Doing What Is Right Matters
I came across this story about Studdard Kennedy; a military chaplain during World War II. Like all people who experience combat, military chaplains have extremely dangerous jobs. Chaplains, like their brothers in arms in combat, actually get shot at with live ammunition, but they can’t shoot back, because according to the Geneva Convention, chaplains must be unarmed.
During World War II, Chaplain Kennedy was enduring a particularly rough and violent campaign ministering to the front line troops across France. One day he sat down and wrote a letter to his 10-year old son. The following is an excerpt from that letter:
"The first prayer I want my son to learn to say for me is not, ‘God keep Daddy safe,’ but, ‘God make Daddy brave. And if he has hard things to do, make him strong to do them.’ Son, life and death don’t matter. But right and wrong do. Daddy dead is Daddy still, but Daddy dishonored before God is something too awful for words. I suppose you would like to put in a bit about safety, too, and Mother would like that, I’m sure. Well, put it in afterwards, for it really doesn’t matter nearly as much as doing what is right."
