

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Pastor Megan Hoewisch

First Lutheran Church